Scrooge McDuck with Treasure Chest Added to the Collection
A new addition to the Scrooge McDuck collection joined the office today. It was only released in Europe but I liked it so much it had to join our Carl Barks compendium.
Out-of-Wedlock Pregnancies in the United States Hit Crisis Levels, Ranging Between 17% for Asians to 72% for African Americans
According to a new story out by the Associated Press and posted on Yahoo, “Blacks struggle with a 72 percent unwed mothers rate”, the out-of-wedlock pregnancy crisis in the United States has become unfathomable with single mother pregnancies accounting for between 17% of pregnancies in Asians to 72% of pregnancies in African Americans. Why should…
The Collapse of Wachovia – How a Bank with $38 in Book Value Per Share Became Almost Worthless Overnight
Sitting on my desk in front of me, as I type this article, is an analyst report by Morningstar for Wachovia dated December 31st, 2007. This is the bank that was built almost entirely on the foundation of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco in Winston-Salem. At the time, Wachovia common stock had closed at $38.03 and was paying a very rich 6.31% dividend yield. The analysts at Morningstar valued the shares at $61.00, indicating they were nearly 40% undervalued. Within 10 months, those same shares of Wachovia were trading for $1.00 following a catastrophic collapse.
Why Do People Try and Buy Huge Houses They Can’t Afford?
A family member of mine was looking at houses and I started thinking about Charlie Munger when he said it is important to keep a lot of the “silly needs” out of your life. (This particular family member is doing a great job managing his budget, but in general, it made me wonder about society…
Nearly 1 Out of 3 Homeowners Have No Mortgage
According to the Census Bureau’s report (§963 Mortgage Characteristics – Owner Occupied Units), as of 2007 when the most recent data was available, the United States had 75,647,000 owner-occupied households. Of these, 24,885,000 had no mortgage. That is, not a single penny was owed the bank and the homeowner had total equity in the property.…
Credit Card Debt Declines for the 25th Straight Month
The AP had great news about credit card debt today: Consumer borrowing increased in September for the first time since January even though the category that includes credit cards dropped for a record 25th straight month. The rise in credit came from the category that includes student loans. That means that consumer debt rose a…
Social Mobility In the United States
A question about social mobility was posed to me as follows: Do you think that you ever oversimplify the ease of social mobility and financial success? I think that if you’re at least mildly intelligent, hard working, and have a knack for perseverance, your advice is excellent, even life-changing. But I think about some of…
Does Successful Investing Mean You Have to Live Like a Pauper?
A couple of weeks ago, Kwame sent me a question. I’ll paraphrase here: Joshua you made a statement, “The people who continue to compound, like those who end up on the Forbes list, are motivated by building something rather than cash”. Many times I have read about great business people and one thing I hear,…
Mean and Median Household Net Worth By Age
Household net worth is the value of assets such as a house, car, stocks, retirement accounts minus debts, mortgages, credit card debt, etc. The median figure is what matters – it is the point at which half of people are richer than you and half are poorer than you. Mean is meaningless because people like…
Credit Card Debt Isn’t a Problem for Most Americans
Although credit card debt is a relatively new phenomenon, it is the spiritual descendant of consumer debt, which has been around with us forever. Consider the words of the bestselling Napoleon Hill in his book, The Law of Success, which was originally published in 1928 as part of an eight-part series: [mainbodyad] It is a…