Is it better to own 100% of one thing or one percent of 100 things?
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I’ll say 100% of one, because owning so little of so many things makes you care less about each individual item or object.
But then I’ll say 1% of 100 things, because owning one thing makes you more vulnerable to disruption if you lose it, and you end up with nothing.
Ahhhh, I’ll sleep on this tonight David :^)
Hi Yvonne!

Well, there’s nothing like being certain!
Oooooooooooh interesting one ……… very black and white – with no shades of grey.
For me it would depend on what that “thing” was – and with whon I had to share ownership with and what those terms of part ownership were.
Nicola!
Yes, it is black and white — so stop choosing grey!
๐
This is more a philosophy about life, living, investment and expression than it is about anything specific.
I guess I didn’t think the question through enough like Nicola – I agree with her point about taking into consideration those two factors.
Sleepy time for me, loving your blog as usual David, don’t ever stop ๐
I kind of apply it to life – I dont invest my time/energy into things where it will get diluted or lost – I tend to work on small individual projects that are focussed and where it will do most good.
Yvonne! Come back here and answer the question!

Okay, Nicola, which one are you choosing? I can read your response as accepting both options.
๐
I would probably abstain and choose neither ……………… ๐
However if I had to – I would go with the 100% of one thing ……… ( being the control freak that I am) .
THANK YOU FOR ANSWERING THE QUESTION, NICOLA!
๐
I think I’d pick 100% of one thing as well. All or nothing. Everything in. Total laser focus on one objective and a singular goal.
Cryptic —
That’s an interesting take on the question! It’s funny how we have the same philosophy of learning but we frame the context of our achievement and curiosity in conclusion.
Because of my thirst for mastery and knowledge I must know/own 100% of that one thing — so I suppose over my life I’ve owned 100% of 100 things — but I’m changing my own question and trying to have it too many ways so I’ll stick with my original answer: 100%.
๐
I’m going with owing 1% of 100 things.
I’m in collections, so our money is made not on any one case, but percentages recovered from many cases. It’s a little here and a little there that adds up.
Stocks are the same way.
Owing only one company’s stock is dangerous. It’s better to diversify.
The key is getting the best 100 things to have a slice of.
Interesting take on the question, Dave. If you only own 1% you’re never really on the hook for anything. You’d never be a majority owner. You’d always be silent and ignored. Having the whole is more appealing, to me at least, for the reasons you list.
Chris —
It’s wild that “own” translates for you into “finance.” I can think of lots of things you can own that don’t have a direct financial outcome.
I can see the cautiousness and prudence of spreading out the risk over a wide area to lessen the chances of one cruel thing ruining 100% of your hard work.
Sounds like NetJets, Dave:
http://www.execjet.com/The%20NetJets%20Program/netjetsprogram_overview.asp
Warren Buffett’s company bought NetJets:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/09/23/1032734111833.html
Hi David,
Owing 1% of 100 quality things is easier to obtain for most people than owing 100% of one thing.
In some ways, that makes it attractive because the cost of buying into something is less than paying the full 100%.
It would be interesting to compare owing 1% of a certain set of items, as opposed to owning 100% of one item in the same class.
Would the sum of 1% x 100 be greater than the singular 100%?
Sounds like a good plan for your friend, Dave.
I know a lot of people who buy time-shares and have a miserable experience. They can’t sell their shares when they feel they donโt get their moneyโs worth and want out. Once they’re were in, they had recurring maintenance fees that never go down — they always go up and if you go in on buying a share with other friends to make it more affordable you canโt sell your share of that share without the agreement of the others who pooled to buy that share.
Chris!
You’re better at math than me. So let’s test your theory.
Let’s say Bill Gates owns 100% of Microsoft.
Then take the top 100 publicly listed software companies — Microsoft not included — and purchase 1% of each of those companies and add up the net worth!
You can use Friday’s closing stock price to make your calculations!
I wonder if there’s a website out there that will do that calculation?
I’ll see if there’s some easy way to do that calculation.
Owing the 1% only works if you can get 1% items that are more than the value of the total 100% item and it didn’t matter if you had total control over them.
How can you own 1% but have it be worth more than the other 99%?
Hi David,
I did the math — remember I’m not that great at math, so there might be errors. ๐
Owing 1% of something might work out if your 100% item was outside of the class, i.e. owning 1% of the Forbes Top 10 would be worth more than owing 100% interest in a $1 million home.
If the items are in the same class, then the math doesn’t work in favor of owning just 1%.
I ran the figures for the Forbes Top 10 companies in 2003.
Their total market value was $1,450,785 million.
One percent of that figure equals $14,507.85 million.
The top 2003 company, according to Forbes’ list is GE, which has a market value of $242,835 million. The 2003 number 10 company, Altria, is valued at $73,063 million.
Owning 100% of any company on the list is worth more than owning just 1% of all on the list.
Here’s an interesting article about time shares written by an economist.
Dave —
Time shares seem to be aimed at the uneducated and the poor. That’s a sad and deadly combination for exploitation.
Thanks for that excellent article, Chris! I enjoyed this part: