Everything You Need To Know about Emergency Funds

A Thread 🧵👇

ATROCIOUS big pharma price gouging of insulin:

This crying mother can’t afford the $1000 for her son’s insulin.

📌yet, it only costs pharma $5 to produce.

📌Insulin was invented 100 years ago by Fred Banting—who donated patent for $1 to make it free for all.

Let that sink in.

2) Insulin is one of the most disgusting cases of price gouging ever.

America has long taken a free market approach to pharmaceuticals.
Drug companies haggle separately over drug prices with a variety of private insurers across the

3) “Meanwhile, Medicare, the government health program for those over age 65 — it’s also the nation’s largest buyer of drugs—is barred from negotiating drug prices. That gives pharma more leverage, and it leads to the kind of price surges of EpiPens, opioid antidotes, & insulin.”

4) In 2018:
Johnson & Johnson CEO made $30M
Pfizer CEO made $28M
Merck CEO made $18M
Eli Lilly CEO made $16M
Gilead CEO made $16M

Meanwhile:

📌Americans spent $535B on Rx drugs

📌1/4 of diabetics rationed insulin to survive

📌500K Americans went bankrupt from medical bills.

5) What’s the right price patients should pay for medications? ZERO dollars, because no copay ==> more patients get their medicine ==> saves lives and saves money. Copays decrease adherence, and copays hurt patients who actually need them.

1/ My most popular tweets of 2020 by month (thread)

January:

A reminder of @morganhousel cash strategy.

For every $1,000 in cash:

More: ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

2/ February

If you've truly found the next $AMZN, $AAPL, or $NFLX and can hold for years, it's nearly impossible to overpay.

But finding them is hard.

3/ March

Millennials have seen tech crash, 2008, and now #COVID19

I'm worried that many of them will swear off the stock market -- the greatest wealth-building device ever -- for life.

4/ April

Want to see the checklists used by

Buffet
Dalio
Fischer
Graham
Greenblatt
Klarman
Marks
Munger

and

5/ May

When the P/E ratio is:

Useless (Stage 1, 4) - $MDB, $SHOP, $PINS, $GME, $JCP

Semi-useful (Stage 2) - $TTD, $NFLX

Useful! (Stage 3) - $MSFT, $AAPL, $V

In determining valuation

My investing style: Buy and hold high-quality businesses

Here are 15 traits that tell me I've found a great business ⬇️

1/ Recurring Revenue

Types:

Business Services $MCO
Contracts $AMT
Consumables $MNST
Exchange $MKTX
Franchise $WINA
Membership $TDOC
Platform $ETSY
Razor/blade $DXCM
Real Estate $STOR
SaaS, PaaS, IaaS $TWLO, $NOW, $FSLY
Subscription $NFLX
Tollbooth $BIP

2/ Recession-Proof Demand

Great companies sell products/services that are in-demand in good times and bad

That allows them to grow regardless of what is happening in the broader economy

3/ Organic Growth

"Organic" growth: Growing by increasing sales of internally developed products/services

"Inorganic" growth: Growing from mergers & acquisitions

Organic Growth > Inorganic Growth

4/ High & Expanding Gross Margin

Indicates that the company’s products/services create a huge amount of value for the customer

Rising gross margin also indicates pricing power

12 charts every investor should know:

1. History of the stock market in one chart

2. The Psychology of a Market Cycle

3. "Experts" will always give you smart reasons to sell in the short term, but you will regret it in the long term

4. Largest companies by market cap (1960-2022)

5. Compounding is the 8th wonder of the world