Although I enjoy managing my own investments, I’ve generally avoided managing other people’s money. That always felt like such an important responsibility to take on. Below is the real investment portfolio of an older family member (over 75) that is professionally managed by an large “brand name” financial firm. Understandably, the recent market volatility has hurt the balance and there is some concern, so I took a look. Before opening up the statement, I joked to myself “There better not be that ARK ETF in there!”…. and there it was. Down 66%! 😱 Deep breaths! My thoughts went to the four basic steps to performing emergency first aid: Assess the situation Plan for interventions Implement first aid Evaluate the situation. Here… [Read More...]

Earnings Previews: Dell, Marvell, Pinduoduo, VMware, Workday
Here are five tech-based companies set to report quarterly results late Thursday or early Friday. [Read More...]
Rising Rates Mini-Update: 5-Year CDs at 3% APY, 5-Year MYGA Rates at 3.65%
I’m going to wait a bit on my full May interest rate update, as I expect more rate changes early this week. Even the rates quoted below may become outdated quickly, but I wanted to point out certain rates at multi-year highs and also near the psychological 3% level. Here are a few examples as of 5/1/22: Brokered CD rates: 3.05% APY for 5-year CDat Vanguard and Fidelity fixed income desks (non-callable, Capital One and Goldman). Credit union CD rate: 3.03% APY for 5-year certificate at Department Of Commerce Federal Credit Union. US Treasury Bonds: 2.97% yield to maturity at 5 years length, secondary market. Fixed Annuity: 3.65% rate on 5-year MYGA from The Standard (A Rating) on 5/2/22 via Blueprint Income. Possibly as high as 3.85% … [Read More...]
2022 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting Video, Transcript, and Notes
Here are my notes on the 2022 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting. This year, CNBC has the rights to record and host the full video and transcripts (morning session, afternoon session) and they did a nice job with syncing the text and sound. I enjoyed listening to it like a podcast first and then reading through the text a second time around. There are many financial media articles with highlights, but here are my personal takeaways and notes. Berkshire Hathaway is their life’s work and legacy. It’s fascinating to see how they have tried their best to build it to last forever. I recently listened to an outdoor podcast called Dirtbag Diaries where a 78-year-old man suffering from late-stage Parkinson’s disease still completed… [Read More...]
This Is the Best Beer in America
About 75% if the people who drink in America drink beer. That averages two gallons of beer consumed by each American each year. The beer industry has been dominated by large brands like Bud Light,… [Read More...]
Warren Buffett’s Activision Merger Arbitrage “Bank/Credit Card Bonus” Deal
While listening to the 2022 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting Q&A session (full video and transcript at CNBC), I was amused to hear that Warren Buffett announced that he bought shares of Activision Blizzard stock as part of a “workout”. The very short version is that Microsoft (MSFT) has entered an agreement to purchase Activision Blizzard (ATVI) for $95 a share. As of close today 5/9/2022, you could buy ATVI for about $77.17 a share. If the sale goes through and closes in June 2023, you would earn a 23% return a little over a year. The amusing part is that given the size of Berkshire Hathaway, even buying 10% of ATVI at the current price would only cost about $6 billion with a fixed upside of around $1.4 … [Read More...]
Vanguard ETF & Mutual Fund Expense Ratio Drops (Updated May 2022)
Updated May 2022. Vanguard regularly announces expense ratio cuts to their mutual funds and ETFs. This post serves to keep track of these updates, as Vanguard usually removes the press releases after a certain amount of time. Most changes will be minor, it is always good to see continuing progress. April 29, 2022 press release. Highlights: Vanguard Total US Bond Market ETF (BND) lowered to 0.03%. Vanguard Short-Term Bond ETF (BSV) lowered to 0.04%. Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond ETF (BIV) lowered to 0.04%. Vanguard Long-Term Bond ETF (BLV) lowered to 0.04%. February 2022 press release. Vanguard Total International Stock Market (VXUS) lowered to 0.07%. Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT) lowered to 0.07%. Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) lowered to 0.08%. Vanguard Total International Bond ETF (BNDX) lowered … [Read More...]