7/3/2024	I'm happy to finally introduce a new website NineFigureProperties.com focusing on the most valuable homes and highest prices residential sales in the world. There tends to be a flurry of articles and commentary every time there is a home sale for over $100 million. At this new site, I list the publicly cited sales and include data like size and location so we can compare NFPs on various metrics. It was unclear at the start of the 2024 whether the pace of sales of trophy homes would slow or accelerate. So far this year it seems like the latter- Aspen had its first nine figure sale (although another property may be Aspen's most valuable home). Connecticut's Copper Beach Farm was one of the largest sales of 2023, although it had previously sold for nine figures in 2014. New York City had a nine figure sale for a duplex in Central Park Tower, although the penthouse three floor unit still has not sold. Daren Metropoulos added to his nine figure holdings (his Playboy Mansion is currently being remodelled) in paying $148 million for Casa Amado in Florida, which was topped by the $152 million purchase of Tarpon Island, also in Florida. All of those sales were then topped by a $210 million sale in Malibu of a property previously owned by James Jannard (Oakley sunglasses Founder), Howard Marks (Oaktree Capital), and Mark Hughes (Herbalife). One of the great things about the United States is that virtually anyone can become successful and wealthy. Particularly in Los Angeles, many of the trophy properties in the Land of Opportunity are owned by entrepreneurs, some of which started with virtually nothing.
1/18/2024	CNBC posted an article titled Passive investing rules Wall Street now, topping actively managed assets in stock, bond and other funds, which notes that according to Morningstar data, passive mutual funds and ETFs held $13.29 trillion at the end of December, which exceeds the $13.23 trillion held in actively managed funds. Back in 1997 I started writing about this topic (I compared it the The Magic Number from baseball playoff races), but it was about the single largest fund Magellan and my prediction that Vanguard's index fund was going to outgrow it, which it did in 2020. It's taken decades, but effectively the evolution on wall street from actively managing specific securities to diversified and low cost funds, has now resulted in a realization that passive management is the default option for investors. Jack Bogle, Burton Malkiel, and my former boss Wayne Wagner (one of the creators of the Wilshire 5000 index) where some of the pioneers of passive investing and I've been fortunate to have had the opportunity to watch and participate in a small way in that evolution.
3/14/2023	It's been a while since I posted, primarily due to being busy, but I'm close to finishing up a new real estate website that I hope to launch soon. In the meantime, I wanted to post some commentary and links about the Senderos Canyon Auction, which is timed to try to beat the pending implementation of Measure ULA, which voters in Los Angeles passed last year.
6/22/2021	All chapters of my book "The Peaceful Investor" are now online. One of the reasons I wrote it was because some people told me Investorhome.com lacked a good directory, so I wanted to write a book that integrated the content in a logical order. Yet having published on the internet since 1996, I've long felt online material is usually more useful than print material. While I'm glad a finally published a physical book, I still think, for the most part, the content is much more useful online, especially in cases where I cite and link to outside sources. I originally posted most of the book online and now I have posted all the chapters, effectively as an online book and standalone web site (hosted on investorhome.com). Some chapters have updates from the hard copy and I expect to continue updating more when appropriate and I find the time. The contents and chapters are at http://investorhome.com/peaceful-investor/. Some of the biggest mistakes many investors make are assuming they know more than they do, being overconfident, and taking unnecessary risks. I included a Checklist for investors at the end of The Peaceful Investor to offer some guidance and suggestions to investors, utilizing both the content of the book and many internet sources and tools. I've posted that checklist as a stand alone single page here.
9/23/2020	In 1989 Roger Gibson published the first edition of his highly regarded book Asset Allocation, which is now on its fifth edition. The introduction of the book begins with a quote from The Talmud that Gibson found in a book of quotations. Jack Bogle and many others have also briefly discussed what has become known as "The Talmud Portfolio." I've been researching the history of the specific quote and have posted additional information and background on the topic at TalmudPortfolio.com. The Talmud Portfolio is often interpreted as one third real estate, one third stocks, and one third bonds. Many commentators have back tested a US version, but Bogle and I argue it should be viewed in a global perspective, which is actually not that divergent from estimates of the value of all global investment assets (which I discusses in more depth in Chapter 13 of The Peaceful Investor). A perfect person to shed some light on this topic is Sal Litvak at Accidental Talmudist, where he posts content daily on the Talmud for his over 1 million followers. We recorded a discusssion on the topic and it is now posted on his web site and you can watch it here. We discuss some background on the Talmud, what we can learn from this specific quote (which has multiple translatons in English), and how we can use it in the modern world. The Talmud Portfolio may be the first recorded wealth recommendation, predates common benchmarks like 60/40, and perhaps for many investors is a better default. It is relatively easy to replicate and I am in the process of developing a very low cost and simple way for investors to invest in the Talmud Portfolio. If you are interested drop me an email (host at investorhome dot com).
5/27/2020	I will be presenting a webinar on June 4 for AAII’s Los Angeles chapter on the topic of Real Estate vs. Stocks: Which is the Better Long-Term Investment?. There is a no upfront charge, but donations are encouraged. If you are interested, you can RSVP here. A condensed version of my article from last week is posted today at HumbleDollar. Check out Betting on Bricks (Jonathan's title and editing improvements).
5/22/2020	I haven't posted Chapter 16 about Real Estate for Long Term Investing of my The Peaceful Investor online, but I have just posted a long discussion about REITs and why they are under represented in many investors portfolios. More on the topic to follow, but for now you can read my commentary The Case for Overweighting REITS.
