tooskinneejs

Here are the top 10 holdings in the VanEck Morningstar Wide Moat ETF (MOAT): Top 10 Holdings (28.04% of Total Assets) Symbol Company % Assets GILD Gilead Sciences, Inc.3.36% BMY Bristol-Myers Squibb Company2.95% DIS The Walt Disney Company2.89% CTVA Corteva, Inc.2.83% BA The Boeing Company2.74% GEHC GE HealthCare Technologies Inc.2.73% KVUE Kenvue Inc.2.68% MO Altria Group, Inc.2.67% NKE NIKE, Inc.2.61% VEEV Veeva Systems Inc.2.57%

I am as old as many of you. And while I love music from the 80's, 90's, etc., I also love newer music - something I'm not seeing much of in this thread. So for that reason I'm going to encourage you guys to try out some younger artists that are great (in no particular order): Grouplove - Moving and infectious, uplifting rock with two vocalists. You may know their song 'Tongue Tied.' Examples of other great songs: 'Deleter,' 'Welcome to Your Life,' 'Cheese,' and 'I'm with You.' Noah Kahan - Vermonter who plays folksy acoustic guitar-driven music that has a lot of emotion. Examples of great songs: 'Northern Attitude,' 'Stick Season,' and 'She Calls Me Back.' Dinosaur Pile-Up - For those who like their rock a little harder. Listen to their album 'Celebrity Mansions' and check out songs like 'Back Foot,' 'Round the Bend,' and 'Long Way Down.' You'll hear elements of Blink and Radiohead here and there. Smallpools - Fun pop rock with some emotional tracks too. You may know their song 'Dreaming.' Check out other songs like 'Killer Whales,' 'Passenger Side,' 'Mother,' and 'Stumblin' Home.' Zach Person - Love bluesy rock and Lenny Kravitz? Give this guy a listen. He has a new album titled 'Feel It.' Check out the title track and songs like 'Muddy Water' and 'Make It.' Jadu Heart - Erethral alternative rock. Check out the album 'Derealised' and the song 'Cocoon.' Joey Valence & Brae - Modern take on the Beastie Boys. RDGLDGRN (Red Gold Green) - Rock music with bouncy rap vibes. Listen to 'I Love Lamp,' 'Lootin in London,' and their new song 'Feel It Right Now' (those from the DC area will recognize the go go beats). They have lots of tracks on video games. I hope you find something new you enjoy!

"The Company missed analysts' earnings estimates" No, analysts misestimated the company's earnings.

We're just returning to historical average temperatures...

Loved your post as it really resonated with my situation. Once we had kids, I didn't spend enough time taking care of myself (and I too have been know to eat more than my share of McDonald's). For exercise, I used to have a regular, pulley-based weight machine. I would run through the standard routine of exercises on it, but I never really pushed myself. And I only used it occasionally. Things changed when I found something that worked for me. If anyone is looking for an exercise solution that is really effective and highly motivating, I strongly recommend Tonal (the wall mounted, smart weight machine). I bought one a year ago and it has been the best investment I've made in my health. I love Tonal because it has instructor-led classes and programs (live and pre-recorded) and the instructors who exercise along side me push me way more than I pushed myself when I was working out on my own. Tonal measures your strength and then automatically sets the weights for each exercise in a particular class. This saves so much time that you can get an absolutely killer workout (if that is what you want) in 30 minutes. Some exercises in a class use the Tonal machine and others don't. For example, you might do squats followed by jumping jacks. And you can do almost any weight-lifting movement on the Tonal. As your strength and fitness improves, Tonal automatically adjusts the weights over time in small increments and shows you your progress. Maybe you are thinking, "well Tonal is good for strength but what about cardio?" I'll say this - I have a Peloton also and an intermediate or advanced class on the Tonal gets me way more winded than my Peloton ever does (and its not as boring). Its a big investment to buy the machine and there is a monthly subscription. Before shelling out the cash, I realized that I can either spend the money on my health now or I'm going to have to spend even more later in life. From all I had read, strength training is one of the most important things you can do as you age. So I bit the bullet and made the investment. Being a value guy, I bought my Tonal used on Craigslist for half the price of new. So to answer the main question of this thread, I would say a big regret is not taking care of my health and fitness once I had kids. I recommend that the younger among us take care of your fitness in your 30's and 40's and think about it like a non-optional investment in your long-term health. Now if only I could kick the McDonald's...

I think this is like a police officer saying over and over again to a trespasser, "leave the property or you will be arrested." Then finally when the police officer has given many chances and begins to arrest the trespasser, the trespasser responds, "no, don't arrest me I am going to leave now." Well, its too late. And as an aside, I wonder how logical is it to accept the word of a terrorist. It seems their credibility would be naturally strained.

I agree with most of these points too. With regard to income taxes, I believe people in lower income brackets should pay some tax, even if it is a small percentage. This makes them have some skin in the game and de-motivates them from voting for politicians promising 'free stuff' because they think it will cost them nothing.

This Charlie quote is pretty important these days... "Another thing I think should be avoided is extremely intense ideology because it cabbages up one’s mind. ... When you’re young it’s easy to drift into loyalties and when you announce that you’re a loyal member and you start shouting the orthodox ideology out, what you’re doing is pounding it in, pounding it in, and you’re gradually ruining your mind." – Charlie Munger, USC Law Commencement Speech, May 2007

"Cryptocurrency-trading giant Binance said the accounting firm it used to verify its reserves has paused all work for crypto clients, hampering efforts to reassure customers that their money is safe." "Binance also said outflows from its platform swelled to $6 billion, a reflection of turmoil among crypto traders shocked by the implosion last month of rival exchange FTX." "Mazars on Friday withdrew from its website a report on reserves at Binance and other cryptocurrency-trading companies. The report for Binance, which wasn’t an audit, was published last week. A spokesman for the accounting firm said it had made the move “due to concerns regarding the way these reports are understood by the public.” https://www.wsj.com/articles/binance-says-accounting-firm-pauses-work-for-its-crypto-clients-11671200654?st=v9qz5aolgzaljov&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink So much for virtual currencies being a "store of value."

