Fall is my favorite time of year and for decades we have made it a point to spend part of October at our farm. This year however I’m with friends and family in Oregon.
As the dawn began I watched Mount Hood (below) from my daughter’s window, a view I used to see every morning. Studies show that when the mind experiences golden oldies (in sound smell or view) happiness hormones are released. This must be true as this profile sure created surges of joy for me.
This is my birthday and decades ago Merri began a birthday tradition in our household by giving each of us gifts on her birthday instead of just receiving gifts.
“I gain much greater joy from giving,” she told us all.
This is backed up by science!
A study in the Journal Science, researchers found that folks spending money on others created a significant boost in happiness compared to when the study subjects spent money on themselves.
In another study published in the Journal of Personality all and Social Psychology, the effect of spending money for personal gain versus for others was evaluated in 136 countries.
The research concluded that caring for others is deeply engrained in human nature.
One study in the Journal of Public Health found that those who cared for others lived longer.
So I want to offer you two gifts today.
First though all paid “Purposeful Investing (Pi) subscriptions have now expired, I’m going to continue sending.
You can read Keppler Asset Management’s October 2022 Developed Markets Quarterly Report here.
You’ll see in this 72 page report that that the Top Value Developed Market Portfolio is priced at less than half the Price to Book of the MSCI World Index. The average dividend yield of these top values is almost twice as high.
A look in the report at the Good Value Markets shows that numerous markets have Price-to-Book ratios that are selling at a discount. More important many are paying 4% and 5% dividends. This dividend yield is still below the inflation rate, but at these prices,the future corrections should make up any lag via capital gains.
The neutral Canadian and Australian markets are also paying a decent dividend now.
Keppler wrote: Our three-to-five-year projection places the KAM Equally Weighted World Index at LC 18,895 by September 30, 2026. This corresponds to a compound annual total return estimate of 9.2 % in local currencies—up 2.9 percentage points from three months ago. The upper-band estimate of LC 22,674 by September 30, 2026 implies a compound annual total return of 14.3 % (up from 11.2 % three months ago), while the lower-band estimate of LC 15,116 indicates a compound annual total return of 3.3 % (up from 0.5 % last quarter).
Here’s one more gift… a piece of advice. Go Try Things… Keep Moving!
This is my 76th birthday and to further celebrate having made it through 3/4 a century, I took the first step to start a new sustainable timber and farming business by ordering four varieties of new raspberry bushes, new pear, peach, plum, apple, white oak and hazelnut trees, all to plant at the farm.
We’ve also added a new road to reach the space where we’ll expand our orchard and we have dug a new pond where we can raise more trout.
All of my businesses in the past have seemed to last 21 years, seven year growing, seven years rich and seven years declining, so this should keep me busy to the age 98 at which time I’ll have to think up another plan.
Merri is with at home with two nurses and she gives me the gift that she still knows me and lets my presence bring her comfort, so I spend most days with her.
Finally I want to thank you for adding a beautiful thread that has been woven into the rich tapestry of this life.
Despite all the things happening in the world that seem negative, I feel nothing but gratitude that I have been so blessed with friends and readers such as you.
Gary
