Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing - The Case for Not Panicking

Episode Date: August 21, 2015

The stock market tumbles. Is it a time for investors to be greedy or a time for investors to be fearful. Our analysts tackle that question and weigh in on some of the week's earnings news. And former Marketplace host Tess Vigeland talks about her new book, Leap: Leaving a Job with No Plan B to Find the Career and Life You Really Want. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Hill, I'm Chris Hill, and joining me in studio this week from Million Dollar Portfolio, Jason Moser, Simon Erickson, and Matt Argersinger. Good to see you as always, gentlemen. It's the all-MDP team. It is the all-MDP team. Let's wrap up the show so you can get back to actually running that service. We've got the latest earnings from Wall Street. Former Marketplace Radio host Tess Vigeland is our guest this week. And as always, we'll give you an inside look at the stocks on our radar. But we begin with the market in general, as the S&P 500 fell more than 5% this week, the NASDAQ falling more than 4%. And Jason, we talk all the time

about how we're long-term investors, we like to view these opportunities as buying opportunities, but I have to be honest, it's a little hard to concentrate when it seems like absolutely everyone on Wall Street is freaking out right now. And it does. It seems like everybody on Wall Street is freaking out. We talked about this earlier, in good times it's very easy to feel great about things, and you're happy-go-lucky, portfolios going up, and every day is a green day. We talk about that be greedy when others are fearful bromide that Warren Buffett loves to espouse. We do, too, to a degree, but it's easier said than done, I think, in many cases. I think this really goes back to making sure

we understand what we're investing in. We were talking about this just as a team here. The less you understand about a business, the more emotional you're going to be in conditions like these, when the market is selling off and everything's going down, you look at those businesses that you don't really know a whole heck of a lot about, and you say, oh my God, why didn't I just invest in this thing? The Motley Fool told me to invest in it, I don't even know what they do. I've got to sell, I've just got to get out of here. I understand, we invest in things that maybe we don't understand, and we really shouldn't do that. So, I think it's really a good lesson learned here, is make sure that you understand what you're

investing in before you actually do it. So well said, Jason. And I would say, these are the times when I think investors become investors. Everyone's an investor, I think, when the market's going up. All your buys that you made six months ago, nine months ago, are all in the green and you're feeling great and you're putting more money to work and everything seems to be coming up roses. But how you react to situations like this, when your favorite companies are really getting hit hard, what you do, the kind of emotional state that you get yourself in, I think that's when you become an investor. If you can take advantage of these opportunities smartly,

I think, like Chris said at the beginning, we love to buy on dips. We think that's a good strategy over time. But sometimes, it's good to stand back, be calm, steady-handed, and say, okay, market's pulled back a lot, my companies are down a lot. But be smart about what you're adding to. Don't necessarily rush in. I was going to say, Simon, if you go on a case-by-case basis, then it probably becomes clear pretty quickly that not everything is automatically a buying opportunity. Yeah, we shouldn't downplay the fact that there are risks on a company-by-company basis. We're not saying that the sell-off is completely unwarranted in certain cases.

We're just saying, make a list of those in advance, so you know what to look for for each of these companies. I think the big opportunity is seeing a disconnect between strong operational performance and herd mentality that's just pushing down the stock prices en masse. Yeah, I'll just say one more thing. Somebody on Twitter this morning hit me up with what I think is a really good piece of advice, and so I want to make sure I give credit here. His Twitter handle is at DR973, and he said, I've learned the hard way to only check my portfolio when the market is closed, and that way I can't make knee-jerk reactions. So, this is a guy who I think sees investing the way we do. I think that's actually

a very good piece of advice, because it's easy to go in there during the market hours and see all of this red, and again, become more emotional and make a knee-jerk reaction. I think that's a neat way to check yourself and make sure you keep from acting too hastily. Now, let's also put this week in some kind of context. This is the biggest correction we've had in a while. I think the Dow is certainly negative for the year. I know the S&P 500 is also negative for the year. It's a bit volatile out there, and of course, that's what we've been waiting for. This is something that really hasn't happened in a while, and It seems like forever since we've had even a meaningful pullback like this one. It's

certainly something to be excited and about to take advantage of. Absolutely. When you take the broader view, you look at the bull market run that we've had now in year six, but then you also factor in what's happening in China, what's happening in Europe, how it continues to be sluggish. This has been expected for a while and now we're seeing it. Let's just go around the table real quick as we wrap up here, because as you said, Simon, you want to look for the companies that have strong operations, etc. There have to be, though, those stocks out there that each one of you look at, and you're just sort of shaking your head, saying, OK, I get that this is down off its highs, but

