Last week was one of leisure travel which is something I haven’t done in a while. The tail end of the trip included a stay in Newport, Rhode Island. It just so happened that Dead & Company was playing about an hour north in Mansfield,
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The Philosophical Investor's Blog
Space, the New Frontier
by 
Gary Carmell
Gary Carmell
Urban locations with great walkability were in great demand…until Covid hit. These locations became far less desirable as congregating was either not allowed in large numbers or people didn’t want to gather together in close quarters for fear of exposing themselves to Covid.
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Timeless Investment Wisdom
by Gary Carmell
Gary Carmell
I recently finished reading The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It definitely has a strong spiritual undertone set in an era when this was sorely lacking (the 1920s and 1930s, although the hard times of that period brought spirituality more to the forefront).
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Afghan Realities and Applications to Planning
by Gary Carmell
Gary Carmell
One of the reasons I am such a big fan of Charlie Munger is that he is ruthlessly realistic. He and Warren Buffett believe that the key to Berkshire Hathaway’s incredible success is that they are built for rationality.
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Back to the Future
by Gary Carmell
Gary Carmell
At the depths of the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009, it was nearly impossible to determine what the right valuation metric was to value apartment investments. Fear was pervasive, people didn’t know if Net Operating Incomes (NOIs) were going to fall off a cliff, lenders were very conservative,
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When is a Step Really a Step?
by Gary Carmell
Gary Carmell
The question is sort of in the same genre of “if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it is it sound?” I’m not going to wrestle with that one publicly. But what I do wonder about now that I have a pedometer and forget to wear it,
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What Is Top of Mind? Housing or Inflation?
by Gary Carmell
Gary Carmell
The answer? See for yourself, is it inflation or housing or both?
If Google Trends are any indication then inflation has been a top-of-mind topic.
CPI – Consumer Price Index
This is not surprising as one has to be a survivalist living far away from civilization and fully self-sufficient to have not been impacted by rising prices and slower delivery and service times.
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The 10 Second Challenge
by Gary Carmell
Gary Carmell
For the past 25 years or so I’ve been interested in what are the high-leverage activities and strategies one can take to improve their health outcomes. I have been particularly interested in what contributes to longevity and quality of life by lessening the chances of disease,
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Labor Market Inflection Point
by Gary Carmell
Gary Carmell
Last week was my 34th anniversary at CWS. I have been so fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with so many wonderful people over all of these years and to be blessed with my amazing partners Steve and Mike.
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The Cost of Verbosity Amplified by Succinct Graphical Displays of A Strongly Improving Apartment Market
by Gary Carmell
Gary Carmell
Mark Twain once said, “I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote a long one.”
When writing (and speaking) it’s fairly easy to let the words flow without much regard to precisely communicating. If one gets into a stream of consciousness state it can be helpful for the writer and speaker to release what’s welling up inside but this may not be what’s best for the reader or listener in terms of communicating clearly,
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