It’s been an honor and a pleasure writing, recording and filming for you guys all year. 2022 has been incredibly challenging as an investor, a financial advisor, an investment advisory CEO and a professional market commentator. Tough all around. Like everyone else, I’ve gotten some stuff right and some stuff wrong this year.
Based on this week’s reaction to large cap technology company earnings and the FOMC decision, it may turn out that I have been overly pessimistic about the second half. I guess we’ll see.
I know I haven’t been writing as much on this site as I used to. Most weeks I get one written post done but not if there’s nothing I really feel needs to be said or researched or explored further. I don’t hit “publish” just for the sake of putting content out. Your time is too valuable for that as is mine. When I do write, it’s because I think what I am saying is meaningful.
Additionally, the responsibility of running a firm with over fifty employees has gotten extremely time consuming. It’s ironic – for years I had plenty of time to read and write while wishing I had a bigger business. Now I have a big business – the fourth fastest growing RIA firm in America according to SmartAsset – and sometimes I find myself wishing I had more time to write!
One other thing keeping me from writing as much – the podcasts and YouTube shows we do have taken up a lot of my time and attention each week. We’ve got a large and growing fan base for the video and audio content, including many current clients who vastly prefer this medium to get their information.
The Compound and Friends is now a little over a year old and doing big numbers – on most weekends the new episode hits the top twenty investing podcasts in America. We’ve been as high as number seven recently. The show blows up on YouTube every weekend too, with over 30,000 views on a regular basis. Our Tuesday night YouTube show, What Are Your Thoughts, has been averaging over 40,000 views with a boisterous live audience watching every week and frequently becoming part of the episode. So we’re leaning into this stuff because people seem to love it and get a lot out of it. I get a lot out of the production of these two shows – they really force me to examine my own market and economic opinions and dive deeply into all of the most important ideas of the moment. I am a better advisor and CEO because of the deeper level of understanding that comes from this sort of work.
And today, as you’re reading this, my wife and I are taking our first vacation together (without the kids) in what seems like a million years. We were supposed to go to Italy in the summer of 2020, but obviously that trip couldn’t happen. So two years later we are on our way to the Amalfi Coast, a place neither of us has ever been before. Pray for our luggage!
So I wanted to say arrivederci as I leave you in the capable hands of Tadas Viskanta at Abnormal Returns and the rest of the Ritholtz Wealth All Stars for all of your daily financial content needs. Follow The Compound on Twitter or get the nightly email digest of all the stuff we’re reading and writing.
Arrivederci doesn’t mean “goodbye” in Italian, it means “until we meet again.” I’ll be back in August and will miss you all until then. Hope you’re having a great summer and thanks for being here.
And, as always, if we can help you with your financial planning or portfolio management, tell us here – certified financial planners are standing by to talk with you. Ciao!
