WW

My previous newsletter kicked off the tour of our office wall which features quotations that I find helpful in various ways. We last heard from Peter Lynch, legendary manager of the Fidelity Magellan Fund. Next up is the current manager of Berkshire-Hathaway’s investment portfolio, Warren Buffett.

His contribution to our wall is “Investing is simple, but not easy”.

I’d like to begin with a shout-out to French pilot and author Antoine de Saint-Exupery who has entertained readers from youth through adulthood with his books The Little Prince and Night Flight. He was also a poet and creator of memorable phrases including the one I’ve borrowed for today’s title.

During the past seven years or so, interest rates have fallen to generational, if not all-time, lows. Here’s a chart showing the rate of the two year Treasury Note over that period courtesy of the Department of the Treasury:

I think most college students will agree that going off to school may involve some fun but it’s basically going to be their job for a few years. That said, borrowing today’s title from the Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs seems appropriate since it’s the song the dwarfs sing as they head out to work at the mine.

One of the small mysteries of my life is how my articles come into being. Sometimes I’m asked a question that seems like it might be of wider interest. Sometimes I read a book which I think others might find interesting. Sometimes a title forms itself in my mind and the article just follows.

As I write this in mid-April, Spring’s arrival seems to be on indefinite hold. So, with apologies to Alfred Lord Tennyson who wrote that this might be a good time to think of love, my current thoughts are on something a bit less romantic: taxes.

Since my beard has long been completely white there’s not much I can do to disguise my age. That being the case, there’s probably little further embarrassment in letting you know that I watched both Andy Rooney and Gilda Radner’s character “Emily Litella” on live television. What did these two have in common?