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The Cardinal Investing Sin
Recessions are necessary to clear out the excesses. They are part of the growth cycle. They make sure that our savings get re-channeled into the right investments. They cause pain. They are supposed to cause…
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Truly Tax Free
What if there exists an account to which you contribute money to pre-tax, invest and let the money grow tax-free and then spend that money tax-free? This looks like a fantasy setup but it is…
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Stocks, Bonds, Bills & Inflation
You want to feel inflation? Try visiting a country like India every other year. I mean you are gone for a while, but you only remember the prices of the past. Then you go there…
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Nobody Wants To Get Rich Slow
My daughter has an investment account that she funds with the money she earns. We talk about investments but I leave the investing to her. I want her to learn on her own. I want…
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Creative Destruction
Up until the 1890s, horses and buggies ruled the land. There were incremental innovations within that ecosystem but nothing transformative. Then Henry Ford came along with the Model-T car and the buggies were history. Gutenberg’s invention of…
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Commodities Are Never Investments
Investing is like planting a tree. You put in the effort once and then the fruits keep on coming. That is akin to buying stocks. Dividends are the fruits, and the tree is the business…
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Spotting Asset Bubbles
JFK‘s father, Joseph “Joe” Kennedy, exited the stock market right before the 1929 crash when he heard his shoeshine boy give stock advice. He figured that if a shoeshine boy is giving him a rundown on…
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The Economic Value Chain
Abraham Maslow describes in his groundbreaking 1943 paper a pyramid of needs that must be met in more or less a sequence before human beings can realize their full potential. Food, clothing, and shelter form the base of…
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Freeze Your Credit
Your identity will never be stolen – until it does. And once your thing is out there, it becomes a mess. You thought you cleaned it up and then it pops up again. Millions fall…
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Risk & Return
Treasury bonds are issued by the Federal government. Bonds with a maturity of one year or less are called Treasury bills but they are still bonds. So, say the year is 1999 when a one-year…