Excluding or Limiting A Child’s Inheritance in a Will
Since literally biblical times, the possibility that a parent would favor one child over the other has been a cause for resentment for the less loved children. Consider this passage from the Book of...
View ArticleHow Card Prepay Changed Gas Station Businesses
Usually, when we observe how technological changes alter the value of other businesses, we pay attention to the changes that are absolutely fatal. The rise of cell phones with the ability to take...
View ArticleWhy McDonald’s Stockholders Got So Rich
From 1981 through 2017, McDonald’s (MCD) stock returned approximately 14% annually. Someone who witnessed Ray Kroc’s visionary leadership in rolling locations across the country and chose to reinvest...
View ArticleHidden Wealth: America’s Secret Moneymaker
Every now and then, I come across a company that has made real, sustainable profits and has served as the perfect intergenerational holding, making any investor that holds onto it for the long haul...
View ArticleHow Not to Build A Professional Network
Historically, life insurance, trust institutions and banks would publish monthly newsletters that would contain stodgy but factually useful advice. The Old Pennsylvania Trust’s 1938 Newsletter about...
View ArticleInvesting In Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Netflix, Facebook
An acquaintance of mine invested in each of the companies mentioned above. He messaged me some of his trading receipts showing scraps of thousands of dollars that are now worth hundreds of thousands of...
View ArticleA Pet Peeve In Financial Media Reporting
In Laguna Beach, California, there are homes that sold for $172,000 in 1956. By 2018, many of them traded in the $2.5 million to $4 million range ($2.84 million as the median). And yet, the worst...
View ArticleSunTrust Banks Stock: Fortunes Rise and Fall
If, at any time between 1920 and 1985, you were a member of a wealthy Atlanta household, the odds were strong that your family owned stock in both Coca-Cola and the Trust Corp. of Georgia. Investing in...
View ArticleHow The Wealthy Earn $100,000 Per Month Or More
Among well-read investors who study the sources of wealth in America today, Dr. Thomas Stanley’s 1996 book “The Millionaire Next Door” was the seminal work dedicated to studying the behaviors of the...
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Pepsi Soda’s Extended Brand Decline
In the February 1, 1990 edition of “Advertising Age”, the advertising magazine collected answers to a 1982-1989 Gallup that asked customers for the most memorable ads that they had encountered over the...
View ArticleMilton Freidman: Work Ethic and Pursuit of Wealth
Milton Freidman observed that Americans usually self-describe as individualists but it would be more accurate to describe Americans as a family-oriented culture. He pointed to the self-sacrifice that...
View ArticleThe Parents of America’s Wealthiest One Percent
An interesting phenomenon in the United States is that, outside of those living in true poverty, nearly all other individuals self-identify as a member of the middle class. Teacher earning $3,500 per...
View ArticleWhy Republic Services Stock Is A Mini-Microsoft
Beginning around 2002 or so, Microsoft founder Bill Gates began to systematically liquidate his immense Microsoft fortune, selling as much Microsoft stock as he could each day without having a material...
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Royal Dutch Shell: The Perfect Stock For Your Roth IRA
Tucking away high dividend-paying oil stocks in a tax shelter like a Roth IRA is one of the most underrated ways that an investor can accelerate the journey of turning an income stream into an income...
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Should I Buy Blue-Chip Stocks Right Now?
I received this question recently from one of my readers: “hi tim, i love your articles. i have a question for you. With the dow at >15,000 how aggressively would you buy exxon, pg, jnj etc. would...
View ArticleOwning Colgate-Palmolive Stock For A Lifetime
The cultural attributes of the enterprise in which you invest are among the most difficult characteristics to define in a corporation. Not only is the concept of a good culture inherently amorphous...
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The Transformative Moment of My Investing Life
Today, I wanted to share with you a moment in my life that “changed everything” regarding how I view investing. For those of you who follow my writings about dividend stocks, it might make sense to...
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Stock Prices Are Not Always Right
I recently came across an article memorializing the Facebook initial public offering that happened a year ago this month, and I wanted to share a story with you that provides perhaps the cleanest...
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The Path To Stock Ownership Has Never Been Easier
When Benjamin Franklin was asked to name his “greatest fear” for the future of America, he stated that America was such a resource-rich country in the midst of creating unprecedented prosperity that...
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When Should Charitable Giving Become A Priority In Your Life?
This is one of those posts of me “thinking out loud.” It’s a chance for me to reflect upon one of the most sensitive topics in personal finance: trying to find the right amount of money to give to...
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