In Search of the Perfect Investment

You haven’t been given any Fitbit (FIT). Neither have I.

Fitbit is hot.

The best analogy is GoPro. It followed this trajectory:

You can see three phases:

1. The excitement runup.

2. The disappointment when everyone thought it was a one-trick (one-product) pony.

3. The second product run-up when GoPro introduced its drone — a perfect add-on to its product line.

Fitbit is a real company. Oodles of people like its product. The company is profitable.

Fitbit is 1000% better than the Apple Watch for elementary fitness monitoring. This may change. But for now, my Apple Watch is useless for measuring my activity. Every day I look at it. And every day it’s wrong. Not a little wrong. But way wrong!

Moreover, my Apple Watch is annoying. It wakes me to tell me it’s time to stand up.

Overseas the news is awful. Greece and the EU are playing a game of chicken, with the Greek people suffering badly — high unemployment, sliced pensions, etc. Awful.

This piece — Pensioners are squeezed as Greece’s creditors push for more cuts — is fascinating. Click here.

My prediction: Greece will leave the EU and bring back the Drachma. The government will print oodles of them to pay pensions and government salaries. Bingo, hyperinflation.

They’ll eventually get the hyperinflation under control — but not for many years.

Greece doesn’t have the assets nor the business skills of the Germans. It will begin to look more like Zimbabwe.

This note can just buy a loaf of bread.

The note sells on eBay as a curiosity piece more than it’s worth in Zimbabwe.

Everyone should watch this short video. What the world knows about you is freaky. There are long-term consequences to posting endless stuff about yourself on social media.  Ask your kids to watch this video. Click here.

There’s oodles of money around for startups. But… you have to learn how to raise the money. If the VCs don’t want you, then you’re stuck with friends and family. Last night I emailed a budding entrepreneur:

I’ve never been a big fan of pitch decks (PowerPoints), without the pitcher. I tend to prefer to read documents that look like IPOs. Though I attended your interesting talk, I find your pitch deck incomprehensible.

My advice: Write something up like a Red Herring that investors can read, and noodle on. Detail the business. Detail the risks. Meanwhile, I’m staying on the sidelines.

Our changing world
After a long night of making love, the guy notices a photo of another man, on the woman’s nightstand by the bed. He begins to worry.

‘Is this your husband?’ he nervously asks.

‘No, silly,’ she replies, snuggling up to him.

‘Your boyfriend, then?’

‘No, not at all,’ she says, nibbling away at his ear.

‘Is it your dad or your brother?’ he inquires, hoping to be reassured.

‘No, no, no! You are so hot when you’re jealous!’ she answers.

‘Well, who in the hell is he, then?’ he demands.

She whispers in his ear.. ‘That’s me before the surgery.’

Harry Newton who’s lunching with a residential property syndicator. I like reasonably-priced townhouse developments. There are more and more jobs, but, as interest rates rise, it will be harder for many to afford their own house. Hence, they’ll rent my apartments. I hope.