I just don't really think it should be trading as low as it is, or it should have fallen as far as it is. What's a stock that, not necessarily you're saying, buy on this dip, but you are sort of shaking your head at how far it's fallen? I think the market is risk-off right now. Any companies that are investing in themselves or spending heavily have been punished, especially in the last couple of months. Coming on my radar is Baidu, which is the analog to Google over in China. They've got a huge market opportunity. I think it's been a little unfairly punished, and it's taking advantage of the time to gain market share. Jason?

Right in line there with what Simon said as far as the market being risk-off, I think that's right. When you look at businesses like LinkedIn, that's one that's caught my my eye. It's down 22% for the year. We obviously had a very strong reaction during the last earnings quarter. But I think when you look down the road here, this is a business, they're really the only ones doing what they're doing. And I think there are a lot of catalysts there for them to grow. I think they're continuing to build out a presence in China, which is encouraging. They've grown that member base up to 10 million-plus. And I still think that acquisition of lynda.com is going to pay off big time. But when you look at their cash

flow statement, virtually all the cash they're making, they're reinvesting back into this business today. But I think there's plenty of room for optionality there, I think sort of multiple futures, so to speak, with this company. So, I think if you can take the long view, this is certainly one to keep your eye on. O' One that stands out to me, and it's one of my largest personal holdings, is Mercado Libre. It's lost almost a third of its value so far this year. It was trading at $150 just last fall, and here it is, just over $100 a share. Certainly, it's the leading e-commerce company in Latin America, there's a lot of volatility in emerging markets, Simon mentioned

Baidu, I get that. But if you look at all the internal metrics of this business, items sold, registered users, transactions over their payments, it's growing by leaps and bounds and it's just been overshadowed by the foreign currency issues and the political economic situation in Latin America. But wow, I look at it as an opportunity, and certainly it's come down a lot. Let's get to the earnings this week. We will start with the big box retailers. Shares of Walmart hitting a 52-week low after second quarter profits came in lower than expected. Target's second quarter profit and revenue higher than expected. Shares up ahead

of the market this week. Matty, Walmart is bigger, but Target sure is looking stronger these days. I think with Target, both of these companies, if you look at the sales for both these companies, they're kind of flattish year over year. But I think what Target has that Walmart doesn't is, I think Target has a little bit of a better experience, they've got better customer service, they've invested in themselves and their e-commerce platform more than Walmart has. I think Walmart's playing a little bit of a catch-up here. The shocking thing for me about Walmart was, the U.S. sales were up 5%, comps were up a little bit, international sales fell almost 10%. A lot of that is due

to foreign currency changes. I've always questioned whether Walmart is truly a brand that can travel abroad. I just don't know if they can really cut it there. Their e-commerce sales were up 16%, which is nice, but coming from the small base that Walmart is coming from, I'm not very impressed. They lowered earnings guidance for the year, making a lot of investments in customer service, I think that's overdue. They're paying their employees more, that's way overdue. And they're investing a lot in their e-commerce platform, which to me is far too little and a decade too late. So, if I look at Walmart, 14X earnings, not very excited about that one. Target, I think it's a little bit better situation. The comps are

growing better. They've invested in themselves better. Even Target at 17X earnings. I can't get excited about these big box retailers, even at the lower prices they are now. Although, you do have to give it up for Brian Cornell, who wraps up his first year as CEO with Target, and the stock up about 30% during his first year. Nice spot to be in. Nice spot to be in. Now, I guess shareholders are just hoping he has a really good sophomore season. Second quarter profit and revenue for The Gap were about what Wall Street was expecting. Earlier in the month, the parent company of Old Navy and Banana Republic had

