Jeremy wanted to know what I thought of a specific business but I think it’s more important to talk about how I think about businesses in general. Here’s a rundown of what I see when a company’s annual report lands on my desk.
You can tell what I’m studying because I become completely, totally, hopelessly obsessed with it; the recent posts about the structure of the bottlers, the biographies of past executives, the SEC disclosures, the look inside the factories, the custodial trusts for the nieces and nephews and the DRIP for my sister, the discussion of deferred taxes as a way to leverage investment returns without debt, and now, even the Christmas tree. It’s always Coca-Cola.
In the late 19th century, a man named Benjamin Franklin Thomas decided he wanted to be rich. He became obsessed with business, investing, and finding a single opportunity that would set him up for life, allowing him to live off his capital. According to Constance L. Hays in her book The Real Thing: Truth and Power…
For the past hour, my mind has been on the power of some businesses to capture annuity streams that pay dividends for years, even decades or generations, with very little additional work. When you can get one of these in your portfolio, they pump out wealth as long as you update them every once in a while. They are the closest thing to geese laying golden eggs that exist outside of fairy tales.
Jack MacDonald was a frugal attorney who wanted to build a big net worth to give to charity. He quietly amassed a $188+ million fortune investing in stocks.
Mozart penned one of his greatest symphonies as a result of dire financial need – something he wouldn’t have had to if he would have humbled himself and admitted that someone he considered evil, Voltaire, had something to teach him when it came to wealth management.
We talked about theft a couple of years ago but it’s on my mind, again. I still struggle to come to terms with it, despite overwhelming, conclusive evidence that it is true: A small percentage of the population will steal, simply if given the opportunity. They won’t even need the stuff. They may not even want…
I’ve watched in fascination over the past couple of years as German conglomerate Joh. A Benckiser has been quietly buying up the world’s leading coffee brands, acquiring Caribou Coffee for $340 million, Peet’s Coffee & Tea for $974 million, and my personal obsession, Douwe Egberts for $9.8 billion, among others. The firm is the personal holding company of…
Correlated risks that aren’t apparent at first glance can be some of the most dangerous risks to your business or investment portfolio because you haven’t adequately prepared for something to go wrong. That is why I so often mention correlated risk so that you don’t think you’re more diversified than you are in reality.
As fate would have it, around the same time my family decided to start a week of Italian cooking two days ago, kicking it off with a remake of one our favorite Marcella Hazan recipes and vowing to go through more of her cookbooks, the legendary author had passed away in her Longboat Key, Florida home.…
