A few weeks ago, I was checking the news on the internet and saw the headline, “Florida Woman Finds Rare Lithograph Print at Goodwill.” That sounded interesting but I was short on time so I didn’t click through. Later that night, I was checking Facebook and found out that the “Florida Woman” was my dear friend from elementary school, Maureen Flaherty! She had purchased a painting of a dog for $44. As she walked out of the Goodwill store, an antique dealer walking in told her she had something of great value and offered to buy it from her. It turns out a similar painting sold last year for $3,300!
I’ve been asked what value investing is and there are good technical definitions out there but basically it means buying something which is undervalued and over time waiting for it to increase in price to its true value. Warren Buffet is known for his focus on value investing. My friend’s purchase could be called a very quick version of value investing.
But the story doesn’t end there. Value has more than one meaning and I’m glad we get to explore the second kind. After Maureen learned the true value of what she had, she decided to add some more value. She is a dog-lover and fosters dogs for local animal rescue organizations. She decided to auction off the painting. She will use half of the proceeds to complete a how-to book she is writing on fostering dogs and half to donate to a local animal rescue organization. You could say she is leveraging the windfall she found to help more than just herself. Not only did she find value, she created it too.
It doesn’t get much better than that. Finding value and creating value all in one package. All this reminds me that investing is about much more than the value created in a portfolio. It’s really about the value it can create in our lives and the lives of those we love.
Kristin Rodriguez