Investing when you’d rather be focused on beer

Welcome to Forbes Edge, your insider’s guide to career and entrepreneurial success, exclusively on LinkedIn. This week, we’ll get some investing advice from billionaire brewer Jim Koch, founder of Boston Beer Co., known for its Sam Adams beer. Then, we’ll fight the end-of-summer blues with some advice being your best self back at the office. Along with an interview with the entrepreneur behind BLK & Bold Coffee and some quality tips on rejecting a job offer, there’s plenty to get to in this week’s edition. Let’s dive in:

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Success story of the week: Investing in stock when you’re focused on beer: Advice from billionaire brewer Jim Koch

Does the stock market intimidate or bore you? You’re not alone—even some billionaires want little to do with the world of finance. Take Jim Koch, the 74-year-old founder of Boston Beer Co., best known for its Sam Adams brews, whose goal is to invest in the stock market without paying much attention to it. That way, he can put his time and effort into experimenting with beer.

“I don’t believe that I have any chance in hell of outsmarting the professional investors,” says Koch. “My kids are like, ‘Well, shouldn’t we invest in–?’ And it’s like, ‘No. You’ve got to remember, if you’re buying a stock, there’s somebody on the other side of that transaction selling that stock. And the chances are that they have more information and better information than you do.”

Koch prefers random diversification and “zero engagement.” The job of trading stocks goes to his wife’s longtime assistant, whom the couple hired as a babysitter 20 years ago. Every two weeks, she harvests any losses and chooses a new individual stock from a preset list of indexes that includes the S&P 500 and Russell 2000.

Koch says this strategy has outperformed most actively managed portfolios while requiring less work.

In His Words: “I don’t want to worry about it. It’s boring. It’s annoying.”

Instead, he spends his time running his $2.1 billion business, which he founded in 1984. But Koch’s “crafty” days began years before he got into the beer game. Growing up in Cincinnati, he saved money from delivering newspapers and bought his first public stock at the age of 12. Koch bought two shares of Procter & Gamble, the consumer goods company that sells brands like Pampers, Cascade and Tide. That stock cost him about $140, and has since split into 128 shares worth a combined $20,000, over 14 times the investment’s original value. He’s never sold them: “I’m going to give them to my grandson.”

Big gains like that belie the fact that growing his wealth through the stock market hasn’t been Koch’s goal. Rather, he aims to use securities to maintain his fortune.

“You acquire wealth by concentrating your risk. You preserve it by diversifying your risk,” he explains.?

Read the full story here.

Driving success: Meet the Black entrepreneur behind Iowa-based BLK & Bold Coffee

Tips and strategies: How to mentally prepare for a return to the daily work grind as summer comes to a close

It’s not just students who are getting into the back-to-school mindset, as many workers are starting to feel summertime slipping away as well. That means the end of three-day weekends, vacations, and a slower pace at the office as you and your colleagues begin to trickle back on a more regular basis.

To get in the right mindset, think of some positive aspects of returning to the office and seeing your co-workers again. For example, while more people are out of the office, gaining traction on projects and assignments can be a struggle. Now that more people are coming back, it will make your work life easier to get some help. And if you are returning yourself, take some time to readjust to the work routing and pace, and set expectations for yourself and be patient with the transition process.

Read the full story here from Jack Kelly for more tips on reacclimating to the office culture.

Practical advice: How to politely decline a job offer

When on the hunt for a new career opportunity, receiving a job offer is typically cause for celebration. But sometimes, after thinking long and hard about the pros and cons, it’s OK to decide that the job just isn’t right for you. Maybe the salary is too low, the culture isn’t a good fit, or you detected other red flags during the interview process. But how should you go about declining the offer?

It can be a tricky prospect, as you don’t want to burn bridges with the company. The key is to communicate in a way that is honest, professional and concise. Use these five tips as a guidepost for your response:

1. Respond in a timely manner
2. Express gratitude
3. Provide a brief explanation
4. Be polite
5. Offer to stay in touch

Read the full story here from Caroline Castrillon for more advice, including example emails.

More:?

• How ‘Lazy Girl Jobs’ contribute to work-life balance and burnout prevention
• Do we really need to write cover letters in 2023?
• Productivity plummets on Mondays: How to be your best all week long
• How to get your boss to see you as a leader

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Thank you for reading! We'll be back next week with another Forbes Edge.?

This edition of Forbes Edge was written and curated by associate editor Chris Dobstaff.