Red Shotgun Thermos Joshua Kennon

Wrapping Presents and Getting Ready for Christmas Eve

We’re at home wrapping presents, baking cookies, and getting ready for the family dinners that are coming up in the next couple of days.  Since Aaron and I are gifting stock this year – almost all of the transactions were completed yesterday with a settlement date of the 26th – there isn’t a lot left for us to do.  However, to give the kids something tangible they can open under the tree from us, we went and got industrial size boxes of their favorite candy along with an explanation of how their stock in The Hershey Company is going to work.

Center for Science in the Public Interest

The New York Times Shows What 2,000 Calories Looks Like: The Mental Models of Math Estimation

The average healthy adult should eat roughly 2,000 calories per day to maintain a recommended weight.  In the United States, all else equal, the average male, at 5’8″, should weigh between 140 pounds and 172 pounds.  The average female, at 5’4″, should weigh between 114 pounds and 151 pounds. In study after study, the typical person underestimates…

JP Morgan Benefits of Saving Early

The Power of Compounding, Student Loan Debt, Communism, and Stealth Wealth

A friend of mine, a nuclear engineer, once explained that he doesn’t bother to contribute to forums or message boards when the topic of nuclear energy is brought up anymore because people are irrational about it, interested in their own confirmation bias rather than learning or having an honest discussion.  Almost everyone I know working in…

I’m Building a Ghost Ship Portfolio for Someone; A Sort of Index Fund on Steroids

I’m putting together a retirement portfolio for several people I know.  One of them is proving to be a fun intellectual exercise.  Essentially, the mandate calls for me creating a ghost ship of a portfolio that, once it has set sail, will drift almost untouched for the next 30+ years when it will be gifted to the children at the end of the life expectancy of the owner.  Beginning in 7 to 10 years, the owner will start taking 3% to 4% distributions to augment an otherwise secure retirement.  The portfolio is to be allocated 70% to a collection of 70 to 100 blue chip stocks, 25% to high-grade bonds, and 5% to cash or cash equivalents.

Closeup of Caramel Pecan Apple Pie Josh and Aaron

A Really Easy Caramel Pecan Apple Pie Recipe You Might Want to Try

I mentioned yesterday that I baked a caramel pecan apple pie.  We had some surplus homemade pastry dough and granny smith apples from the two granny smith apple pies I made on Thanksgiving, using my favorite apple pie recipe.  I wanted to try something different, and needed to find another apple pie recipe that didn’t require a top crust as I had just enough to cover the bottom of a pie pan to use the leftovers.  I began the search, ultimately settling upon a perfectly rated derivation from a publisher called Taste of Home.