Great places to work can also be great investment opportunities. In fact, I’d argue that happy employees likely correlate to these companies’ successes. Visual Capitalist created a chart demonstrating the best places to work according to Glassdoor over the past 5 years. The list of names is impressive.The public companies that stuck out the most to me were Hubspot (ticker: HUBS) and Nvidia (NVDA). Hubspot took the top spot in 2020 and Nvidia nabbed it in 2022. Both have consistently spent time in the top 5. Since coming public in 2014, Hubspot has return over 1,200% at a rate of 35% annualized.
Nvidia has done even better with a return of over 28,000% since its 1999 IPO, a nearly 30% annualized rate since that time.
These are just two of the companies from this impressive list. Many more that show up have incredibly well as a business. Happy employees in great workplaces is a great place to look for new investment ideas.
The Art and Science of Spending Money
Morgan Housel wrote another great article in January. It is all about how we choose to spend our money. He has 13 key points that are a great read. I’ll highlight a few here.
1. Our family background and upbringing has a huge effect on how we think about and spend money. Pay attention to this!
2. Use money to build the life you want rather than having a life focused on money.
3. We often squabble about small $3 purchases while ignoring the large financial purchases that really determine our financial futures. The big things (cost of house, car payments, college debt) move the needle much more than a $3 coffee. Pay attention to the BIG financial decisions.
4. Cost and happiness are not directly correlated. We often assume that something more expensive will make us happier. At times, this is true, but spending 10x as much does not mean you will be 10x as happy. Choosing a cheaper option may be just as good.
Ivy League Course for Free!
Online there is never a lack of free information. If you want to learn something, chances are you can find support. Many of the Ivy League institutions actually provide online courses for free. There are many different options found on this site across many subjects. I’m hoping to take one or two myself. Let me know if you try one out and whether you would recommend it.