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.
I spent a big percentage of my day reading indenture documents for corporate debt securities because I was helping someone pick up some additional fixed income investments for a retirement portfolio. I managed to get my hands on a nice block of high-grade, non-callable debentures from a major packaged foods company with a 4.3% yield-to-maturity on the remaining decade before maturity, but still have a bit of their dry powder left to spend.
Read more
This is, without a doubt, one of the simplest, coolest, most useful investment tools I’ve ever come across on the Internet. Enter a ticker symbol and – Bam! – the records for the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and divided into their own boxes, separating financials such as the 10-K and 10-Q…
Read more
One of you, writing under the name Emma, posed a question in the comments section of another post. You asked me whether or not I thought a firm like Coca-Cola could repeat its historical performance. Rather than answer the question directly, I realized this would be a great opportunity to explain the variables that drive…
Read more
I’ve been setting up custodial accounts such as UTMAs, looking at dividend reinvestment plans, and more for the past few days.
Read more
Imagine that you have a new neighbor. We’ll call him Rod Smith. One day, he shows you his portfolio. He has a little over $1,000,000 in common stocks. “I have this great idea!”, he tells you, excitedly. “I decided to buy a list of companies I like and pick up around 421 shares of each.…
Read more
This is one of those inside-baseball questions that the serious, more-than-part-time investors out there will probably enjoy. Hi, Joshua. I could read your blog all day. Thanks for everything that you do. When I read your commentary on payout ratios, it seems to focus on EPS payout ratio, or dividend coverage. I don’t understand why you don’t…
Read more
On an earlier post about the new Disney MyMagic+ program, which discussed capital budgeting from the investor’s perspective, there was a question left in the comments by Donald Pato about money market funds and money market accounts. I couldn’t fit my response in the comments box, so I am writing it as a stand-alone post…
Read more
I put in and order on Saturday to buy a few more shares of Nestlé SA on Monday for my family’s personal accounts. I spent much of the weekend reading the company’s 125th anniversary biography and studying the original balance sheets and income statements of the firms that went into forming one of the world’s most profitable holding companies.
Read more
A short documentary has been released called Bankrupt by Beanie Babies that details the loss of $100,000 by one family during the 1990s craze. Aaron just sent me the story, with a short note that read something like, “It’s sad because they should have applied to become a wholesale dealer and owned a shop.”
Read more
I spent the past few days updating some of my own internal case studies, spreadsheets, and other documents, as well as wrapping up a few things that needed to be crossed off the agenda for the private businesses. I ended up putting together a collection of visual references covering some of the long-term holdings I keep for my household, among them Nestlé SA following my post on Monday.
Read more