SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers for Avengers: Endgame follows. Sometimes I get so hyped for movies that when I see them, I am ultimately disappointed. It’s rare when a sequel lives up to the original and almost impossible for the sequel to surpass it. After 11 years and 22 movies of build-up, not to mention the incredible lead-in and cliff-hanger of Infinity War, I was just hoping not to be too disappointed….
The Rampant Discourse Podcast: Episode 6 – Your Money or Your Life (1 of 3)
April is financial literacy month. Join the Rampant Discourse crew as Travis discusses the book Your Money or Your Life and how he has used the lessons he has learned in his own personal finances. This is the first part of a three part series. Below are some links to books / websites / quizzes that are referenced in the podcast. Your Money or Your Life Anna Maria Lusardi 3 Question…
The Rampant Discourse Podcast: Episode 5 – Post Endgame Reactions
A few members of Rampant Discourse saw Avengers: Endgame opening night and recorded a very spoiler filled reaction podcast. Did they like it? What worked and what didn’t? Where does the MCU go from here? Can Andrew ever not refer to the infinity stones as the soul stones? Final warning: The podcast is incredibly spoiler filled so please don’t listen until you’ve seen the movie since this is definitely something you want to experience as unspoiled as possible.
Twitter and Tesla Make News
Two Freedom Portfolio holdings made news last night and this morning: Twitter (TWTR) and Tesla (TSLA). Here are some quick thoughts on each.
Netflix is Unconcerned About Disney+
Netflix (NFLX) announced their Q1 numbers yesterday, and there was a lot to like. It’s especially nice to see them continue to beat expectations on subscriber growth despite a price increase in the United States. Similarly, the revenue increase was impressive considering the strong dollar has been pressuring their international revenue (reported in dollars). Nearly 60% of Netflix’s paid subscribers are international now, and as you can see above, that’s also where most of their growth is coming from. As time goes on, the strength of the dollar will play a bigger and bigger role in Netflix’s revenue.
The Rampant Discourse Podcast: Episode 4 – Avengers: Endgame Preview
Avengers: Endgame comes out on April 26th, which is less than two weeks away. Join Paul and Andrew as they discuss their predictions for what will happen in this epic conclusion 21 movies and 10+ years in the making. Who will live? Who will die? Who will come back to life and who will stay dead?
Disney is Coming After Netflix Hard
Disney (DIS) is up huge today (and nearing an all-time high) the morning after holding their investor day, where they unveiled not only a ton of information about their upcoming streaming services, but also new content that they are producing for those services. There had already been a plethora of rumors surrounding much of the new content, so there weren’t a ton of surprises there, but Disney still had a number of notable announcements.
The Freedom Portfolio – April 2019
The S&P 500 was up 14% this past quarter. The Freedom Portfolio? It was up 25%. Since inception (October 1st, 2018), the Freedom Portfolio is down 2% compared to the S&P 500 being down 3%. In other words, the Freedom Portfolio has won the Q1 2019 battle and is currently winning the war.
Why isn’t Captain America sexist?
One thing that surprised me about Captain Marvel was how confined the sexism was. Based on the commercials and trailers, I was expecting the movie to focus more on the constant challenges Carol faced on account of her being a female who was constantly partaking in stereotypical male pursuits like baseball, kart racing, and being a fighter jet pilot. Instead, the instances of sexism seemed relatively constrained to the villain (duh), one notable jerk, and a few extremely brief flashback scenes. If anything, the movie seemed notable for how progressive the heroes were. After all, SHIELD was willing to entrust their most valuable and powerful artifact to a female scientist and two female test pilots.
Why I Am Giving Up on Amazon’s Shipping
I chose to pre-order my latest video game fascination, Kingdom Hearts III, from Amazon. Like most games these days, there were competing pre-order bonuses from various retailers, and the Amazon bonus wasn’t that impressive, but I had no real desire for any of the others, either. So I chose the convenience of direct shipping to my house on release day, price match guarantee, and free shipping thanks to my Prime…