The best investment I ever made in my early 20s was buying a multi-family in Marlborough, MA when I was working out there at Fidelity Investments. I like this trend for Millennials. I have always believed that owning your home is the best investment you can make when you’re young. Here the Globe's Prashant Gopal explains that young millennials are fleeing the higher priced cities to buy in the suburbs: Cities may be the top choice for millennials who rent apartments, but young home buyers are moving in droves to the suburbs, where prices are lower and backyards are plentiful. The share … [Read more...]
The Big Short and The Prudent Man
If you want to lose even more faith in the big banks on Wall Street then see the movie The Big Short. It’s an excellent portrayal of what ignited the Great Recession based on Michael Lewis’ book of the same title. It never ceases to amaze me how little we learn from history—one that's littered with financial disasters. If you want to make money and keep it then you would be wise to focus your attention on the prudent man rule. Bevis Longstreth writes in the footnotes of Modern Investment Management and the Prudent Man Rule: Of course, it was early recognized that market manipulators could … [Read more...]
Commit to a Life of Success
You may be familiar with Shane Ellison from his book Over-the Counter Natural Cures and his action-oriented website www.thepeopleschemist.com. I’ve read his book several times and refer to it, and his website, regularly. Shane suffers no fools. He tells it the way he sees it, often times, with language not meant, shall we say, for the dinner table. Recently a client and I were talking about sports—wrestling in particular—and he was reminded of Shane’s blog: My New Year’s Resolution 2016. In it Shane talks about how he’s helping his 10-year old son Blair commit to a life of success through … [Read more...]
The Maximizers
“Meltdown? Absolutely baked into the cake as I write to you, and becoming more of a deep midterm concern for me as time passes,” wrote Dick Young in Intelligence Report back in July 2015. And here we are a short way into 2016 and the speculative NASDAQ index is down over 8%. As Dick notes, “In recent issues, my goal has been to work especially hard at providing you intelligence that will keep you safe and dividend-centric during what I consider the inevitable coming meltdown.” Safe and dividend-centric—sort of has a ring to it, does it not? It does to me. Those words have been pounded into … [Read more...]
Warren Miller: Your Search for Freedom Part II
“You know I liked your piece on Warren Miller but he wasn’t the ground-breaking filmmaker on skiing,” said my client yesterday, from Jackson Hole, WY during our regular talk. “The first guy was John Jay. He lived in Williamstown, MA next door to my friend when I was a kid,” he said. “Years later, when I was president of my ski club John Jay put on a great show for us.” I wikipedia’d John Jay and according to Warren Miller, he “virtually invented the ski film in its modern form.” If you’ve ever skied Suicide Six in Woodstock, VT or have seen the skimobile at Mt. Cranmore in North Conway, NH … [Read more...]
How Retirement Affects Health
You can’t afford to lose meaningful money in retirement. It is the one death blow that is almost impossible to recover from and in my observation it leads to: 1) An obsession with trying to “make” the money back which takes over one’s life or 2), shutting the world out and blaming the loss on someone else. Both scenarios lead to isolation and as it turns out are bad for one’s health. Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D. shares with readers the results of a study concluding that 10 to 25 percent of retirees don’t do well in retirement and are at a higher risk of dying within six years of retiring. … [Read more...]
Roger Babson Quoted in Book: 1929
Here’s a reminder about the markets, emailed to me by a client from the Greatest Generation over the weekend. What she sent was not only relevant because I went to Babson College, named after Roger Babson. The quoted passage below shows that with open eyes, a heavy dose of skepticism and abundant caution, you can prepare your portfolio for hard times, or “reef your sails” as Babson says. “Fair weather cannot always continue. The economic cycle is in progress today, as it was in the past. The Federal Reserve System has put the banks in a strong position, but it has not changed human nature. … [Read more...]
Warren Miller: Your Search for Freedom
If you’re a skier then you know the name Warren Miller—famous for his ground-breaking ski movies shot in some of the most beautiful mountains in the world. I had a chance to meet Mr. Miller, age 91, over the weekend on a ski trip to Montana. He was in the lodge, named after him, signing copies of his soon to be released book. In his book, Miller writes about the first job he had, when he was in fourth grade, stocking shelves at the local grocer. He was able to get a job when, during the Great Depression, the unemployment rate was 25%. But what struck me was not that he had a job, but how he … [Read more...]
How High are Income Tax Rates in Your State?
The Tax Foundation has released its annual review of income tax rates among the states. There were some big changes in a few states, and overall they were business friendly tax reductions. The Tax Foundation's Nicole Kaeding writes: Several states changed key features of their individual income tax codes between 2015 and 2016. These changes include: Arkansas lowered its top marginal rate from 7 percent to 6.9 percent on income over $35,100. Also, it adopted a new tax schedule for individuals earning between $21,000 and $75,000 in income. The state now has three tax schedules, with … [Read more...]
Surprising Progress made in the Fight for Tax Reform
Here's some pro-growth tax reform that businesses can work with. The Tax Foundation has identified America's best tax reformers of 2015 and honored them with the foundation's Outstanding Achievement in State Tax Reform. This year's honorees are: This year, we honor ten individuals from five states with our award for Outstanding Achievement in State Tax Reform in 2015: Indiana Senator Brandt Hershman (R) Senator Hershman played the lead role in passing reforms that reduced the state’s small business property tax, a tax on machinery and capital, and in the same session eliminated the state’s … [Read more...]
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