How We Used Shares of Coca-Cola to Teach My Youngest Sister About Investing (and Why the Cycle of Consumption and Financial Stress Starts as a Teenager for Most Americans)

When I was a senior in high school, I bought my youngest sister, who was first grader at the time, a single share of Coca-Cola common stock for her 6th birthday.  I had it framed with an engraving of the first part of Deuteronomy 8:18 placed under it, “You shall remember the Lord your God, [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Still Frugal As Ever

You all know that I love frugality and today was a jackpot kind of day!  Even though we try not to drink soda, we do keep it around for guests and when we get the occasional craving.  The local grocery store had a sale; each case was only $2.50!  I don’t even know how they [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Do Not Throw Away the Melon for the Seeds

Do not take the seeds and throw away the melon. – Traditional Chinese Proverb A few decades ago, Coca-Cola, one of the most profitable companies in the history of the world from a return on equity standpoint, decided that instead of repurchasing its own shares or increasing the dividend, it would diversify into other operations [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Why Don’t People Realize You Can Do This In Real Life?

During college, one of Aaron and my closest friends made a comment that still haunts me to this day.  I was explaining that if you own a share of The Coca-Cola Company, you actually receive a proportionate cut of the company’s profits on every single can of Coke sold.  This makes sense, after all … [...]

from Joshua Kennon

How My Grandpa Dennis Could Have Turned His Pepsi Habit Into a 7-Figure Estate

I’ve written in the past about how nearly every American alive today has been confronted with perhaps a dozen different companies that they knew first hand because they enjoyed using the firm’s products for years (in some cases, their whole life) that turned out to be spectacular investments.  Yet, they never thought to research the [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Sun Trust Bank and the Coca-Cola Stock

I’m reading the Sun Trust annual report and I realized that many, if not most, of you are probably unaware of the Sun Trust connection to Coca-Cola and how it gave rise to one of the greatest investments in history.  (As many of you know, we used the Coca-Cola direct stock purchase plan and dividend [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Billy Joel and Elton John Concert in Kansas City at the Sprint Center Tonight Was Great

There’s a Good Chance That Were It Not for these Two Men, You Wouldn’t Be Reading This Blog Right Now My mom, arguably as big of an Elton John fan as I am, took Aaron and me to the Billy Joel and Elton John Concert in Kansas City at the Sprint Center.  (Thanks again mom!) [...]

from Joshua Kennon

How to Find Investment Ideas

Years ago, I wrote an article called Finding Investment Ideas for Your Portfolio for About.com, a division of The New York Times.  I’ve been thinking for the past few days about how it is that I seem to come across so many opportunities and then I realized that most people like me are always looking [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Focused Value Investing Strategy

The focus value investing strategy is different from traditional, Benjamin Graham value investing strategy because it is based upon the idea of putting money into more of an investor’s “best ideas”, as Warren Buffett put it.  Some value investors despise focused investing, while others swear by it.  I’m always very hesitant to talk about this particular [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Margin of Safety – The Secret Value Investing Strategy

The single most important concept in all of investing, according to Benjamin Graham and later confirmed by his star student, Warren Buffett, comes down to three simple words: Margin of Safety. What is the margin of safety?  How do you calculate it?  How important is it to developing a successful value investing strategy?  As you’ll [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Charlie Munger Value Investing Strategy

Charlie Munger, the Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, former hedge fund manager, and billionaire value investor, was instrumental in changing Warren Buffett’s way of thinking about value investing. Charlie insisted that the investor would be better served by focusing on better quality businesses, even if the price were higher, because those businesses could be held [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Basics of Dollar Cost Averaging

Dollar cost averaging is an investing technique that can lower your risk, increase your profits, make market volatility less emotionally painful, and help put you on the road to financial independence.  When combined with asset allocation, it’s a nearly unstoppable force that can grow your wealth far beyond what you ever imagined.  This guide to dollar [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Market Capitalization Asset Allocation

One particularly popular strategy used by asset allocation investors is to divide their stock investments into different “piles” based on market capitalization.  (If you are a new investor, you may not know what market capitalization is.  Market cap, as it is often called, is the price it would take to buy 100% of all of [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Mexican Coca-Cola vs. American Coke

Other than gourmet coffee, my favorite beverage in the world is an ice cold glass of Coca-Cola.  Of course, not only is the product great, but my love for business causes me to appreciate the nectar of the gods in far more ways than the average person could appreciate.  When I look at a bottle [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Psychology of Human Misjudgment by Charlie Munger

By Charlie Munger (Warren Buffett’s partner at Berkshire Hathaway) Speech at Harvard Law School (1995) Transcription of The Psychology of Human Misjudgment, comments [in brackets] by Whitney Tilson.  Note from Joshua Kennon: I’ve written a lot about Charlie Munger over the years, especially the influence he has had on my life and how we run [...]

from Joshua Kennon