Bonds play a role in your portfolio even when interest rates are low. You absolutely, without a doubt, must consider your risk first and foremost before investing in stocks. That’s why I want you to put your bonds before your stocks when considering today’s market environment. Originally posted on Your Survival Guy. … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2019
Google to Offer Checking Accounts Next Year
I don’t like this at all. The name alone, Cache, is dripping with smugness. When it comes to your money privacy is always paramount. CNBC's Jeff Cox reports: Google will offer checking accounts next year, according to a source familiar with the company’s plans, representing Big Tech’s boldest move yet into the consumer banking business. Most previous efforts have focused on credit cards and payment platforms. The accounts for the project will be run by Citigroup and the Stanford Federal Credit Union, the source said, confirming a report in The Wall Street Journal. As part of a … [Read more...]
Nike Shows Brands a Way Forward without Amazon
Nike has pulled the plug on an attempt to sell through Amazon.com directly after the online retailer couldn't clean up unauthorized resellers from its website. Despite Amazon.com's dominance of online retail, Nike has charted a course that may be a guide for other brand name companies. Nike has pushed more sales through its own channels, both in its own stores and through its apps and website. Khadeeja Safdar reports for The Wall Street Journal: For years, Nike had refused to sell directly to Amazon, fearing it would undermine its brand. Nike executives were unhappy with how unauthorized … [Read more...]
Texans Fight to Protect Their Income from Taxation
Texans are known for their fierce loyalty to their home state, with some even considering themselves Texans first, then Americans. So it's no surprise when Texans band together to protect themselves from outside forces seeking to change the state's character and customs. Thanks to Texas' many years of economic success, people from all over America and beyond have immigrated to the state to participate in its bounty. They have brought with them ideas antithetical to Texas' traditions, including a desire for bigger government. In the face of this foreign influence on their ways, Texans … [Read more...]
Who’s your Most Trusted Financial Advisor?
The WSJ featured a piece last Friday on the debacle that has been WeWork. WeWork is a real estate company that owns no real estate. The core of WeWork’s business model is subletting. WeWork leases large spaces in buildings, transforms them in a specific style, and then sublets the space to individuals and businesses at a higher price. Who might be interested in leasing space from WeWork? Freelancers, startups, and other businesses who desire short-term lease agreements and flexibility. WeWork’s tenants, or members as they are sometimes called, sign leases that last an average of … [Read more...]
Here’s How the Wealthy Get More for Their Money
For decades high tax states have been treating their wealthiest residents like a bank account, with money to be withdrawn whenever state legislators had a new pet project to fund. In the past, wealthy residents were tied down to places like New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut because of their proximity to centers of industry like Wall Street. Today though, the internet allows wealthy executives to operate their businesses from almost anywhere. With this newfound freedom, many wealthy residents of high tax states have been fleeing for places like Florida, where they get to keep more of … [Read more...]
Number of Underwater Car Loans Rising
An increasing number of American car-buyers are borrowing more than the value of a vehicle they are purchasing in order to pay off loans attached to their previous vehicles. These "underwater" buyers are reminiscent of many homeowners during the collapse of the housing market who were paying on mortgages for more than their homes were worth. AnnaMaria Andriotis and Ben Eisen report in The Wall Street Journal: Some 33% of people who traded in cars to buy new ones in the first nine months of 2019 had negative equity, compared with 28% five years ago and 19% a decade ago, according to … [Read more...]
Here’s What to Look for As Markets Enter an Election Year
Election years have historically been good to stock market investors. It is now one year away from Election 2020, and market participants are hanging on every word from the candidates. Here’s what I wrote about election year markets back in November 1991: Remember Tom Mix? All the great old black and white Western movies of the 1950s, like Tom Mix, featured patented three-part bank robberies that went something like this: Scene 1: The bank is robbed. Bad guys ride out in a cloud of dust and the chase is on. Scene 2: Bad guys split—one-half to an arroyo or cottonwood grove; one-half to a … [Read more...]
Blockchain Can Bring Speed, Efficiency and Competition to Stock Settlement
I am a fan of blockchain technologies, though I am skeptical of the crypto-currencies that are so far the best-known uses of blockchain. Despite a history that is closely tied to crypto-currencies, blockchain technologies are finding their way into other industries. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports, blockchain has the chance to bring speed, efficiency and much-needed competition to the business of stock transaction settlements. Alexander Osipovich reports: Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission gave the green light to a pilot project in which blockchain—the technology behind … [Read more...]
Young People Can’t Afford Homes: Is the Fed to Blame?
Young Americans are increasingly priced out of buying homes. Along with their high levels of student debt, low levels of family formation, and lack of housing supply, a big part of what may be holding them back is a Federal Reserve monetary policy that regularly seeks to boost asset prices by holding down interest rates. Reade Pickert reports for Bloomberg: Faced with higher property prices and piles of student debt, Americans are getting older and older before they buy a home. The median age of first-time home buyers has increased to 33, the oldest in records dating back to 1981, … [Read more...]