Sunday Musings: The Traveling Investment Advisor

With my upcoming annual trip to Germany (Oct. 7 – Oct. 21), some readers have asked how I manage my business affairs when abroad. Thanks to the advances in technology and communications, especially over the past 7 years or so, I am able to conduct business from any location as long as I have internet access.

My first step to freeing myself from being tied down to one office and becoming mobile was the addition of a high speed duplex scanner, which I invested in a few years ago. As a result, my office became 100% paperless, which allowed me to travel and have instant access to any and all client documents and files.

My laptop computer represents an exact duplicate of my desk top, so that placing buy/sell trades and producing the weekly StatSheet can be done effectively even from a dial-up connection. New account applications arriving at my office during my absence are being faxed to me for review.

With the 9-hour time difference, my responses to e-mails will be a little slower and a day late as will be the posts to my blog. During that 2-week period, I discourage phone calls and prefer e-mail communications.

Having done this trip for over 30 years, my biggest fear recently has always been a potential failure of my laptop. I have addressed that problem by signing up with gotomypc, which allows me to access and work on my office computer from any PC anywhere.

In a way, planning for my yearly trip is not unlike investing. You figure out what your goals are, select your investments and provide for contingencies in case the market goes against you.

The picture above shows some of the special plugs, converters and cables that will be my companion so that I can function in a world of different electrical standards.