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...]
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...]
Pray for Just a Little Patience
In my conversations with you, you're telling me how you're getting settled into your summer groove and how it's not always easy. I hear you. Because when the days are three times longer than nights, there's a lot of anxiety to "get stuff done." And it doesn't get easier with age. When making coffee feels like climbing Everest, or doing the dishes is the last thing you want to do, remember, you're not alone. This is a time of year packed with pressure, and as we get older, it's more difficult to have patience because we like things the way we like them, and things need to be right. Just ask … [Read more...]
COVID Was a Retirement Stress Test: Did You Pass?
You're probably feeling pretty good about your retirement after getting tested by COVID-19. You've been saving until it hurts your whole life. That's why my favorite investment is Y-O-U. Relying on yourself to work to make money, and then investing to save it, is the best way to ensure that an inflated stock market, or a pandemic crash, don't determine your destiny. You have read my warnings about the number of people who are confident in their retirement plan. At near record highs, the numbers beg some skepticism. New data have come out from CNBC that suggest at least some retirees are … [Read more...]
Capital-Heavy Companies For the Future?
In the Financial Times, Ian Harnett of Absolute Strategy Research makes the case for capital heavy businesses. He writes: The trend towards more capital-heavy companies is driven by four structural themes: investment in “reshoring”; a shift from investment in information to infrastructure; the need to develop climate-transition technologies and, finally, investment in technologies needed to secure geopolitical leadership. These all require shifts from investing in ideas and information to investing in stuff. Reshoring is an investment in independence and resilience. The fragility of long, … [Read more...]
EGO: BlackRock CEO Goes Woke with Investor Money
You have read about Larry Fink using your money for everything but profit. His use of ESG investing, i.e. using investor funds like a piggy bank to push his environmental and social agenda, hurts Fink's trustworthiness. It's not about investors, it's about Fink's ego. At Real Clear Markets, Peter Flaherty has written a brutal takedown of Fink and his self-promotional behavior. He writes: Last week, Exxon Mobil, one of the world's largest publicly traded international oil and gas companies, lost a critical board fight with Engine No.1, a “woke” small investor group. The win was predictably … [Read more...]
You Invest, They Win: America’s Woke Money Men
While Joe Biden wants to raise your taxes, even when you're dead, the woke hedge fund and endowment managers are reaping the rewards of their special treatment. They're using your money for everything but what you need, profit. In a lengthy piece at The American Mind, J.D. Vance, (author of Hillbilly Elegy, and probable candidate for Senate in Ohio where he grew up and runs his business) explains how endowments and funds avoid taxes and use that subsidy as ammunition to attack America itself. He writes: Finally, the allocators of capital themselves are going woke. Across our country we have … [Read more...]
The Reach for Return at Pension Plans and Endowments
In the last few years with bond yields so low, institutional money managers at endowments and pension funds have had to reach for return in areas they normally would eschew in order to hit their targets. Robin Wigglesworth reports on the industry's tactics, and what the future may bring at the FT, writing: Institutional money managers are grappling with a grim investing outlook, sending them on a hunt for the next big idea decades after the late David Swensen triggered a revolution when he arrived at Yale’s endowment in 1985. It is a pressing problem. Asset allocators like Swensen — who … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy Presents to Prestigious Med School
Excerpts from my Wednesday presentation to recent grads and associates of an esteemed NYC med school: How to Invest and Create Wealth You’re asking me how to invest. Here’s what I recommend: Start early, participate in your company’s 401(k), reduce your debt, cut your spending, save ‘til it hurts, work as long as you can, and teach your family about money. That should get you started. Doesn’t sound like much fun? I know. But this does. Time Travel is Fun Imagine stepping into a time machine traveling into the future. You spent the day opening up your summer home in the Hamptons, on … [Read more...]
Living Your Best Life: Your Calls & Emails to Me
Your Survival Guy is working in the trenches for you. And that's OK. I like the view from where the boots hit the ground. It's where the real stuff happens. Here's what you're telling me this week: "Hello, E.J. Let me know your thoughts when you receive my Secure Upload. I'm sending statements from family members and my business. By the way, I also bought some land in South Carolina and Austin, TX, and I own some gold coins I bought years ago thanks to your father-in-law. Have a nice long weekend. Let's talk Tuesday morning," he said. "Hi, E.J. Weather's beautiful. Wish you were … [Read more...]
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