The Roadmap to success and investing!

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Don’t doubt me. No, don’t. Again, guys, I’m sorry. I apologize. I’ve been out for the past couple of days and I’ll explain to you why a little bit later. Not today, maybe next week. But anyway, neither here nor there, don’t doubt me. I spent a lot of the past couple of days because I’ve had the time on my hands to respond to people’s emails and queries about what’s going on in the markets and…

Again, a lot of CI told you so moments. When I say don’t doubt me, I’m not claiming credit, but claiming credit for the magic formula. The magic formula, which has led our investors over the past three decades to do well in the calls that we’ve made. These are simple rules of the universe that we try to get across again and again and again. And when this,

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wrote a column, was supposed two and a half years ago talking about the storms ahead that we saw due to all of the government money printing and what was taking place in the easy money policies. And we were gonna run into a bit of a rough patch. Call that warning people in regards to doing things, how to position one’s portfolio, understanding that storms and corrections happen and you need to handle them a certain way. Not too long ago, we told you what happens. Everybody’s still, still high as.

in search of recession, Leonard Nimoy, everybody’s looking for when the recession is going to come. When’s it going to come? And then you get the GDP report, and then you get earnings coming in. And what do we tell you? What good companies do? Many of my clients, they understand this. I’ve had a large swath of our client base are small business owners in a myriad of different businesses. When you see slowdowns, when you see, okay, times might get a little bit tighter.

The economy’s getting a little bit tougher. You know what we gotta do? We gotta go through. We gotta go through and we gotta clean house a little bit, find greater efficiencies. Where can we save money? Where, what has been working? What hasn’t been working? It’s almost, it kind of forces you to kind of get your company back into shape where you might’ve gotten lazy. You know, human beings, we do this after, a lot of, many human beings do this after the holidays.

They say, oh, geez, I get on a scale and they’re looking at me, oh, schnikes, boy, I a little bit overdid it here. You know, it’s time to get my butt back in shape. Companies do the same things. Companies get lazy. Nothing makes a company more lazy than easy money, cheap money. And we told you what good companies were gonna do. We told you good companies are gonna go through and they’re gonna start firing people.

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They’re gonna start firing people, they’re gonna start cutting costs, and it’s the right thing to do. I can’t, I would, we made fun of this here on the podcast, on the radio show, all of these college students, oh my God, high five in one another, gloating online about their six figure jobs, working at Silicon Valley, working from home in their pajamas.

and their slippers and walking their golden doodles a couple hours a day. What do we tell you? We’re making fun. So enjoy it while it lasts. Enjoy it while it lasts because it’s not going to. It’s not going to. Here’s a reality check. And I take this outside of the investment world. I’ve explained this and I do this when I talk to, I lecture kids on life and jobs and all this good stuff, which I like to do.

treat every single job you’re gonna get in your life like it’s your company, like it’s your business and add value every single day. If that’s the case, you’re not gonna get fired. You want a surefire way that you are not gonna get fired for from your job, okay? Or unless you do something really out of the ordinary, stupid, again, make money for the company. You bring in more money, more business

You create greater value for that company than what they’re spending on you. You ain’t going anywhere. You ain’t going anywhere. They’re gonna encourage you. That’s what they’re going to do. And you saw all of these companies treating human beings during the whole COVID thing. We gotta hire as many people as we possibly can. And you gotta give a bit to Elon Musk there. He takes over Twitter, kinda rip that bandaid off.

going through like Ari Emanuel and Entourage. You’re fired, you’re fired, you’re fired, you’re fired, you’re fired, you’re fired, you’re fired. Again, the company’s still working. Take a look at the layoffs across tech. They’re all still operating.

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Yeah, as a shareholder in many of these companies, it pissed me off at the time. I, why are you hiring all these people? You’re just going to fire them anyway. You’re just going to fire them anyway. I mean, why don’t you bring people on? They’re going to actually create some value. Anyway, I, it kind of reminds me. Do you remember the, uh, the movie office space office spaces, you know, back during the, they made the movie during the whole.com run up tech era 19, late 1990s.

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and company, Inatech was the name of the company, and they brought in consultants, and all the workers of the company freaking out. Uh-oh, they brought in consultants means they’re gonna be firing people, the Bobs. They brought the Bobs in, and they were doing interviews with employees, and it was funny how some of the interviews went, and in the movie, you’d sit in there, and they would explain what they did over the course of the day, which is basically nothing. There was a line that the Bobs gave, is it, what exactly do you say you do here?

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And again, if you can’t answer that question, you answer that question, you’re going. You’re going, you gotta have a reason for your existence. There’s a story in the Wall Street Journal. Google is all about cost control now.

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Yeah, yeah, easy money days are over. It’s about cost control for all companies. And again, this is, again, when I talk about slowdowns in the economy, whether it be a recession, whether it be no more easy money, it’s, again, it’s all about recessions, they were called recessions, whatever, when even though we’re not in one, acting as almost like the lymphatic system of the human body. You’re getting rid of the gunk.

You’re going through and you’re saying, okay, where do I need to do, what do we need to do a better job? Where we need to become more efficient? And the companies that do that, good companies that do that, the ones you should have in your portfolio, some companies are gonna screw up at certain things, there’s no doubt about that. It’s how you deal with those errors, how you deal with those mistakes and how you come out on the other side. That’s what’s key. Again, let’s get back to the world of investing. Can I talk about those are the companies

that you need to own. Again, I’ve talked about this for a while when it comes to not being the proverbial pig as an investor. And I wanna get into this again. Again, I know I cover a lot of this on the radio show as well. I always bring up Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid, the first Karate Kid movie. He’s teaching Daniel Son. Daniel is intrigued by the bonsai trees that he’s got.

and how he takes care of them. And he shows them, picture three. Picture your life. What do you want? Same thing. Cut here, snip there. And that’s what you need to do with your portfolio. That’s what you need to do with your portfolio. This is why we focus on fundamentally sound companies, even fundamentally sound companies make mistakes as.

did as Amazon did as many of these companies did, spending way too much money on nonsense. But they’re fixing it. They’re fixing it, their ability to change direction and deal with those errors and change ups in the market. I saw this, there was a story talking about Microsoft. Getting back to my cut here, snip there.

