Category Archives: General Investing

Tim Urban in one of his posts, The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence, attempts to measure the accelerating rate of human progress through something called the Death Progress Units (DPU). Take George Washington for example, our first president and likely a very curious dude from the mid-eighteenth century and say we transport him to today. But imagine hisContinue reading “Reinvesting Dividends Sets You Free”

Johnny Depp was once the highest paid actor with a net worth of $650 million1. In 2017, he filed a lawsuit against his business managers accusing them of stealing all his wealth and leaving him penniless. His managers countersued claiming that Depp spent $2 million a month maintaining his lavish lifestyle that included spending $500,000Continue reading “Investing Your Retirement Savings”

You know the end of working for a paycheck is coming but when you are in your 20s, that end seems so far that it might not as well come. Plus, life has a way of getting in the way. But then you wake up one day when you are 45 and you start toContinue reading “Never Too Late”

I get to listen to the radio sometimes and I still find (unfortunately) a plethora of shows where people call in to ask whether a given stock is a buy, sell, or hold. So, think about this. You call into a radio show to talk to a stranger, okay a professional stranger, who knows nothingContinue reading “Technical Analysis Is For Suckers”

I wish we would see a day when a majority women are at the helm of our businesses and the markets. I wish child-rearing, toddler-totting mothers someday rule Wall Street and investment houses across the globe. Consider me biased being a dad to two beautiful daughters but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that corroboratesContinue reading “Women Make Better Investors”

The stock and the bond markets are the most efficient places to invest your savings. Owning stocks means owning pieces of businesses while owning bonds means becoming a lender to the same businesses or sometimes to the governments. In case a business goes bankrupt, the bondholders get paid first before the stockholders get anything. ButContinue reading “Most Mistakes Happen In The Tails”

Ralph Wagner, the legendary manager of the Acorn Fund, once likened the stock market to an excitable dog on a long leash in New York City, darting randomly in every direction. The dog’s owner is walking from Columbus Circle through Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum. But at any given moment, there is no predictingContinue reading “Price vs. Value”

A business makes capital allocation decisions such as expanding a factory or investing in new tech with the intent of recouping that investment over a timeframe that spans years and decades. Not all capital allocation decisions pan out but the process that is followed is with the intent of getting as high a return onContinue reading “A Bias Towards Inaction”

Let me introduce you to Jason. He retires in the year 1969 with today’s equivalent of a million dollars. That is, he retires with an amount of money that has the same purchasing power as what million dollars buys today. And he knows a thing or two about the ravages of inflation and hence, toContinue reading “Sometimes, The Year You Retire Can Make A World Of Difference”

Say you decide to play blackjack with a friend, and you play to a point where one of you wins everything from the other. And say the game starts with $100 from you and another $100 from your friend and ends when either of you goes home with $200. The net wealth in the systemContinue reading “Positive-Sum Games”