lowered its sales and earnings guidance for the quarter. Jason, when I look at this, it's not great, but I really was expecting it to be worse. Maybe we could just say it's solid. That seems to be the word for the season. I think it was a decent quarter. I still wonder if they shouldn't even think about changing their name to Old Navy, because Old Navy really is the story here. We were talking over the week about the challenges that fashion retailers like Gap face versus your discount retailers that are much less tied to a brand name and what that brand means to consumers. We know that those brands can go out of style faster than you because they pantsuit. If that's

the case, you see these margins getting hammered, they have to cut pricing, and the businesses really take a hit on the profitability side. Now, with Gap, I like the fact that they have a number of different ways that they can make their money, and that they have Gap, they have Banana Republic, they have Athleta. But really, Old Navy, as I said, continues to be the story here. They've picked up over $1 billion in their market share over the past three years. And I think that's set to continue, because it is really a value that I think consumers value, that proposition that Old Navy offers. I think they've witnessed a lot of trouble on the Banana Republican Gap side in their supply chain, being able

to get up-to-date fashions out in the stores quickly, and being able to change as their consumers' tastes change. Now, they're really working hard on improving that supply chain, and ultimately that's what we'll want to pay attention to over the course of the next couple of years in regard to Banana Republican Gap. They continue to do OK as far as e-commerce sales, about 15% of overall sales. But again, I think we really need to see material improvement in the gap namesake before we can really see this stock see better days. Let's move on to home improvement. Shares of Home Depot hitting an all-time high this week after strong second quarter results. Lowe's second quarter profit higher than a

year ago. Shares up ahead of the market this week. So, Simon, some nice indication of what's happening in housing and home improvement, but it seems like, once again, Home Depot has got the edge. Yeah, both solid results. This is a good time to be a do-it-yourself retailer in America right now. Unemployment is at about 5.3%, so there's more discretionary income at play for people to spend. And then the housing market's been very strong, too. We saw the number of new housing starts in July, the fastest pace in the last eight years now. So, this is great if you're a company like a Home Depot or a Lowe's. As you said, Chris, I think that Home Depot has just been crushing it a little bit more

than Lowe's for the last couple of years. We saw both of them report same-store sales that were higher than expectations, both greater than 4% year-over-year in comparisons. And Home Depots were actually up 5.7% in the U.S., where we mentioned those macro factors at play. I think Home Depot's got a higher operating margin. They're spending a little bit less on overhead, and they're paying a little bit more in a dividend. That's my favorite of the two of those. Up next, sporting goods and a few stocks on our radar. Stay right here. You're listening to Motley Fool Money. As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy

or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money, Chris Hill here in studio with Jason Moser, Simon Erickson, and Matt Argersinger. Second quarter profits for Dick's Sporting Goods came in higher than expected. The company also raised guidance, and Jason, that's the one-two punch we love to see, but shares down on Friday despite all of that. Jason Moser Yeah, well, the guidance raise was just very marginal. I mean, it went from a range of $3.12 to $3.20 to a range of $3.13 to $3.21. So, it was basically a penny on the range side there. It was a decent quarter. Same-store sales were up 1.2% versus 3.2% a year ago. But I think the biggest challenge

that Dick's Sporting Goods faces today, and the reason why the market isn't gaga over these results, is when you consider the forward guidance, and then we look at the big players in sporting apparel and equipment, your Under Armour, your Nikes, even Adidas to a degree. We see how they're growing their direct-to-consumer businesses, and they're really doing a phenomenal job of it. This really takes a lot away from why Dick's Sporting Goods exists in the first place. And so, we've seen them trying to establish some better relationships with Under Armour and Nike, try to get some of their new equipment out there in Dick's Sporting Goods stores first. But they're also building out more of their own private label brand, which is

good. That's going to help them, at least on the margin side, and it's going to give people a reason to consider going there, albeit for more of a value proposition. They may not possess certainly that same kind of brand power that Under Armour and Nike possess, but look at inventory here. Inventory is outpacing growth here. Sales grew about 8%. Inventory is up 14%. You don't really like to see that. That's a sign we might see some margin trouble here down the road. One worth keeping an eye on. I'm not sold that these guys are necessarily out of the woods, though. Have they named their own white label brand? I'm just trying to think what the brand could

be from Dick's. I honestly don't know. Dick's, you know, Dick's under ... Radio at Fool.com is our email address. Email from Gary Carr in Oakland, California, who writes, as one of your dozens of listeners to the radio show and your Market Foolery podcast, I'm often left with this question. Given how often you talk about restaurants, aren't you all hungry during and after every show? Yes.

