You may have seen that Charles Schwab has reduced its commissions to $0. But when you dig a little deeper you realize there’s a catch. As it turns out it’s free but Schwab gets to use your cash, lend it out, and pocket-the interest you could have made. “Schwab doesn’t use money-market funds or short-term Treasury funds, which could earn nearly 2% at recent rates,” explains Jason Zweig at the WSJ. “Instead, it shunts the cash into Charles Schwab Bank, which currently pays 0.55% on the money—and then turns around and lends it out at roughly 2%.” Clearly you can see Schwab isn’t working … [Read more...]
Archives for October 2019
Your Retirement Life: Check Out the New Corvette C8
Your Survival Guy had a chance to check out the new Corvette C8. Starting out at $59k this stunner is a game-changer. Jay Leno has the first look at the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray - Jay Leno's Garage Jay Leno has turned his passion for cars into an investing strategy. See how he does it here. Originally posted on Your Survival Guy. … [Read more...]
Can China Avoid Isolation, Decline and Revolt?
Bret Stephens, writing at The New York Times, isn't sure that China can avoid "full-blown nightmare of international isolation, economic decline, and domestic revolt." With the Chinese economy's growth slowing down to levels not seen in nearly 30 years, and capital fleeing the country, Stephens wonders if China has hit a "middle-income trap." He writes: It turns out to be a trap few countries escape: Of 101 countries defined as “middle income” in 1960, only 13 rose to high-income by 2008, according to a World Bank report. And some of these countries, like Greece, are prone to slip … [Read more...]
This is the Most Persuasive Test of High-Quality Investing: Does Your Portfolio Pass?
Of all the ways you can test the holdings in your portfolio, Ben Graham codified what he called the most persuasive in his book Intelligent Investor. Companies paying dividends for 20 consecutive years were first on Graham’s list of high quality. I explained high quality to readers in August 2007, writing: Laurent & Villchur... Back in 1967, Acoustic Research’s demonstration room on Mount Auburn Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was ground zero for state-of-the-art high fidelity. My experiences in Cambridge led me to buy the Acoustic Research AR3 speakers and AR turntable that I am … [Read more...]
How to Find the Best Place to Retire
If you are like many soon-to-be-retirees in America, you're looking forward to getting away from your cold, northern, probably-high-tax state and settling down in retirement in a southern locale with low taxes and warm winters. But, how can you know where you'll like it best in your Golden Years? I encourage you to do some A/B testing. Live short-term or spend a vacation in some of the places you'd potentially move to during retirement. Without actually staying there for a month or more, it can be hard to judge whether or not you'll be happy. There's another way to get a feel for new … [Read more...]
Welcome to the Hotel California of Investments
Welcome to the Hotel California of Investments: Indexed Annuities. With surrender fees as much as 10% per year lasting as long as 10 to 12-years, “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!” Take caution: Because as money flows into indexed annuities remember that the big winners are certainly the insurance companies and the salesmen (who make 5 to 8 percent of the sale). Penelope Wang explains at Consumer Reports: Unlike regular annuities, which give a fixed payout, returns on indexed annuities rise and fall with the stock market. But these annuities don’t invest in … [Read more...]
Stocks Cap Their Best First Three Quarters in 22 Years
Despite the ongoing trade war and skirmishes in the Middle East, stocks posted their best three first three quarters since 1997. Gunjan Banerji writes in The Wall Street Journal: The S&P 500 is now sitting just 1.6% below July 26’s all-time high, but it has also risen a mere 2.2% from a year ago after a brutal selloff last fall—encapsulating the sideways trading pattern that has gripped markets since the beginning of 2018. The quarter ended on a relatively quiet note. The S&P 500 ticked up 0.5% to 2976.74 Monday, paced by Apple, which closed at its highest level this … [Read more...]
The Power of a Compound Interest Table
Compound interest was described as the greatest mathematical discovery of all time by Albert Einstein. Compound interest “Tis the stone that will turn all of your lead into gold,” according to Benjamin Franklin. The late great Richard Russell explained compound interest as the royal road to riches. Below I'll explain this powerful investment tool and show you how to read a compound interest table. Compound interest is the heart and soul of investing. Investors lacking a solid grounding in compounding are more likely to suffer from a wandering eye. They can be inclined to favor Hail Mary … [Read more...]
How Much More Are Stocks Really Worth when Rates Are Low?
Gary Shilling warns against overpaying for stocks simply because rates are low. In piece for Bloomberg, he explains that investors "tend to be overly enthusiastic at business cycle peaks when corporate cash is plentiful and purchase their shares at high prices." He writes: U.S. stocks are expensive by historical standards, and the bulls try to justify current valuations by pointing to extremely low levels of interest rates. There are a number of reasons why that’s no reason to pay sky-high prices relative to profits. With companies preparing to start reporting results for the third … [Read more...]