Insights on markets, emergent trends, history, innovation, risk management, global economics, strategy, policy, and other topics that catch our attention. Inspired by ongoing research, conversations and events. Written and edited by Osbon Capital Management and published every Thursday morning.
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2024 will bring more positive novel surprises. New years always do. In 2023, it was the dramatic acceleration in AI, which touches nearly every industry, and the early stages of an answer to the obesity epidemic with GLP-1s. Here is a list of what’s on our minds going into 2024.
4 Ways To Ease Your Investment Fears
Investors prone to worry can find plenty to be fearful about during this third week in August. Fear is a real emotion that demands attention and understanding. It does NOT require drastic investment action. Here are 4 ways you can live with your investment fears…
What is the Penalty Economy?
The penalty economy’s objective is to guide people into paying more than they intend when they are confused, distracted or too busy to care. It’s not necessarily illegal or even unethical. Have you been spending money in the penalty economy?
The New Philanthropy Page
Charity is a basic human instinct. The desire to help others with money, time or talent is wired into our very selves. With that in mind, we’re pleased to announce this morning the new Osbon Capital philanthropy page.
What are Anti-Goals?
Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s longtime business partner, has said, “A lot of success in life comes from knowing what you want to avoid: early death, bad marriage, etc.” Charlie was talking about a problem solving technique called “inversion.” We use the term “anti-goals.” Either way, focusing on what you want to avoid is a very powerful tool.
Decathlon Raises $100k for the kids
Over the weekend, Max and I participated in our favorite event of the year, the D10. It’s a decathlon for professionals from the financial industry and other fields. Dozens of us spent Saturday at the MIT track running, jumping, throwing and lifting. We love the competition and the cause. This year’s Boston event raised $100,000 for pediatric cancer.
Four Ways To Give Up Certainty
In the investment industry, “certainty” is typically defined in terms of a specific guaranteed return. For instance, savings accounts and US Treasury Bills offer certain (but low) returns. T-Bills are finally paying some interest now, a whopping .98% annually. Call it one percent, or $10,000 dollars on $1 million, essentially risk-free.
To Give or Not To Give
When asked what one of the bigger personal challenges a philanthropist faces, the answer often is “saying no when asked for funding, board participation, or a time commitment.” At The Philanthropy Workshop, where I am an alumna, we refer to this as the investment of our time, treasure, and talent.
Let the kids touch the money
Would you turn your family checkbook over to a twelve year-old kid? My mother did. It went better than you might expect.
A Peek at the Future
I spent the weekend at an invite-only financial regulation round table hosted by Jo Ann Barefoot, senior fellow at Harvard and a veteran of the financial regulation world. Jo Ann founded the Barefoot Innovation Group. Over the course of the weekend we discussed the symbiosis (interaction) of the old guard and the new in banking, lending, asset management and regtech (regulation technology). Here is what we learned.
