Mark, your story reminded me of something I read that Charlie Munger of Berkshire used to say. Property insurance is only for catastrophic losses and as one’s personal wealth increases, one can consider self insurance. This is exactly what he did with an extensive real estate portfolio despite being the Vice Chair of Berkshire (Geico). Albeit, Charlie was in a personal financial league of his own, but it certainly is akin to increasing deductibles or at least worth considering as one likely will never make a claim below a certain material loss that one won’t / can’t absorb.
Dan, this is such an important topic one cannot emphasize it enough. Besides the time value / time in market, there are innumerable incredibly stupid decisions / errors in investing one makes. It has only taken me 35 years to realize or should I say appreciate my errors in investing. Today I am more than 100% secure and fine or fortunately one could say financially successful, but I do sometimes wish I had Joe’s advisor by my side early in my investing journey .
I personally enjoyed the Guiness Book of World Records as a child / young adult in the 70’s. Every year I would patiently wait to see what updates there were.
Excellent post Mark. I would also curiosity. I have noticed this with my grand nephews who are 9 and 11 - both avid readers. Besides their ability to comprehend concepts faster and articulate their thoughts coherently, they have developed a great sense of curiosity just from reading and enjoying it.
Very clearly explained. The question really is can one achieve a similar outcome as a TIP’s using a nominal treasury ladder say 1 - 5 years without the volatility of a long dated TIP’s strategy? I appreciate it’s not an apples to apples comparison but I suspect with duration risk being kept very short (i.e. 2 to 2.5 years), a nominal treasury ladder with frequent maturity can give one a similar outcome as holding a long dated TIP’s ladder with reduced volatility.
Javier, I retired about 2 years ago. Until recently I managed all our family investments etc largely focused on simple index ETF’s. I immensely enjoyed reading about investments, legal tax strategies, etc. and managing our portfolio’s. About 5 months ago, we outsourced all our assets to a money management / planning firm. We did this simply to protect my spouse in the event something happened to me. She has very little interest in managing money. From this perspective (which was our key motivator) it has so far been a very good and useful experience. In terms of actually presenting interesting ideas - there hasn’t been much. I’m not pointing at the manager as I’m still quite hands on and insists on keeping 90% of our portfolio simple and boring. Having said all this, the primary objective has been achieved and in our case there is value in these services outside day to day management!
An important investment lesson here for sure. My only thought is are you really diversified and is FOMO relevant? Looking at a couple of EM ETF’s recently that classify South Korea and Taiwan as EM’s (MSCI), these funds are now nearly 50% semi-conductor/chips. Very similar to the S&P500. So not sure if one is missing anything !
Comments
Mark, your story reminded me of something I read that Charlie Munger of Berkshire used to say. Property insurance is only for catastrophic losses and as one’s personal wealth increases, one can consider self insurance. This is exactly what he did with an extensive real estate portfolio despite being the Vice Chair of Berkshire (Geico). Albeit, Charlie was in a personal financial league of his own, but it certainly is akin to increasing deductibles or at least worth considering as one likely will never make a claim below a certain material loss that one won’t / can’t absorb.
Post: To Claim or Not to Claim, That Is the Question
Link to comment from October 29, 2026
Dan, this is such an important topic one cannot emphasize it enough. Besides the time value / time in market, there are innumerable incredibly stupid decisions / errors in investing one makes. It has only taken me 35 years to realize or should I say appreciate my errors in investing. Today I am more than 100% secure and fine or fortunately one could say financially successful, but I do sometimes wish I had Joe’s advisor by my side early in my investing journey .
Post: The Time Value of Money
Link to comment from October 25, 2026
I personally enjoyed the Guiness Book of World Records as a child / young adult in the 70’s. Every year I would patiently wait to see what updates there were.
Post: A Million Words to a Million Dollars?
Link to comment from October 17, 2026
Excellent post Mark. I would also curiosity. I have noticed this with my grand nephews who are 9 and 11 - both avid readers. Besides their ability to comprehend concepts faster and articulate their thoughts coherently, they have developed a great sense of curiosity just from reading and enjoying it.
Post: A Million Words to a Million Dollars?
Link to comment from October 16, 2026
Very clearly explained. The question really is can one achieve a similar outcome as a TIP’s using a nominal treasury ladder say 1 - 5 years without the volatility of a long dated TIP’s strategy? I appreciate it’s not an apples to apples comparison but I suspect with duration risk being kept very short (i.e. 2 to 2.5 years), a nominal treasury ladder with frequent maturity can give one a similar outcome as holding a long dated TIP’s ladder with reduced volatility.
Post: Feeling TIPSy?
Link to comment from August 22, 2026
Javier, I retired about 2 years ago. Until recently I managed all our family investments etc largely focused on simple index ETF’s. I immensely enjoyed reading about investments, legal tax strategies, etc. and managing our portfolio’s. About 5 months ago, we outsourced all our assets to a money management / planning firm. We did this simply to protect my spouse in the event something happened to me. She has very little interest in managing money. From this perspective (which was our key motivator) it has so far been a very good and useful experience. In terms of actually presenting interesting ideas - there hasn’t been much. I’m not pointing at the manager as I’m still quite hands on and insists on keeping 90% of our portfolio simple and boring. Having said all this, the primary objective has been achieved and in our case there is value in these services outside day to day management!
Post: The Quiet Failure of Good Advice
Link to comment from May 31, 2026
An important investment lesson here for sure. My only thought is are you really diversified and is FOMO relevant? Looking at a couple of EM ETF’s recently that classify South Korea and Taiwan as EM’s (MSCI), these funds are now nearly 50% semi-conductor/chips. Very similar to the S&P500. So not sure if one is missing anything !
Post: The World’s Least Useful Financial Adviser
Link to comment from May 29, 2026