Are These Businesses Or "Stocks"? Sample 2025

February 2025

A major theme of the new client seminar we introduce nearby—as well as of the forthcoming new edition of Simple Wealth, Inevitable Wealth—is that our clients and prospects be actively encouraged by us to think of themselves as owners of successful businesses rather than as investors in “the stock market.” This past month I came across a tabulation of the ten largest companies in the S&P 500 by 2023 revenues.

I hadn't seen this before (I usually just see the top ten by market cap) and thought you might like to have it—to show people the enormous revenue streams of these companies. And to demonstrate that these are businesses many of which they buy from all the time. (My family actually patronizes the top six directly. Yours?)

Next time “the stock market” has a sinking spell, this may help people get back into some useful emotional touch with the genuinely world class businesses they own.