You may be familiar with Ronald Read’s story. It’s a story worth telling over and over and over again to anyone you know. My father in law Dick Young wrote in May 2015: Hard to even comprehend, but this great story, courtesy the WSJ‘s Anna Prior, recounts how Ronald Read accumulated an estate valued at almost $8 million. Mr. Read, who passed away at the age of 92, made a modest living pumping gas for many years at a Gulf gas station in Brattleboro, Vermont. A Five-Inch Stack of Stock Certificates How did Ronald Read manage to become a multi-millionaire? Mr. Read invested in dividend-paying … [Read more...]

If you’ve been with me during this crisis, then chances are your investments are in good shape. I can’t guarantee it, but I can guarantee you’re smiling inside when someone asks how your portfolio is doing. We all know the guy who tells you he sold at the top and waited out the bottom. That guy, however, still has to figure out when to get back in (if he was ever in, to begin with). As far as I’m concerned, he would have been better off collecting dividends and reinvesting them at lower prices and perhaps picking up some cheap, high-income bonds. It’s because of times like these that you’re … [Read more...]

You really can’t make this up. Rather than admitting that they've spent years making the wrong assumptions, and underfunding the pensions of California public workers, CalPERS pension fund managers seem hell-bent on driving the fund off a cliff to save their jobs. In the Wall Street Journal, Ben Meng, chief investment officer of Calpers, does his best to explain why the fund is taking on a load of leverage to fund its overpromised goals. He writes: Yet even before the pandemic, we knew that our goal of achieving a risk-adjusted return of 7% would require addressing the market’s triple … [Read more...]

Coronavirus Infects Stock Market: Part LVIII How are you doing this morning? Hopefully, you’re not too shell shocked. If you are, then you’re not alone. A study by Fidelity Investments finds that close to one-third of investors over the age of 65 sold their stocks during the coronavirus meltdown reports The WSJ. Like a broken record, money managers tsk, tsk, tsk the sellers saying “hold your stocks for the long-term.” Well, that’s fine and good if you’re in your thirties, but a bit more difficult when you’re over 65. A prospective client wants to consolidate her assets with us mainly … [Read more...]

Coronavirus Infects Stock Market: Part LVI “Requests for driving directions on Apple Inc.’s Maps app are back around mid January levels, while data from Dutch location technology firm TomTom International BV show traffic congestion gradually climbing in some late U.S. cities, though it is still down substantially from March levels in many,” reports the WSJ. But after this weekend’s riots, who is in a rush to visit a city? The future of the city is on the rocks. Blue state governors and mayors have gone wild. They’re a fiscal mess. Consider the self-inflicted wreckage of mismanaged … [Read more...]

It was a typical Sunday morning. The kids were up early, shows had been watched, books read to them, and pancakes eaten. Standing up with a cup of coffee, looking out at the backyard full of leaves and sticks, I thought to myself: “I could easily let the morning go and forget about the yard. Or, I could get the job done in a couple hours and perhaps catch some of the Pats game.” As I was tying my boots, I felt them staring down at me. One of them asked, “What are you doing?” “I’m going to rake the yard. It won’t take long.” I said. “Can we help?” they asked. “Maybe you can come out … [Read more...]

You now have yet another reason to consolidate your assets with my favored Fidelity Investments: Fidelity takes protecting your most valuable financial information seriously. Yesterday, it was announced that Fidelity is spinning off software start-up Akoya, a platform that gives customers more control over how their bank-account information is shared. Without a service like Akoya, apps can scrape your account gaining access to information you may wish to keep private. “The platform,” explains Justin Baer in the WSJ, “aims to put an end to ‘screen scraping,’ the process where the app … [Read more...]

If you didn’t read about the massive fund controlled by the Mormon Church, you will. With 16,000 plus members tithing 10% of their earnings, the fund has amassed a $100 billion fortune—a cash-generating behemoth that would make Warren Buffett blush. Roger Clarke, the head of the investment fund Ensign Peak that controls the church’s money, used to be a professor at Brigham Young University, reports Ian Lovett and Rachael Levy for the WSJ. He was running an investment firm in Los Angeles when he got the call. “It certainly wasn’t the most attractive financial office,” Mr. Clarke said. “But … [Read more...]