Escaping the Credit Card Debt Prison

When you find yourself in credit card debt it can feel like a financial prison.  Suddenly, you can’t go out to eat, pick up a new shirt, or even go to a movie without worrying about the fact that you are increasing your debt or using cash that could have gone to paying down your [...]

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

Don’t Spend Money to Feel Better About Yourself

I happened to be reading a forum for venture capitalists and investment bankers and there was a section for people new to the industry who work in major financial centers such as New York. We’re talking about first year analysts earning between $60,000 and $90,000 including signing bonuses, and, if they are lucky, a $50,000 [...]

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

Why the Chinese Economy Is Destined to Be Bigger than the Economy of the United States

In Surprising Facts About America’s Population, I pointed out that the top 25% of people in China – the gifted students who out-test 3 out of 4 of their classmates – exceeds the entire population of the United States. This raised some concerns about my enthusiasm for the rise of China.  I thought it would [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Secret World of Brooks Brothers

Before I “arrived” as they say, I had no idea how different clothes shopping was for men once they became successful.  Honestly, I never thought much about it but the assumption was that in terms of logistics, it would be just like shopping at Wal-Mart only with better surroundings, better service, higher quality and higher [...]

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

How to Solve the Trade Deficit – Part I

I received a question from a reader named Adam, who asked about the threat the United States trade deficit poses to our long-term financial health. It was an excellent, intelligent, well-articulated question that happened to arrive at the precise moment I was in the mood to talk about such an issue. The result is a [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Coco Chanel Only Owned 10% of Her Business – Intelligent or Stupid?

I am going to start reading several biographies of Coco Chanel before long, so I made a run to a department store today to pick up some Chanel products (I have a habit of wanting tangible representations of whatever I’m studying around the office, which is why we need “investing cabinets”, which contain things like [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The True Test of Greatness Comes in the Heart of Winter

Only in winter do the pine and cypress show they are evergreen. – Confucius points out that all trees are green when times are easy, Spring and Autumn Period When you are managing your business, your life, or money, the true test of your ability and talent will come during the bad times. Have you [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Real National Debt Figures

The chart is incredibly deceptive because it doesn’t factor in that we are running deficits. Thus, the following figures are unsustainable. We bled so much red ink last year that it shows interest on the national debt at only 5% of the budget, yet according to the United States Treasury Department, we paid $383,071,060,815.42 in [...]

from Joshua Kennon

An Evening in the J.C. Penney’s Men’s Department

As promised in Department Store Sales Make Me Really Happy, Aaron and I headed out to J.C. Penney to follow up on the stuff I had mentioned and, sure enough, the sales were spectacular.  It’s clearly a different feel from the regular Nordstrom, Charles Tyrwhitt, and Thomas Pink shopping experiences from my New York days, [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Wholesale Chenille Letters, Patches, and Varsity Jacket Business Launching

A few months back, I told you that we were launching a new division of Mount Olympus Awards called MOA Team Supply.  I explained that we were going after an entirely new market, specifically athletic directors and schools that want to purchase wholesale chenille letters, chenille patches, and even wholesale varsity jackets.  We’ve finally got [...]

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

Misconceptions About Wealth

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 [...]

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

Active vs. Passive Asset Allocation

A large debate has emerged in the money management field on the topic active asset allocation versus passive asset allocation. There are merits to both approaches, but the ultimate determination of what is right for your personal or business asset allocation portfolio is a decision only you can make based on your skills, knowledge, interest, [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Asset Allocation Rebalancing

One of the cornerstones of asset allocation is the concept of rebalancing.  Done correctly, rebalancing forces you to buy certain investments when they are undervalued (cheap) and sell when they are overvalued (expensive).  In effect, it makes the owner of the portfolio a value investor without the need to analyze individual companies.  It can even [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Why Income Inequality Will Always Exist as Part of the Post-Industrial Revolution Global Economy

First: Before we begin, the education system in the United States over the past few decades has done such a poor job teaching basic logic that by virtue of the headline alone, it is statistically likely that you have already made a decision about whether or not this short essay on pay inequality is “good” [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Sin of Sodom and Gomorrah

Discussing the Sin of Sodom at a Family Dinner After we left St. Louis, I stopped by to visit family and spent an afternoon at my grandmother’s house having dinner, discussing politics, and Christianity in general.  The conversation was great and had many of the same topics that the younger generation of Christians have been [...]

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