[mainbodyad] With all of the talk of gas prices falling, I’m reminded of the situation a couple of years ago when fuel costs were on an upward trajectory. Everyone from the little old ladies at church to major economic commentators were lamenting the “record high” energy expenses. Very few people noticed that, as per the U.S. Energy Information…
As we approach the end of 2014, I’m looking back on the year. One of the major changes from an investing perspective what a modification Aaron and I made in the investment policy manual. That doesn’t happen often. We added a handful of companies to the list of permanent business; those companies we consider so…
One of the things that has stuck with me, and I’ve been contemplating for the past twenty-four hours, is the passage on alienability of beneficiary’s interest, particularly as in regard to spendthrift trusts.
Are you in the mood for a case study resource for your own investment policy manual? If so, brace yourself because this one is heartbreaking. You can learn a lot from it, and save your own family a great deal of tragedy, but it’s going to involve surveying the ruins of the lives of others…
Imagine you have a policy with an insurance company. This insurance company is mutually run, which means there are no stockholders. Instead, the policyholders own the business and the enterprise is managed to give policyholders the best service, at the lowest possible price, as a cooperative undertaking. Now, imagine that one day, the policyholders’ representatives decide they want the business to become a for-profit corporation.
It’s no secret that most wealth in the United States is so-called stealth wealth. We now live in a country where roughly 1 in 5 families earns six-figures a year or more, which most people wouldn’t believe, and for those who put aside money, something like 80%+ of millionaires hide their net worth from friends and…
From time to time, I get messages from business owners or entrepreneurs who are discouraged and upset. Their family, friends, colleagues, bank officers, or suppliers don’t believe in what they are trying to do and they take it personally. This afternoon, as I sat in a McDonald’s restaurant having coffee and revisiting an excellent book called McDonald’s Behind the Arches that details the historical rise of one of the world’s largest real estate portfolio masquerading as a hamburger chain, I was reminded of a story I first read back in college that I think has a lot of powerful lessons.
Estee Lauder couldn’t get an ad agency to accept her company as a client because her budget was too small. Facing rejection after rejection, she decided to take the $50,000 she had set aside for marketing and try something new. Undeterred by the endless stream of “no”, she mailed direct samples to consumers, launched a virtually…
I mentioned yesterday in the post about Japanese Gyoza that we had seen Maleficent twice this week in theaters. With time to reflect on the film, I keep coming back to the economic power of certain types of enterprises. It reminds me of a story from a speech Warren Buffett gave two decades ago to…
Often your best investment opportunities are staring you right in the face based on situational knowledge you have due to your physical location, career, or network; things that other consumers and capital allocators don’t, yet, realize.
