Top all-time · #2542
Joshua Kennon
Personal blog · joshuakennon.comeconomicsbusinesswriting
Joshua Kennon's personal blog at joshuakennon.com covers economics, business and writing. Since 2011, 33 different Hacker News readers have linked it 36 times, most often “The S&P 500’s Dirty Little Secret”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-05, and you can follow it by feed.
A blog about mental models, business strategy, ethics, philosophy, cooking, and general educational and academic investing concepts.
Most-linked posts?
- The S&P 500’s Dirty Little Secret3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2016-06-29
- Read Posts by Stockholders as They Realize They’ve Lost Their Life Savings2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-03-27
- /if-charlie-munger-didnt-quit-when-he-was-divorced-broke-and-burying-his-9-year-old-son-you-have-no-excuse/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-09-03
- How Much Money Does It Take to Be in the Top 1% of Wealth & Net Worth in the US2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-12-09
- Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-03-30
What Hacker News says?
Why the bitterness? You could blame the politicians just as well for the climate disaster, or the corporations, why the wealthy?[1] What do you know of their family life or love of dogs? I think the rich are not who you think - if you put less energy into hating them you may have more time to improve your own life, e.g. by studying personal finance or investing: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commonto…
Comment linking /add-jack-macdonald-list-secret-millionaires-just-died-left-188-million-built-investing-stocks-charity/
on “Just Be Rich”Submitted Raising Kids to Have an Analog Childhood in a Digital World as a story · 135 points
HN discussionThis is a good question. The S&P 500 kind of dodges this question by its very nature. The S&P 500 constantly changes the stocks it holds. So if a stock falls out of favor, say Sears, its dropped from the index. It's also important to Note that comparing the S&P 500 from 100 years ago to today is very naive as the methodology for what it holds has changed significantly over the years. Comparing the returns of the S&P…
Comment linking /sp-500s-dirty-little-secret/
on “Investing Returns on the S&P500”Submitted Man Built a $188M Fortune Investing in Stocks Then Donated It to Charity as a story · 129 points
HN discussionI love this story about Charlie Munger which can be found here: https://www.joshuakennon.com/if-charlie-munger-didnt-quit-wh... In the past five years, I've started and sold a company. Bought a house on a golf course, purchased expensive foreign cars and went on insane trips all over the world. Last year, my wife woke up one morning and told me that she no longer wanted to be married (that's a story for another time…
Comment linking /if-charlie-munger-didnt-quit-when-he-was-divorced-broke-and-burying-his-9-year-old-son-you-have-no-excuse/
on “You are not 'behind'”Submitted Janitor Ronald Read Leaves Behind $8M Secret Fortune as a story · 12 points
HN discussionNone, just put your money in an S&P 500 fund. I doubt you will be able to beat that in the long run anywhere else (Even though there are flaws w/ how the S&P 500 is run now [1]). [1] http://www.joshuakennon.com/sp-500s-dirty-little-secret/
Comment linking /sp-500s-dirty-little-secret/
on “A Professor Who Was Right About Index Funds All Along”Submitted The struggle of Knowledge Workers vs. Manual Workers as a story · 10 points
HN discussionNot to defend stockbrokers, but part of what made the tech bubble so uniquely frothy was that it was the first time retail investors could easily circumvent the Wall Street gatekeepers via online, discount brokerages. No doubt many mom and pop investors were led into the bubble by advisors, but a sizable portion entered the fray on their own. For a brief time, many malls had trading boutiques, Internet cafés that ca…
Comment linking /gt-advanced-technologies-bankruptcy/
on “SEC Approves Equity Crowdfunding from Unaccredited Investors”Submitted The S&P 500’s Dirty Little Secret as a story · 5 points
HN discussionhttp://www.joshuakennon.com/how-many-people-earn-more-than-1...
Comment linking /how-many-people-earn-more-than-1000000-per-year-in-the-united-states/
on “Who Pays Writers?”Submitted Letter to a Young College Student – Things I Wish I Knew When I Was Younger as a story · 4 points
HN discussionFor a less biased view about why Vanguard really does do things wrong in the eye of the law even if it sounds perfectly reasonable to you and me, try this: http://www.joshuakennon.com/vanguard-accused-of-nearly-35-bi...
