The Philosophical Investor's Blog

The Boss (not Bruce Springsteen)

George Steinbrenner

In 1973 George Steinbrenner paid $8.7 million for the New York Yankee’s a team that’s currently worth over $4 billion and in second place.

Usually, when sports teams trade they are often for eye-popping prices which seem hard to justify at the time, yet years later the purchasers always seem to be vindicated.

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Why I'm Writing The Book: The Philosophical Investor

Why I'm Writing a Book[Updated March 11, 2015]

“We should write because writing brings clarity and passion to the act of living. writing is sensual, experiential, grounding. We should write because writing is good for the soul. We should write because writing yields us a body of work, a felt path through the world we live in.”

― Julie Cameron

Writing is one of my greatest pleasures.

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How to Unify Countries - The Power of Sports

Unify Gary with Tribal Leader

With the World Cup having been completed this past weekend I thought I would tap into some interesting research about soccer and its ability to unify countries that are typically very tribal and fractious. I saw some of this firsthand during my recent trip to Africa where it was pretty evident that tribalism is very much alive and well.

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The Benefits of Being Swindled - Ulysses S. Grant and Leonard Cohen

swindled

“In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins.”

-Ulysses S. Grant

“When things get really bad, just raise your glass and stamp your feet and do a little jig.

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The Only Way Out Is Through - Lessons From Africa Applied at The Dead & Company Concert

There is a line from a Grateful Dead song that says:

I remember on our recent long sojourn to Africa and Asia there were a number of days when we are out on excursions and it was oppressively hot. The temperatures were close to 100° and the humidity was well over 50%.

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Creating Gifts that Keep on Giving

Gifts making Memories

35 years ago on the night of June 27th, a friend of mine and I slept on very uncomfortable concrete outside of Dane County Coliseum in Madison, Wisconsin. The catalyst for this was fear of missing out as we were intent on doing our best to position ourselves to secure a great location for the next night’s concert being put on by the Grateful Dead as all seats were general admission.

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What You See Is What You Get? LIBOR & The Flat Yield Curve

Under most economic environments longer-term debt instruments yield more than shorter ones. This is the case in order to compensate investors for risks related to purchasing power eroding and more uncertainty and volatility that can increase the probability of default (outside Treasuries). In addition, our banking system is based on banks accessing short-term deposits and being able to make longer-term loans and investments which necessitates longer rates being higher than shorter ones so banks can be profitable.

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Resistance is The Enemy of Creativity

Shortly after publishing my book I was in New York City and did a brief interview with Gregg Greenberg from TheStreet.com which was quite fun and then I had a meeting with investment legend Howard Marks which was such a treat. He was kind enough to write a testimonial for the book and made the time to let me thank him personally.

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Why Are We Our Own Worst Investing Enemies?

Worst Investing Enemies

Human beings are reaction machines versus reflective and responsive individuals. We are our own worst investing enemies when it comes to investing successfully. Most people are easily susceptible to bouts of fear and greed when it comes to investing. Unfortunately, these emotional highs and lows are often when the masses are reacting in a similar manner.

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Quantum Phases & Locking Rate

Quantum Phases

The last few weeks have been a good representation as to why I have an aversion to fixed-rate loans when doing a refinance or an acquisition. Assuming fixed rate loans from sellers when acquiring properties, however, is a different story and worthy of its own write up so I won’t address the distinctions here.

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