Weird case "against Trump." As I understand it, the ex-CFO received compensation and didn't declare it on his taxes. The ex-CFO gets a slap on the wrist and the company is found guilty. Seems to me like the CFO should be the one being punished.

We just finished this limited series and it was great. It has to be great writing when you are hoping for someone to get killed.

I think there are tons of very informed individuals who rightly think cryptocurrencies will be looked back as a "how could anyone have believed in that" moment in financial history. I'm still waiting to hear why cryptocurrencies shouldn't be viewed as anything other than tulip bulb mania without actual tangible tulip bulbs.

I just watched a documentary on Netflix titled "Trust No One - The Hunt for the Crypto King." It was a well done story on Gerry Cotten, the fraudster behind crypto exchange Quadriga. Did he really die in India? Will we ever know?

The company has earned 70% of its market capitalization in the last five years. Sales were down 26% quarter over quarter due primarily to a decline in sales in their Hawthorne segment (cannabis) due to oversupply. We'll have to wait and see if that is a temporary factor or not. The consumer segment, which is by far the largest, saw sales decline 13% in the quarter. Many businesses saw spikes in sales during the pandemic as people focused on home. This could be just a cooling off. I still think people will take care of their yards. As to the balance sheet. They have a strong current ratio of about 2.5. Debt to equity is high, but that is because the company has paid dividends of $1.3 billion and retired shares (net of issuances) of $892 million over the last 10 years (a total of $2.2 billion, which approximates today's market cap).

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. It's at a price not seen since 2013. VF Corp is also looking cheap.

There was a big shout out to Warren on the series finale of Better Call Saul last night.

I just went to South Africa. Spent several days in Cape Town and then several days on safari in Kruger Park. In Cape Town we hiked to the top of Table Mountain, kids did paragliding, we did a sunset cruise, saw penguins, and learned about Apartheid and visited Robben Island (where Mandela was imprisoned). The city is really nice and modern overall, but there are townships outside of the city where thousands of people live in small metal shacks. Pretty crazy how much wealth disparity exists there. In Kruger, we drove through the park to see many wild animals and stayed in small cabins in fenced-in areas of the park. We then spent a couple of days in a private game reserve where we could go off-road and see even more animals. The people in South Africa were very friendly and happy to see tourism return to the country. An added benefit for value investors - the US dollar is very strong against the Rand. You can get a nice meal at a sit-down restaurant for the equivalent of $7 and a really nice meal for $20. I felt like a king!

Wouldn't the most obvious example be a retailer or a restaurant? You know, something relatable? Target maybe?

I enjoyed HBR Guide to Better Business Writing. (kept that short in the spirit of good writing)

A decade ago I would have strongly recommended BusinessWeek. I liked it because it provided straight reporting on businesses, both in short and long form articles, and without an investment spin. That meant I could learn about what was happenig to businesses without an angle and decide for myself whether something looked interesting. Unfortunately, I found that politics started infecting their reporting to the point where a substantial portion of their magazine was no longer straight business reporting. After subscribing for 20 years I dropped it. Their current issue is the "Equity Issue" and has an article about fat people supposedly being fired for their weight. Not exactly helpful in providing me with meaningful business information. Fortune would be my recommendation right now, with the caveat that many articles approach a story from an investing angle.

An article in today's WSJ supports Gregmal's point of view. https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-housing-market-is-nearly-4-million-homes-short-of-buyer-demand-11618484400?mod=hp_featst_pos3 "The U.S. housing market is 3.8 million single-family homes short of what is needed to meet the country’s demand, according to a new analysis by mortgage-finance company Freddie Mac." "“We should have almost four million more housing units if we had kept up with demand the last few years,” Mr. Khater said. “This is what you get when you underbuild for 10 years.”

A recent article in the WSJ described a large home builder selling an entire community of new homes to a public company and generating twice the profit that they would have made selling them to individuals. That seems a bit like an investment mania in a world starved for yield. Maybe everything will stay ok as long as rates stay artificially low for another 10 years and current nominal prices stay put while inflation adjusts them in real terms. But if rates return to normal levels, all bets are off. Price to rent ratios don't make any sense compared to historical norms.

I'm thinking about taking screen caps of posts on this board and selling them as NFTs with very reasonable prices starting in the low thousands. I'll even give Sanjeev 50% of the profits since it's his board. Anyone want to buy a NFT of one of their own posts from me?

In a sign of the crypto-times, a piece of digital art just sold at auction for $60,000,000. It is a collage of a bunch of graphic images. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/11/most-expensive-nft-ever-sold-auctions-for-over-60-million.html If you'd like to view it without shelling out the $60,000,000, you can see it here for free: https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/beeple-first-5000-days/beeple-b-1981-1/112924

Thanks for the responses. "If the US is serious about releasing a digital dollar..." Doesn't that already exist in substance? I get paid electronically in US dollars. I pay my bills electronically using US dollars. I pay merchants the same way. I'd guess that 99 percent of my inflows and outflows are electronic and in US dollars. So why do I need a different electronic currency? "If you are going to wait until you can spend crypto everywhere you shop the opportunity to get in early will be gone." What opportunity? Buying bitcoin doesn't give you partial ownership of the system any more than having US dollars in a bank gives you partial ownership of the bank or paying for things using a Visa gives you ownership of Visa.