Spotlight

Spotlight: Stocks for the Long Run

May 1, 2020

One of Warren Buffett’s all-time great investments is Coca-Cola, and it just happens to be the stock Berkshire Hathaway has held the longest. There is no other holding that better exemplifies his investing skill, patience, and temperament than this one.

Buffett first started buying shares of Coca-Cola in 1988, and seemingly paid around $2.5 per share (adjusted) for his purchase. In 2019, the company paid a dividend of $1.6 per share, thus taking Buffett’s dividend yield from the stock to 64%!

Effectively, whether Coke’s stock goes up or down in any given year, Buffett is certainly earning his 64%.
[Read more…] about Spotlight: Stocks for the Long Run

Spotlight: 20 Ideas to Make 2020 a Life Changing Year – Part 4

April 7, 2020

This is the concluding part of the series I started at the beginning of this year.

As I compile my final thoughts on making 2020 a life-changing year, I realize that the recent events (coronavirus pandemic) have already made this year a life-changing one for almost everybody in the world.

Lifting my gaze a bit, the view from my 13th-floor window isn’t much different from what it was a few weeks ago. The sky is the same, albeit a little more clear. The tall apartments and artificial lights coming through the windows — look all the same. But for the people living inside, life has already taken an uncertain turn and the world isn’t going to be the same a few months down the line. By the time the iron grip is loosened, Covid-19 may have already left an indelible mark.

I was speaking to an ex-colleague who works as a director in the IT department of an airline company.

“We’ve already been slapped with a 60 percent pay cut,” he said.
[Read more…] about Spotlight: 20 Ideas to Make 2020 a Life Changing Year – Part 4

Spotlight: 20 Ideas to Make 2020 a Life Changing Year – Part 3

March 9, 2020

In this series, we’re discussing twenty great ideas to make 2020 a transformational year. In the previous two issues of Spotlight, I wrote about 11 powerful ideas.

What is an idea? It’s a catalyst for new thought.

So, through these ideas, I am offering you a different way of looking at the world. I can’t tell you what to do or how to do. But once you have a fresh perspective, the right action will follow from the new understanding. And that action will be very specific and unique to your situation.

Here are five more pieces for your reflection.
[Read more…] about Spotlight: 20 Ideas to Make 2020 a Life Changing Year – Part 3

Spotlight: 20 Ideas to Make 2020 a Life Changing Year – Part 2

February 18, 2020

In this series, we’re discussing twenty great ideas to make 2020 a truly life-changing year.

We covered some ground with six ideas in the previous post — the importance of deep work, the power of keeping a journal, the equation of risk and luck, the key to following your passion, poking the box, and developing a contrarian mindset.

Allow me to kindle a firework in your head with a few more mental constructs. My hope is that, if learned and re-learned, these ideas will make 2020 a transformational milestone in your life.

Spotlight: 20 Ideas to Make 2020 a Life Changing Year – Part 1

January 31, 2020

On December 31st, as I was scrolling through the new year’s wishes, a particular message caught my eye. It was from my favourite writer Derek Sivers. He has a way of adding jolting perspectives to mundane things. He wrote —

A new day begins when I wake up, not at midnight. Midnight means nothing to me. It’s not a turning point. Nothing changes at that moment. A new year begins when there’s a memorable change in my life. Not January 1st. Nothing changes on January 1st.

Your year really begins when you move to a new home, start school, quit a job, have a big breakup, have a baby, quit a bad habit, start a new project, or whatever else. Those are the real memorable turning points — where one day is very different than the day before. Those are the meaningful markers of time. Those are your real new years.