There’s never been a better time to get your financial house in order. Don’t let inertia beat you down. It’s time to get up, put pen to paper, and make sure everything you own deserves a place in your portfolio or decide if it has served its time. Treat your portfolio with the love and care you have for your home and garden and, believe me, good things will happen for you and your family. Make it a good day. Life is Good: You’re Ready to Protect Your Turf Your Retirement Life: Investment Planning in One Chart Your Retirement Life: Parents, do You have an Investment … [Read more...]
Your Retirement Life: Life is Good: You’re Ready to Protect Your Turf
You’re telling me your life is good and, in times like these, it is so great to hear. You’re telling me, especially if you’re retired, that your life hasn’t changed all that much. No, you don’t see family as much (you’re looking forward to the 4th when you might), but you’re keeping busy. Here are a few items we spoke about this week: You’re golfing a lot. But not as well as you’d like to. At your recent doctor’s appointment, you asked for a prescription to get you straighter off the tee. You’re building a deck. That is, if you can find pressure-treated wood. I spoke with two … [Read more...]
The Fed Is Dealing Massive Doses of Monetary Drugs to the Market
In a sweeping piece in The Wall Street Journal, Jim Grant likens the actions of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to those of a drug dealer, feeding highly addictive monetary drugs to the market, with no regard for the side effects. In the piece, Grant notes that like the portfolio managers of CalPERS who are California Dreamin', Powell explains his actions as necessary. But is that really true? Grant writes: If Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell were selling a prescription drug instead of a monetary policy, the Food and Drug Administration would likely want a word with him. “What we’re … [Read more...]
Life Changes Fast: Need a Boost? Here’s Why I Did
Coronavirus Infects Stock Market: Part LXI You know, as Your Survival Guy, I'm the guy who gets into tough situations only to discover how ill-prepared I am. You know, like when my backyard almost burned down when a tree landed on telephone wires, breaking the pole at the top, sending the distribution transformer, aka "pole pig" (filled with coils and oil ) crashing to the ground right next to one of our prehistoric trees about the size of King Kong that was ready to burn like the torch on the Statue of Liberty. As the fire department descended upon our property, Your Survival Guy quickly … [Read more...]
COVID-19, Riots, Accelerate the Escape from the City to Small Town, USA
Americans living in big cities in states where governors have gone wild with shutdowns, but allowed riots to rule the streets, are trying to escape. The COVID-19 pandemic--and the rioting that has followed it--have accelerated the exodus from the big tax cities. Americans were already trying to flee the big city blues. Now they're really looking to escape. They're seeking some shelter away from it all. Many of them are heading to the suburbs or the exurbs, but many of them are also heading to the lower cost, smaller cities in the South, and West that were already popular … [Read more...]
Option Trading Surges Among New Investors: What Could Go Wrong?
When I was at Babson, I had a part-time job as a phone rep at Wall Street Games—a stock market contest that used options to boost returns. It was also a training ground for stockbrokers to try out their strategies. My job was to put (pun intended) their strategies in place and let ‘em ride. It was a training ground for me too, giving me a front-row seat in how big money was lost. Now, as new investors pile into the stock market, whether out of boredom or desperation from losing their jobs to COVID-19 shutdowns, the Wall Street Journal reports they are betting big in the options market. What … [Read more...]
What Crisis is the Stock Market Living In? And You?
Coronavirus Infects Stock Market: Part LX You really need to follow the bouncing ball in this time of crisis. Looking at the way stocks are trading, you have to wonder: what crisis is the stock market living in? Seems to me like no one has a clue. You and I know there’s a crisis. Go downtown and look around. How many businesses are struggling or will never be the same? Who do we have to thank for this? China. The China virus traveled to the U.S. via Europe, and now Europe wants to keep us out—yet is opening flights from China. You really can’t make this stuff up. No one has a … [Read more...]
If You Had a Million Dollars
If you had a million dollars, would you let a robot do the investing for you? You probably wouldn’t. But that’s the direction companies are taking, including Vanguard. When you invest a single penny of your hard-earned money, you need to think about it as if it were a million dollars. That’s the mindset you want to have at all times when you invest. There is NO SUCH THING as a "small loss," or money that doesn’t matter because "it’s too small to worry about." Once you get into the mindset of growing your money, you become a serious investor and not a speculator. Leaving this work … [Read more...]
Blue State Governors Punish Working Class with Severe Lockdowns
Coronavirus Infects Stock Market: Part LIX Severe lockdowns in blue states are driving unemployment to Depression Era levels, and devastating the finances of working-class residents. Before their governors went wild with lockdowns, these same workers had been enjoying their best economy in decades. The Journal reports on the skyrocketing unemployment in blue states: The Labor Department on Friday reported jobless rates in May for the 50 states, and the news is the greater than usual variation. Some state economies are recovering much faster than others, and the worst performing tend to be … [Read more...]
Your Retirement Life: A Grizzly Yellowstone Trip
You can still have the retirement life you deserve, it just takes a little more time and patience. I think you'll like these pics from a client who writes: "Hi EJ- thought you might like to see a few shots from Grand Teton/Yellowstone. When we got home, we ran across an article about that specific bear. Google Grizzly Bear 399 and look for the recent article about her and her cubs." Here's the story about Grizzly Bear 399, from Mike Koshmrl at Jackson Hole News & Guide: Steve Franklin’s lifetime bucket list included both being in Grand Teton National Park on opening day and … [Read more...]
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 155
- Next Page »