Chipotle, Bojangles, Shake Shack, Taco Bell, and let us not forget the man behind the glass, Steve Broido's favorite, Olive Garden. They seem to come up every other day, or perhaps this is all product placement, and these companies, thanks to Allison Southwick's PR magic, are sending over free samples in return for the mentions. If that's true, she is truly firing on all cylinders, don't you think? Reveal the secrets, please. Boy, I would love to say that we're getting free samples in exchange for all of this,

but no, that is sadly not the case. Gary, we're just hungry. We're just hungry. And in the case of our man behind the glass, there's just a great deal of affinity for Olive Garden. Speaking of our man behind the glass, let's bring in Steve Broido as we get to the stocks on our radar this week. He'll hit you up with a question. Matt Argersinger, you're up first. What are you looking at? Sure. I'm looking at NOW, Inc., the ticker is D-N-O-W. This is a supplier and distributor of things like pipes, valves, tools, mainly for the oil and gas industry. You know, in Million Dollar Profit, I think it's safe to say, guys, we're really kind of early into

the oil and gas space. We saw in the spring kind of where oil prices were. We made some investments, and NOW was one of them. Here, we have a company that's trading really at its all-time low after being spun off from National Oil a little while back. And I just think when oil and gas prices rebound, which they certainly will, this is one you might want to take advantage of. Steve, question about NOW Incorporated? Is it possible that oil and gas may not rebound for another 10 or 20 years? It seems like it's going on forever.

Wow. Well, 10 or 20 years, I would say no. They will definitely rebound before then. But the question is, is the next year, two years, three years, that is the ultimate question. I think we're seeing a lot of drillers continue to drill, even at these low prices, particularly from the Middle East. So, it is an open question. Jason Moser, what are you looking at? Sure. Going back to the well here on Wayfair.com. That's one I've talked about before. But they are a home furnishings e-commerce platform

with brands like Wayfair, Joss & Main, All Modern, Dwell Studio, Birch Lane. They had a really solid quarter here. And solid, really emphatically solid, Chris. And I think we saw the stock really pop, 30-plus percent over the course of the next couple of days after the release. That was a little bit of a short squeeze going on there. There was about 34% short interest before the earnings release. But this is basically a logistics slash customer service play as they connect the suppliers all around the country with customers all around the country. They play into the logistics side of it, getting those goods to their customers, and very, very customer service oriented. They see orders from repeat

customers up to more than 56%, and they see record growth in new customer ads. I think it's interesting because there is a firm out there known as Citron, who apparently is not so enamored with this company, and they're going to come out with some short research apparently soon. It may be an interesting opportunity sooner or later, so keep an eye on it. And the ticker? Ticker is simply W. Steve?

Would you buy furniture that you've never sat on and just have it shipped to your home? Would you be comfortable with that? Hey, if they have a friendly returns policy, Steve, I'll buy anything online if I haven't sat on it. Simon, we've got about a minute left. What are you looking at? Chris, I'm looking at Ambarella. Ticker is AMBA. This is a perennial favorite of ours at Rule Breakers. They're creating these systems on a chip for high-definition video. They are powering the GoPro cameras, which have been selling fantastically well for the last

year for action sports enthusiasts. But they're really a crucial part of this move to high definition video. Everything that I've seen from Facebook, NVIDIA, GoPro, and a bunch of other companies is that HD video is going to be a very big trend. Umbrella is a crucial part of that. I think that today's market cap of under $3 billion is an opportunity in this one to buy. Steve? Can all this stuff just happen on my iPhone at some point? If you're carrying it around for action sports, yes. But the other thing that they're getting

into is kind of security cameras and a whole bunch of other opportunities, too, outside of just sports cameras. So, I don't think that the phone cameras are going to be participating in that as much as you think, Steve. Alright, guys, thanks for being here. Coming up after the break, a conversation with former Marketplace Radio host Tess Vigeland. Stay right here, this is Motley Fool Money. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money, I'm Chris Hill. Whatever you do for a living, imagine being one of the best, not just where you work. Imagine being regarded as one of the very best in your profession in the entire country.

