My Favorite Forever Stocks

Yesterday we explored the archaic concept of long-term investing.

In a world where the average investor holds a stock for 3 minutes, I believe it’s wise to be contrarian here.

Today, we’re going to cover my favorite forever investments. Stocks I plan to hold for the next 10 years or longer.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

Oil & Gas

At its peak back in 1980, the energy sector (oil and gas) made up a whopping 30% of the S&P 500. Today it’s about 3.5%.

I first posted the chart below back in June of 2025. Energy has since moved up to about 3.5%. Still a drop in a bucket.

Source: Tavi Costa

Meanwhile, the Magnificent 7 tech giants make up 35% of the S&P 500. Out of a 500-stock index, just 7 of them make up 35%. And if you combine the top 41 AI companies, it moves up to 49% of the entire index. Talk about concentration risk…

The 3% stat got my attention. And as I dug in, I realized that the world hasn’t invested nearly enough in oil production over recent decades. Large oil discoveries have plummeted by about 60% since the early 2010s, when shale was booming.

There’s a widespread perception that oil is the past, and green energy is the future. This is bogus. Oil demand is still rising, and alternative sources are nowhere near ready to replace it.

Much of the world’s easy oil has already been extracted. Additionally, the green new scam and other ESG mandates have caused many asset managers to quit oil and gas entirely. They call it divesting.

I call it an opportunity.

Oil Picks

No surprise here. My favorite long-term oil stock remains Petrobras (PBR or PBR.A).

Brazil’s Petrobras is the cheapest major oil company in the world, by far. And there is some political risk with the government owning a big chunk of the firm.

But I believe the juicy dividend yield and low price more than make up for the potential downsides. Besides, Brazil is experiencing a stock market boom and if they mess with PBR shareholders, that’s going to end. Additionally, it looks like the country will soon have a conservative/capitalist president.

To be clear, I wouldn’t aggressively buy Petrobras here. It has more than doubled since we first featured it last year, and we’ve been banging the drum on this stock for 18 months.

But if the wars in Iran and Ukraine end, and the price drops, that’ll be an ideal time to pounce. Petrobras can profitably sell oil at $35/barrel. As a bonus, they’re insulated from chaos in the Middle East. In fact, the company benefits from it. They also operate 11 oil refineries.

My plan with this one is simple. Reinvest the dividends and let it grow for decades.

If you’re looking for a safer U.S. oil stock, ExxonMobil (XOM) is also solid. I own that one too.

And if you belong to any of Jim Rickards’ services, keep a close eye on their energy picks. Jim and Dan are on fire lately. These guys understand this sector like few analysts do.

Emerging Markets (EM)

Long-suffering readers are rolling their eyes right now. Emerging markets, again?!

Yes. I enjoy buying growing companies at under 10x earnings, with 5% yields and irreplaceable assets. And the only place you can reliably do that today is EM. The S&P 500 yields a pitifully small 1% today. That’s a giant red flag for me. Too expensive.

I’ve talked enough about Brazil lately (read this if you need to get caught up). So I’ll make the pitch quick. The iShares Brazil ETF (EWZ) is the simplest way to play it. I plan to hold my Brazil positions for years to come, and hopefully longer.

Caveat: if our Brazil picks pull off a 4x in 4 years, it may make sense to take some profits early. Still, I hope to hold some of my Brazilian positions essentially forever (namely PBR and VALE).

My other favorite EM “forever investment” is the Cambria Emerging Shareholder Yield ETF (EYLD). This is a unique “shareholder yield” ETF. It selects companies based on their total shareholder yield, which is a combination of dividends, buybacks, and debt paydowns.

The fund owns 108 companies from across the world, but they are concentrated in Asia. Vietnam, South Korea, Taiwan, and about 16% China. These are mostly industrial companies that don’t even trade in the U.S. So it offers excellent diversification.

I’ve owned this fund for more than 8 years. Even when EM wasn’t doing well, it always generated a nice yield, which I reinvested in more shares. The dividend yield is around 4.3% currently, and the expense ratio is 0.6% per year.

I plan to buy more EYLD in my 401k throughout this year.

Those are my favorite forever investments today. If I add anything else to the list, you’ll be the first to know.