A few years ago I did 23andMe. I was not only curious about my ancestry but what medical risks might be present based on my DNA. Fortunately, I don’t appear to be predisposed to any serious ailments. Over the course of its many years in business,
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The Philosophical Investor's Blog
The Hard Truth for your Children - Build up Your Soft Skills
by 
Gary Carmell
Gary Carmell
There is no doubt that technological innovation has automated more tasks and this will only become more pronounced with the greater use of artificial intelligence and robotics. This has created a greater demand for workers who have “soft” skills since routine job tasks are becoming more automated or commoditized.
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Liberating our Minds - Thoughts about 9/11 and Covid-19
by Gary Carmell
Gary Carmell
With the 20th anniversary of September 11 just having passed I felt compelled to make a reference to it in this post. What I find interesting is that after the Twin Towers and Pentagon were attacked and over 3,000 people were killed on American soil,
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Dead, Alive, Vigor and Vitality - Learning from Bob Weir
by Gary Carmell
Gary Carmell
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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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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