“Forty years ago. After getting out of bed, I jogged a mile on the streets of LA to make my 29-year-old self feel better,” begins Dan Shaugnessy, long-time sports columnist for The Boston Globe. “And I never stopped. One mile a day. A four-decade, slow-motion grind that has taken me more than 14,500 miles, across America and back — twice! Practically Gumpish.” You know Your Survival Guy is a big fan of compounding. Literally putting one foot in front of the other can create miracles for investors. I’m living proof of that. You don’t need to run a marathon a day to do it. Shaugnessy … [Read more...]
Stocks Go Up and Down: Get Paid Along the Way
Time flies when you’re having fun. But don’t tell that to the investors who got crushed last year. All of a sudden they’re seeing the light—the wisdom in a balanced portfolio. As Ben Graham taught us, you need to have some balance in your portfolio whether it's 30-70 or 70-30 or something in between. I’m reading now how investors need to think about 60-40 after all the hand-wringing about the approach last year. Look, stocks go up, stocks go down. I want you to get paid along the way. The same is true for bonds but with a finish line, especially for individual bonds, in the form of a set … [Read more...]
REGULATION D: Beware of Wolves in Advisors’ Clothing
The average investor has a hard time dealing with low interest rates. Don’t we all? But to put your life savings at risk is foolish and yet it’s done all the time. Sometimes the best advice is to do nothing at all and pick up yield gradually when rates begin to normalize. Unfortunately, there are wolves out there looking for sheep to prey on. Here are the stories of some unlucky investors who trusted their advisors and were tricked into buying nearly worthless Regulation D securities. Jason Zweig reports in The Wall Street Journal: Jeff Temeyer, 64 years old, is a semiretired farmer in … [Read more...]
Slow and Steady: The Man Behind the Maps
All you skiers out there probably know the work of James Niehues but never knew it. He’s the guy who paints the ski mountain images used for the trail maps we all gaze at over hot chocolate at the picnic table in the lodge or on a chairlift (dropped gloves or poles to boot). It wasn’t until Niehues was in his 40s that he realized his success. His book captures the trails we’ve skied or hope to ski someday. Check out his work here. Legendary Trail Map Artist James Niehues Announces New Original Work Collectionhttps://t.co/LlckBjdxgX pic.twitter.com/y8hGMy7sWo — SnowBrains (@SnowBrains) … [Read more...]
Slow and Steady: You Don’t Need to Be Young to Be a Success
Turns out you don’t need to be young to be a success. As I wrote to you this week, there’s nothing wrong with being a beginner at different times in your life. Don’t just take my advice for it. Look at what this 93-year-old writes in the WSJ. No one has seen entrepreneurship help minorities improve their economic circumstances more than I have—and that’s not only because I’m 93. I saw the power of entrepreneurship firsthand after co-founding the Home Depot. My experiences led me to believe that preserving and expanding entrepreneurship is the key to advancing racial and economic … [Read more...]
The Importance of a Balanced Portfolio
For the person who can handle the slow and steady road to wealth, the importance of a balanced portfolio cannot be overstated. In 2011, I coined the phrase “Sleep Well-esley at Night” to capture the safety first, survivalist manner of the balanced Vanguard Wellesley fund. It’s not an exciting fund. After all, close to two-thirds of the Vanguard Wellesley fund is in bonds. The rest is in stocks. The fund's performance over time is a testament to the power of a balanced portfolio. You can see in the chart above that during Vanguard Wellesley's long performance history, the fund has … [Read more...]
Let’s Go: It’s Never Too Late to Be a Beginner
Your Survival Guy just finished reading the first draft of a client’s novel written over the last several months. It’s remarkable what she got done in less than a year. As an accomplished writer, she doesn’t need the money. She has plenty of that. But when her daughter suggested she get back into writing, she decided to put pen to paper, and the fun (hard work) began to jump off the pages. How rewarding. It’s a reminder that it’s never too late to start (or restart) something you’re good at or interested in. You have skills you honed during your career, making you the success you are today. … [Read more...]
Don’t Worry, I Won’t Tell Them Our Secret
Being a successful investor is hard. Why? Because if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. And clearly, they’re not. I don’t need to tell you. You already know this. You hear it from friends and family who ask, “Why are you so cool?” when markets are crazy. Don’t worry, I won’t tell them our secret. You understand from here, here, and here that “doing something” rather than just standing there is easier said than done. When the world is crazy, that’s when it’s time to hunker down in your cave for the winter. Like a broken record, investors learn the hard way. They did in the tech bust, … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy’s Adventure to Fenway Park for a Winter Classic
OK, you know Your Survival Guy likes to hunker down in his cave for the winter. But on occasion, I’ll venture out amongst the throngs for an adventure. This is where I found myself Monday with family and friends for the National Hockey League’s outdoor Winter Classic between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins at Fenway Park in Boston, MA. The Winter Classic is the NHL’s mid-season Super Bowl, if you will, without the trophy but absolutely with the fanfare, including the most famous goal scorer in Bruins history, Bobby Orr dropping/pitching the first puck, Bell Biv DeVoe singing the … [Read more...]
Can You Guess Where Everyone Moved to in 2022?
No surprises here with the latest results from United Van Lines’ 2022 National Movers Study. What stands out most to Your Survival Guy is my favored New Hampshire being a beacon of freedom from blue Massachusetts. Let’s not forget that New Hampshire and Vermont protect your Second Amendment rights. Contrary to what progressives would have you believe, despite their pro-freedom gun laws, the two states have America’s lowest homicide rates, according to the CDC. Both states were recipients of net migration inflows in 2022, according to the United Van Lines study. Then obviously, there’s … [Read more...]