Now imagine quitting your job with no idea of what you want to do next. That is what Tess Vigeland did three years ago, a longtime host for Marketplace Radio. She walked away from the anchor's desk and began a journey she shares now in her new book, Leap, leaving a job with no plan b to find the career and life you really want tess good to finally have you on motley fool money chris it is entirely my pleasure um i i don't know why you didn't ask me a long time ago but i'm glad we finally got around to it let me ask let me ask the question that uh i know you've fielded many many times before but seriously though what were you thinking I mean, I remember three years ago reading the news online that you were walking away from Marketplace Radio and just thinking, I don't know what's going on there.

Well, a few things were going on. First of all, I was in a workplace that just wasn't working for me anymore for various reasons that I've declined to go into in public. um and second of all i know this is going to be very hard for you to imagine but i've been covering business and economics for more than a decade personal finance for six years and i was a little bit sick of it i again i i know you cannot fathom that yourself but i can't but i just but it really was something where I just kind of felt like I needed to to do something different but the problem was I didn't know what that was and I didn't know how to translate my skills I didn't know if I wanted to stay in journalism or radio if I wanted to go

do something entirely different and so I did what you are never ever ever ever supposed to do I quit without having something else lined up yeah that is the thing that you hear all the time no matter how old you are. Certainly, when you get your first job right out of college, you hear that all the time. Well, look, if you're going to leave, make sure you have another job lined up before you quit whatever your current job is. But one of the things that struck me reading your book was the fact that the people closest to you in your life, your husband, your parents, they were instantly and unfailingly supportive of you. They were just incredibly supportive. But as you write about in the book, not only is this not nearly as comforting as one might think, but you admit that on a certain level, you kind of don't believe them when they say, no, we don't think you made a mistake. Why was that?

I think that we are also inculcated with this idea that that we have to stay to stick with things even if maybe they're not perfect with us we have to have this linear trajectory in our careers we have to do it the way we've always been taught to do it so when I didn't do that when I basically went against the crowd I went against the grain I was sure that everyone would just think I was bonkers. I thought I was bonkers. I wondered if there was something wrong with me. And so when my family, when my friends all immediately expressed support, and essentially the only things I heard were, oh, you're so brave. And boy, I wish I could do that. When inside, I was just telling myself, you're bananas. You have just committed career suicide.

It makes it really hard to believe anybody else. It makes it hard to listen to anybody else. And I, you know, I think our friends and family always want to support us. So automatically my thought was, oh, you know, they're just being nice. Because I would say the same thing to somebody. Oh, you'll be fine. Good for you. You're doing what you need to do.

But inside my head, it was, it was the opposite. And I just I couldn't really believe I couldn't absorb what everybody else was saying, which was that, you know, you've been doing this for a long time. You're an adult. You'll figure it out. And we're not worried about you. Well, as I said, my my first thought upon seeing the news that you were leaving was, you know, what is she thinking? But my second thought was, well, you know, someone's going to hire her in a heartbeat. But one of the things that you get in the book is, and you end up meeting people who have done the exact same thing as you, seeking out these people. And one of the things that comes up is that, yeah, it's great to have the support of family and friends. But if you're going to make this kind of leap, you actually need to find sort of a new circle to help you.

Yeah, this is a piece of advice that I would really encourage people to start thinking about. And, you know, even if you really love your job, you never know how long it's going to last. You never know what is going to happen in your workplace, in your industry. It's always good to at least have something in the back of your mind. Even if you don't have a actual plan B, you need to think about what would happen if it went away. So one thing that I think is really valuable is, you know, we hear this word networking all the time. And I think it's a very squishy idea. You know, yeah, talk to people who are in your industry and get to know people.

