Investing & Finance

  “It is more rewarding to watch money change the world than to watch it accumulate.” –Gloria Steinem When you first start pursuing work that really lights you up, it’s super exciting and fulfilling. You can spend hours being lost in the flow of creating and building. It’s...

“One of the reasons people aren’t rich is because almost everyone has more excuses than money.” –Robert Kiyosaki If there’s one thing that holds us back from living our passions, it’s the almost debilitating fear of not being able to financially take care of ourselves (and...

confused optimism

"Why risk what you have and need for what you don't have and don't need?"

~Warren Buffett

A few weeks ago I was seduced...

I recently had lunch with a buddy of mine who finished business school and now is about two years into his investment banking career. As we indulged in some Chipotle, he casually mentioned the kinds of salaries some of his buddies were getting and how he was looking forward to his massive year-end payout. Mind you, these are the type of bonuses that can buy homes (or perhaps even small countries). All he had to do was put in the time and he was all but assured the golden check. That's when it hit me. Suddenly I caught myself thinking of how nice it would be to have what he 'had'. The seemingly certain paychecks, the consistency - It all sounded so freaking awesome. For a moment it felt worth trading for. Then I remembered how our lunch started... He explained how out of the last three weeks he'd had dinner with his wife once. He had been at the office for around 12-14 hours a day (except on weekends when he was lucky to only work 9-5). And his workout routine was about as consistent as his family dinner appearances. Many of his friends and co-workers spent 20% more than their monthly take - despite it being enough to buy that small country. The watches, the suits, the status, the dinners, the seemingly 'necessary' luxuries they'd gotten used to. All this added up - to a price I knew I wasn't willing to pay.

Written by: Scott Dinsmore Average Reading Time: 5 minutes For one day each year, any and all of us get the chance to listen to 6.5 hours of live questions and answers with Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger (and even ask one of your own if you're lucky). This year almost 40,000 people took advantage of the opportunity. I was one of them. As I was last year and the two years prior to that. The weekend has become an annual highlight that words cannot describe. Despite the fact that it's important for our business in the investment partnership my partner and I run, this is one of the best weekends of the year for learning about life and personal improvement. I love it. The topic of the day: Life Lessons.

Negotiating a Fixed Price Written by: Scott Dinsmore Average Reading Time: 5.5 minutes When was the last time you were shopping for a pair of jeans and you told the clerk, "you'll have to do better than that" after seeing the price? My life experience would say that none of you have.  For some reason we feel like the number on a price tag is set in stone when we go to most shops--retail, grocery, etc. Well I have news for you. 95% of the time it's not. Those storeowners are using the rule of legitimacy on us and it's working--because it's been written and printed, we assume it's their best offer. Let's change that assumption.