Mail Bag: Should I Take Out Student Loans to Invest?

One of the single most common questions I receive from friends, family, and readers who are enrolled in college is, “Should I take out student loans and invest the excess above and beyond the cost of college?”  No doubt spurred by the historically low rates – the interest expense on a typical government student loan [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Debbie Gibson Has Invaded the Office

This is the most bizarre thing that has happened to me in years. All day long, out of nowhere, I have had the 1988 hit song “Lost in Your Eyes” by Debbie Gibson in my head.  It was released when I was 5 or 6 years old.  I don’t even remember anything about it, nor [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Earning Money on Your Money

One old definition of “being rich” is when your money earns money.  This afternoon, I was writing a piece and reviewing the dividend yields on some of the common stock holdings owned by my household personally, outside of the business, when I began quantifying that in the back of my mind.  How much would it [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Martha Stewart, the Christmas Ham, and Status Quo Bias

Just Because Something Is Old Does Not Mean It Is Right A significant error in thinking comes from people using “It has always been this way” as justification for the state of things.  As if, somehow, precedence confers legitimacy.  Just because something is old does not mean it is right.  Being long-established does not mean [...]

from Joshua Kennon

France Has Triumphed with a Cultural Victory!

For the past six hours, I have been playing Aaron, Ashly, and Ian over the Internet at a game of Civilization V.  By the time it was done, I kept getting a feeling that the latter two were up to some devious machinations because my military adviser relentlessly informed me they could wipe my civilization [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Investing vs. Speculating

It isn’t uncommon for me to receive messages from readers who talk about how they are now investing.  Most of these are cause for celebration; exciting reminders that people can take control of their own financial future by harnessing the power of compounding so they can focus on more important things in life than money. [...]

from Joshua Kennon

It’s Time to Bring Back the Glass-Steagall Act

In the aftermath of the 1929 stock market crash and economic meltdown, Congress passed the Glass-Steagall Act.  The purpose of the legislation was to ban the consolidation of securities firms and banks as a way to protect the public in the event of a financial crisis.  By isolating deposit-taking institutions from those responsible for underwriting [...]

from Joshua Kennon

I Think the Facebook IPO Is Overvalued. I Think It Is Obscenely, Offensively, Immorally Overvalued to the Point I Think the Offering Banks Should Be Sued.

That’s my opinion, anyway.  I believe the valuation put on the Facebook IPO is asinine.  I am of the opinion this is the type of valuation that only a complete, total, idiotic moron who wanted to get screwed could accept.  Again, this is entirely my opinion looking at the financials.  I’m about to wrap up [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Nearly 50 Years Later, Mary Poppins Is Still One of the Best Movies Ever

My schedule was completely reshuffled this afternoon because my grandmother and four-year-old niece stopped by for a wonderful surprise visit.  During the conversation, it came up that Ellie had never seen Mary Poppins.  Completely unacceptable!  We cancelled everything else for the day, bought it on Apple TV, made English tea with sugar and milk (though, [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Discounts 101

The Berkshire Hathaway shareholder discounts at Nebraska Furniture Mart end in a few hours, with the discount at Borsheim’s cutting off tomorrow.  The furniture buyer with whom I am working has spent the past week finalizing my spreadsheet, locking me into the enormous savings that are available.   Taking advantage of the stockholder pricing is [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Socialists Have Taken France

I’ve been watching the French election.  Hollande won.  He has promised a 75% income tax on the rich and vows to, “re-negotiate a European treaty on trimming budgets to avoid more debt crises of the kind facing Greece.” Looks like we’re selling the French stocks in the retirement funds.  I’m not dealing with this s**t. [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Meeting Weekend Has Begun

The Berkshire Hathaway meeting weekend has begun.  I easily live within driving distance and am debating about whether or not I should throw my shareholder credentials in the car and head up to Omaha.  There really isn’t a reason; I had the Kansas City branch of Nebraska Furniture Mart handle my shareholder discount purchases for [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Business Strategy: The Best Weapon Is One Your Enemies Don’t Know Exists