Comment linking /vanguard-accused-of-nearly-35-billion-tax-abuse/
on “Vanguard's Low Blow”Submitted The “Rules” of Social Class as a story · 4 points
HN discussionIs this a copy paste of a blogger that wrote an article about why you shouldnt give up, because charlie didn't either. Are you the author? It feels weird to take 95% of someones article and just post it. https://www.joshuakennon.com/if-charlie-munger-didnt-quit-wh...
Comment linking /if-charlie-munger-didnt-quit-when-he-was-divorced-broke-and-burying-his-9-year-old-son-you-have-no-excuse/
on “Charlie Munger has died”Submitted Understanding Wealth Inequality and the Role of Interest Rates as a story · 3 points
HN discussionOne of the benefits of growing up Jewish is that business talk at the dinner table each evening drowns out even the TV. Of course, you learn pretty quick that not all families are like this. I'm happy to give lessons but I'll never give an exact net worth. Stealth wealth FTW http://www.joshuakennon.com/stealth-wealth-why-americas-rich...
Comment linking /stealth-wealth-why-americas-rich-hide-their-money/
on “Why You Should Tell Your Children How Much You Make”Submitted How Quincy, Florida Became a Town of Secret Coca-Cola Millionaires as a story · 3 points
HN discussionIn Norway, you can find out how much anyone makes by looking up their public tax returns! http://www.joshuakennon.com/tax-returns-in-norway-are-public...
Comment linking /tax-returns-in-norway-are-public/
on “Buffer's transparency dashboard: Public salaries, equity and more”Submitted An Investment Case Study of Eastman Kodak (2013) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThe master's requirement is nonsense. It was put in place as a credential roadblock to make entering the teaching profession more difficult, but it has zero effect on student results. If we are going to compare inputs in that way, we can look at the test scores of college students going for education degrees, and see that they have worse English scores than the math majors and also have worse math scores than the En…
Comment linking /sat-scores-ranked-by-intended-college-major-show-teachers-are-below-average/
on “A Test for School Reform in Newark”Submitted The Psychology of Human Misjudgment by Charlie Munger as a story · 3 points
HN discussionLuxury isn't necessarily crazy, it can be rational economic signaling: http://www.joshuakennon.com/mental-model-veblen-goods/
Comment linking /mental-model-veblen-goods/
on “AudioQuest Diamond RJ/E Ethernet Cable: £6899”Submitted How Much Money Does It Take to Be in the Top 1% of Wealth & Net Worth in the US as a story · 3 points
HN discussion>Do you believe that at any point in future, we will have a reliable store of value in form of digital information? Banks don't provide that, it's somebody else saying that he will take care of your money an give you when you need it. 1. Banks don't provide that? Care to provide a source for banks taking or losing your money after the great depression? 2. The money in my checking account is in USD which is accepted…
Comment linking /stocks-vs-bonds-vs-gold-returns-for-the-past-200-years/
on “How Bitcoin Compares to History's Big Bubbles”Submitted Both the World and Capital Markets Feel Similar to 2006 as a story · 2 points
HN discussionWhen I google this query, this is the first result that comes up: https://www.joshuakennon.com/the-six-common-biological-sexes... “The Six Most Common Karyotypes The six biological karyotype sexes that do not result in death to the fetus are: X – Roughly 1 in 2,000 to 1 in 5,000 people (Turner’s ) XX – Most common form of female XXY – Roughly 1 in 500 to 1 in 1,000 people (Klinefelter) XY – Most common form of male…
Comment linking /the-six-common-biological-sexes-in-humans/
on “Perplexity Labs Playground”Submitted Raising Kids to Have an Analogue Childhood in a Digital World as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI hate, hate, hate country music, but I have an enormous amount of respect for Dolly Parton. She's just a plain old good person, and also extremely savvy from a business and money point of view (while having to plough through patriarchal barriers both emotionally and financially): https://www.joshuakennon.com/dolly-parton/
Comment linking /dolly-parton/
on “About Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library”Submitted Female Porn Stars, Waist-to-Hip Ratios, Gay Neurological Patterns etc. (2015) as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
