This stock market is like a beauty contest where the recognizable names get all the attention. So far this year Apple, Google, and Microsoft account for about a third of the return for the S&P 500. Worse yet, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon account for about two-thirds of the return for the S&P 500. And how about all the attention from Wall Street? According to Bloomberg the number of analyst recommendations on each of these five stocks is: Apple 51, Google 50, Microsoft 37, Facebook 53, and Amazon 42. The rest of the stocks in the S&P 500 have an average of only 23 … [Read more...]
Survey: Wealthy Investors Fear Becoming a Burden
The #1 fear for wealthy investors is becoming a burden to their children according to a survey from UBS and described here by Financial Advisor magazine: Wealthy investors’ greatest fear could become their children’s worst nightmare. Investors with at least $1 million in assets worry most about becoming a burden to their children, but are failing to adequately plan for their own long-term care, according to a UBS survey of 1,849 investors. Burdening children, at 42 percent, topped surviving on life support (34 percent) and living in a nursing home (15 percent) as the greatest fear for … [Read more...]
How High are Your State’s Corporate Income Taxes?
Do you live in a bustling corporate tax paradise like Texas? Or are enduring a confiscatory nightmare like the small business owners of Washington D.C.? This map from The Tax Foundation lays out the details on where in America you can go to find the most favorable tax rates for your small business. … [Read more...]
The Next 5,000 Points for Stocks
I have no idea if the next 5,000 points for stocks will be up or down. But I do know your ability to stick with your plan will be tested in a 5,000 point drop. Don’t forget how easy it is to lose money. It may have been a while since some of you have worked, but remember how hard it was to save your money. Next, think about how you felt the last time the stock market took a big hit. Were you able to stick to your plan? Remember, you can’t control the market. But, you can control how you deal with it. In my experience investors discover they can’t tolerate losing money until after … [Read more...]
Reagan on the Gold Standard
In the October issue of Intelligence Report, Dick Young wrote: Richard Russell is now 91 years old. In a recent Dow Theory Letters, Russell wrote, "I spend most of my time in bed, which gives me plenty of time to think," an activity that, over the decades, few in the investment industry have done in greater depth than has RR. Russell has been writing Dow Theory Letters since 1958. For decades, Russell, Ben Graham, J. Anthony Boeckh, and Harry D. Schultz have been primary sources of investing wisdom for me. Russell recently wrote about 12-term Congressman Ron Paul, who tells the story of once … [Read more...]
What’s on Your Bucket List?
“It’s not how fast you travel, it’s how far you go,” sings my friend Bob Morrison in his recently recorded song A Wheel Is A Wheel. If you live outside of Nashville, TN you may not know the name Bob Morrison, but you most certainly know his songs. He was the straw that stirred the drink turning Looking for Love into a hit for Johnny Lee—the song featured in the movie Urban Cowboy. He won a Grammy in 1980 for You Decorated My Life, was ASCAP Songwriter of the Year four times, and if you don’t know those songs, then you’ll most certainly recognize a few names from his expansive list of song … [Read more...]
Successful Investing Is a Mindset
In the October issue of Richard C. Young's Intelligence Report, Dick Young wrote about the mindset of a successful investor. A successful investor must have "a master plan that allows [him or her] to find comfort through thick or thin." Success isn't a stroke of luck, it's the result of exceptional planning and hard work. Dick writes: Je Me Sens Bien As you read this month's strategy report, Debbie and I will be in Paris. Practicing her French yesterday, Debbie asked me if I knew the meaning of je me sens bien, with James Brown as a clue. Well, not knowing for certain, I guessed, "I feel … [Read more...]
Tory Burch’s Commencement Speech at Babson College
I watched this inspirational video over the weekend: … [Read more...]
Connecticut’s Pension Ranks #48
You read that right. Connecticut’s funding of its pension obligations ranks #48 in the country only to be outdone by Kentucky and Illinois. Connecticut, with a pathetic 51.9% of assets to pay future obligations isn’t even close to dealing with its unfunded pension obligations. Like so many other states in similar predicaments, i.e.: Rhode Island, they continue to hope that the stock market will bail them out. Connecticut assumes that it’s pension assets will earn a future rate of return of 8%. But, as I’ll point out, that basically means that it will need a 12% average annual return from the … [Read more...]
Bernanke Courage?
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is promoting his new book, The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath, writing in a WSJ op-ed what monetary policy can and cannot achieve: What the Fed can do is two things: First, by mitigating recessions, monetary policy can try to ensure that the economy makes full use of its resources, especially the workforce. High unemployment is a tragedy for the jobless, but it is also costly for taxpayers, investors and anyone interested in the health of the economy. Second, by keeping inflation low and stable, the Fed can help the … [Read more...]
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