I’ve long preferred real estate over financial assets. The 2008 crisis taught me a lot of lessons about real estate investing. Most of them were expensive. But, hey, education is worth paying for. However, unlike that last financial crisis over a decade ago, the current COVID crisis doesn’t have at its core a connection to…
Something big has recently happened. And not many people are talking about it. Like companies and individuals, even federal governments sometimes need to borrow money. They borrow money by issuing what’s called a Government bond. These bonds, like all loans, have an interest rate associated with them; a bond’s interest rate is referred to as…
This post is part of a series with the same theme: letters addressed to my younger self. These letters, written by an “older me,” would have helped me navigate some of the rough waters I faced during various phases of my life. They would’ve also helped me when I was faced with difficult decisions. Through…
The last decade has taught me many lessons about real estate. Like many, I experienced what appeared to be an unstoppable freight train of real estate values that peaked in 2007, collapsed in 2008, and rebounded with a vengeance over the past few years. Now that this is all behind us, we can assess lessons…
It’s hard to review any financial or technology-related media outlet these days without being bombarded by references to BitCoin, the digital currency that seems to have taken the world by storm over the past 6-12 months. BitCoin poses a pretty substantial challenge to business people: it requires sufficient understanding of computer science to appreciate its…
This podcast is dedicated to my children. It consists of a series of letters from my current, older self addressed to my younger self. These letters would have helped me navigate some of the rough waters I faced during various phases of my life and when I was faced with difficult decisions. Through these letters, I hope to impart some of my admittedly limited experience on my two wonderful children and, eventually, on their children.
This first letter is On Accumulating Things.
I’m honored that, for some time now, my friends and colleagues have come to me for career advice and guidance. It’s actually been quite a responsibility to hold. Topics have been everything from personal job fit to long-term career planning to deciding about accepting a new position. Fortunately for me, they haven’t sued me yet…
Let me start by saying that this post will likely cause some serious eye-glazing for many of you. If you have no clue what your net worth is and don’t really care, you likely shouldn’t waste much more of your time :-). OK, now let me address the remaining three of you :-). You…
Yes, as crazy as it sounds, I used the phrase “real estate bubble” to describe a market that only a few years ago experienced a most devastating deflationary crash. Could it happen again? Absolutely. With large investors laden with cash (that has been easily accessible due to very low government-regulated interest rates), lots of pent-up…
Continuing to watch this: with the S&P at 1,592 and gold at $1,292 (a 1.23x ratio), we’re much closer to the “even if” scenario discussed here. It’s Different This Time: What Gold Can Tell Us About the Stock Market.
Against the Herd 