Post on Intelligent Fanatics

I am happy to share my first article on the Intelligent Fanatics website. It was a blast to write and hopefully to read as well!
“Balance sheet growth at Hingham must be safe and it must be profitable, in that order.” -Robert Gaughen

Comments

Monsoon Pabrai Prevailing with Force

Lighthouses in Monsoon’s Words “My lighthouse would be knowing when I am not happy, finding my purpose. When you are not having fun, something is wrong. My family is my lighthouse. They helped me to realize I was not happy and try something else.” Monsoon Pabrai, is like her name: she prevails with force. She was born into the world of finance. Her father, fund manager Mohnish Pabrai, tried to encourage Monsoon and her sister to be as fascinated with investing as he is. She graduated from the University of California Berkeley in 2017, but don’t let her short career fool you. Monsoon is the current marketing and community lead at Coral Labs, a start-up company. Prior to working at Coral Labs, she was an investment analyst intern at the UCLA Foundation and worked as a research analyst for Dalton Investments. During dinner, if her father was excited about a recent investment, he would break it down for Monsoon and her sister. She became curious and wanted to invest on her o...

The Bank that Stood the Test of Time and Tides

On December 26th, 1993, Robert Gaughen took over Hingham Institution for Savings as CEO during a tumultuous time for the bank. A former Hingham president was arrested on charges that the illegally approved loans costing the bank millions, and for which he allegedly received $240,000 in illegal payments. The bank was also underperforming. Non-Performing Assets were $9.4 million in 1992, 6.2% of assets, which were quickly reduced by 90% to $0.9 million, 0.62% of assets, in 1994, and only continued to improve from there. Asset quality is critical to the survival of a bank, and along with these improvements, Hingham began paying a dividend in 1994. *Source: Hingham Institution for Savings’s 1994 Annual Report Over the next 26 years, the company’s loan quality improved, its branch network expanded outside of Hingham, Massachusetts, and Book Value per Share grew 14 times. The company’s share price has grown 15.6% per year (including dividends). *Hingham Institution for...

What a Snowball Really Looks Like

I recently met an 89-year-old woman named Ginny. She has a passion for investing, math and numbers. We talked for three hours and I learned a few critical things. She taught me about successful simple companies, what it was like to be a woman investor in the 1960s, and what time can do for an investor. I hope you enjoy her story as much as I did. 1.Success with Simplicity Ginny lives in a small town in Minnesota and has been investing for many years. As a wedding gift from her father in law Ginny and her husband received shares of stock. She decided she had better learn about investing, that one gift fired her life long passion in investing. She slowly learned more and more until it became her main interests. Once she got started she never stopped. While Ginny and her young family were on a road trip, they stopped for breakfast at a pancake diner. Time and again on this trip they ran into the same chain. Each diner had one thing in common, they all had ov...

Compounding Snowballs

Search This Blog