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Signs of Decay

This is a treacherous territory that I’m about to venture into, and I know that. There are hazards galore. Self-pity, hypochondria, grumpy old man-ism. Furthermore there is no redemptive story yet. I have not overcome but am only in the early stages of trying to overcome a minor and rather undramatic challenge. The ending is […]

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Looking Under Rocks

Sun Tzu observed that “if you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of 100 battles.” And as pat as it is to compare investing to war, it is also apt. For every investment is a transaction between a buyer and a seller, which means that every trade, on some […]

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Dual Doubts…

It seems that there has been a lot of interest in dual momentum investing out there of late. And I can’t say that I’m entirely surprised. After all, the momentum story was interesting and convincing enough for me personally to move me off of my strong predilection for boglehead style passive investing (for better or […]

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Rocking Luxury

It’s no secret that one of my favorite bloggers, and certainly the most personally influential is Mr. Money Mustache. Pete (MMM himself) does an incredible job of reframing societal assumptions. If our dominant modern hypothesis is that consuming things brings us happiness, Pete stands this theory on its head, and points out (correctly I think) […]

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Two Faced investing

This is my final post in my “cowards” investment philosophy series.* You will remember that the central thread tying this series together is the idea that when it comes to investing, not losing money ends up being far more powerful than making extra money in the long term. To this end we have discussed aggressive […]

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Un-Resolved

It is what, January 3? And already I have blown up both this year’s and last year’s New Year’s resolutions. But before I get to that sad state of affairs, why not engage in some self congratulatory reflection? As you may recall, my resolution last year was to try the “vegan before six” diet. The […]

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Pumping Iron

So where were we? We’ve discussed the surprising importance of minimizing the loss of capital, and how not losing your capital ends up being much more important in the long run than finding extra returns in the stock market. We’ve talked about the importance of diversification for buy-and-hold investors, and how the aggressive diversification across […]

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On the Wisdom of Cowardice

Warren Buffett has so many great quotes. There’s the one about how idiots eventually run good companies. There’s that other one about today’s shade coming from a tree planted long ago. He’s a folksy guy and damned smart, so his quotes are like little Yogi Berra gems without all of the unintentional irony. But of all of his […]

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A Most Mustachian Endeavor

It would not be overly dramatic to say that when I first read Mr. Money Mustache’s “shockingly simple” blog post, it was as if I had been hit by a bolt of lightning. The simplicity of the math. The fundamental soundness of the assumptions. And the far-reaching implications of its conclusions were all immediately gripping, […]

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A Room Without a Roof-ah

If you had told the 21-year-old Miles Dividend M.D.,that one day he would write a personal finance blog, he would’ve looked at you like you were f-ing crazy. You see, I am not naturally attracted to this ideal of “self help”. My fundamental assumption has always been that we are what we are, and that […]

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