Analysts are anticipating a resurgence of interest in suburban housing from Millennials looking to buy cheaper homes with more space. Alexandra Scaggs reports in the Financial Times: US urban living is still losing its shine, three full years after Covid-19 shut down city centres. But apartment rents haven’t declined — yet. While the prospect of continued city flight has sent office-property valuations into a freefall, US rents are still up, with an 8.8-per-cent rise from last year, according to the Census Bureau’s inflation data. (The median Manhattan rent rose to a new record in March, … [Read more...]
Archives for May 2023
#3 Habit of Highly Successful, Fairly Wealthy People
The third habit of highly successful, fairly wealthy people is this: They read Your Survival Guy every day. They make a habit of visiting daily to beat the Friday email rush. They like being in the know. They avoid crowds. Friends, I enjoy our daily visits and conversations. I enjoy the habit of thinking about your success. Your success and your generational wealth didn’t happen by accident. You saved ‘til it hurt. You made it. You respect it. You can’t afford to lose it. Investing is not the same as saving. When we talk, I listen. You tell me you’ve read Richard C. Young’s Intelligence … [Read more...]
Is There Hope in Stocks?
In The Wall Street Journal, Jack Pitcher discusses the big outflows in stocks and the potential for a turnaround. He writes: Investors have a sour outlook on U.S. stocks. Contrarians say that is good news for the market. Turmoil in the banking sector has dragged fund managers’ enthusiasm for stocks to a 2023 ebb, according to Bank of America’s most recent monthly survey. The stress adds to worries including lingering inflation, higher interest rates and a slowing economy that have driven them to cut their stockholdings to their lowest levels relative to bonds since 2009. Institutions have … [Read more...]
Kim Kardashian Was Paid a Million to Appear Here
Where can you get independent research from an advisor who is a fiduciary by law? Where your advisor focuses on you, your money, and not every other cause in the world? It’s not as easy as you think. Take a random walk through the big players’ websites, and you might not like what you see. Your Survival Guy got a call from one of the bigger players the other day. It was the first time I’d heard from them in years. It’s as if I suddenly existed. Where’s the personal relationship they all flog? If I wasn’t interested in seeing how they’re doing, I’d be out of there. Anyway. Not cool. And … [Read more...]
Is AI Experiencing an “iPhone” Moment?
In 2007, Steve Jobs announced the iPhone, and the revolutionary device changed not only the smartphone industry but many others as well. Now, analysts are wondering if the emergence of ChatGPT signals an "iPhone" moment for artificial intelligence. The rise of artificial intelligence is taking the tech world by storm. The technology is also making waves on Wall Street. It is early days for so-called generative AI, a form of artificial intelligence that can conjure original ideas in the form of text, video or other media. But the tool has caused a stir in companies, schools, governments and … [Read more...]
May RAGE Gauge: Money Supply Meltdown
My RAGE Gauge is in, and it isn't good. All month Your Survival Guy monitors risk in America, and there's one that far outweighs the others. That's a miscalculation by the Federal Reserve. For years the Fed has jumped from one unprecedented policy to another, reacting to each move of the market like it's putting a candle out with a firehose. Now the Fed is driving up rates and, for the first time in history, creating a sustained decline in the M2 money supply. You've seen what's going on in the banking system. The Fed's moves are uncovering its bad actors. The risk is that there are too … [Read more...]
What Happens If the Fed Is Done Hiking?
In the Financial Times, Liz Ann Sonders examines what might happen if the Fed is done hiking rates. She writes: Whether the recent rate rise by the US Federal Reserve caps off the most aggressive tightening cycle in four decades is still being debated. The CME FedWatch Tool — which tracks the probabilities of rate changes implied futures trading data — indicates that investors believe that there is about an 95 per cent likelihood of no change to rates at the June monetary policy-setting meeting of Federal Open Market Committee. Staying with those odds for now, perhaps it’s time to dust … [Read more...]
“One Prepares for Old Age While One is Young”
Life comes at you fast. It doesn’t slow down, even in retirement. That’s why it’s nice to have a team working for you. People you can trust. We’re in this together. We’re not that different from each other. Your Survival Guy had another eventful week of conversations with you. This is a message from a client I’ve been working with since the early 90s, when he was in his fifties. Here’s the caption to a picture he sent me: EJ, Not to be outdone. Our 50th anniversary at the Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita, Mexico. Our son in white, our daughter in black, son-in-law in blue, and our two … [Read more...]
Chinese Steel Market “Collapses”
After experiencing a strong rebound upon reopening after its harsh COVID lockdowns, China's steel market has "collapsed," according to Leslie Hook, Hudson Lockett, and Cheng Leng in the Financial Times. They write: Chinese iron ore prices dropped to their lowest levels in five months, as weak demand adds to evidence that the country’s economic rebound from tough coronavirus lockdowns may be faltering. After strong steel production during the first quarter, the optimism and activity that followed the end of lockdown have waned, leading to a “collapse” in the steel market and raising … [Read more...]
We’d Never Spoken Before, but He Knew Me
“How often do we speak?” he asked. “That depends,” I said. “The firm I’m with now sets up an annual meeting,” he told me. “That doesn’t sound like enough,” I responded. “They’re responsive. If I have a problem or question, they get right back to me,” he said. How Much is Enough? That was just one conversation I had yesterday with a prospective client. He’s a frequent reader. He feels like he knows us. But it doesn’t seem like he knows his current team so well—the one handling his life’s savings. Until yesterday, he and I had never spoken before, but even so, he felt like he … [Read more...]