Portfolio manager Cale Smith’s riffs on investing, spoke funds, and Islamorada in the Florida Keys.

I’m Cale Smith, portfolio manager for the Tarpon Folio and the Gecko Folio.

The name of my company is Islamorada Investment Management. That ’s’ is silent. It’s pronounced aisle-a-more-AH-dah, and it means “purple isle.” Once you’ve got that down, try conch, then lignum vitae.

We’re located on an island in the village of Islamorada in the Florida Keys, where in February it’s 75 and beautiful. My apologies, Chicago.

I built our funds differently. I call them spoke funds, and I believe they’re a much better deal for investors than mutual funds or hedge funds. They’re more transparent, more secure, lower cost and more investor friendly. You can find out more about the spoke fund model on this blog and our firm’s website.

I invest money for folks living here in the Keys and up north, from the Carolinas to California. My firm is a registered independent adviser. Ours is also a fee-only firm, meaning we don’t get paid through commissions or referrals. We’re not a brokerage and we don’t provide advice, sell much of anything nor pay much attention to Wall Street. All we do is manage two portfolios – in which my family has invested just about every dime we’ve ever saved.

Our first portfolio was named after a fish. Our second was named after a lizard. One of our slogans is “One geek in the Keys is worth two suits in the city.” So although we’re good at what we do, we don’t take ourselves too seriously.

Think Warren Buffett meets Jimmy Buffett.

There’s more about us at www.islainvest.com. Please drop me a line anytime to find out more. Enjoy!