Investing Mastermind Podcast

Signe and Michelle discussed the rise of ghost kitchens, their benefits and drawbacks, and whether investors should consider studying this evolving restaurant innovation as a prospective investment opportunity.

Diversification may be thought of as "Di-worse-fication" according to legendary investors like Charlie Munger or Peter Lynch. We explain misconceptions with the popular financial advice to "diversify" your assets, but what does this really mean? People are not necessarily diversified enough within a country or asset types, so there are many factors to consider. The best investors like Warren Buffett prefer to have high concentration in a few assets, which could still have some amount of diversification but not an overwhelming amount. Different strategies work for different mindsets as the "know-nothing" investor may be better off with a Buffett recommendation in a low-cost S&P 500 index fund.

In the prior episode we discussed our biggest beginner investing mistakes, and now we describe how to recover from these mistakes. Just because you may have "lost" money by investing in a certain security does not mean you have to make it back the same way. It's OK to make a mistake as long as we learn from them and try our best to not make them again! The important thing is to forgive yourself and move forward!

Both Michelle and Signe have made plenty of beginner investing mistakes, so we're sharing those lessons learned along with ones we've observed others also make. While it's less emotionally and financially painful to learn vicariously from others' investing mistakes, sometimes we also need to experience our own mistakes in order to truly grow.

We're sharing our life-changing epiphanies about investing, reflecting on our financial journeys so far where we had some "ah ha" moments and extraordinary experiences. This is how we ended up where we are today as Warren Buffett-style investors. Signe and Michelle share their stories, so we hope you enjoy this episode!

Michelle and Signe discuss the types of stocks and assets we avoid investing in. Warren Buffett-style investors usually avoid Initial Public Offering (IPO) stocks because they just don't have much of a public company track record yet, in spite of Berkshire Hathaway investing in Snowflake recently. Another area we steer clear of are industries that are going through disruption, such as the payments/financial industry. And more!

Threads made its worldwide debut and is taking on Twitter. Signe and Michelle discuss how its name sounds like "threats," which we're guessing Meta Instagram did on purpose. We discuss Threads' impact on the stock market so far and factors investors should consider. Will Zuckerberg defeat Musk in this quest for "town square" app greatness?

In today's episode we discuss the very first steps we take before we invest in a company or its stock. Signe and Michelle have slightly different first steps we take. For example, Michelle will check out the stock price in a quick Google search while Signe will check financial numbers first like Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), Return on Equity (ROE), and debt. In addition, Signe has a tool where she quickly calculates these figures. Michelle also likes to use a spreadsheet to conduct a preliminary or initial company valuation before doing even deeper research. As a little bonus, we talked about gaming stocks!

Signe and Michelle discuss how to find stocks to put on our wish list, whether it is intended for buying or simply watching. There can be both a wish or a watch list depending on how much research we have conducted and whether we have made a final valuation decision on a given stock. We explain how you might come across companies of interest. During this episode we referred to a few prior episodes that you can feel free to check out:

-Checklist starting at episode 8: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/finding-companies-in-your-circle-of-competence-part-1-008/id1654230975?i=1000596249934

-13F Filings episode 27: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-find-out-what-stocks-superinvestors-are-buying/id1654230975?i=1000615842563

-Matthew Peterson episode 28: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/matthew-peterson-of-peterson-capital-management/id1654230975?i=1000616807735

Many Big Tech Stocks have been going up alongside the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), but is it legit or just all hype? Is AI truly impacting business meaningfully, or is there more that remains to be proven? Signe and Michelle discuss AI's implications for investors. We also make reference to a previous episode, How To Find Out What Stocks Superinvestors Are Buying - 13F Equity Holdings, that you can check out here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-find-out-what-stocks-superinvestors-are-buying/id1654230975?i=1000615842563