December 17, 1903 dawned cold and windy at Kill Devil Hills in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The temperature was not much above freezing and the wind blowing at over 20 mph. After years of work, frustration, progress, and setbacks, all of it in almost complete obscurity, Wilbur and Orville Wright felt like they…
Investing success accrues not so much to the brilliant as to the disciplined. – William Bernstein Stupid is as stupid does. – Forest Gump In investing, behavior is more important than brilliance, and it isn’t even close. Consider the case of Sir Isaac Newton. Newton was one of the most influential scientists ever and…
John C. (Jack) Bogle died January 18, 2019 at the age of 89. Bogle created the first widely available index fund and relentlessly worked to lower investment costs, eventually forcing other mutual fund companies to follow his lead. It is not an exaggeration to say that Bogle did more for individual investors than anyone…
Nobody can do for little children what grandparents can do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children. – Alex Haley, author of Roots It might be true that grandparents sprinkle stardust over the lives of their grandchildren but grandparents are richly rewarded in return. I had always heard how great it…
There is a popular theory that one of the primary ingredients of happiness is progress. This is sometimes called The Progress Principle. In summing up the progress principle Psychologist Jonathan Haidt wrote: “Pleasure comes more from making progress towards goals than from achieving them.” Tony Robbins adds: “I can tell you the secret to happiness…
“It might be scary, but nobody gets hurt on a roller coaster unless they jump off.” – Dave Ramsey “Please keep your hands and arms inside the train at all times, and enjoy the ride” the voice on the intercom announced as we rolled slowly out of the station. The train then took a sharp…
Harley Schwadron started drawing cartoons at the age of eight. However, he reports, “…I never thought I could earn a living at it.” Knowing the odds were against him, he instead got a master’s degree in journalism. After graduating he worked as a reporter for Michigan News Service. However, he never lost his passion for…
Links to several of my favorite recent articles on money and life: It has been a wild ride in the stock markets the last couple of weeks. Although markets have gained back over half of what they lost, they did lose more than 10% from previous highs, making this an official correction. This is in…
