IBM’s Acquisition of Red Hat & The Modern Tech Stock
From 1911 through 1991, American tech stocks delivered returns of 8.3% annualized, almost two percentage points below what a general basket of large-cap American stocks produced over the same time...
View ArticleWarren Buffett’s 1993 Lesson On Coca-Cola Stock
In his 1993 letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett provided an interesting historical aside about Coca-Cola’s long-term performance: “Let me add a lesson from history: Coke went...
View ArticleInvesting in Otter Tail Stock For A Generation
More so than most, I have long been intrigued by the 1960s fad of investing in conglomerate stocks. You have these beautiful, completely unrelated businesses that churn out profits under nearly all...
View ArticlePerfect Stocks And Perfect Market Timing Does Not Exist
What screws a lot of people up from accomplishing good things in life is this desire to wait for the moment to be perfect before beginning. The problem with that mentality is this: there will never...
View ArticleHow To Find A Dividend Stock You Can Hold Forever
When I was a little kid, there was this hamburger joint in Clayton, MO that served calfburgers with a cheddar cheese spread and steak fries. My dad used to take me there back in the day, and it was the...
View ArticleThe Per Stirpes Distribution Default Rule: An Illustration
It is sadly not uncommon enough in the United States for a parent to outlive their child–a tragedy that befalls approximately 8% of families. I have been reviewing recent state law decisions, and I...
View ArticleA Big Threat To A Long-Term Dividend Investing Strategy
I was just reading over Michael J. Burry’s commencement speech to graduates at UCLA, and I came across this passage in his speech that I’d like to share with you: “Information swarms us. It comforts...
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A Lifetime of Income Investing Is The Best Defense Against Job Loss
What is every employee’s worst fear? While I cannot answer that question with absolute certainty, I’d be willing to wager that a forced early retirement (be it due to layoffs or a forced termination...
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BHP Billiton’s Incredibly Disappointing Management Decisions
I have been intrigued by BHP Billiton, the commodities producer with various interests in Australia, the United Kingdom, Chile, and South Africa. If you want to own an asset that produces oil, iron,...
View ArticleThe Three Most Liberating Words In Investing: “I Don’t Know”
I recently engaged in a conversation with a long-term reader (hat tip to you, Michael) who was unsure about the future of the PC and tablet market as he contemplated an investment in Intel. He has been...
View ArticleThe Best Four Percent Yielder
There is one particular business that Jeremy Siegel highlighted in “Stocks for the Long Run” that grew earnings and dividends at a slower rate than its most notorious 20th century tech peer, but...
View ArticleShould You Pay Off Mortgage Early Or Invest?
John Paul Getty once said: “If you owe the bank $100, that is your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that is their problem.” Getty’s observation offers an important insight into the value of...
View ArticleDividend Reinvestment Does Not Have To Be All Or Nothing
If you are a regular reader of finance articles, you probably know that one topic which many writers beat to death with a brickbat is the strategy regarding dividend reinvestment. Generally, there are...
View ArticleThe Three Components of Long-Term Investing
Almost everything I try to accomplish when it comes to portfolio construction is a combination of three ideas that I learned from Columbia professor Benjamin Graham, Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman...
View ArticleRoyalty Trust Investing: The Gigantic Risk
At the conceptual level, the idea of investing in a royalty trust sounds like a simple straightforward way to earn income because there is no actual asset that you are operating, but rather, you are...
View ArticleThe Vanguard Wellington Fund Is Still Open To New Investors
After recently mentioning that I would consider an investment in the Vanguard Wellington Fund if I wanted to create wealth in such a way that I did not have to spend much time thinking about...
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My Ten Favorite Walt Disney Quotes
Walt Disney is one of my favorite titans of the 20th century because he was a dude that had to keep plugging away to find success in life. Did he have the creative control of some of his early...
View ArticleThe Uber IPO’s High Risk
Jeremy Siegel’s research into initial public offerings, which found that IPOs underperform the market by four percentage points annually during the five-year stretch following the IPO, speaks to the...
View ArticleWhat Ryan Braun’s Season-Ending Suspension Can Teach Us About Personal Finance
For those of you that follow baseball, you may have caught wind of the recent news that Milwaukee Brewers Ryan Braun recently received a season-ending suspension (65 games) for his link to the...
View ArticleA Subtle Investing Tip From Warren Buffett
For those of you who are aware of Warren Buffett’s long-time investment in Coca-Cola, you may know that he has turned a $1 billion investment in the late 1980s/early 1990s into 400,000,000 shares worth...
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