One of the most useful business strategies, and life strategies, I know has to do with stealth projects, stealth accomplishments, and stealth resources.  The strategy can be useful for games, in your own company, or in your own family.  Showing you how it works might be the easiest way to explain it. Last night, Aaron [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Figure Out What You Want, Then Take Specific Actions to Achieve, Acquire, or Experience It

You have can almost anything you want in life.  No one is going to give it to you.  There is no calvary coming.  Your parents, your friends, none of these people can live your life for you.  Instead, you have to figure out 1.) What you want, and then 2.) Take specific, targeted actions to [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Euthyphro Dilemma and the Nature of God, Goodness, Sin, and Evil

This morning, I woke up thinking about the Euthyphro dilemma.  It was as if I had been in the middle of a debate, passionately arguing my case for the nature of goodness, when I was suddenly interrupted by the real world as a text message jolted me out of bed.  I walked around, threw on [...]

from Joshua Kennon

As Taxmageddon Approaches, How Should Investors Prepare for 43.4% Taxes on Dividends?

Last night, I published my monthly updates for the Investing for Beginners site at About.com, a division of The New York Times.  One of the articles I wrote has to do with something called Taxmageddon.   As the law stands now, in eight months, Americans will face one of the largest tax hikes in history, with [...]

from Joshua Kennon

My Dad’s Latest Project Is Restoring a Classic Ford Pickup Truck

My dad likes building stuff.  It’s actually one of the coolest things about him.  Whereas I design things on paper, then work with people to bring it into reality, he pictures it and then does it himself.   Since I was a kid, my dad has wanted to restore an old Ford pickup truck.  He [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Google – The Hungry Beast

Interesting video.  Watch and think.  It’s intriguing, though Google still doesn’t scare me quite as much as Facebook. Perhaps that is because I make a great deal of money thanks to Google, I spend quite a bit of money with Google to place targeted ads for some of the online businesses we own, and I [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Fountain for the Upper Balcony Arrived

Remember back in January when I posted an update of the six month project? We had decided to do the upper balcony in a Thailand paradise theme so we could eat out there, or I could spend evenings reading investment reports quietly. We almost have all of it cleaned out – there are still a [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Change the Way You Think About Business Ownership and You Can Change Your Life

Shortly after World War I, Raymond Poincaré, the Prime Minister of France, decided against partnering with Royal Dutch Shell to fund the energy needs of the French people.  One of his military commanders, Colonel Ernest Mercier, worked with 90 banks and businesses to establish a new oil company called French Petroleum Company (er, technically, Française [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Five Minute Layered White and Milk Chocolate Oreo Pudding Dessert

Last night, we were in a hurry; were sponsoring a movie night and didn’t have much time to get dinner and dessert together.  There would be no perfectly molded honey lemon bee hive cakes or unique custom icing crafted.  Instead there would be delicious nachos and some sort of after dinner sweet.  Whatever we did [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Asians Dominate California Colleges and Universities in a Post Proposition 209 World

This evening, I am sitting in my home study, drinking a cup of strong, freshly brewed black coffee, reading through the news, studying the annual reports of some of the major oil and natural gas companies, and, in a few moments, about to embark on a new game of Civilization V.  One of the stories [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Did Walmart’s Mexico Subsidiary Illegally Bribe Mexican Government Officials Breaking the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act?

There is a fantastic piece in The New York Times today detailing an alleged ring of corruption, illegal bribes, and kickbacks in Wal-Mart de Mexico, the subsidiary company that operates Walmart’s retail stores throughout Mexico.  Reading it reminded me of what journalism is supposed to be like: You find corruption or wrong doing, uncover what people [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Opportunity Cost of the Car You Drive Is One of the Biggest Financial Decisions You’ll Ever Make

The great thing about making decisions in life through the lens of decision trees and opportunity cost is that it allows you to focus on what you actually want. You tend to protect yourself against giving up what you really want for what you want right now.  Everything in life has an opportunity cost.  It doesn’t [...]