I think it's actually much more valuable to see if you can really spend some time asking people what their work life is like. So you're not just trying to meet people for the sake of making connections and people who might introduce you to someone at their company. you really want to get a sense for what their work life is like and what their life is like outside of work. You know, I had thought maybe I would go do something entirely different outside the realm even of journalism. I love gardening and I thought, well, what if I really just sank my hands into the dirt and became a master gardener? And I think if I pursued that, the really smart thing would have been to go see if I could spend a couple of days with someone who does that for a living. So not just go and meet them for coffee, but I think a

lot of people are open to having you spend time with them. You just have to ask. And I think it's really wise to do that so that if you do decide to make a radical change like that, you have a much fuller sense of what that's going to mean for you, for your work life, for your life outside of work. You're listening to Motley Fool Money, talking with Tess Vigeland. Her new book is Leap, Leaving a Job with No Plan B to Find the Career and Life You Really Want. You say right off the bat in this book, like, look, this is not 10 steps to quitting your job, but you do offer practical tips for anyone who's thinking about self-employment, things like dealing with with expenses, taxes, etc. I think for me, the most challenging part of something like that

would be setting up a daily schedule. What was the most challenging part for you? That was a challenging part for me. I thought that I would just set up a daily schedule and I would be able to stick to it. And apparently, I'm not that kind of person. So that did not work for me. It might work for some other people. And you have to find what works for you. the biggest challenge for me, believe it or not, Chris, was managing my money. You know, when you've spent your entire career salaried, or at least with a very regular income, it's really tough to figure out how you're going to make it work when it's irregular, especially in the first six months to a year where you're not even sure what kind of work you're going to get. You don't,

you maybe don't have any kind of regular contracting work, freelance work, that sort of thing. And you don't know how long you're going to be independent. It's really scary to look at the Quicken account and say, I don't know when the next thing is going to come. But I worked through that. I'm, I'm a smart gal. I figured it out and it wasn't easy. Um, but it is, it is a challenge. And I think when you haven't had to essentially drum up business for yourself, uh, it is something that is new and different. And, um, that that's the biggest challenge that at least I faced and, you know, different people will face different challenges, but that, that was a big one for me, which is so full of irony, right? What, the fact that you hosted a nationally

syndicated show about money and your biggest challenge was handling money? Yeah, I think that is. I know you talked to a lot of different people when you were writing this book. I'm curious if making this type of leap is, and I'm sure it's challenging for anyone no matter their circumstances, but I'm wondering if it is slightly easier for people who are younger. I'm just thinking mainly about millennials, but do you get that sense as well? Absolutely. I think that people of a certain age, I'm in my mid-40s, I think even people in their 30s and certainly people older than me have grown up with this notion of what your work life, what your career is supposed to look like. And again, it's this very linear idea that you figure

out what you want to do even before you pick a college. And in college, you study that and then you get a job out of school and then you get a better job after that and get a better job after that. But you keep going on a career ladder. That's what our parents did. That's what our grandparents did. But I do think that's changing. You know, the millennials are all they're staying in their jobs like two years at the most. So for them, quitting is no big deal. Um, for them leaping from one idea of a job into another is, is not something that prompts an existential crisis for those of us who are a little older, it does. And I think part of that is because we grow into an identity. You know, for me, it was, I had been a radio person for 20 years and that's,

that's who I was. That's how, that's how I identified myself every time I met new people. When I didn't have that, I didn't know who I was anymore. And we're getting into kind of squishy psychology now, but it does really come into play. You know, I would say that was, the, the money was a very practical challenge for me, but I would say the, the larger kind of 30,000 foot challenge for me was figuring out who I was outside of what I did for a living. And it's not something that we, especially here in America, really think about a lot. It's the first thing we talk about when we're with people is what we do. And I hope we change that because I think that we are all much more than what we do for a living. But I do think that there is a

generational shift going on. A, millennials, I don't think they see their job as the entirety of who they are to a much greater extent than when I was in my 20s. And B, they're just much more comfortable with change. And I'm not sure why that is. I'm sure some social psychologist would have some ideas on that, but they just, it's no problem for them to think about, well, you know, if I'm not liking what I do, I'm going to go over here and try this and see how that works out. For people like me in their mid 40s, it just it sounds crazy. But I'm really glad that that's changing because variety is good. And I love that there's a generation coming up that doesn't believe that does not believe that that work is the only thing that's important about you.

