What You Can Learn From Finance Writer Rocco Pendola
When I first began writing finance articles at Seeking Alpha, I was immediately drawn to a contributor named Rocco Pendola. Aside from the fact that he has the right taste in music (like me, he’s a...
View ArticleThe Only Life-Changing Insight On Bond Investments I’ve Ever Had
I was recently reading through some of the financial statements of Altria, the tobacco company that is either a cause of death or wealth depending on whether you created a relationship with it as a...
View ArticleThree Life-Changing Investment Lessons From Conoco Phillips
Over at Seeking Alpha, I wrote an article about what I expected to see from Conoco Phillip’s dividend policy over the next five years. My argument in a nutshell was this: Conoco chose to keep its...
View ArticleBank of America Stock And Gold Speculation
Two thoughts for the day: Number 1. Here’s the problem with contrarian investing: even if you read the books and agree with the abstract notions of doing things like “buying fifty-cent dollars”, it’s...
View ArticleThe Vanguard Equity Income Fund: A Delightful Lifelong Holding
Reader “Matt” from this site recently pointed out one of his favorite investments to me: The Vanguard Equity Income Fund, which has an expense ratio at 0.30% and has the stated purpose of owning common...
View ArticleYork Water: Stock Predictions Through 2030
York Water has not missed a dividend payment to its shareholders since at least 1819. As of May 7, 2019, the water utility company went on record with its 594th consecutive dividend payment, a...
View ArticleMicrosoft Stock: I Wouldn’t Sell
Between 2003 through 2013, Microsoft stock traded in the $20s. The company’s stock price performance history is one of the most illustrative examples of how stock price performance and underlying...
View ArticleNo, You Should Not Sell Your Website
This is probably the most important topic that I’ve yet to ever discuss in any of my financial writings: 100% profit growth does not lead to the same results for every type of business. Let me give an...
View ArticleUpcoming Changes To The Blog
Hi All. I wanted to give everyone a quick update about the future plans for the site. Here’s the dilemma I’ve been needing to solve for awhile: How can I avoid those inevitable two to three month...
View ArticleThe “Follow Your Passion” Career Advice
From what I can tell, there are two types of parents out there when it comes to advising and strategizing with their kids when it comes to selecting a major in college and finding something to do with...
View ArticleFortunes Are Built By Being Exceptional In One Of Three Ways
Halleluiah! Break out the tambourines and shake them. Break out the fireworks and make sure you don’t shake them. On the day dedicated to celebrating American exceptionalism, I wanted to point out one...
View ArticleThe $50,000 Trust Fund
There are going to be some kids, somewhere, born in 2042 that are going to have a great head start in life by getting a free education because of the very intelligent decisions of a man and his wife in...
View ArticleRoyal Dutch Shell: When Not To Worry About Dividend Cuts
In 1907, Royal Dutch Petroleum merged with Shell Transport & Trading to create a counterweight that could hold its own against John Rockefeller’s growing Standard Oil in the United States that was...
View ArticleAT&T Dividends: Great Place For Starter Retirement Income
It’s on my to-do list over at Seeking Alpha, but I really need to get around to writing a full fleshed article on AT&T sooner rather than later. I haven’t touched on it much in my three years of...
View ArticleCoca-Cola Has Not Finished Minting Millionaires Yet
Back when I started writing for Seeking Alpha in 2011, I noted the obvious that everyone else in the stock commentary blogosphere knows: Coca-Cola is a damn good company to own for long periods of...
View ArticleTom Lewis Once Had A Great Quote About The American Stock Market
I’ve never written up a profile of him, but one of these days, I’m going to get around to doing a full fledged admiration piece on the career of Tom Lewis who is best known for running the real estate...
View ArticleWant An Investing Idea? Try Visa, Visa, Visa
In 2008, someone who found themselves purchasing stock in Visa during its IPO year could have peered into the annual report and learned that each share represented $2.25 in profit. Not bad. Fast...
View ArticleHow Many Different Assets Would Have To Go Away To Make Me Fearful About...
That question, right there, is what diversification really boils down to—a lot of financial planners say things like, you need twenty stocks, or you need thirty stocks, or whatever it may be—but that...
View ArticleExxon Mobil: How You Make Money
At the time of this writing, the shares of the oil giant ExxonMobil trade at around $100 per share. The company pumps out $7.64 in total profits, and pays out $2.52 in dividends. When you buy a stock,...
View ArticleGlaxoSmithKline Hiccups Here And There, But Ultimately Makes You Rich
I’ve spent most of my day studying GlaxoSmithKline, the British version of Johnson & Johnson. I still haven’t finished my study of the company yet, but it looks like one of the few places in the...
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