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Random Words from our sponsor, Public.com

Listen up folks. Time could be running out to lock in a historic yield at Public.com. You can lock in a 6% or higher yield with a bond account. Here's the thing. The federal reserve just announced a big rate cut, and the plan is for more rate cuts this year and in 2025 as well. That's good news if you're looking to buy a home, but it might not be so good for the interest you earn on your cash.

So, if you want to lock in a 6% or higher yield with a diversified portfolio of high yield and investment grade bonds, you might want to act fast. The good news: It only takes a couple of minutes to sign up at Public.com. And once you lock in your yield, you can earn regular interest payments, even as rates decline. Lock in a 6% or higher yield with a bond account at Public.com/InvestingUnscripted, but hurry. Your yield is not locked in until you invest.

Brought to you by Public Investing. Member FINRA and SIPC. As of 9/6/24. The average annualized yield to worst across the bond account is greater than 6%. Yield to worst is not guaranteed. Not investment recommendation. All investing involves risk. Visit Public.com/disclosures/bond-account for more info.

Jeff’s Random Words

It’s the weekend after Thanksgiving. If you’re been on social media over the last few days you have likely seen numerous posts where people share their gratitude for various things. I’ve always been a grateful person. I’m immensely blessed and realize that I am where I am through luck and hard work (probably more luck). It was only recently that I started to come around to the idea of actually naming the things I am thankful for. It’s a kind of meditation, at least for me, to take a moment and account for all the things I have to be grateful for in my life. 

I want to pause here for a moment and state how cliche it is for me to continue writing about being thankful the weekend after Thanksgiving. In my defense, I want to hopefully take this in a slightly different direction by talking about luck rather than gratitude or thanks. In the absence of these fortuitous events, I would likely be in a much different place in my life. 

I’ll start by crediting this idea to Warren Buffett, who wrote a line in a recently released letter to shareholders that struck me. 

Don’t @ me for being political or woke or anything here. It is objectively true that being born white, male and in the United States is an advantage. So in what is likely the only instance I can say I am similar to Warren Buffett, I would echo his sentiment about being born into lucky circumstances.

The luck continued with my parents.

I grew up solidly middle class. While I was never in need of anything critical, I also didn’t live extravagantly. I  was lucky to be raised with an appreciation of working for things I wanted but never being stressed about not having the things I needed.

This upbringing meant I had a reasonably secure safety net as I made some dumb financial decisions early in my adult life. When my funds ran a little short to pay my master's degree tuition, my dad stepped up and covered a class for me. When I needed to borrow a little money short term to make ends meet as my summer teacher savings dwindled, there was my mom to lend a helping hand.

Lastly, my parents covered 100% of my undergraduate tuition, leaving me with no student debt. I’ve become increasingly appreciative of this gift as I’ve seen how difficult it will be to do for my children given how drastically college costs have risen in the last few decades.

I could go on and on here, I’ve been blessed with good fortune and privilege my entire life. 

But I will end with one more bit of luck that I am absolutely thankful for, and that is anyone who reads this newsletter, listens to the podcast, or has engaged with me and Jason on social media. It was a series of lucky “right place at the right time” breaks that got me to where I am in this world of investing, but I am continually thankful for the community of investors I’ve been able to meet over the last 5 years. 

I hope that the content we create is helpful to you, no matter where you fall on the “luck” spectrum. Financial success comes from many paths. I’m thankful to try to help everyone reach their goals in whatever way I can.

Jeff

Amazon Bets Big on Smart Homes, You Can Too

VCs know how difficult it is to spot promising early investment opportunities. Even the Sharks from Shark Tank declined the offer to buy 10% of Ring for $700,000 - a decision they would regret when Amazon acquired Ring, turning the $700,000 into $10M!

RYSE is the smart-home brand poised to follow a similar trajectory. The founder pitched on Canada’s version of Shark Tank, Dragons’ Den and received two offers - it seems the Dragons’ learned from the Sharks’ mistakes. Don’t make the same mistake the sharks did.

Invest now.