Anyone driving through rural New England knows this part of America is not open for business. Take a drive up route 16N in New Hampshire up to North Conway and you’ll see what I mean. And yet upon visiting Boston, New York City, and Washington D.C., it’s hard to miss the cranes dotting the skyscape. These cities and others are the islands of opportunity out of sight to much of America. The America that I grew up in is gone. Gone are towns like mine where my dad was a realtor and my mom was a teacher and my sister and I had dinner with them at night and we believed in the American … [Read more...]
Is Mikaela Shiffrin the World’s Best Athlete?
As Barry Svrluga writes in The Washington Post, there comes a time in each great athlete's career where they become so dominant they must be compared across time rather than to their same-sport contemporaries. I’ve written about Mikaela Shiffrin before. Then, as now, I agree with Bode Miller--I’m not sure we’ve ever seen anyone better in the sport of skiing, male or female. At a certain point, the manner in which the best in any field evaluate themselves can’t be against other practitioners of that same pursuit. LeBron isn’t measured against his contemporaries; he’s measured against … [Read more...]
“Trees Don’t Grow to the Sky and I see Clouds…”
In Springsteen on Broadway now showing on Netflix, Bruce Springsteen talks fondly of a big copper beech tree in front of his childhood home that was a symbol of times when he was able to escape life for a little while and be with his army men and play. Years later when writing his book, he jumps in his car and goes back to where he grew up and that big ‘ole tree was gone. It’s a powerful segment in his wonderful performance. One that’s still with me and one I think you will love too. Trees don’t grow to the sky. And sometimes they’re cut down. But in the case of Springsteen, the soul … [Read more...]
2019: Promise Me You’ll Do this One Thing
Get 2019 off on the right foot and bring some peace of mind to your portfolio. One way to help clear your mind is to get out of the prediction business. Lot’s of words are wasted this time of year with articles predicting the future. Don’t let them mess up your voyage. I want you to imagine that you’re in the midst of a months long Atlantic crossing. Your job is to trim the sails and hold your course, and yes watch the weather. But now is not the time to re-outfit your ship simply because it's January. It's an emotional time of year. Don't let it get the best of you. Take a deep … [Read more...]
A 2019 Survival Guy Investment Strategy
Last year Vanguard GNMA made just under one percent or 0.87% for 2018 as interest payments offset a decline in bond prices from rising interest rates. As I’ve written to you before, you don’t want to be in the interest rate prediction business. You simply want to collect your interest payments and let the chips fall as they may. When you near retirement your success as an investor depends on a nine to five mentality—work nine to five to steadily save money for retirement and invest to keep what you’ve saved. It’s that simple. A survival guy investment strategy helps you to win the war … [Read more...]
American Municipalities Offer Less Info, More Debt
You might think that after the blunders of the recent past, public borrowers would have learned the lessons of 2008, but that would be wrong. Rather than increasing the information available, municipalities are providing less transparency to lenders. Gunjan Banerji and Heather Gillers write in The Wall Street Journal: U.S. cities and counties are using fewer ratings to assess the risks of the bonds they sell, providing investors with just one opinion on an increasing amount of new debt. Roughly 25% of the dollar value of all municipal debt issued this year carried a single grade from one … [Read more...]
In Retirement Stop Working, Start Earning. Here’s How
Despite the recent market turbulence, there is one group of investors who have so far been insulated by good decisions they made long ago. Dividend investors have collected their payments regularly, as those who invested looking to sell to the "greater fool," in the future have been tossed on a sea of volatility. If you are serious about a retirement portfolio you can count on, making dividends and income a central focus in your investment plan would be a great start. You shouldn't have to work throughout your retirement, and you should have a portfolio of investments that earns year … [Read more...]
My Concerns with the Vanguard Precious Metals and Mining Fund
This post I wrote on September 25 was one of readers' favorites this year. My concerns with the Vanguard Precious Metals and Mining Fund should be taken seriously. I'm concerned about Vanguard more broadly as well, and have written a series on that here. Barron’s had a solid write-up on gold over the weekend. “Gold has been a traditional hedge against financial and economic crises, playing that role during the 2008-09 meltdown. Gold rallied 17% from the collapse of Lehman Brothers on Sept. 15, 2008, until the stock market bottomed on March 9, 2009—a period during which the S&P 500 fell … [Read more...]
The Dangers of Being Unemployed and Older
It's harder for older workers who have lost their jobs to get back to work. According to Ruth Simon in The Wall Street Journal "Nearly eight million older Americans are out of work or stuck in low-quality jobs." The problem with unemployment at an older age is the lack of time to make up for any mistakes. With retirement age right around the corner, you should be packing away as much savings as possible. Those years should be your peak earning years as well, but unfortunately, some older workers who have lost their jobs are still struggling to find new ones. The sad reality is that when … [Read more...]
Will Vanguard GNMA be Up in 2019?
You know, it has been a good year-end advance for Vanguard GNMA. Which is why, if investors can take away one thing from 2018, it’s that they should never allow predictions to run their money. Because, if you recall, it was at this time last year when everyone was predicting higher interest rates for 2018. And because of that (not you of course) many soured on Vanguard GNMA and bonds all together, hence removing a most powerful counterbalancing force in their portfolio. Not a good move as it turns out. Predicting the direction of interest rates is about as useful as predicting the … [Read more...]
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