At the age of 7, I decided I wanted to play baseball. I was living in beautiful Yorba Linda, California, and in my town, baseball was life. I was a little nervous as I watched games at the local ballfield because I was one of the smallest kids my age. In fact, in thinking back…
DetailsA visitor to my office asked if I thought the stock market was still a good place to invest given all its “recent volatility.” This frequent question carries with it the inference that there was once a time when the stock market was not volatile. When I first became serious about investing the Dow Jones…
DetailsOne of my friends is a former fighter pilot. He loves to fly but as he got older it became clear to others that his skills were diminishing. Finally, his children made the very unpopular decision to take away the keys to his plane. He was initially very unhappy and it caused a significant amount…
DetailsWhen my son Jayden was only 8 years old, he had his brother drive him to the department store to pick out a special gift for Father’s Day. From doing various chores he had amassed a little over $16 – a tidy sum for a guy his age. He was unselfishly planning on spending all…
DetailsIn our office we have been discussing our biggest concerns for investors in 2024. One of the topics of discussion has been the continuing growth of financial scams. Criminals keep getting more clever and bolder. New technologies are also making it easier for them to fool and scam people. Every year we need to add…
DetailsThe major stock market averages have been climbing recently. Given all the challenges in the world, people keep asking why the market seems so happy. Inflation and interest rates remain stubbornly high while corporate profits, measured by PE ratios, are largely flat — so why all the excitement? The first thing to understand is that…
DetailsIn our prior home we had some huge pecan trees in our yard. Pecans are beautiful trees during the summer, but when they drop their leaves in the fall they look like they have died. Throughout the winter they make the yard appear quite gloomy. One day as I wandered about the pile of leaves…
DetailsMy brother loves to cook and is always working on new recipes. One that he spent years on was his famous salsa. In fact, it was so famous that he opened a restaurant built around it called, “Casa Salza.” Now if you didn’t know better you might think, based on the name, that it is…
DetailsAt a recent convention our company set up a booth and in it we displayed an FAA certified flight simulator. We invited visitors to take a turn at flying a mock landing, challenging them with the question, “Can you Fly the Plane?” Our booth attracted a lot of attention as many people tried, though relatively…
DetailsDana Point is a beautiful place for a vacation, but I wasn’t there for the beach. It was just one of many due diligence trips I take as I research investment options for my clients. You can learn a great deal about a company if you spend time face to face with the principals. On…
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