Investing is the process of putting aside money today in exchange for more money in the future. This process involves risk but, when well managed, can help grow your wealth over time due to the power of compounding. This is the investing archive that includes articles published on JoshuaKennon.com. If you are looking for more great content, visit Joshua’s Investing for Beginners site at About.com, a division of The New York Times.

Kennon-Green & Co. Global Asset Management, Wealth Management, and Investment Advisory

McDonald's Black and White Burger Taipei

The Black and White Burgers of McDonald’s Taipei

Long story short, I’ve been looking into Taipei for various reasons and, in the process, discovered that McDonald’s serves limited edition White and Black burgers there.  Besides the fact it warms this American’s heart to know that I’m collecting New Taipei dollars (McDonald’s dividend day was last week and, with the exception of my two sisters, I have practically every member of my family holding shares somewhere, so the deposit is fresh on my mind as I saw it come in across the accounts), I would very much like to try these out of sheer curiosity.

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Nespresso Coffee Flavors

It’s Nestlé Dividend Day for American Stockholders!

Good morning, fellow Nestlé stockholders!  It’s that magical day of the year when the annual dividend gets paid out to American owners (or, technically, those who have opted to buy the ADR).  While those of you who hold your shares of Nestlé through Switzerland directly got your 2.15 CHF per share dividend on April 17th, those of you who opt for the Nestlé ADR traded here in the United States (which is likely most of you) get your dividends today!

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Chris Browne

Famed Value Investor Christopher Browne’s Estate Becomes Most Expensive Home In American History At $145,000,000

One of the most famous value investors of the past 100 years was a man named Christopher H. Browne.  His father started a small firm, Tweedy, Browne & Company, that was Benjamin Graham’s stockbroker.  It was through Tweedy Browne that Warren Buffett bought his personal shares of Berkshire Hathaway, taking control of the textile mill he would…

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AIG Diversification

What AIG Can Teach Investors About Diversification

Imagine that back in 2007, you had $3,000,000 to invest on behalf of a private family investment partnership you were running.  You decide to split this into three different companies.  One of these was AIG, the insurance conglomerate. AIG shares fell from a high of $1,459.00 each to $6.60.  The Board of Directors had to do a 20-1 reverse stock split to keep the thing from trading for less than the value of bottle caps.  

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Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway Stockholder Letter Commentary

Warren Buffett Hints That Berkshire Hathaway Shares Are Cheap In Stockholder Letter

I’m taking it as a given that practically everyone who reads this site has already gone through Warren Buffett’s stockholder letter, which Berkshire Hathaway released today. Personally, I love how, for only the third or fourth time in his career, Buffett essentially provides enough mathematical evidence to say to people, “You’re a moron for not buying Berkshire Hathaway at these prices, but I’ll never come right out and say it.”  He did it in sort of a clever way, too, to encourage people to run the figures.

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Ben Graham Investing

A Century Later, Ben Graham Still Seems Like a Prophet

The Wall Street Journal had a recent story detailing the trend of small investors jumping back into stocks, some trading options and futures.  I’m old enough now, combined with twin quirks of being interested in finance at such a young age and having my lifespan line up with some interesting times in the capital markets, that I’ve watched this play out three times.  At this point, you’d think it would lose its novelty but I still find my mouth dropping open and my head shaking in disbelief, mixed in with a bit of sadness.  Reading what people are doing with their hard earned money – money that they exchanged for part of their life by selling time that could have been used traveling, reading, painting, or hanging out on the beach – doesn’t compute.  If you took $5 out of their wallet, they’d throw a fit, but they’ll gamble $5,000 on something they barely understand.

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Eli Lilly and the Insanity of Foreign Taxes

Eli Lilly and the Insanity of Foreign Taxes

I’m going through the corporate bond filings of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly just out of curiosity.  They have a huge patent cliff coming up, during which time as much as 40% of their revenue base will be exposed to generic competition.  I wondered what it would do to the risk metrics on the senior bonds so I pulled the Moody’s rating and reading over the figures as I listen to an old 1970s song called Snookeroo.

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Kennon-Green & Co. Global Asset Management, Wealth Management, and Investment Advisory