Stonecreek Blog

There are some people who would love it if you threw a surprise birthday party for them. They’d enjoy every aspect of it, from the sudden yell of “Surprise!” to being the center of attention to eating cake with a large group of friends. On the other hand, there are

On May 16, 2007, economist Thomas Sargent accomplished something remarkable in the history of graduation speeches. He gave an address that, rather than flattering the graduates as is so typical, gave them sound advice. And it was so brief, the entire speech could be printed on a single sheet of

We can thank Julius Caesar for starting the new year on January 1st. In 46 B.C. he instituted a new calendar that would more accurately sync with the annual cycle of the sun. This Julian calendar was used throughout the western world for more than 1600 years, until Pope Gregory

The holidays, especially Christmas, are supposed to be a time of joy and goodwill. But when you’re feeling the pressure to give a “significant” gift, not only are you the opposite of joyful, but that compulsion and the looming deadline can cause you to overspend. It’s one of the areas

The AP reported that a Euclid, Ohio woman called 911 to report a crime. She had ordered eight pieces of chicken at a KFC drive-thru but the restaurant had given her only four pieces.1 “I want my chicken,” the woman was heard telling a dispatcher. She then requested that law

For most investors, 2022 was not a good year. Seemingly, week after week, the stock market was down.1 And to make matters worse, we endured the worst bond market in about 50 years. Meanwhile, the value of people’s portfolios was also being eroded by record inflation. These conditions had many

There’s an old business school joke about an entrepreneur who prices his widgets at half the cost of making them. “It’s true I’m losing money on every sale,” he explains, “But I’ll make up for it in volume.” Over the past decade this has seemingly been the business model of

It’s always fun to look through an old newspaper, especially if it was printed more than 50 years ago. On the front page under bold headlines you can read about the biggest concerns of that day. It’s interesting to note how many urgent problems of that era are even thought

Many people have the misconception that the primary goal of investing is to make as much money as you can as fast as you can. Unfortunately, you can’t just order up outsized returns like a delivery pizza. You have to pay for your chance at them with concentrated risk. The

In Homer’s Odyssey, the hero Odysseus is trying to get back home with his ship intact. At one point in their journey, he and his crewmen must pass near the rocks of the sirens. These are creatures with the bodies of birds and heads of women who sing magically enticing songs

It seems like all the pharmaceutical ads on TV (or wherever you stream your content) follow the same formula. They say a few words about an illness or condition, then they show ordinary people enjoying the kinds of wonderful activities that make us all jealous on social media: Driving a

According to the American Heritage Idioms Dictionary, William Camden was the first to record the saying, “The early bird gets the worm.” He included it in his 1605 edition of English proverbs.1 Its straightforward meaning is that the person who arrives or acts first is more likely to get what

In 1992 American political scientist Francis Fukuyama published The End of History and the Last Man. This highly regarded book declared that global politics had reached its final stage. Liberal (in the classical sense) democracy would continue to spread until it was the standard form of government for the nations

A friend who was discouraged about their weight loss efforts was bemoaning the necessity of food. “If you have a drinking problem,” they said, “you can give up alcohol. But if you have an eating problem, you can’t just give up food.” The same is true of money. The drive

There are times in life when you should try to win. And times when it’s smartest to simply avoid losing. Take tennis, for example. Simon Ramo, a scientist and statistician, demonstrated that professional tennis players and weekend tennis players play a fundamentally different game. “In expert tennis,” he writes, “about

“Regrets, I’ve had a few But then again too few to mention”1 This memorable lyric from the song “My Way,” famously crooned by Frank Sinatra, describes what many consider to be the ideal way to look back on your life. It essentially says that the successful individual rarely makes mistakes.

You’ve probably heard the old sports adage “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” It speaks to our tendency, when considering some important action, to wait until conditions are ideal and our chances of success are nearly guaranteed. We fear that if we try and fail, it will