February 10, 2012

We Are Living in the Midst of One of the Biggest Bond Bubbles in History

McDonald's Bond Certificate Corporate Debentures

Today, I was sitting at the dining room table, drinking a cup of coffee and wearing my Brooks Brothers pajamas watching the stock market skyrocket when it occurred to me that, given the secret project and some other things going on at the business, I want to build some cash and bond reserves at one of the individual operating companies; maybe put aside money a little at a time, let it build and do something fun with it three or four years from now, like design and build a row of townhouses or … [Read more...]

The Sugar Refiner Shares We Own Are Surprising Me (and More Portfolio Updates)

Sugar Company Stock Certificate

I hardly ever talk about the portfolios I manage (the last time was when I added Campbell Soup to the blue chip reserve portfolio in Some Changes In the Portfolio), mostly because investment ideas are rare.  Still, I write about it to the same extent I would be willing to discuss something over coffee with fellow investors so here are some thoughts about what has been going on at Kennon Green Enterprises lately. The shares of the sugar refiner I had one of my businesses buy only 3 months ago … [Read more...]

Some Changes in the Portfolio

Aaron and I are wrapping up all of the tax documents for fiscal 2009 before shipping them off to the accountants, listening to the new Goldfrapp album, and tweaking the investment portfolio a bit. I liquidated a respectable portion of the LEAP stock options we bought on General Electric during the crash now that it is approaching $19 per share, or at least was during today's trading session.  The time premium was no longer adequately reflecting the risk, in my opinion, especially relative to … [Read more...]

The Joy of Cash Dividends

General Electric Stock Certificate Framed

Over the years, I've written a lot about dividends on the Investing for Beginners site at About.com.  In fact, over the past few years it has been one of my absolute favorite topics to cover because through the Great Recession of 2007-2009, those who owned a collection of high quality dividends stocks were better able to ignore market fluctuations and avoid selling their ownership to pay their household bills. It isn't an infrequent thing I'll hear people opine, "yeah, but who has money … [Read more...]