Joshua Kennon is a Managing Director of
Kennon-Green & Co., a private asset management firm specializing in global value investing for affluent and high net worth individuals, families, and institutions. Nothing in this article or on this site, which is Mr. Kennon's personal blog, is intended to be, nor should it be construed as, investment advice, a recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell a security or securities. Investing can result in losses, sometimes significant losses. Prior to taking any action involving your finances or portfolio, you should consult with your own qualified professional advisor(s), such as an investment advisor, tax specialist, and/or attorney, who can help you consider your unique needs, circumstances, risk tolerance, and other relevant factors.
Towards the back of the most recent General Electric annual report is an interesting graph. It shows what an investor would have experienced by putting $100 into three different investments: GE shares, the S&P 500, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It assumes that dividends were reinvested in each respective investment when they were distributed. How were you rewarded for six years of patient investing, assuming you added no fresh cash outside of the dividend reinvestment? Take a look.
I am going to give you a brief economics lesson in a few short minutes. Economists like to make things hard but for those of you wanting to know why Greece, and the Euro, continues to be such a problem for the world, here is a breakdown. It isn’t nearly as difficult as you might…
On this site, we talk a lot about how to play offense in the game of building wealth – investing in assets that generate cash, increasing your skill set so you can charge a higher price for your time, starting or acquiring businesses that throw off profits – but today I want to talk about an…
The world is full of hard businesses like steel mills. As a general rule, it is best to avoid them if you want to make a lot of money given that they tend to involve more risk due to lower returns on capital, weaker balance sheets, higher indebtedness, and a host of other factors.
Shortly after high school and during college, I found myself having to travel often. A family member who had experienced almost every airline, large and small, traveling as part of a successful medical career, recommended a small regional carrier called Midwest Airlines. Not only did they offer fewer passengers per flight by having two leather…
I have been hearing a lot of grumbling lately from friends and fellow gamers about the cost of video games. The economist in me cringes when an otherwise rational person jumps into a diatribe on the state of video game pricing and the various console wars because it reminds me of those people who insist that gas is at an all-time high, even when the inflation-adjusted cost of traveling one mile is less than it was in the 1950s. Listening to it makes me realize how thoroughly our education system has failed at producing rational, informed citizens capable of competing in the information age where knowledge is power.
How Many People Earn More than $1,000,000 Per Year In the United States? This mail bag question deals with a sub-specialty of the top 1%; those earning more than $1,000,000 per year, or $83,333 per month, often in the form of dividends, interest, and rents. How many people earn more than $1 million a year…
This is one of the most fascinating things I’ve ever seen … there are people who can’t recognize faces; even their own, or their children. They think as many as 1 in 50 people suffer from it, but just like color blindness, it never occurs to them that they are different unless they have to…
As I’ve explained in my two bucket theory, time is one of the most important, if not the most important, commodity you have. To a large extent, your life represents how you’ve invested your time thus far. Whether you are rich or poor, in shape or overweight, successful or a failure, well put together or a…
Each of us has a brain chemistry baseline that is part of our genetics. Some people are naturally content most of the time. Others are miserable no matter how well their life is going. No one ever tells the people in the latter category how to function.
