For years, working-class American families have had trouble buying homes, the most basic symbol of the American dream. Now though, they're even having trouble buying a car, another symbol of the free American spirit. David Welch and Keith Naughton report in Bloomberg: A shiny new car in the driveway has been an emblem of middle-class prosperity for generations. But for the typical American family, it’s now a distant dream. The average monthly payment for a new car has soared to a record $777, nearly doubling from late 2019, according to Kelley Blue Book owner Cox Automotive. That’s almost … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2023
A Super Bowl for the Ages
Congratulations to the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs and MVP Patrick Mahomes. What a game. Mahomes's run up the middle for 26 yards late in the fourth quarter (on a bad ankle to boot) looked like he was running from his best friends on the playground. That was awesome. Patrick Mahomes with a 26-yard run, his longest of the season 🔥 pic.twitter.com/VvpyGXrel4 — NFL Stats (@NFL_Stats) February 13, 2023 *Video courtesy of NFL Brasil The most hated/loved guy at around 10pm EST last night was Fox Sports analyst Greg Olsen questioning a holding call against the Eagles … [Read more...]
Is Tesla a Luxury Brand?
Tesla has reigned as the top choice for wealthy electric vehicle buyers for years, but is all that about to change? MarketWatch's Sean Tucker reports that recently, more wealthy buyers are considering BMWs than Teslas. Tucker writes: More people in the market for a luxury car in the fourth quarter of 2022 considered a BMW than any other car brand in the fourth quarter of 2022. The number of shoppers considering a Tesla TSLA, -1.55% plunged, falling to a single-digit percentage. The now-Texas-based electric-vehicle maker cut prices drastically shortly after the end of the quarter. Early … [Read more...]
Your Retirement Life: The Sound of Silence
With all this saving and investing, let’s not forget about living. Because once you have water, food, shelter, and a riverboat cruise through Europe, what’s the point? You want to get out there and see what you see. Go for a drive. Hit the trail. A couple of weeks ago, Becky and I were driving west on 302 through Crawford Notch, New Hampshire, on our way to ski Bretton Woods. It’s a steep, narrow pass with Mount Willard on your left. We could see a group picking their way up one slippery face of its ice falls. It’s serious terrain. Mt. Pierce is on your right. In speaking with you this … [Read more...]
Why You Should Design a Retirement Portfolio that Lasts 30+ Years
In The Wall Street Journal, Josh Zumbrun examines the evidence that investors should design a retirement portfolio that lasts more than 30 years. He writes: Demographers and actuaries make the following distinction between life expectancy and longevity: Life expectancy refers to the average number of years someone will live from a given age, whereas longevity refers to how long he or she might live if everything goes well, typically expressed as the probability of living beyond a certain age such as 85, 90 or even 100. A growing body of evidence shows that many people are ignorant of their … [Read more...]
How Long Have You Been in the Investment Business?
“How long have you been in the investment business?” he asked. “Most of my adult life,” I said. “Did you know when you were my age (18) what you wanted to do?” “Not really. I went to business school at Babson College, worked at Fidelity Investments, and I’ve been here for 25 years.” “That’s cool,” he said. “My grandpa and grandma tell me all about you guys.” ………… Here’s the longer version. Growing up, we always talked about business at home. But it wasn’t about money. My dad would talk about interactions with customers he’d had that day, and because this was pre-internet, … [Read more...]
This Goldilocks Is Probably Just a Fairytale
Do you think this will be a "Goldilocks" economy? That's one where it's not too hot, and it's not too cold, it's just right. In The Wall Street Journal, James Mackintosh discusses the potential that investors are currently witnessing a "Goldilocks" economy, writing: The bull case is that inflation was, after all, transitory. The Fed will realize that it doesn’t need to be hawkish and rates will come down without unemployment needing to rise much, if at all. Goldilocks says to go ahead and buy stocks. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has stopped challenging the bulls, twice in the past week … [Read more...]
Yes, Your Children Are Listening to You
Dear reader, You may not realize this, but your kids/grandkids are listening to you. How does Your Survival Guy know? Because they tell me. More on that in a minute. Yesterday, for example, I spoke with a daughter and son-in-law of yours and, later in the day, a grandson. The first conversation was focused on traveling along the road to saving for retirement, while the other was about starting out a lifetime of saving and building a career. “But we don’t have enough to meet your minimum,” they always say. “There is no minimum for you,” I say. “Once a member of your family is in the … [Read more...]
The Cloud Slowdown Is Hurting Amazon the Most
As growth in sales of cloud services slow down, Amazon is being hurt the most by the situation. Dan Gallagher reports for The Wall Street Journal: The tech slowdown is finally hitting the cloud. The largest player might be paying the biggest price. Amazon AMZN -1.86%decrease; red down pointing triangle.com, Microsoft Corp. MSFT 0.68%increase; green up pointing triangle and Google all reported disappointing news for their respective cloud services businesses in their December quarter reports. For Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet Inc., GOOG -7.49%decrease; red down pointing triangle revenue … [Read more...]
You Aren’t Getting These Yields from Your Bank Account
Look at these yields and see how far we’ve come over the past ten years, let alone twelve months. While banks pay you peanuts on your checking and savings, you can sink your teeth into treasuries (and investment-grade corporates). Remember, earning 4-5% on your lazy cash turns you into a compounding machine rather than an ATM for your bank’s lending team. Click the images below to enlarge them. Action Line: When you need help building a portfolio of individual treasuries and corporate bonds, let's talk. Originally posted on Your Survival Guy. … [Read more...]