In Search of the Perfect Investment

Updated with new thoughts and reader comments:

The biggest Stupid you can do is to invest in someone else’s business, or worse, work for someone else. No one got rich, or could retire handsomely from someone else’s business — unless you’re ultra-lucky. Few of us are that lucky.

Lesser stupids:

+ Don’t take financial advice from anyone who looks younger than your kids. They are only regurgitating what they heard from other people, who were regurgitating things they heard from other people etc. Diversification (and cash) are the only ways to protect against our inability to make correction predictions.

+ Don’t take advice from people with conflicts of interest. Their success may not be your success. Hedge Fund managers, investment bankers, property developers and others with positions in the market are famous for giving interviews about their view of the market and what everyone else should do. Be  careful.

+ The most overused word is “expert“. Few are. It’s not the same thing as “common sense”.

+ Stay up to date on medical and health research. The sum total of human knowledge doubles every two years. Your doctors cannot keep up. It’s your medical problem, not theirs. Know more about it than they do

+  Always sit in the exit aisle or as close as you can. If you survive the crash, your ultimate survival depends on exiting the plane in the 90 seconds before the fuel explodes.

+ Don’t put anything in your mouth that is made in China. Avoid processed foods — anything in a packet or a can. They all contain preservatives which kill your healthy gut bacteria.

+ Don’t buy Indian spices. They are riddled with mercury, lead and pesticides banned in the US.

+ Prepare for retirement with the same effort you prepared for your career. It’s not about doing nothing. It’s about doing different. If you don’t have a list of things you’re passionate about doing but never had time to do, you’re not ready for retirement.

+ Eat organic. The fewer pesticides, preservatives, antibiotics and other crap in your food the better. Apples are the worse. Only give organic fruit to your kids.

+ Less is more.

+ Bigger is rarely better.

+ Eat slow. Only eat until you’re satisfied. The brain takes 15 mins to register what’s going into your stomach. You’ll be amazed how easy it is to avoid one-third of your calorie intake.

+ The Ten Commandments got it right with “Don’t covet.” “Don’t covet thy neighbor. Or thy neighbor’s wife. There will always be someone more wealthy than you, more handsome, more successful, more everything. Be grateful for what you have. Jealously devalues everything you have and have accomplished. It’s poison.

+ Check online banking. cable, telephone and other accounts. They often include new fees and new mistakes — none of which are in your favor.

+ Saying NO is satisfying. It lets you sleep at night. Good mantra: When in doubt, stay out.

The 40 Unhealthiest Foods you shouldn’t eat

All the usual suspects, including margarine, sugar, energy drinks, microwave diners, veggie burgers, charred meats, canned vegetables, soy sauce, tuna (and other fish with lots of mercury), coffee creamer, produce with pesticides, diet sodas.

For the full list, click here.

Check. Check. Check.

+ I no longer trust the iPhone for emails. Some get through; Some don’t. Some come with their attachments. Some don’t. Sometime my iPhone won’t open attachments. I prefer to use my ThinkPad laptop and Outlook as my email client. I am not a fan of Gmail because I dislike its “user interface.” It’s had to read wide messages.

+ Check you’ve tightened all the screws on your glasses, including those holding your nose-pads. I lost one of mine this week.

+ Samsung has warned its customers not to discuss personal information in front of Samsung smart TVs. They listen,  record and apparently transmit.

+ Clean up your reading. Forbes, Fortune, BusinessWeek and the Wall Street Journal are poorly researched and poorly written these days. I recommend the Economist, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Business Insider and select articles in Seeking Alpha. Most newspapers and magazines have no budget for research or for investigative journalists. That’s sad. My first job was an investigative journalist for the Australian Financial Review. I actually checked my facts. These days many publications don’t even checking their spelling.

+ Call your Internet provider and demand a higher speed, or “you’ll go elsewhere.” You’ll be surprised. Their margin on Internet services is huge. It doesn’t cost them more to provide you more.

Square keeps going higher.

Square (SQ) sells equipment to retail businesses to take credit cards. When the tiny Spencertown Country Store in our one-horse town got one recently (they love it), I knew Square was going places.

Square been one of my hottest stocks and it’s still going up. Their web site is here. Seeking Alpha just did a piece on them. They headlined their piece “Square quietly grinding higher.” For the piece, click here. 

There must be a lesson here somewhere.

Picture one:

Picture two:

Harry Newton, who got hacked last night. More about that wonderful experience tomorrow. Still working on solving it.