Your retirement life is sacred ground. You know my favorite advice, to your dismay, is to work as long as you can and put off retirement. That doesn’t mean you need to give up your dreams. You just need to be creative. Can you do remote work? Wherever you choose to go, familiarize yourself with my Super States, rent for a year to make sure it’s a good fit, and downsize. Don’t worry the kids will visit. Bankrate.com just came out with its annual ranking of the best places to retire, and you won't be surprised by the top three. According to Bankrate.com, the best three states for retirement … [Read more...]
COAL COMEBACK: What Happens When the Sun Doesn’t Shine?
Despite major investments in renewable energy around the world, coal is making a comeback. Coal is best suited to the energy challenges of today's post-COVID-19 economic rebound. Coal energy can come online quickly, and doesn't need the sun to shine, or the wind to blow, in order to produce. The resurgence of coal use may not last long, but its occurrence shows the inflexibility of renewable power sources. Sarah McFarlane and Katherine Blunt write for the WSJ: Coal use is surging in some of the world’s largest economies as electricity demand rebounds from the pandemic, illustrating the … [Read more...]
New! Super States and Your Island of Freedom
You understand you need food. You also understand food storage is hard. I know it’s a challenge for me. I’m good for about a week or two with what’s in my pantry. Then there’s another few months of freeze-dried stuff, which might make me feel like death, and then what? It’s just not an easy subject to tackle. And I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it. I’m on the food thing again because of my recent experience described in, Oops! Your Survival Guy’s Encounter at the Grocery Store. Our food supply may be plentiful, but the workers moving the goods from farm to checkout are as fragile as … [Read more...]
Beware Billionaires Selling Salvation: You Invest, They Win
You know I have been warning you about the big business billionaires who sell ways to save the world, like ESG funds, while really they're just charging you higher fees for a repackaged index fund. For them, it's all about their EGO. Now, The Wall Street Journal's Simon Clark reports on another example of investors being sold the idea of saving the world, only to be bilked by another pretender. Clark writes: “It’s a crucial moment in history. It’s an opportunity to immutably and absolutely change the course of innumerable lives.” Arif Naqvi, a silver-haired man of soft, bearish charm, … [Read more...]
Heating Your Home Could Be a Lot More Expensive This Winter
Since prices and production collapsed because of COVID-19, drilling for fossil fuels has not rebounded as fast as demand, driving up their prices. This winter, reports The Wall Street Journal, prices for heating fuels could jump significantly. Ryan Dezember writes: Propane has rarely been so expensive this time of year, and prices may have to move higher yet to ensure ample supply for winter, when millions of rural Americans rely on the fuel to heat their homes. At hubs in Mont Belvieu, Texas, and Conway, Kan., propane futures traded Wednesday at $1.09 and 95 cents a gallon, respectively. … [Read more...]
Oops! Your Survival Guy’s Encounter at the Grocery Store
In my conversations with you, you're telling me about the impact in your neck of the woods of the Great Resignation. You're telling me about the "Help Wanted" signs, especially in vacation destinations, where many of you live. Help Wanted signs are everywhere in Newport, RI. More on that in a minute. First, I want to share with you a conversation I had with a client who has a front-row seat to the M&A (mergers and acquisitions) world. He told me about a deal he's involved in right now. "E.J.," he said, "for the first time, we're buying a company for its workers, not its client base." … [Read more...]
Report Cards: Your Survival Guy is Watching You
OK, midyear report cards are in, and if you’ve been with me, then you’re smiling. But I have to ask, how much of this feels real to you? Yes, it’s nice to see stocks are up, but aren’t you more interested in knowing you’re going to keep what you’ve made? What you want to concern yourself with moving forward are real returns or, in other words, how much you’re really gaining if inflation eats your savings like a Gypsy moth. What good do higher prices for stocks do if they get cut down by over a third like we’ve already seen three times this century? Your Survival Guy’s battle plan for you … [Read more...]
No Inflation?
The Fed can paper over inflation like shingles on a roof, but the numbers are the numbers. Protect your money accordingly. Try telling new home buyers there's no inflation. Nicole Friedman reports at the WSJ: U.S. home prices surged at their fastest pace ever in April as buyers competing for a limited number of homes on the market pushed the booming housing market to new records. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, which measures average home prices in major metropolitan areas across the nation, rose 14.6% in the year that ended in April, up from an 13.3% annual … [Read more...]
Learn from Your Survival Guy: Coming Clean on Coal
OK, Your Survival Guy timed the market, overweighted a sector, and got emotional—three things you NEVER want to do as an investor. But, hey, I’m Your Survival Guy, not Mr. Perfect, and you can learn a lot from me because I’ve seen a lot. Back in 2015, when coal was a dirty four-letter word, Your Survival Guy felt it was oversold. The market was crazy, I thought, and so I bought a coal ETF, symbol KOL. Hey, the world needs coal, right? Well, apparently not, as my position was cut down like a Georgia pine, except I never heard “Timber!” You see, Your Survival Guy doesn’t live or die by the … [Read more...]
Is This an American Trend That’s Sustainable?
Americans are getting richer, but how long can that last? The flood of stimulus money created a strange phenomenon during the COVID-19 recession. Rather than getting poorer, many Americans, especially wealthier Americans, became richer. The Wall Street Journal reports: The coronavirus pandemic plunged Americans into recession. Instead of emerging poorer, many came out ahead. U.S. households added $13.5 trillion in wealth last year, according to the Federal Reserve, the biggest increase in records going back three decades. Many Americans of all stripes paid off credit-card debt, saved more … [Read more...]