This week on Equity Mates

Hey there Equity Mate,

We hope you’re having a great summer break and you’re enjoying our podcast Summer Series.

If you’re not up to date on Equity Mates Investing Podcast we’re deep diving into 12 stocks with 12 expert investors to understand their research process and how they build an investment thesis.

Over on the Get Started Investing Podcast, we’re taking a journey to financial independence and discussing the pro’s and con’s of the FIRE movement.

Plenty of content to keep you listening and learning however you’re spending your summer.

Here’s what will be dropping this week:

• Monday: Equity Mates (Apple | Spotify): Up more than 200% in 2023, what does 2024 hold? - Nvidia

• Tuesday: Get Started Investing (Apple | Spotify): Change your mindset, change your life

• Thursday: Equity Mates (Apple | Spotify): Creating a three-sided trucking marketplace - Landstar System

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Your questions, answered

Elias asked via Instagram:

How much excess money do I need each month to justify seeing a financial advisor?

We put Elias’ question to Glen Hare, founder of Fox and Hare, and this is what he said:

If you're in a position where you're able to save or potentially invest around $2,000 per month, then we can show value. And I'm very confident in saying that because what you do with those funds, it can have quite a considerable longer term impact. 

Here’s a story - One example, one member reached out to us and had $103,000 worth of credit card debt. He was paying $18,300 per year in interest. 

And when he first signed up, he said, “Glen, I'm about to pay my fee on the credit card that you're about to help me try and pay off”. 

And my response to that was, if we don't work together, where are you going to be in three years time? And he said, I'm going to be in the same position. So we've worked together for about four years. He's completely debt free and he's just bought himself a one and a half million dollar apartment with his partner.

The advice was simple. Don't use credit. He's certainly changed his relationship with credit cards. But the advice was a cash flow strategy. But it was someone to hold him accountable to it, but also someone to share with him what the picture looks like beyond the debt. And that can sometimes be really hard to see if you are in that fairly lonely position, I would say. 

So anyway, I'm going a bit off tangent.

You don't need to be old and rich. If you've got some disposable income to make some smart decisions, get cracking. 

If you have a question you’d like answered, hit us up at ask@equitymates.com

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What we’ve been reading

Energy drinks are out of control

This was a story we completely missed late last year, but Panera Bread (an American fast-casual bakery) was in the news after their ‘charged lemonade’ (lemonade with caffeine) has been linked to a death in Florida. This story has this article from Wired asking: have we gone too far with energy drinks?

It is not just Panera Bread that has jumped onto the energy drink boom. The biggest drink of 2023 has been Prime, the energy drink developed by YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI. Last year, US Senate Majority Leader Charles Shumer requested the FDA investigate Prime, claiming they were serving children a “cauldron of caffeine”.

And children are the real focus here. The biggest drinkers of energy drinks are adolescents, with seven in 10 teenagers in the UK and mainland Europe consuming them. And, in a story with echoes of Jul from a couple of years ago, much of these new energy drinks coming to market seem to be targeted at young people as well (highly colourful can designs and ‘childhood flavours’ like bubblegum).

So while US lawmakers are asking for investigations, other countries are starting to outlaw or limit energy drinks. Canada has banned drinks containing more than 180mg of caffeine per serving and Lithuania, Latvia, Turkey and Poland have imposed a general ban on the sale of energy drinks to people under 18.

In the meantime, the energy drink market keeps growing. In 2020, it was estimated to be worth $45.8 billion. By 2031, it is expected to be worth $108.4 billion. Red Bull remains the biggest player in the market, selling more than 11 billion cans in 2022. But as the industry grows, more and more companies are getting into the space

Meet your new landlord: Google

Tech companies, hearing the struggles of their workers to secure housing and constantly battling each other for top talent, are taking matters into their own hands. The biggest companies like Alphabet (owner of Google) and Meta (owner of Instagram and Facebook) are buying up residential real estate and building their own company towns.

The company town was a feature of the late-1800’s and early-1900’s. They were towns where practically all housing and all stores were owned by one company, who was often the main employer. These companies would build these towns near their operations (be it a mine, factory or other facility) and used it to house workers and their families.

Today, it seems the tech giants are bringing that concept back. With names like Middlefield Park and Willow Village (being developed by Google and Meta respectively), the companies are planning developments with thousands of new homes at their heart.

It’s not just Alphabet and Meta. Elon Musk is reportedly planning a town called Snailbrook near Austin, Texas where employees of his various companies based near there - Boring Co, Tesla and SpaceX - could live.

Ultimately, however, these projects are just the latest in the long-running battle for top talent in Silicon Valley. From free meals to dry cleaning, gym memberships to subsidised transport, the big tech companies have thrown perk after perk at their employees. It makes sense that one day they would reach the ultimate perk - subsidised housing.

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