Cato's 2023 Human Freedom Index is out. Download the report below. The ninth annual Human Freedom Index, now available free online, is the most comprehensive freedom index so far created for a globally meaningful set of countries and jurisdictions, representing 98.8 percent of the world’s population. The HFI covers 165 countries based on 86 distinct indicators of personal, civil, and economic freedom, using data from 2000 to 2021, the most recent year for which sufficient data are available. The second year of the coronavirus pandemic witnessed a further decline in global freedom. From … [Read more...]
Digital Dollars: A Warning Where You’re the Prey
In my conversations with you, you voice your concerns about the digitization of the dollar. Clearly, there are publications out there warning the sky is falling. It’s unsettling at best. Then, over the holidays with your family and friends, you bring up the subject, and the person you’re talking with doesn’t have a clue. After 12 of the Obama/Biden years, the level of debt wrapped around America’s neck is certainly not pretty and may be at a point of no return. Your Survival Guy is prepared for life to get tricky. When you see the contrast between my Super States and the Escape … [Read more...]
Build a Margin of Safety Around Yourself and Family
You don’t need to look too hard to realize bad stuff happens. The disaster in Israel is one. How does this happen? In a world where access to money has never been easier, we’re living with risks impossible to see. The U.S. isn’t helping. When you look inside the dealings of failed crypto exchange FTX and founder Sam Bankman-Fried, you see billions of dollars in the hands of so-called altruists. SBF was surrounded by idealists like himself, trying to make the world a better place. Instead, they helped separate people from their money faster than anything we’ve seen in recent times, never … [Read more...]
Don’t Ask Me When to Haul Your Boat
Your Survival Guy tried to reason with Hurricane Lee and lost. It never made landfall in my neck of the woods or sea. Just lots of wind and rain. No more boating this season. Thank you, Tom Sawyer, for another great one. It’s bittersweet. Because in my conversations with you, we talk about a feeling of relief when the season’s over, whether it’s boating or gardening. There’s comfort in knowing you don’t have to worry about not using the boat enough or if the garden’s going to float away from too much rain (a big problem this year). There’s always a punch list. Which brings us to … [Read more...]
Investing Mistakes to Avoid: #11 FOG
Your Survival Guy knows a thing or two about getting stuck in the fog. When I was a kid sailing with my family, we were heading home after a weeklong trip, and about halfway through Buzzards Bay, we were engulfed in fog. We held our course and, before long, entered a mooring field holding no boats that we recognized. Realizing land wasn’t far, and that we were in the wrong harbor, we decided not to press our luck. We tossed out the hook and spent a comfortable night right there. The next morning, after the fog cleared, we learned we were a few harbors west of our own. Not long after, a … [Read more...]
A Lesson in Survival
You may have recently read the incredible story of the survival of four children, one only 11 months old, who survived after their plane went down in the Colombian jungle, killing their mother and the other adults on board. If you haven't heard the story, Fox News's Brie Stimson reports the details, writing: Four children who survived a deadly plane crash that killed their mother May 1 stayed alive for more than a month before their rescue in the Colombian jungle by eating cassava flour and jungle fruits, officials and family said. The children, ages 13, 11, 4 and 11 months, were rescued … [Read more...]
Estate, Wealth Planning: Everything I Know About Horses
Your Survival Guy was speaking with a long-time client the other day. He’s an expert on all things animals. One day, a friend of his said he should meet her dad. Dad was in his early 90s and made a fortune as a racehorse breeder. She thought they’d hit it off because of my client’s interests, and they did. When they were all in the father’s den having coffee, he asked my client, “Has she told you about my book?” “No, she hasn’t,” my client said. “Honey,” he said. “Would you mind grabbing it for me?” Handing the leather-bound book to her dad, he blew off the dust and handed it to my … [Read more...]
You’ve Answered Life’s Questions. But What about Investing in Bonds?
Do you remember purchasing your first home? Meeting with the bank? Going over interest rates and how much goes to just paying it? Reviewing the payment schedule and realizing how old you’ll be when it’s paid off? Talk about a bond between you and the bank. But when it comes to bonds and investing, I hear this: “I don’t invest in bonds. I don’t understand them.” But you’ve been in a bond your whole life. Just turn the table around. You’re the bank. Yes, there’re ins and outs to bonds that make experience dealing with them worthwhile, but the same is true for getting a mortgage. … [Read more...]
What You’re Telling Me Matters
If being a successful long-term investor was easy, everyone would be doing it. Building wealth over time is hard. Saving money is hard. Sacrifice is not fun. But as Your Survival Guy, it’s my job to help you through times like these when uncertainty prevails. Your Survival Guy knows investing can be tough when prices are down. Question: Why is it that everyone loves a sale at the store but can’t stomach one with stocks? I learned a long time ago the pain from lower stock prices far exceeds the joy of higher ones. Your key to surviving in times like these is to keep your focus on your own … [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...]
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