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

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 [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Enjoying a Cup of Coffee and Reading Fortune Magazine

I’m about to sit down with a cup of coffee and read the new Fortune magazine that arrived in the mail. It has a cover story featuring the new CEO of Wal-Mart, who took Lee Scott’s title a year and a half ago. Given how much I liked Scott, I want to learn more about [...]

from Joshua Kennon

My Birthday In Pictures

The birthday festivities began around midnight.  Most of my family was over visiting going over some details of something we needed to discuss.  Then, later that night (er … morning) I got an email from Molly, who sent me a charitable gift card to Kiva, a wonderful organization. I woke up to one of my [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Contemplations Over a Cup of 2 a.m. Tea

It is just past 2 a.m. and I finished brewing a cup of Darjeeling tea.  I’m sitting here enjoying the fragrance of the leaves in the cup and it made me remember something … During college, Aaron and I did our grocery shopping at the Wegmans on Route 1 in New Jersey.  Of course, living [...]

from Joshua Kennon

How to Solve the Trade Deficit – Part III

This is Part III of my special on How to Solve the Trade Deficit.  If you missed the earlier parts, you can read Part I or Part II first. How to Solve the Trade Deficit – Knowledge Workers vs. Manual Workers In many ways, your question about the trade deficit has very little to do [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Professor Richard Wolff Says Capitalism Is To Blame … for Everything

Amherst professor Richard Wolff, is arguing that capitalism is a failure because events like the housing crisis keep occurring with some regularity.  Evil banks are “forcing debt” on more Americans who are downing under their bills.  He proposes that we should create low cost “community owned” housing for everyone. Yes, Richard, because American Express and [...]

from Joshua Kennon

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

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 [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Super Tycoons Facebook Update: From $100 Million to $14 Billion

On May 9th, I gave an update on the Super Tycoons game I’ve been playing every day on Facebook in which you have to build an empire and compete against other players. I’ve even convinced my grandma to start playing it as a steel tycoon. When I wrote about the game back in May, my [...]

from Joshua Kennon

It’s All The Same …

But as I always say, it doesn’t matter if it’s smokey room in Washington or a board room in New York City, it’s all businessmen in suits looking out for only themselves and controlling us, the masses.  But as least in Washington, we get a vote on what color tie they are wearing. – Joseph [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Creed Fragrance Counter Is One of My Favorite Places in the World

This morning, I walk into my kitchen to find my grandmother and mother sitting there waiting for me, wanting to know if I want to go out and eat or spend the day together.  Long story short, the three of us, plus my youngest sister, who is in high school, end up at the Country [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Working on the New Finance Book Tonight

Last night, I cleaned up roughly forty pages of my new book. Tonight, I am hoping to get at least the bulk of the remaining “hard math” section done, which focuses on the formulas and equations (stuff like, “If I put $10,000 into an account seven years ago and now it is worth $32,150, what [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Mail Bag – How Does Someone Start Creating Passive Income?

Among the thousands of emails and messages I receive regularly, I came across one today that was sent to me on May 17th by Cale P. Here is the question that was posed: I’m a pretty talented IT professional with great salary and a standard quality of living. I’ve known that I won’t be in [...]

from Joshua Kennon

I’m In Love with the Millionaire South Korean Coffee Goddess Grandma

Whenever we have a major project, there is always a television series or movie playing in the office.  It sort of serves as a deadline (e.g., “We need to get the new pen company launched by the end of the first three seasons of Friday Night Lights“).  For us, it works amazingly well. Right now, [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Tycoons Game on Facebook

There is a free game on Facebook called Tycoons that I began playing a few days ago.  The premise is that you acquire businesses and sell the commodities or products generated by these companies in a real market-based system.  Over time, those who grow the richest are put on a leader board.  I’m coming quite [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The View From My Window …

This is the view from my bedroom window when I wake up in the morning … I normally have a cup of black coffee and read.  I normally stay there for a few hours before getting up and starting my day.  That way, I have the reading (sometimes books, sometimes stock reports, or sometimes a [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Success of the iPad Will Come Down to App Development

Five days or so into my experience with the iPad and it continues to exceed expectations (by far). I’ve spent somewhere between $120 and $150 in the Apple iTunes App store, which compared to my previous purchases of apps (read: $0), means there is more cash flowing into Steve Jobs’ coffers. The overwhelming indication continues [...]

from Joshua Kennon

It Was an Amazingly Productive Day

We are having an amazingly productive day.  Thus far, we have: Paid a ton of bills for one of the businesses. Submitted the final tax documents to the accounting firm that handles our business and personal filings. Had lunch / dinner at Panera Bread with Aaron. Went to Michael’s and got a bunch of our [...]

from Joshua Kennon

A Brief Flirtation with a Cinnabon Franchise

I mentioned yesterday in the article on Dairy Queen franchise owners that after graduating from college, Aaron and I had looked into putting capital to work by opening several franchises in the town where we grew up.  We thought it would be a good place to invest the money we were earning from our other [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Bosendorfer Strauss Grand Piano – A Real Life Lesson in the Time Value of Money

The Opportunity Cost of a Bosendorfer Strauss Grand Piano I’m going to teach you a financial technique that can help empower you to make informed choices about your own life and keep more cash in your pocket.  I’ve been using it since college and it’s done wonders from my bank balance and investments. From the [...]

from Joshua Kennon

It’s Comforting How Oddly Predictable Humans Can Be on the Small Things

A few days ago, Aaron got a message from one of our friends, Jimmy, at about 4 in the morning.  We were both still up working on a project that’s going to have some fairly large financial ramifications for us in about a year or two, so we happened to read it in near real-time.  [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Importance of Frugality in Building Wealth

I was up until 6:30 this morning reading Stop Acting Rich … By Thomas J. Stanley, Ph.D., the author of the incredibly successful The Millionaire Next Door and The Millionaire Mind.  It’s remarkable because so much of what the “average” millionaire did to achieve his or her wealth is exactly, precisely the same things I, [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Rainbow Pancakes

I happened to be sitting at the dining room table, a cup of coffee in one hand, writing out plans for potentially launching a mutual fund this year (this time around, it’s a Parker Duofold rollerball in an amber check pattern from the recent shipment of fine writing instruments we received at Kennon Home Accessories [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Stereotypical Casino Food

This afternoon, Ruby stopped by and asked me to go to the casino with her.  I always enjoy spending time with family and was happy to do so, despite my general distaste for casinos (as an investor, I know the probability tables and payout ratios for most of the games; I love owning casino stocks [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Douwe Egberts Coffee Machine at Headquarters

One of the first things I did when my original company became successful was to order a Douwe Egberts coffee machine for the breakroom.  For the uninitiated, Douwe Egberts coffee is the best in the world.  There are no exceptions.  In fact, I was visiting someone in a town called Branson, Missouri several years ago [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Michel Perchin Pens Really Turn Me On

When I was a teenager sitting in high school French class, I recall relentlessly mocking my teacher for the idiocy of buying a $200 or $300 pen.  Fast forward to today, and not only do I have a massive pen collection, but I’ve fallen completely and totally in love with Michel Perchin pens to the [...]

from Joshua Kennon

How to Make $10,000,000 After Taxes in a Few Years

I’m sitting in my investing office, looking over the river behind the property, figuring out what I’m going to do for the day. I’ve got a cup of coffee in my Seattle’s Best mug from Border’s and am listening to Roosterspur Bridge by Tori Amos. The ideal would be to plow into a giant pile [...]

from Joshua Kennon