from Joshua Kennon

You Can Still Get Rich and Make Money In a Terrible Economy with a Miserable Stock Market

Towards the back of the most recent General Electric annual report is an interesting graph.  It shows what an investor would have experienced by putting $100 into three different investments: GE shares, the S&P 500, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  It assumes that dividends were reinvested in each respective investment when they were distributed. [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Why the Euro Is Doomed to Fail and Greece Suffer Austerity

I am going to give you a brief economics lesson in a few short minutes.  Economists like to make things hard but for those of you wanting to know why Greece, and the Euro, continues to be such a problem for the world, here is a breakdown.  It isn’t nearly as difficult as you might [...]

from Joshua Kennon

It Is So Easy To Get Rich If You Have Enough Time

This afternoon, I spent my time sprawled out on the floor of my home study, going through annual reports of the companies that make up the stocks held in the so-called KRIP plan I manage.  This portfolio, which is one of the only ones I discuss on the site, is the “stupid insurance” I setup [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Playing Good Defense Is Just as Important When Building Wealth

On this site, we talk a lot about how to play offense in the game of building wealth – investing in assets that generate cash, increasing your skill set so you can charge a higher price for your time, starting or acquiring businesses that throw off profits – but today I want to talk about an [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Tornado Outbreak Missed Kansas City

We dodged a weather bullet last night, thank God.  The entire Midwest was under a massive tornado warning that had been issued 24 hours in advance by the National Weather Service.  It was only the second time in history they had done it, the first being in 2006 when 100 tornadoes broke out in a [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The World Is Full of Hard Businesses. You Should Probably Avoid Investing In Them.

A few evenings ago, I was sitting at my home study desk going through the pile of annual reports that have been arriving over the past few weeks, all of which I’ve been too busy to read.  I was halfway through the 10K filing of an engineered products manufacturer, in which I still own a [...]

from Joshua Kennon

I’m Back! No More Missing-in-Action

Reference: XD8X394M3N7G Victory!  This month has been a beast but I conquered it.  I have reviewed the Federal and state tax filings for my household and directly held businesses, approved the checks to be sent off to the United States Treasury, and submitted digital scans of all of the confirmation and documents back to the accountants.  Maybe [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Electronic Adultery: Switching from iPhone to Android

I Upgraded My iPhone to a Much Larger Samsung Galaxy Note I was lured away from iOS and into the Android world this afternoon during an impromptu trip to the local wireless store with Aaron, who was upgrading his personal line.   That says something because my household is an Apple household.  My businesses are Apple businesses.  Everywhere [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Midwest Airlines Chocolate Chip Cookie Is Officially Dead

Shortly after high school and during college, I found myself having to travel often.  A family member who had experienced almost every airline, large and small, traveling as part of a successful medical career, recommended a small regional carrier called Midwest Airlines.  Not only did they offer fewer passengers per flight by having two leather [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Google Glasses Project Seems Way Too Intrusive

Google is working on tech so you can walk around and use their services all hours of the day using a pair of glasses. It makes sense why they would want to do it – you walk past a restaurant you have never experienced and they could serve you an advertisement for it, generating a [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Video Games May Seem More Expensive But They Aren’t – It’s All In Your Head

Like most things on this site, this isn’t really about video game prices at all.  It is a lesson in economics and how to think about the world if you want to be successful. I have been hearing a lot of grumbling lately from friends and fellow gamers about the cost of video games.  The [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Mega Millions Jackpot Is So Large That If Warren Buffett Bought Every Ticket Combination, He Could Book a Near Guaranteed Profit

The Mega Millions jackpot has reached a reported $640 million.  That means the probabilistic outcome of a certain win if someone could step in and buy every possible combination might pay off handsomely.  It would take almost $176 million to do it, but Warren Buffett could get a guaranteed win if he played this game. [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Making Money Secret: It Is Almost Always a Mistake to Sell Your Intellectual Property

When you create something, you have one of two options.  The first, is to take cash up front and sell your creation.  The second is to retain ownership of your creation and, betting on yourself, license, publish, or distribute it in exchange for on-going royalties or revenue participation. Some of you know a little bit [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Universal Video Game Problem: How to Pronounce Words

