Nothing Gets My Money Without Answering This.

I do a lot of homework before I put money into anything. There’s deep analysis and analyst reports, and there’s my network, people I trust, and we brainstorm ideas and strategies and stress test the thesis before any money moves. And still, the first thing I do is ask one short question.

If I could never sell it, would I still want to own it?

When I put anything up against that question, it sorts itself fast. A real business, I’d still want it. The company makes a product, people pay for it, and the profit can keep coming whether I could sell the stock or not. A good property gets the same answer. The rent shows up every month because somebody lives there. My house, obviously, I live in it. And if you own watches or cards because you love them, you’d keep those too, and that’s fine. You bought them to enjoy them, and that’s exactly what they’re for.

But a cartoon monkey picture that sold for six figures, the coin with the dog on it, whatever everyone is piling into this month because the price went up. If I could never sell it, I would not want it, because there is nothing else it does for me. The whole idea was finding somebody later who would pay more, and the question just took that somebody away.

That’s the entire test. The next hot thing is going to show up soon enough, with a great story and somebody who already got rich on it. Before anybody runs a single number, I’ll already know which kind of thing it is. That part takes about five seconds. Everything after that is just homework.

Talk Friday.

— Mateo