Category Archives: Investing

Investing Update

Posted on July 27, 2006 by John Hunter

The recent performance of some of the long term stock picks has not been good. Several continue to have pretty good results so far, including: Google, Toyota, Templeton Emerging Market Fund, Petro China. Several have had sharp declines recently including: Dell, Intel, Yahoo and Amazon. Is it time to sell any of these stocks? I don’t think so. I am a bit less confident about Dell and Intel than I was a year ago but I still think holding the … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing

The Future for Investors

Posted on July 15, 2006 by John Hunter

I completed The Future for Investors: Why the Tried and the True Triumph Over the Bold and the New by Jeremy Siegel today. It provides a great deal of analysis of what historical stock market returns for various strategies have been. The subtitle captures the basic theme of the book. Investing in the boring old stocks that people are not excited about is what have performed best. His basic advise is still to buy the broadest market index fund (such … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing | Tagged ,

Employee Ownership

Posted on June 26, 2006 by John Hunter

H.C. Miller workers to earn ownership [the broken link was removed] by Richard Ryman. I have always liked the idea of employee ownership. To me this can be a great help in creating a system where employees, owners, customers, suppliers work together. Alone an ESOP does little. But as part of a system of management it is something I think can be beneficial. Employees of H.C. Miller Co. have learned to look at their company differently. And because they did, … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing, Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Tesco: Lean Provision

Posted on June 8, 2006 by John Hunter

Lean Provision Is Tesco’s Secret Weapon in Battle with Wal-Mart (annoyingly Yahoo has deleted that web page so I removed the link) (update again here is the LEI press release [the broken link was removed, The Lean Enterprise Institute doesn’t see to employ long term thinking, though that is certainly part of sensible lean thinking]): Tesco’s lean provision system combines point-of-sale data, cross-dock distribution centers, and frequent deliveries to many stores along “milk-runs” to stock the right items in a … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing, Lean thinking, Management | 4 Comments

Financial Education

Posted on May 23, 2006 by John Hunter

Federal Reserve System: economic and personal financial education [the broken link was removed] “Financial education is a critical component of a robust and effective financial marketplace but it is not a panacea. Clear disclosures, wise regulation and vigorous enforcement are also essential to ensuring that financial service providers do not engage in unfair or deceptive practices,” Bernanke said. … Outlining the various initiatives that the Fed already sponsors to boost public understanding of financial matters, Bernanke pledged to keep up … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Investing | Tagged

Invest for the Long Term

Posted on May 13, 2006 by John Hunter

Invest Like a Simpleton [the broken link was removed] by Tim Beyers, fool.com: Ten years ago, Tom Gardner boldly picked 10 stocks to buy and hold for the next decade. … Even with a tough week in which Silicon Graphics filed for bankruptcy and Dell admitted its business is not at all like it used to be, the Simpleton Portfolio would have returned more than six times your money had you invested on day one. For context, consider this: Over … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing | Tagged | 1 Comment

Energy Future

Posted on May 6, 2006 by John Hunter

Interesting chart from: The Oil Age Poster [the broken link was removed] . There are all sorts of opinions on the future price of oil. My view is based in the capitalist/market model – I believe that if it becomes obvious we are running out of oil the price will go up drastically. Those who own it will feel if you don’t buy it today they will sell it to you for much more later. And those that want it … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Investing | Tagged , ,

Why You Need a Roth IRA

Posted on April 12, 2006 by John Hunter

Why You Need a Roth IRA [the broken link was removed] by Erin Burt: If a 25-year-old contributes $4,000 each year until she retires and makes an average annual return of 8% on her investment, she’ll have more than $1.1 million saved by the time she retires at age 65. And the money is all hers — she won’t have to give the IRS a cent of it if she waits until retirement to cash out. … If that same … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing

Warren Buffett’s 2005 Shareholder Letter

Posted on March 6, 2006 by John Hunter

As usually Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter is packed with good investment thoughts along with some management wisdom. Too often, executive compensation in the U.S. is ridiculously out of line with performance. That won’t change, moreover, because the deck is stacked against investors when it comes to the CEO’s pay. The upshot is that a mediocre-or-worse CEO – aided by his handpicked VP of human relations and a consultant from the ever-accommodating firm of Ratchet, Ratchet and Bingo – … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Investing, Management | 6 Comments

Saving for Retirement

Posted on March 5, 2006 by John Hunter

Our Financial Failings by Neil Irwin, Washington Post: Meet the typical American family. It has about $3,800 in the bank. No one has a retirement account, and the neighbors who do only have about $35,000 in theirs. Mutual funds? Stocks? Bonds? Nope. The house is worth $160,000, but the family owes $95,000 on it to the bank. The breadwinners make more than $43,000 a year but can’t manage to pay off a $2,200 credit card balance. That is the portrait … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing | 2 Comments

How Not to Convert Equity

Posted on January 10, 2006 by John Hunter

CNNMoney is not exactly intellectual discussion of economic and investing issues but normally it offers fairly good material for the large number of people. Especially those who really don’t want to read Warren Buffett or Brad Setser [the broken link was removed]. Still the following quote in their article, Cashing in on hot real estate is just wrong: They also have one extremely valuable asset: a house in the now trendy Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles that’s worth $1 million, … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing, quote | Tagged , | 1 Comment

10 Stocks for 10 Years Update

Posted on January 9, 2006 by John Hunter

In April of last year I posted on 10 stocks for 10 years. At that time I also setup an fund through Marketocracy, which allows for 3rd party tracking of investing results. See the results so far on Marketocracy’s site [the broken link was removed]. Thusfar the portfolio is up 20%, in under 9 months (versus 13% for the S&P 500 for the same period of time. The 10 stocks didn’t meet the diversification requirements for marketocracy, at the time, … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Investing | 3 Comments

Should GM be Removed from the DJIA?

Posted on December 21, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Investing Should Dow boot GM? by Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com: GM’s market capitalization has fallen to about $11 billion, less than half that of the next smallest Dow stock… “It is coming,” he said of the idea of a foreign Dow component. “This whole globalization situation is making that more and more likely.” He said he doubts that GM would be replaced as long as it is still the world’s leading automaker, but Toyota could claim that title from GM … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing | Tagged | 3 Comments

30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Rates

Posted on October 9, 2005 by John Hunter

Fairly frequently I am asked, by friends, for investing advice. One topic I am asked about frequently is mortgages (locking in rates, etc.). Often they are concerned about what a Federal Reserve decision to raise or lower rates will effect the 30 year fixed mortgage rate. Essentially the decision by the Fed won’t have any predictable impact (this is not the complete truth but close enough for the question being asked – this article has more, though it still just … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Investing | 1 Comment

Bezos on Lean Thinking

Posted on July 29, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Management Improvement and Investing 10 Questions for Jeff Bezos, time.com via Lean Manufacturing Blog Time: Here’s a question you probably hear all the time: read any good books lately? Bezos: [Laughs.] I read a book recently about Toyota’s lean production methodology, which is very interesting Jeff Bezos is the founder and CEO of Amazon.com. He really understand many quality management ideas: customer focus, long term thinking, process improvement, innovation. He also understands finance much better than most. I believe … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Google and Acquiring Tiny Companies

Posted on May 12, 2005 by John Hunter

I like Google and enjoy reading about the company. Even so I find the number of articles about the minor moves they make strange. At some point this fascination with the minor moves Google makes will stop but for now it is hard to miss stories about Google anywhere I look. The post on John Battelle’s Searchblog (a great bog) about Google buying Dodgeball was a great example. The entire post: News is here. What is Dodgeball? I dunno, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Investing, Management | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments