Drew Boswell

Comments:

• Your words about Jack Bogle's drive and how "striving is never truly ending" stand out in this piece. Ask a runner about the race he's just run and no matter how well he did he won't care all that much about it. We see the same thing with boxers, who routinely use the first exuberant moments after a win to stand sweating in the ring and issue a loud challenge to their next opponent. The opponent vanquished is forgotten immediately and the focus moves to the next fight. If we do it right, there always is a next fight, or at least something to be curious about, something to begin, even if we're not certain we can finish it.

  Post: Never Quite Enough

  Link to comment from September 21, 2024

• JEPI did what it was supposed to for me in 2022. It was touted as less volatile than the market and it lived up to that. I've kept it in my portfolio, though at less than 5 percent. Its returns have been okay but obviously lag S&P or total market index funds in 2023 and 2024. I'll continue to hold it for now. One point I'm not sure is addressed is JEPI's risk. Compared to bonds, JEPI is much riskier, both because it's a stock fund, but also because of the ELNs from which it gets the majority of its payout. Those have manager risk - we have to hope the fund's managers sell sensible options at a good price - and they also have counter-party risk, mainly the banks and other institutions buying those options. J.P. Morgan mitigates some of that risk by spreading it around amongst more than one entity, but it's still there. So the bottom line is that JEPI can't really be considered a bond substitute because the risk profile is completely different (much riskier). Does the yield make up for the risk? That's a good question.

  Post: JEPI as a Bond Substitute? Don Quixote Confronts the Windmills by Steve Abramowitz

  Link to comment from August 29, 2024

• Another reason to distribute cash to shareholders is that I can do more with it FOR ME than the company can. As a recent example there's Apple's foray into the self-driving car business. They exited after a number of years where the company spent billions and produced...nothing of value. They could have set the money on fire and achieved the same thing. I'd much rather have Apple send that money to shareholders than waste it on unproductive activities that don't add value, that in fact detract from the company's value. I can't always do something better with a company's profits than its management can, but the reverse is also true.

  Post: Yielding No Advantage

  Link to comment from August 29, 2024

• One of my best purchases recently has been a Kindle. Using the Libby app I'm able to check out ebooks from various libraries and indulge my curiosity for free. It helps to actually schedule reading time daily, both so I block out time to do it and conversely so I don't read too much at the expense of doing other things like exercising. I find myself drawn to history and biography these days and feel like I'm filling in gaps in my knowledge (boy, there are a lot of gaps).

  Post: Still Learning

  Link to comment from August 24, 2024

• "Purportedly low-probability events seem to happen with surprising frequency." Indeed. That's the lesson I took from reading Benoit Mandelbrot's "The (Mis)Behavior of Markets." I'm not smart enough to really understand everything in the book, but his point that markets are riskier than we think is worth contemplating.

  Post: The Risks We Miss

  Link to comment from July 13, 2024

• The short answer: Starlink isn't perfect but it beats the alternatives here. Longer answer: Like you we live in a rural area (of Georgia). There is no hard wired internet service available here at any price. DSL and other high speed connections do not exist. Even something like a Mifi from Verizon is punishingly expensive for slow, data-capped service that is not adequate for streaming TV even at reduced quality. There is no fiber optic cable anywhere within miles of us, so it's satellite or nothing. We used Hughesnet for several years but their service was too slow for streaming and data-capped besides. In contrast Starlink is very impressive now that it's finally here. My brother signed up for it when it was first announced in our area and then spent over TWO YEARS on the waiting list before finally getting his system shipped. Mine came a couple of months after my brother's system, but I didn't order until after I'd seen his in action, so I wasn't actually on the waiting list even though I was waiting for availability like he was. Now that we finally have Starlink we wonder how we lived without it. It's not perfect, but it's stupid easy to set up and the equipment just works; no fiddling around with settings (unless you really, really want to). It's quite literally plug and play simple to use. I wish it would cost less, but unlike everything else, it's actually available now and it works.

  Post: Favoring Fiber

  Link to comment from June 24, 2024

• Jonathan, In 2016 throat cancer taught me that we all have the same life expectancy: one. One life is what we get. I believe you have used yours well and I also believe you will continue to do so, perhaps longer than you know. Trust your medical care team and trust yourself. And excuse the vulgarity, but fuck cancer!

  Post: The C Word

  Link to comment from June 15, 2024

• Completing the AT four times is an impressive achievement. While I've got no burning desire to thru-hike it, I started section hiking the trail in 2023, going about 250 miles in two separate trips. Section hiking is appealing because of the continuous anticipation. If I do about ten percent a year, I'll have ten years of fun planning and executing these hiking adventures while not being away from my family for more than a few weeks, rather than the months long separation required by a thru-hike.

  Post: Road Less Traveled

  Link to comment from March 27, 2024

• Numbers two and three are top of the heap. It's amazing how the knowledge that one COULD buy something satisfies the urge to actually buy it.

  Post: What Lies Beneath

  Link to comment from February 24, 2024

• Good, thought provoking article, Jonathan. Cancer can force the type of assessment you wrote about above regarding George Kinder. Making it through treatment to ring the bell will rearrange priorities, and I'm very grateful for the unimportant, non-renowned, rich in small experiences life I've chosen to live now. When one faces mortality, the pursuit of more money drops a few notches in importance. It seems an appropriate perspective.

  Post: Forget Me Not

  Link to comment from February 17, 2024