How I pick the stocks I buy.

Occasionally I am asked how I've chosen the stocks that are in my portfolio. I have a very effective formula - and I'll let ya' take a peak. It goes a little like this ...
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My day didn’t start out great yesterday morning. I was a bit of a grump, actually. Suffice to say that the cat starting out the day by puking next to his food kinda kicked things off for me. I decided to see about changing my outlook by going on-line for a bit, which turned out to be ummmm … well, I guess the cat puke was still the morning highlight.

With the mantra of "please let's NOT be in this mood - it takes too much of my energy" going through my head (set to the tune of ... wait for it ... waaaaait for it ... "Boom De Yada!"), I turned Jake towards the familiar and friendly faces of my local coffeehouse. You KNOW the one – they have the somewhat-Italian sounding names for what would usually be “small, medium, large” beverages and are on every other corner in larger cities. People either love or lothe this chain. Me? I'm a shareholder.

Because I visit literally every morning, I’m known at this location. (I’m also known, by name and embarrassingly long personalized beverage order, at two other locations of this same coffeehouse chain. What can I say – I am, apparently “memorable”.) John, the employee behind the counter, had just finished giving out samples of some pink frothy thing and offered me a glass of it. “It’s strawberry”, he said, “and there’s no caffeine so you can try it.” I did, and it was lovely. And familiar. VERY familiar.

I finished the taste and said “uh … so this tastes JUST like … mmmmm … which cereal is it that has the Crunch Berries?” And another regular turned to me and said “You’re exactly right. This is a Crunch Berry slushie.” And for a few minutes, the customer base at this location discussed their favorite awful (but awesome) breakfast cereal.

“I wouldn’t know”, said the man-child that had whipped up this shot of deliciousness. “I’ve never had that cereal.” The whole scene stopped.

“Uh – what?” I said.

“Yeah, my folks never let us have that stuff … we did a lot of granola and … um stuff like that.” I was agog. “John – that’s … that’s practically un-American. On Friday, I’m bringing you a box of Captain Crunch with Crunch Berries and you’re gonna see what you’ve been missing.”

And I found that, when I left with my drink order, I was smiling. And it may have been the coffee, but I think it was the memory of the cereal.
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So I’m thinking … maybe I should buy some General Mills stock.