Due Diligence The SPAC Fad Posted on October 20, 2020 By Matt SPACs are having (another) moment. SPAC stands for Special Purpose Acquisition Company. Often referred to as “blank-check” companies, a SPAC is initially just a management team. The team raises funds via IPO. Investors bet that the team will buy a private business and make it more valuable. Usually, the team… Read more
Family How it Started – How it’s Going Posted on October 19, 2020 By Matt Thank you for supporting our Northeast Ohio Walk for PKD! The picture accompanying this post shows William’s setup in the NICU shortly after he was born. On the right is today’s typical set up: bus stop, kid brother tagging along, and you can practically hear him sighing as Mom takes… Read more
Family Walk for PKD Posted on October 12, 2020 By Matt It’s Fall in Cleveland. By now we’ve usually got two sports teams to be disappointed in and we turn our eyes to college football. This year, however, the Browns are the bright spot while the Indians and Buckeyes are testing our patience. The other fixture for Clevelanders in fall is… Read more
Investing Election Season Posted on August 14, 2020 By Matt Election season can be difficult for investors of all political stripes. Uncertainty abounds. It’s easy to tie a piece of one’s identity to a candidate or party. If they win, we feel like winners. If they lose, we feel diminished. As far as investing goes, however, our candidates’ fates have… Read more
Investing Where are the Bees? Posted on August 5, 2020 By Matt “Where are the bees?” I saw this question asked on a local social media group recently. Several replies expressed the same sentiment. It seems like the neighborhood has a bee shortage, likely due to the overwhelming collapse of the world’s insect population. Surely the only insects left standing in a… Read more
Fast Animals Posted on July 15, 2020 By Matt My last post was on April 24th. It’s safe to say a lot has happened since then. I’ve been on radio silence here because: I was writing quite a bit for work and needed to rest my brain Writing updates as a market is recovering is met with a great… Read more
Headlines, Mulch, and Evangelical Misery Posted on April 24, 2020 By Matt Toilet paper aisles may be sparse, but one thing we’re not lacking is opinions on the pandemic. Everyone’s got their take and a pet conspiracy theory to go with it. Here’s mine: From a human standpoint, the United States has done a great job mobilizing (or immobilizing in this… Read more
Family 9 Ways to Wait Out the Remainder of the Quarantine Posted on April 14, 2020April 14, 2020 By Matt Depending on how prepared you were, the early days might have been manic, establishing supply lines and hoarding toilet paper. As churches and bars (trying to cover all bases here) stopped regular service it sank in that this was something that would last weeks, not days. Now you’ve reached the… Read more
This is Who You Are Posted on April 6, 2020 By Matt Regarding the stock market, “If you don’t know who you are, this is an expensive place to find out.” wrote Adam Smith. Everyone says they are investing for the long term. The joke is that “long-term” means only until the next bear market for a lot of people. Were you… Read more
Investing Long-Term Posted on March 12, 2020 By Matt Long-Term There’s an old joke on Wall Street that investors like to say that they invest with a long-term mindset. It’s just that long-term means only until the next bear market. Stock is a claim on a company’s assets and future earnings. There are a bunch of different ways to… Read more