Samuel Johnson on the Desire for Wealth (Rambler 58)
As the love of money has been, in all ages, one of the passions that have given great disturbance to the tranquillity of the world, there is no topick more copiously treated by the ancient moralists...
View ArticleA Million Dollar’s Plus Seven Years Is The Secret To A Cushy Retirement
Retirement planning is one of those tricky subjects that leads to millions of finance articles and $1,000 seminars dedicated to talking about (preying upon?) the insecurities of individuals as they...
View ArticleThree Recent Purchases
In the past couple of weeks, I have made three recent purchases. One is obvious, the other is an above-average company trading at 9x earnings that recently traded at 20x earnings and is recently down,...
View ArticleChevron, Occidental, Anadarko, and Berkshire: What Just Happened
Investors sometimes forget that oil is not quite like other common stock investments because it involves a non-renewable resource. Oil companies constantly seek replacement rates of 100% or greater...
View ArticleWhy Do Some Families Get Richer With Each Generation, And Others Get Poorer?
There was a write about a half-century ago named John O’Hara. He was a cranky guy with a wide variety of interests, and although he had a large number of critics, he was good enough to persuade fellow...
View ArticleWealth Inequality In The United States
I’m showing you this video not for the editorial content—one of the deep flaws in arguments about wealth is that, when someone is making $1,000,000 compared to someone making $50,000, the rhetorical...
View Article3M Company Stock: Hello Old Friend
There is a list of about a dozen or so businesses that I have never gotten a chance to talk about because they have always been overvalued. 3M is one of those companies that is incredibly diversified...
View ArticleFirst Impressions! Anchoring! Underrated Forces Of The Universe!
I want to discuss with you a phenomenon that has applications in the investing world and beyond: anchoring. Simply put, anchoring occurs when someone tells you a fact or opinion, and then you use that...
View ArticleUber Stock IPO: These So-Called Alternative Metrics
You know what is the sign of a great management team? An unrelenting focus on earnings per share. If you look at the annual reports of Nike, Dollar General, Home Depot, and Autozone stocks over the...
View Article3M Company Stock: Profits Everywhere
I recall the annual report of eBay stock several years when the company still owned Paypal. I was struck by the fact that this not-so-little subsidiary was sitting inside the eBay corporate umbrella...
View ArticleWhat Is The Best Argument Against Blue-Chip Dividend Investing?
I received an interesting private question from a reader recently, asking me what I thought was the best argument against blue-chip dividend investing. I loved that question, and with his permission, I...
View ArticleDividend Stocks Forever: An Endangered Species?
In One Up On Wall Street (p. 19), Peter Lynch once remarked that “if anybody’s responsible for the disappearing dividend, it’s the U.S. government, which taxes corporate profits, then taxes corporate...
View ArticleWarren Buffett’s Weakest Link Quote
“One of the things you will find, which is interesting and people don’t think of it enough, with most businesses and with most individuals, life tends to snap you at your weakest link. So it isn’t the...
View ArticleWhen Professionals Fail In Their Personal Lives
To any remaining readers of this site— I apologize for my unexpected hiatus from the site—hopefully I’ll get some good updates up in the next week or so. My absence has been due to primarily two...
View ArticleThe Kelly Blazek Kerfuffle, Walt Disney, And Second Chances
Add this to the list of things I’ve been thinking about but haven’t reached a conclusion—whether the “fall” of Kelly Blazek is a good thing or a bad thing for our civilization. For those of you who...
View ArticleWalter Schloss: Learning From The Master
Walter Schloss is on the short list of the most interesting investors I’ve ever studied on Wall Street. He worked under Ben Graham himself, and struck out on his own once he saw the outsized attention...
View ArticleLuckin Coffee IPO: Here We Go Again
Benjamin Graham argued that a long-term investor will almost never participate in an initial public offering (IPO) because the animal spirits that are triggered by the IPO will almost never coincide...
View ArticleMy Dear, Albert Camus Could Flat Out Write
My dear, In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love. In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile. In the midst of chaos, I found there was,...
View ArticleJohn Deere Stock: Should Farmers Buy It?
An interesting approach to individual stock selection involves looking at businesses that are indispensable to your career’s successful functioning. If you work in HR, you have probably relied upon the...
View ArticleIBM Stock: All Those Cash Dividends
Between 1978 and 2012, IBM stock delivered returns of at least 12% during every ten-year or greater time frame except for the 1998-2008 and 1999-2009 measuring periods. Up until the past decade or so,...
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