Don't Buy New and Exciting... Buy Boring and Difficult

You don't often hear advice to invest in boring businesses...

Investors want to find new and exciting companies that could one day revolutionize the world. After all, these are the stocks you can use to impress your buddies.

But most great investors stick to boring. While the stocks they buy won't make front-page headlines, their returns will.

Even in this difficult market – and perhaps especially in this difficult market – one boring sector is on my radar today. Let me explain...

Investing legend Peter Lynch is the perfect example of this approach...

Lynch, the author of investing must-reads like One Up on Wall Street and Beating the Street, is the former manager of the Magellan Fund at Fidelity Investments. Between 1977 and 1990, his fund outperformed the market by a staggering 29% per year annualized. That's unheard of.

How did he do it? By investing in what he knows... and investing in boring companies. As he put it:

The perfect company has to be engaged in a perfectly simple business, and the perfectly simple business ought to have a perfectly boring name. The more boring it is, the better.

Our very own Thomas Carroll, my colleague at Stansberry Research, agrees. But he takes it a step further...

You want a boring business... but you also want a boring business that does something difficult. Thomas explained why in the November 2021 issue of my Retirement Millionaire newsletter...

Let me tell you, the best companies to invest in are those that excel at something boring and difficult.

If you break down businesses by whether they are boring or exciting, and by whether they are easy or difficult, the best quadrant to be in is the boring, difficult sector.

The sexy sectors get tons of competition and are overloaded with capital. Try making money in fancy restaurants or by funding movie production. You'll get handed your shirt...

Doing easy things may work, but it's easy for your competitors as well. So you get low margins and a constant struggle for survival.

But boring and difficult means steady, profitable business.

Putting boring and difficult together, you get health care companies.

If you google "defensive sectors," it pulls up utilities, consumer staples, and health care. Defensive means boring in a lot of investors' minds.

Health care is lumped in the boring category. That might surprise you – after all, many companies in the space are coming up with new technologies and medicines that will change our lives.

Still, they are far less exciting than technology or consumer-discretionary stocks.

Health care is also one of the most complex, difficult, and misunderstood industries you will find. Unless you're an insider, most folks don't know what goes on behind the scenes from the time you go see a doctor to when you receive your medication. There are a lot of moving parts.

Importantly, the time to buy health care stocks is now... while the sector is relatively cheap.

The chart below shows the price-to-earnings ratio of the entire health care sector. It's trading near its lowest valuation over the past couple years. And it's below its long-term average. Take a look...

Health care checks both the boxes of boring and difficult. I'm extremely bullish on the sector right now... In fact, I haven't pounded the table on an investment this hard in some time.

It's not easy to find good investment opportunities in this market. So don't miss this one... Look closely at this boring and difficult sector today.

Here's to our health, wealth, and a great retirement,

Dr. David Eifrig


Editor's note: Value is just the beginning. This huge industry outperformed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq through every market crash of the last 30 years. It was up in 2000... and again in 2008. It's a "forever" investment in any market. But right now, Doc says the opportunity is far bigger... Get the full story here.

Further Reading

"Silicon Valley is all-in on the life-sciences boom," Doc writes. That's especially important today. In this economy, the "big fish" of the industry are looking to scoop up smaller companies – and investors can profit as a result... Learn more here.

In a bear market like this one, you need to put the odds of success in your favor. The pros know how to do just that – even outside the world of investing. Here's how to put one of their biggest lessons to work... Read more here.