The inspiration for today’s missive comes from Nick Murray’s incomparable industry newsletter. Last month, the Wall Street Journal’s Luxury Homes Section ran an interesting article: “Groucho Marx’s Onetime Long Island Home Hits the Market for $2.3 Million” The star paid $27,000 for the property in Great Neck on New York’s Long Island, in 1926. He lived there until 1931. Marx, previously a city dweller, had difficulty adjusting to the suburbs. He said, “I am becoming well versed in the four topics of conversation, which are of paramount importance in a small community, i.e., domestic help, golf, bridge, and the trappings of mice.” Sounds kind of …
Investing
The Road to ‘Average is Bumpy.
After two posts about spending, specifically spending for joy, I’m back to my regularly scheduled programming: Save, Invest, Repeat. Today, we talk about stock market ‘averages’. Stocks, also known as equities, are the growth engines of investment portfolios. The S&P 500 is a group of stocks from the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the United States. It includes companies you’ve surely heard of such as Apple, Amazon, Tesla, and Berkshire Hathaway (aka Warren Buffett). It also includes companies you’ve likely never heard of such as Cummins, Inc. a company that makes “diesel, natural gas, electric and hybrid powertrains and powertrain-related components” …
Four Years Later – Micro Investing with Acorns
Four years ago, I wrote about my lifelong passion (some would say obsession) for spare change. This dates back to counting the spare change and “egg money” in my grandmother’s chipped gravy boat in the 70’s. Today, this is the spare change stash in my office: But here in the 21st century, I don’t have too many cash transactions, and therefore not a lot of physical spare change. Enter the micro investing app Acorns* which invests your digital spare change. Four years ago, I signed up for Acorns and linked my checking account. The checking account is my “funding source”. Then I linked my credit card. You can link more than one card including debit …
Markets Have the Worst First Half of a Year in Decades – now what?
Do you remember Paul Harvey? If you don’t remember life before the internet skip this paragraph. But those of a certain age may remember his daily radio program – at the end of each broadcast he would say in his distinctive radio voice: “And now you know…the rest of the story”. Earlier this month you likely saw the headlines: The first six months of 2022 saw the S&P 500 decline 21%. The S&P 500 is a group of the 500 largest stocks in the United States. The last time the S&P 500 fell this much in the first half of the year was over 50 years ago, in 1970, shown here: What do you think happened in the second half of …
When You Think About Investing, Don’t Think About The News
Today’s newsletter features a great article in the NYT by financial columnist Jeff Sommer. The news and images coming out of Ukraine are horrifying and my heart aches for the millions impacted by Russia’s aggression. It is difficult to imagine what they are going through. The article begins: The worse the news, the less you should think about it. No, that's not a good guide to life. but shutting out the din of current events is a reasonable approach when investing. Sommer speaks with Richard Thaler, a Nobel Prize winning economist who pioneered the study of behavioral economics. Follow the news, of course, and let your emotions flow. But don't let them affect …