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in a story talking about Microsoft 10 years ago. If you invested $1,000 into Microsoft a year ago, your investment is worth 1,100 today. 1,005 years ago, it’s $3,200 today. 10 years ago, $9,800. That’s all well and good, but Microsoft over the past 10 years has been doing really smart things. Prior to that, I mean, again, way back in the day,

They were killing it. Remember they wanted to break up Microsoft? Think about that. They wanted to break up Microsoft. It was antitrust. They wouldn’t get rid of Microsoft because it was become too powerful. Until again, Microsoft got lazy. Got lazy. Its operating system started to suck. Remember Windows 2000. I mean, it was brutal. The crap they were putting out. We dumped the stock for a long period of time. Long period I assist. The Steve Ballmer years weren’t good ones for Microsoft.

But again, they were in such a position where they could ride out those mistakes for a period of time, even though the stock didn’t do anything. I just wasn’t sticking with it when I didn’t believe in management and the fundamentals weren’t any good. Again, when I talk about cutting here and snipping there, the need to tend to one’s portfolio, kind of like Mr. Miyagi tending to his bonsai tree. And I saw this story. It kind of goes along with.

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all of the picks and all of the pundits that I make fun of all the time. I call a young lady. I just got to be we got to be at the same age. I don’t know how old she was. She used to be. I mean, she’s still on a lot. She is the chief Charles Schwab strategist out there. And I. Years ago anyway, she’s an attractive lady, this Lizanne Saunders. And

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back in the day, I remember their outfits that she wore, making fun of this on the radio show decades ago. She reminded me of a sorority on campus when I was back in college, back at Syracuse, there’s Kappa Kappa Gamma, which is called Kappa Kappa Catholic. She’d always have their little uniform on with the pearls and all that stuff, but she was a regular. I mean, she was on all the time.

She’d always they don’t be going to Liz and Saunders what her what she’s seen for the markets. What’s she going to do? and Again, I made fun of it back then but again she is I guess she’s seen the the Markowski investments Light I’m glad to see that there’s I am She she’s come out and she admitted that she sees little value

and Wall Street’s year-end S&P 500 forecast for individual investors and for those advocating long-term investing principles. Holy crap, you’re not gonna see much of Liz anymore on TV because she’s not doing buy, sell or hold anymore. She’s on from time to time, but not like she used to. Again, Liz Saunders has exercise the demons and she’s doing things the right way now.

She says, we don’t do that. I think it’s truly the dumbest exercise that Wall Street strategists do. The dumbest exercise to do a price target without any context. I know Liz, but you were doing it for a long time. Again, okay. It’s okay. I’m glad you’ve seen the light. And in this interview with her and what she’s saying, she’s exact same things. It’s like echoing what we’ve been talking about here.

on the program and how all of these recommendations and what you should be doing with your money, it’s all bullshit. It’s all bullshit. Let’s say you’re a trust fund kid. Trust fund kid, you’re 22 years old, you just got a $10 million inheritance.

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Does it matter to you? You can try to time the markets. Does it matter to you what the markets are going to do over the short term at all? You could do a juxtaposition in regards to somebody who is retired or close to retiring and they need to handle their money differently. You didn’t notice that they never talk about these things on all of these business networks, all of this program out there.

programming out there. This is why I try to explain to you, it’s all entertainment people. It’s all, most of the business program, most, not all, okay? Not all. So, you know, from time to time, you get some intelligent conversations out there. But again, even on some of my favorite programs, whether it be Squawk Box on CNBC, and I give kudos to that program, it’s some of the best news reporting out there, not just business reporting.

But when they start getting into what your picks are, mute, I don’t even feel like listening to it. I don’t feel like listening to it because again, we don’t do that. Don’t ask me, actually there was a lady last week, I think it was Joe Kernan asked her what her top stock pick was and she kind of called him out. And she was like, Joe, I don’t do that. And I was like, there’s a good advisor right there. There’s a good advisor because the good advisor is not gonna give advice without.

you know, again, you’re just throwing stuff up out there when everyone’s situation is unique and different. Again, it was part of our financial independence top 20, is you come to the realization that most of the business programming out there is just entertainment. You need to do what’s best for you and your situation. However, again, the rules of the road always apply.

the focusing on the fundamentals, looking at management, not thinking of companies as stocks, but thinking of them rather as you want to be a good company buyer, not a stock buyer. And that’s what’s going to make you successful. And again, I just mentioned Microsoft. And we’ll end on this right here. Many times, companies don’t survive. They don’t survive periods of time where they get things.

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wrong for that extended period of time. Microsoft was one of them. But again, this is what I’m saying. Fundamentals change, facts on the ground change. You have to change too. But as soon as we saw, we told you, as soon as we saw all these tech companies like, layoffs are coming, cost cutting is coming in. It’s not gonna end. It’s not gonna end. You’re taking a look at these blowout numbers. Oh my God, exceeded analysts expectations. Didn’t exceed ours.

We told you exactly what was gonna happen. The company’s got way too much blow. They went on a diet and now they’re back to being lean, mean fighting machines, just like the great Dewey Oxburg, John Candy, stripes. Watchdog on wallstreet.com.