Kennon-Green & Co. Global Asset Management, Wealth Management, Investment Advisory, and Value Investing
Apr192013
BP Gas Station in Chicago

The Oil Tankers Are On Their Way

Cool Stuff, Stocks4 Comments

One of the tricks I use to think of the stocks I hold as real businesses, just like the operating companies we own, is to get a physical representation of the firm, putting it in an investment cabinet.  Now that I am building a 25-year energy portfolio as a personal side project for my household, I already have replica die cast oil tankers on their way from retailers and eBay.  I’m having a hard time finding a comparable quality Total SA tanker, if they are even manufactured.

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Apr182013
Energy, Oil, Natural Gas, Pipelines, Refining, Coal and Timber Investments Header

Energy, Oil, Natural Gas, Pipelines, Refining, Coal and Timber

Asset Allocation, Portfolio Management32 Comments

One of the ways I manage my life is to sit in a room several times a year, staring off into the distance, and trying to imagine 5, 10, 15, 20, 30+ years in the future.  I ask myself what things I wish I had done when I was younger, what things I would have wanted to avoid, what risks I would have wanted to take, and what experiences I would have wanted to have. A topic that has come up several times during these exercises is the concept of energy assets.  A portfolio of energy assets is fundamentally different in nature than almost any other security, business, or holding.

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Apr172013
Life in the United States

You Wouldn’t Realize How Amazing Life Is in the United States By the Media Coverage

Economics9 Comments

I’ve been thinking about life in the United States.  We are a massive nation that generates $15 trillion in wealth every year.  We have consolidated assets (personal, corporate, and government) of more than $200 trillion.  Our natural resources are abundant.  Our military power immense.   Going further, take a moment to consider the following: The S&P…

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Apr32013
Mail Bag Question for Joshua Kennon Header

Mail Bag: Return Assumptions in Your About.com Articles

Mail Bag94 Comments

All morning long, I’ve been getting letters in the inbox about my “latest” article at Investing for Beginners. I have no idea what they are talking about because the article in question, which isn’t even an article, it is a “quick tip” template that was meant as a side bar to another piece, was published years ago and has not been featured anywhere on either of sites.

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Mar302013
TreasuryDirect

If You Are Sitting on a Huge Pile of Cash, There Is Only One Place to Park It (and It Is Not In a Bank)

Treasury Bills, Bonds and Notes13 Comments

For the past day, I’ve been thinking about a 65 year old man named John Demetriou.  He was from Cyprus, but moved to Australia, where he spent 35 years working “days, nights and weekends in Sydney markets selling jewellery and imitation jewellery” according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Wanting to be in his home country, and…

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Mar292013
An Academic Example of Cash Flow Differing from Reported Earnings - McDonald's Corporation

A Quick Cash Flow Statement Lesson – A Look at How McDonald’s Real Payout Ratio Is 110%, Not 54% As First Appears

Accounting & Finance, Stocks2 Comments

McDonald’s is one of those businesses that I love.  The last time we talked about it was when I wrote the 25 Year Investment Case Study of McDonald’s, and showed how you could have turned $100,000 into anywhere between $1,839,033 and $5,547,089 depending on how you handled dividend reinvestment and the Chipotle split-off back in 2006, and the sorely lacking media coverage of McDonald’s results in February.  No matter which way you look at it, despite periods of overvaluation and undervaluation, alternating with the underlying performance and the emotional moods of shareholders, McDonald’s has been a fantastic company.  It makes its employees and shareholders a lot of money.  It gives society something it wants, whether that be a plain salad with side of fresh fruit and a non-sweetened iced tea or a double cheeseburger with french fries and a Coca-Cola.

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