Dear investor, wouldn’t it be nice to forget it all and live without a care in the world? Ah, the good life. Sounds pretty nice, doesn’t it? But is it really that good? Living the good life isn’t necessarily a healthy one. Now let’s contrast “the” good life with “a” good one. Living “a” good life is hard. When you hear “John lived a good life,” you picture a different individual than when you hear “John, he lived the good life.” As an investor, you want to live a good life. Nice and steady. No crazy ups and downs that push you out of positions, forcing a sale. Because that’s what can … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2023
Warren Miller: If You Don’t Do It This Year, You’ll Be…
Happy Monday from Your Survival Guy. Here’s your midseason ski report. In a word: busy. And here’s my number one recommendation if you’re retired or have a flexible schedule: If you can, go on a weekday or non-holiday week. Folks are flocking to the slopes to get outside and do something. Another reason for the uptick in skiers? The distance between east and west is a lot less than it used to be. Skiing select mountains on your Epic or Icon pass has opened the wild, wild west to east coast sea creatures. And the amount of snow out west compared to the east can be night and day. Steamboat, … [Read more...]
Are the Realists Winning the Debate over the Future of EVs?
Is it realistic to assume that electric vehicles (EVs) are going to dominate the automobile market in the near future? Can they even? Those are the questions automobile companies are constantly looking for answers to. At Toyota, the power resides with the realists. River Davis reports: Toyota’s TM -0.99%decrease; red down pointing triangle chief executive always said he wasn’t a skeptic about electric vehicles—he was a realist. Longtime CEO Akio Toyoda called himself a spokesman for “a silent majority” of people in the auto industry who questioned a single-minded focus on EVs. He argued … [Read more...]
CATO: Global Freedom Is in Sharp Decline
Within the recent release of Cato Institute's Human Freedom Index 2022 lies a warning—global freedom is in sharp decline. Cato's scholars report: The HFI is the most comprehensive freedom index so far created for a globally meaningful set of countries and jurisdictions representing 98.1 percent of the world’s population. The HFI covers 165 jurisdictions for 2020, the most recent year for which sufficient data are available. The index ranks jurisdictions beginning in 2000, the earliest year for which a robust enough index could be produced. On a scale of 0 to 10, where 10 represents more … [Read more...]
Biden Administration Destroying Retiree Fiduciary Protections
The Biden administration is undermining fiduciary protections created by the Trump administration to protect retirees from money managers who would use their wealth to push the radical progressive agenda rather than to secure the savers' retirements. Now, 25 state attorneys general are suing to stop the Biden administration. Keith Griffith reports for the Daily Mail: The Republican attorneys general from 25 US states have filed a lawsuit challenging the Biden administration's plan to allow retirement fund managers to make 'socially conscious' investment decisions. The federal suit filed on … [Read more...]
4 Life Changing Words for Your Survival Guy: “You Should Try This”
Life throws you a curveball when you least expect it. Which is where I found myself recently when I came home from work. “I’m doing a liver cleanse,” she said. “You can join me or fend for yourself.” Bam! No warning. No time to grab a snack at the office before heading home for dinner. Just trapped like a rat. Cornered. What was I going to say, “No, you do it alone. Take care of yourself. I’ll be fine.” No. I like sleeping in my bed. We’re in week two. I’ve strayed here and there. Don’t tell anyone. One of the problems with the internet is you have all sorts of personalities in your … [Read more...]
Suddenly, Holding Cash Looks Good Again to Many
In The Wall Street Journal, Hardika Singh explains that investors are finding new interest in cash. She writes: The dash for cash on Wall Street is back on. Investors have added about $135 billion to global money-market funds over the past four weeks, according to EPFR data through Jan. 18. That is the best stretch since the four-week period ended May 2020, when those funds logged roughly $175 billion in net inflows. A money-market fund is a form of mutual fund that invests in short-term debt securities including Treasury bills and commercial paper. Companies and consumers often use … [Read more...]
Anti-Carbon Crusaders in Davos Talk ESG and OPM
Dear valued investor, There was a time when you could buy an index mutual fund, set it, and forget it. That time is gone. When Jack Bogle founded Vanguard, he wasn’t thinking about politics. Hardly. He wasn’t envisioning an 800-pound gorilla like BlackRock using your money to vote your shares for its political agenda. Please. The mutual fund, in Bogle’s mind, was a low-cost, diversified (not exactly the case anymore in a lot of funds), tool for the individual investor. Now funds are acting like Super PAC influencers with a Great Reset agenda. It would be one thing if the S&P 500 made … [Read more...]
Is Passive Investing Already Passé?
In the Financial Times, Mohamed El-Erian suggests that for now at least, passive investing's time in the sun is over. He writes: Should the vehicles that investors choose to place their money be a function of the investing environment? This question is not asked often enough by investment committees, which tend to focus on asset allocation issues, model portfolios and manager selection. Yet it is a question that has become a lot more important for generating high risk-adjusted returns, particularly given the massive shift of money from active to passive investment strategies in recent … [Read more...]
Welcome to Hotel California, Where You Can Never Leave
Leave it to California to sap the wealth from the successful. You can add New York, Illinois, Maryland, Hawaii, Minnesota, Connecticut, and Washington to the list too. You know from my Super States ranking where your money will be treated with more respect than it is by these money grabbers. I’ve never been a fan of letting taxes wag the dog but what we’re seeing is more than taxes, it’s about taking away your freedom. Now politicians in California want to emulate the famous Eagles tune, "Hotel California," and not allow even those who leave the state to escape its draconian … [Read more...]
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