InvestED: The Rule #1 Investing Podcast

Despite all the mystique around investing, it essentially boils down to understanding the business you’re investing in and viewing it as owning a part of a real company, not just buying a stock. This tends to hold true no matter the company, the industry, or the state of the market as a whole. Few investors have understood this as well as Warren Buffett and his team at Berkshire Hathaway. With Mun...

Summer is here, and the season of barbecues, block parties, and swimming pools may actually have more to offer for your investing practice than just a nice break from sitting in front of the computer. In this week’s truncated “tidbit episode,” Danielle reminds us that every conversation can be an opportunity to dig a bit deeper into an unfamiliar subject, and that a good value investor keeps their...

The market is a thrilling arena for investors in the internet age. Due to the previously unimaginable connectivity afforded to the public by the internet and social media, we’ve seen coordinated efforts by online investors who’ve used message boards to engineer short squeezes against hedge funds, like with the highly-publicized story surrounding GameStop. A short squeeze occurs when investors bett...

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The world’s best investing minds have made fortunes that most people can barely dream of in their lifetimes, but having a successful portfolio doesn’t require the highest IQ, an office full of analysts, or access to top secret information. Understanding your own strengths and being able to identify the fields that are of interest to you are crucial components of a fruitful investing practice, and...

InvestED Episode #467: More Ulta Issues As investors the world over grapple with the rapidly changing financial landscape, where ETFs, meme stocks, and cryptocurrencies are all carving out their own space in a well-established ecosystem, how do value investors gauge the future of a business? While some might see these changes as a massive disruption to the market at large, there are others who, fr...

The digital age, with all of its monopolies and consolidation across various markets, has also seen a rise in innovation and small companies seeing success by having unprecedented access to consumers through new channels of commerce and communication. With market stability and consumer confidence taking hits in recent years, small luxuries like makeup continue to do well despite the struggles of l...

How important is investing to the economy at large? While companies don’t see a direct increase on their bottom line from the secondary market, it can be very important in helping to determine the value of a business and the drive interest in the primary market. For value investors, having a strong understanding of a business’s weather, i.e. their moat, competitive advantage, and other factors tha...

A crystal ball would be the ultimate tool for any investor, but given that we’re not living in a fantasy world, how do top investors prepare for an uncertain future? With the inevitability of market downturns, finding a balance between generating returns and being ready to strike when the iron is hot can be a tricky position to navigate.  Discovering that equilibrium, along with the patience to ho...

Here’s a scenario: you’ve identified a potential investment, you’ve gone through the checklist and done your research, and you decide that you’ve found a deal that other people seem to be overlooking.  You pull the trigger to buy into this company, and then the stock price begins to decline and you begin to wonder if you’ve made a mistake. Knowing the difference between having confidence in your i...

Free cash flow can be a golden ticket in the hands of a company with the right leadership. They can use it to supercharge innovation, expand their reach, or reward shareholders with dividends or buybacks, and for value investors, it’s like spotting a diamond in the rough. After the growth and maintenance expenditures are accounted for, the way a company deploys its additional capital can signal th...

As detailed in the most recent edition of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder letter, finding success in value investing doesn’t require fancy credentials, obsessive research, or exploitative scheming — it takes common sense and the willingness to keep yourself informed about your investments. In a world full of people rabidly vying for your attention in every imaginable arena, knowing how to...

“Character reveals itself in adversity” is a saying that can not only apply to the human race and how our true nature shines through when faced with a challenge, but also one that can apply in the business world. Although brand loyalty can be a common trope in 21st century consumer culture, how does that sentiment hold up when the rubber meets the road? In these times of inflation, shrinkflation,...

In a vault episode from the early days of the podcast, explore the world of value investing in this as Phil and Danielle delve into the power of dividends. Discover how making well-researched, long-term investments can potentially amplify returns and provide a steady income stream. They discuss the strategy of reducing risk by 'getting your money off the table' through dividend-producing companies...

"Invert, always invert" — Charlie Munger To become a top-notch Rule #1 investor, having a well-defined investing strategy is essential. It starts with crafting a compelling narrative for the company you're eyeing and understanding why it's a stellar investment. But here's the twist: flip that narrative on its head and scrutinize the opposing viewpoint. Challenge yourself to construct a case agains...

In the practice of value investing, just like with so many other things in life, knowing when to wait patiently or when to jump ship is critical to the long-term success of your portfolio. Being able to stomach market fluctuations isn’t something that everyone is capable of, but the mindset of buying into a business with long-term goals of generating cash flow means buying with the confidence that...

Is there a limit to how much an investor should know about a potential investment? While it can seem like there’s an infinite amount of relevant considerations for any given business, the ability to discern the difference between important information and extraneous data is an indispensable tool in the investor’s kit. If jumping into the deep end of the S&P 500 seems like a daunting proposition, k...

Last week, the episode was centered around a tool for evaluating potential investments based on the myriad factors impacting their current performance and future trajectories, a topic that our hosts dubbed “the weather” of a business. While having a handle on a company’s worth and a clear gauge on one’s own understanding are both vital in making investment decisions, what other factors can—or shou...

The 21st century has brought the world a number of revolutionary developments that have turned the world on its head, with one of the most important cultural shifts being the rise of the attention economy. With so many entities all vying for a piece of your time, how can you know when you’re spending too much of that limited resource on your investing research? With decades of investing experience...

Following up on last week’s discussion about the “weather” of a business, or how the climate of various internal and external factors can influence the long-term success of your prospective investment. With so much data available at our fingertip, how can we know what information is useful for research and what can safely be left out of our analyses? Whether you’re looking into a company’s direct...

For our first full episode of the new year, Phil and Danielle are reunited to talk about the various factors of a business’s climate that can help better understand where their weather will take them in the future. From government overregulation to corporate mismanagement, there are risks inherent to investing that we can identify and include in our analysis for a more complete picture of the econ...

As we get all of our 2024 ducks in a row, Danielle checks in to share some positive vibes for the upcoming year and offer a quick toast to prosperity and successful investing in 2024. While it's a short break from our regular programming, it's a moment to celebrate the journey we've taken together and the exciting opportunities that lie ahead. To start your new year by planning for the ones to com...

Happy 2024 to all InvestED listeners! While our hosts enjoy the holidays, we’re opening a year by going back to January of 2022 for a discussion about interest rates. With word of rate cuts on the horizon, how different are things now from when inflation was still climbing rapidly? Understanding the Federal Reserve's interest rate maneuvers and their correlation with inflation is vitally important...

On this bittersweet episode of InvestED, Phil and Danielle come together after taking some time to reflect on the impact of Charlie Munger, both in the financial world as well as in their own personal lives and investing journeys. The loss of such a magnanimous figure will surely leave a void in the value investing community, but as Li Lu penned in his eulogy for Munger (link below), the man’s con...

We dig deep into the vault this week, going all the way back to 2018 to revisit one of our Charlie Munger-centric episodes. Phil and Danielle delve into the lesser-known strategies of the late great “Abominable No-Man,” revealing the hidden gems that can transform an ordinary investment portfolio into a stellar one. Join us as we explore the wisdom of investment gurus, uncover the power of "cannib...