3/16/2020	The coronavirus is a tragedy. But we have to look forward and the stock market is always attempting to discount the future. It's been an extremely difficult month for investment markets and today the US stock market was down about 11%, or about 30% below the high last month. I was standing next to the trading room on Black Monday (which was still the worst day for the US stock market on a percentage basis), I was getting ready to go to the airport on 9/11, and I have also written extensively about the global financial crisis. So I've seen panic and learned from those experiences. All those experiences are screaming out, that this is now turning into an investment opportunity, and there is going to be a major recovery. Have we hit bottom? Maybe - maybe not. But there are now so many good values in investment markets, that I think current buyers are going to be happy three months and three years from now. Selling long term investments that have dropped sharply is the opposite of a logical rebalancing strategy. I wouldn't advise huge moves, but history and the projected short-term impact of this crisis/health tragedy imply it will be beneficial to buy undervalued assets in times like this. Most investors have historically bought and sold at the wrong times, and I summarized that history in Chapter 11 (Bad Timing & Performance Gaps) of my book The Peaceful Investor. In chapter 26 I echo the statements of several others that crisis = opportunity (I was also highly skeptical of crypto-currencies). I've posted those two chapters and several others online.
3/9/2020	I've posted a page with links to Coronavirus resources, along with some of my thoughts. There are some excellent websites for keeping updated and learning more about this virus and how it is impacting the world. Many cite the Johns Hopkins Map, but Worldometer's Updates are also interesting and this Singapore website is particularly noteworthy for its content and transparency.
2/13/2020	I'm honored to be collaborating with former WSJ columnist Jonathan Clements at his site HumbleDollar. See my article Performance comes and goes, but costs roll on forever (the title is from Jack Bogle). At the end of last year, my daughter was binge watching Friends before its run on Netflix came to an end. One of the classic episodes featured a classic Phoebe quote "They don't know that we know they know we know." It reminds me of what is going on with risk factors/market anomalies and in particular value stock investing. Check out my post Who Knows? I mention cryptocurrencies in chapters eight and 27 of my book The Peaceful Investor, but I wanted to go into a little more depth about cryptocurrencies, so I've posted a few pages including Reasons to Buy Cryptocurrencies, My Bitcoin related purchase, and a page about Cybercash.
1/8/2020	I'm pleased to finally announce that my book "The Peaceful Investor" is available at Amazon. The web site for the book is Peacefulinvestor.com and I've made about half the book including the first ten chapters available online at http://investorhome.com/peaceful-investor/. Many of the online chapters include additional graphics and material, and I've posted all of the notes and links for the whole book, so those that buy the book can easily access all the references and material. I've been reviewing investment books since 1996 when I originally signed up with Amazon's Associate program. In a new post (and video) about The Top Five Investment Books That I Recommend, I summarize what I consider to be the best overall investment books and discuss how the investment industry has evolved since many of the classics were first published. I also discuss (in the 2nd part of the video) how The Peaceful Investor expands on the primary lessons from those books and weaves in recent developments in investment products and services. In 1997 I started blogging about the battle between Vanguard and Fidelity for the largest mutual fund. In 2000 Vanguard's index fund took that title from Magellan. Since then passive management and index funds have continued to expand and increase their market share relative to active managers and funds. In the new post (and video) I discuss Why Index Funds are Killing Active Funds. Freebies, Falling Fees, and Fines & what do icebergs have to do with investing? is another new post discussing some recent developments in the investment business, like free trading at the major discount brokers, a fine for the firm that started the free trading wave, falling costs at some of the biggest fund companies, and the big picture of investment costs.
3/7/2019	I was a little too optimistic last year about when I would be updating this web site (OK, maybe a lot). It's taken longer than I expected to complete the book that I have been working on for many years. As a result, I neglected updating this site as frequently as I should have. But now that I am nearly finished with the book, its time to update and refresh InvestorHome. Jack Bogle passed away on January 16, 2019. There have been many, many tributes, but I wanted to add my thoughts on the enormous impact Bogle had. I've created a few pages with links to many of the articles and commentary, as well videos, audio interviews, and quotes about Bogle. See Tributes to Jack Bogle and Jack Bogle's Legacy. I had been planning to modernize the site, but Bogle preached simple and cheap, so at least for now, I'm keeping everything in simple html. Last year, NYU, MIT, and the CFA Institute held a conference focusing on the 10-year anniversary of the Global Financial Crisis. At this link on the CFA website you can watch the many sessions. I was intrigued by Antoinette Schoar's 21 minute presentation and Andrew Lo's 15 minute intro should be particularly interesting for those following these crisis narratives Crisis was all about subprime mortgage lending Policy and lower lending standards were at fault Bankers didn't have enough skin in the game No one saw this coming Devotion to market efficiency caused the crisis Changes in SEC regulation allowed huge increases in leverage 2019 has been a good year for investors so far, but 2018 was a disappointing year for most investors. Stock indexes dropped and most bond funds generally had losses as interest rates rose. Investing in the S&P 500 resulted in a more than -4% loss, while US equity mutual funds were even weaker, and international stock funds generally had even larger losses (see Morningstar's Data). In other words, most investors had negative returns for the year from their investments, plus their costs added to those losses. I'll be elaborating on that in my forthcoming book.
1/1/2018	Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and peaceful 2018. I plan to update much of the site and add some new features over the next few months, so feel free to check back here every once in awhile or follow me on Twitter. 2017 was another good year for most investors. Stocks did better than most expected with international stocks and emerging market indexes in particular outperformed U.S. stocks. Despite the expected increases in interest rates by the Federal Reserve, the 10-year Treasury note interest rate actually ended the year at 2.409%, down from 2.446% at the end of 2016 (per the WSJ).