Thoughts on Business, Politics, and Life from a Private Investor
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 can make it, ship it, and stock it for that price. So, we loaded up Cherry Pepsi and Diet Cherry Pepsi. Ordinarily, I prefer Coca-Cola but they weren't on sale so ... sorry Coke. Pepsi won this round. But we own … [Read more...]
Those of you who follow my writings at About.com, a division of The New York Times, know that I've written about municipal bonds at the Investing for Beginners site including one article that detailed some ways to help you determine if a specific municipal bond was "safe". At the wedding this weekend, I was discussing a family friend, who shall remain nameless, who is in his 80's and has more than $1,000,000 parked in municipal bonds. As many of you know, this means he earns tax-free … [Read more...]
This is my mom. You've probably read about her but never seen a picture. She's the same one that would slip notes into my lunches in elementary school telling me how wonderful, intelligent and loved I was. Back in the early days when she and my dad started their company in a two hundred square foot garage, she would work during the day (my sister, Kelsey, and I would help run the machinery) and my dad would come home from his day-job and work the night shift. Today, she and my dad are … [Read more...]
Aaron and I went shopping today for my sister and soon-to-be-brother-in-law's wedding gifts. We also decided we wanted to wear something new that wasn't parked in our respective closets so we headed to Nordstrom and a few other stores. I ended up going with a modern cut lavender white stripe dress shirt with mother-of-pearl buttons and a silk bow tie in the same color family, which I will wear with a charcoal gray suit with white and faint blue pinstripes. I took a picture so I could send … [Read more...]
In the past 30 or 60 days, the amount I charged and then immediately paid off on the company's American Express card for small costs like office supplies, software, and hosting fees was more than the current market value of the house where I grew up as a child ... and it is the slowest month of our fiscal year. It is the home where I learned how to invest by reading everything I could get from the public library and where my parents started their now incredibly successful company in the tiny, … [Read more...]
I was speaking to a relative of mine when this person (who shall remain nameless) expressed horror that after living near New York for so long, I would buy a house near my parents in the Midwest. "I thought you were going places!" they basically decried in exasperation. It was then that I realized how truly stupid most people are when it comes to making money. They have no idea how capital allocation works. I started to get irritated and then I realized: If they knew how wrong they … [Read more...]
How the American Express Plum Card Helped Revolutionize Mount Olympus Awards A few days ago, I mentioned in The Importance of Frugality in Building Wealth that one of the ways we were able to save money was by using the American Express plum card at all of my businesses. The new product offering by American Express, which is probably most famously known for its Black Centurion and Platinum Cards, is completely unique in the financial services industry. For business owners, the plum card … [Read more...]
How The Marketing Industry Continues to Convince Average Americans They Know What a Millionaire Looks Like A few days ago, I quoted something from one of Dr. Thomas J. Stanley's books: "In the United States, there are three times more millionaires living in homes that have a market value of under $300,000 than there are living in homes valued at $1 million or more." For the past few days, I've been studying more about average household income in the United States and, specifically, the … [Read more...]
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, and members of my own family, did to become financially independent. The premise of the book is that most people get in financial trouble trying to emulate the purchasing … [Read more...]
This blog is a way for me to pass along some of the stuff I learn on the journey and the past year has taught me a lot about furniture, furniture buying, and what constitutes quality furniture. Tying that into our usual discussion of economics and finance, I think it provides a lot of valuable [...]
I’ve been thinking a lot about free trade, labor unions, American manufacturing, and free markets for the past few weeks. You know that, on the whole, American manufacturing is still as strong as it was in 1960. We still produce roughly $20 out of every $100 of world goods. The difference? Technology and, to [...]
Though the home renovations have gotten the most headlines due to their nature (constant onslaught of choices and tasks that need to be completed), one of the most important items on the agenda of the six-month project has been to drastically reduce my digital footprint. By the end of the program, I will have one personal presence [...]
This makes me sick. This high school is ranked in top 5% of high schools in the United States. The worst part of the video for me was the part where the kid says, “I was never taught that knowledge”. It’s not somebody else’s job to teach you, it is your job to seek out [...]
This is a great way to start the day … one of the reasons I love writing this blog. Joshua, [In American Households Continue to Deleverage But That Only Tells Part of the Story, you wrote] “The numbers are just figures on a sheet trying to explain human behavior. Study the behavior, what is driving [...]
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Investing for Beginners
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