Coming up more with Tess Vigeland. Stay right here. This is Motley Fool Money. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. Chris Hill talking with former Marketplace Radio host Tess Viglin this week. You have interviewed hundreds of authors throughout your career. Now that you've written your first book, any newfound sympathy for those authors? What do you know now about writing a book that you didn't know a year or two ago? Oh man, I didn't know anything about writing a book. And as a journalist, I'm sure you will relate to this. I was so used to daily deadlines, weekly deadlines, and I'm a procrastinator. So journalism is perfect for me because it forces me to get things done. I had a year to write the book and I procrastinated

and procrastinated. I mean, I had other work to do, so it's not like I was sitting around doing nothing. But having that year-long deadline was weird. And I did not handle it very well. So that was one thing. If I ever wrote another book, which I don't think I will, I'm one and done for me. But if I ever did write another book, I would force myself to get a little more of it done a little earlier. Pretend like I had only three months to write it. That's what I need to do. I need a three month deadline for a book. It was crazy. Um, I also had no idea. I probably shouldn't say this publicly, but I'm going to anyway, how, um, how stuck in the nineties publishing is. Um, I had to send word documents back and forth to my editor.

this you know 72 73 000 word book that i've written went back and forth in a word document i thought for sure that they would have some sort of like shared server that we could use or maybe like you know google drive but but they don't you're saying that's not the only way wait a minute which they're um kind of old old school you're saying the book publishing business is not on the cutting edge of innovation in this country? I know this is a shock to everyone, but yes. Before we wrap up with a round of buy, sell, or hold, I know you're not retiring, but reading your book, I cannot help but reflect on some of the stories that you have covered throughout

your career. Tonya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan in the 90s, certainly 9-11 when you were in Boston, and the financial crisis of 2008-2009. When you think back, is there a story that stands out or has any sort of special meaning for you for any reason? You know, it's so funny. I'm surprised that this popped into my head. And no one has actually asked me that. I did a story in 2000, I want to say 2006.

So it would have been a couple of years ahead of the actual financial crisis. It would have been a couple of years ahead of Lehman, maybe it's 2007, where I went to Central California and it was just the beginning of the housing crisis. And there was this town where I walked in and it was essentially a suburb in the middle of nowhere, right on I-5. And I walked around the neighborhood with this family that had gone into foreclosure, but was still basically squatting in their own home because there weren't enough people working in the sheriff's office in the mortgage department to kick them out. So I went and visited them and

they walked me around their neighborhood with one child in a stroller and the other playing ball around us. And we walked through this neighborhood that was essentially just foreclosures everywhere. there were a couple of houses where there were people but the rest of them had overgrown lawns some of them had you know windows that have been broken out and it was the first time I really started to get a grasp of what might be going on and that story has stayed with me ever since then that family has stayed with me ever since then I I wish I'd followed up with them to know where they are now. But seeing that subdivision out in the middle of, I mean, literally in the middle of California, just south of Sacramento, was terrifying. And

I wish that we had all paid more attention to those warning signs, because they were everywhere. You know, I think the news media really fell down on that whole story. And that was a lesson for me because our job is to observe and to report. And I don't think we did enough of that. All right. Let's wrap up with a round of buy, sell, or hold. They have one of the worst records in all of Major League Baseball. But, of course, hope springs eternal.

Buy, sell, or hold the Boston Red Sox making the playoffs in 2016. You're cruel, you know I'm a Red Sox fan, but I'm going to say sell. I'm a Red Sox fan, you're hurting my feelings, come on. They can turn it around, worst to first, right? No, they can't, no. Alright, let's move on. Last weekend in Los Angeles County, four different cities experienced record high temperatures. Buy, sell or hold, living in LA? Bye. I still love it. I think the temperature is actually the least of our worries. We're going to run out of water in a year, but I still love it. It's a great place to live.

This celebrated group has been a cultural influence for five decades and even coined their own word in the Oxford English Dictionary, buy, sell, or hold the comedic stylings of Monty Python. Oh, sell. I don't get it. I think you're in the minority on that one. Come on. They got their own word. Python-esque. I mean, you can't beat that. I don't laugh. I never laugh. Finally, I know your fans have asked this because even I am getting questions from listeners on this topic. Buy, sell, or hold Tess Vigeland returning to radio as a full-time host one more time. Hold.

That'll have to do. The book is Leap, Leaving a Job with No Plan B to Find the Career and Life You Really Want. It goes on sale August 25th, so check it out. Tess Vigeland, thanks so much for being here. Entirely my pleasure, Chris. Thank you. That's going to do it for this week's show. Our engineer is Steve Broido, our producer is Mac Greer. I'm Chris Hill, thanks for listening. We'll see you next week. Thank you.