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.
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…
I’m putting together a retirement portfolio for several people I know. One of them is proving to be a fun intellectual exercise. Essentially, the mandate calls for me creating a ghost ship of a portfolio that, once it has set sail, will drift almost untouched for the next 30+ years when it will be gifted to the children at the end of the life expectancy of the owner. Beginning in 7 to 10 years, the owner will start taking 3% to 4% distributions to augment an otherwise secure retirement. The portfolio is to be allocated 70% to a collection of 70 to 100 blue chip stocks, 25% to high-grade bonds, and 5% to cash or cash equivalents.
It’s been a long time since I’ve talked really about Nestlé SA other than mentioning it in passing last week. It was on my mind this morning, so I wanted to revisit it and talk about the business.
It is a common mistake for inexperienced investors to look at the realized or unrealized gains or losses reported by their broker, using it as a proxy for economic reality. Total return, particularly on an after-tax basis, can be wildly different. Here is one real-world illustration of how the difference may arise.
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.
The Executives at Edward Jones Should Feel Humiliated About Their Mutual Fund Practices Trust departments, trust companies, and money management firms provide a valuable service to the civilization. For centuries, men and women who had built up a nest egg could go down to their local branch, meet with the bank, and sign a contract…
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!
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…
One of the projects on my personal study plate is examining the various business models of multi-level marketing systems that rely, in part, on referral businesses paying tiered levels of commissions on sub-distributorships brought into the enterprise by existing dealers; companies like Amway, Mary Kay, and Herbalife.
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.
