This One Word Is the Secret to Immense Riches

Andy Snyder|November 1, 2023

Count your blessings. Add them all together, and I bet you’ll find your wealth is far greater than you ever imagined.

If not… keep reading. I’ve got some ideas to get you there.

November is the month when we’re supposed to slow down and appreciate what we have. It’s when we’re supposed to stop, turn to our neighbors, and share our blessings and all that we’re thankful for.

This year, I’ve decided to be a bit of a contrarian. I’ve chosen to focus on something most folks choose to hate: change.

You’ll soon see that we can uncover some tremendous investing opportunities by doing this.

Change is a tough topic. For many folks, it’s misery. It is hard. It is confusing. And for most, it is unwelcome.

Heck, it’s even possible to major in “change management” in college these days. How a company deals with big changes inside its doors can make or break a deal… or even the whole business.

As investors, though, we must be thankful for change.

Think of it this way. There’s not a whole lot of reason for a stock price to move higher unless something changes. It could be something as simple as a change in revenue growth… or something as complex as a change in the company’s overall strategy. But without a change in investor expectations, there’s no reason for the stock to climb.

It’s the investors who don’t just spot change but see its transformational value who walk away with the biggest spoils.

Profitable Proof 

Netflix (NFLX) is perhaps the greatest example of change’s value. It brought great change to the entertainment world. First, it eradicated late fees and made DVD rentals easy. Then it changed its business model – a move that spooked a lot of investors – and went all-in on digital streaming.

The folks who rode the change did quite well. Since its IPO, Netflix has seen its shares surge as much as 50,000%.

Early investors who saw the value of the change that lied ahead multiplied their wealth more than 500 times over.

Of course, if the sun rises, it must also set.

Decades ago, I studied with the leaders at Harley-Davidson (HOG). Back then, they were keenly aware of – and quite scared about – the demographic shift that was coming to their business.

The bad-boy bikers they marketed to were buying chrome hips… not chrome exhaust tips. They knew this shift – a change they could not stop – would be tough on sales.

It was.

Shares peaked in 2006 and have trended lower ever since. The company failed to adapt to change.

That’s why it’s so important to study change. We must keep pace with it.

We won’t fret over the changes from the last few years that are clearly negative – that’s not our style. They’re well documented… perhaps overly so.

Instead, we’ll spend our time focusing on what’s good – the changes that will benefit our investment portfolios.

There are plenty.

Free to Roam

Without a doubt, the most underrated change of the last few years is folks realizing they can live and work anywhere. The only thing that would make this change more powerful – and profitable – would be the invention of a machine that could instantly transport us from one location to another.

Without that… this change is just about the biggest thing we can expect. Its tentacles reach across the economy.

This goes beyond merely working from home. Way beyond.

It has to do with where and how folks go to school… how they see their doctors… how they shop… and even how they date.

In many cases, the only thing that is keeping people from being completely geographically free is family.

They want to stay close to their loved ones. That’s where that tele-transport technology could come in handy. We could just blast Grandma in for the day.

Until that technology comes about, we’ll have plenty of long and winding tentacles to sort through.

The most interesting and perhaps even disturbing aspect of this trend is one that doesn’t get much attention. It’s the tearing down of the invisible walls that constrain so many local economies.

What’s happening in and around California is a great example. We all know the cost of living in the state is high… one of the highest in the country. Nearby Idaho, though, is pretty cheap.

Commuters were once chained to the highways that connected them to their offices. Today, of course, we know that has changed. Because of the shift to remote work, Idaho now has the fastest-growing population in the nation. Half of the folks moving in are from California.

What’s most notable is that most of them say it’s Idaho’s economy that attracted them. But the Gem State’s economy isn’t exceptional in any way. It’s just that it’s not California’s economy.

At least not yet.

That’s the key to this whole trend, and it’s something few folks are talking about. Thanks to one of the greatest work-related migrations this nation has ever seen, once-disparate economies are homogenizing.

In many ways, it’s the “great equalization.”

Some see it as bad news. But as an economist and investor, I see it as tremendous news.