The Wall Street Journal recently reminded its readers of Peter Lynch’s hall of fame batting average during his tenure as manager of Fidelity Investments Magellan Fund: Delivering 29% annualized returns from 1977 to 1990. . . Mr. Lynch’s work has had a profound influence on the way I invest. I once heard him speak at a Fidelity conference …
About half way through writing Chapter 4 (You Aren’t What You Drive) in The Millionaire Next Door, I listed one of our cars “for sale” in the local paper. This timing was just a coincidence. However, the characters who showed up to look at the car were worth a chapter by themselves! Let’s look at Steve, a …
Kay S. Hymowitz, writing in The Wall Street Journal, asks, “where have all the good men gone?” She contends that a growing number of American “men in heir 20s are living in a new kind of extended adolescence.” While it is true that there are more unproductive males in their 20s today, there are still …
In a recent advertisement for Honda Accord, it was described as having the highest resale value within its class. I’m not surprised. How well a motor vehicle holds its value depends on several factors. Of course reliability is important no doubt, but there is something else. It has to do with retail versus fleet sales. …
Most self made millionaires rank high on the tenacity scale. They report that this characteristic was developed in part during their secondary school and college experiences. The majority (76%) of the millionaires I surveyed report that tenacity and hard work account for why they consistently achieve at a high level. Plus, as I said in The Millionaire …
In my last blog, I highlighted an e-mail I received proposing that the material in The Millionaire Mind be included in high school curriculums. However, this material would not likely be considered for such programs. The respondents profiled in The Millionaire Mind represented the top 1% of wealth holders in America [a net worth and income of more …
It seems like everyone has an opinion about the “rich” these days. Take for example Ranger X. Rich. We first noticed the ranger as we hiked out of the large parking lot adjacent to the wilderness area. He was just opening his ticket book when my wife said to me, “did you put your parking pass [self administered] on …
Harry and his wife are among members of the Balance Sheet Affluent crowd. Even so, Harry never expected that one day his daughter would dramatically change her retail clothing store patronage habits. His daughter, a college freshman, was home from school one weekend. On Saturday, Harry asked her if she would help him deliver a carload of give aways …
Our family receives more than 2 dozen telephone directories annually. Most of them we recycle. However, I actually look forward to looking through one of them- the Business Yellow Pages. The 2010 edition contains 1,051 pages. Eighty-one of these pages is devoted to attorneys. In a quick computation, I estimated that there are more than …
Millions of “thank yous” to all those who recently helped rescue 118 beagles (see USA Today). These beagles were laboratory drug testing dogs. Caged up they were destined to spend their entire lives as guinea pigs. But after the research facility went broke several rescue groups took custody of the beagles. According to the article, …