If you ever played any of the Japanese video game imports, you know this problem.

from Joshua Kennon

The Going Paperless Project from Last Year Is Almost Done

I’m working late, snacking on strawberries sprinkled in sugar, and trying to organize 50,000 to 100,000 digital assets that have been put into one of the software systems at the office, all accumulated over the past twelve or more years.  Automated scripts did a lot of heavy lifting but some things need to be sorted [...]

from Joshua Kennon

How Many People Earn More than $1,000,000 Per Year In the United States?

This mail bag question deals with a sub-specialty of the top 1%; those earning more than $1,000,000 per year, or $83,333 per month, often in the form of dividends, interest, and rents. How many people earn more than $1 million a year in income in the United States? – Pltn8 According to a Wall Street [...]

from Joshua Kennon

A Friend of Mine Just Made a Lot of Money from Apple

One of my friends bought a block of Apple stock back during the total meltdown of the Great Recession.  The shares she acquired are now up from $100 per share to $600 per share and, after this morning’s announcement, will collect a nearly 8% to 12% cash dividend yield on cost depending on the individual [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Some Of You Are Experiencing Significant Site Delays

Depending upon your geographic location, the private server on which the site resides is experiencing significant issues, and has throughout the month thus far.  My apologies.  The institution hosting it is working on the source but my patience is running out very quickly.  Were it not for the Amazon cache serving old version of the [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Prosopagnosia, or Face Blindness, Is Absolutely Fascinating

This is one of the most fascinating things I’ve ever seen … there are people who can’t recognize faces; even their own, or their children. They think as many as 1 in 50 people suffer from it, but just like color blindness, it never occurs to them that they are different unless they have to [...]

from Joshua Kennon

My Social Calendar Is Booked This Year

It’s been more than a week since I last posted, making it one of the longest absences I’ve had from the site.  The reason?  Social obligations.   I try to keep a tight lid on my whereabouts, with only a handful of friends and family ever being mentioned on the site or shown in pictures, [...]

from Joshua Kennon

To Be More Successful, Focus on High Impact Activities

As I’ve explained in my two bucket theory, time is one of the most important, if not the most important, commodity you have.  To a large extent, your life represents how you’ve invested your time thus far.  Whether you are rich or poor, in shape or overweight, successful or a failure, well put together or a [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Some People Can Never Be Happy

Late one evening, I found myself reading the blogs before shutting down for the night.  I came across a post called Is It Easier To Deal With Divorce When You Made The Choice To Leave?.  It caught my attention because the opening line contains a huge factual error (see footnote).  That aside, in the article, [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Colorblindness Simulation Image Filter Is Kind of Depressing

After writing We All See, Smell, Hear, Taste, and Feel the World Differently, I have been running different exercises and simulations in my life to add to my knowledge of other people’s perspectives; how they go through the world and how those input filters influence cognition.  One of the tools has been image filters to see [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Apparently, I’m Having a Hard Time Keeping Track Between Reality and Skyrim

I left work and went to Lowe’s to pick up a few things for the home renovation project.  As I’m walking and conversing with Aaron, with whom I was speaking at the time, I see pickaxes out of the side of my eye.  I think in the back of my mind, “Oh, I need that to [...]

from Joshua Kennon

A Baby Hummingbird Hatches

A cool video for your afternoon of a baby hummingbird hatching from its egg.  The mama hummingbird makes a couple of appearances to watch over her chick as it is born.  It’s crazy to think that we live in a world where so much is going on around us; individual stories unfolding, intersecting.  “In the [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Bond No. 9 New Haarlem Fragrance Review

To the fragrance aficionados writing me, yes, I realize I haven’t written a fragrance review or update in six months, since responding to the Mail Bag question asking to look inside my fragrance cabinet.  Sorry.  I’ve been busy with other things.  I’ll try to be better.  And thank you for sharing your recommendations and suggestions for new [...]

from Joshua Kennon