Many great founders have started companies after an annoying experience. Netflix’s lightbulb moment began with founder Reed Hastings waiting in line at Blockbuster to pay $40 after losing Apollo 13. For Doug Hirsch, co-founder of GoodRx, it was a $450 prescription back in 2010–years earlier he followed his parents’ advice on getting a job with…
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Financial Broccoli
Kellogg tells you their cereal is natural and has whole grains. There are no broccoli lobbyists or marketers (other than moms). Some good things do need reminders. One trigger for some of my favorite healthcare and financial housekeeping tips starts with a fresh door: a new job. Switching Jobs Over a 10 year period, an…
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Valuing a Piece of Americana
Baseball cards are part of Americana. The slotted binders, stats, and bike rides to shops evoke nostalgia too. The investment merit of cards fit is another question. An index of the rarest of cards may have outperformed the S&P 500 by 2.3x over the last 10 years but that’s a small niche with gated access….
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Arbitrage and the Advice We Give
In March the gap between London and New York gold prices jumped to $60 per ounce, 40 times the typical spread of $1.50 per ounce. In times of fear, investors prefer to have their gold in New York. These extreme arbitrage opportunities have short windows. Arbitrage is one of my favorite words and economic ideas….
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When Simple Financial Products Win
Index investing is one of the greatest growth stories in finance. Indexing is a form of passive investing, a simple strategy–basically long-term autopilot. Why try to beat the S&P 500 when you can match it? Even Warren Buffett recommends it for others. Today, passive strategies control trillions of dollars. A segment of passive, target-date funds…
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