Your Survival Guy isn’t looking to turn over your apple cart. But with today’s yields, it would be a shame to miss the boat. Sometimes, the grass is greener. Let me explain. Imagine you’re getting ready for a weekend. Your family is coming to visit. It’s peaceful outside. You have a few things to finish up, but all in all, you’re in good shape. Then it hits you. Like a solar storm without warning, you see it. The Friday email from Your Survival Guy. “Don’t open it,” you say to yourself. Too late. At dinner, you can’t stop thinking about it. Why did you open it? You didn’t want “yields … [Read more...]
“Survival Guy, Getting Old is More Expensive Than…”
Your margin of safety, a habit of my fairly wealthy investor, is easy to say yet hard to do. Like most things in life worth doing, it takes a certain mindset, it takes commitment. It is not intuitive, far from it. On social media, we’re blasted with the false hope of easy living. “Play the market,” they say. Then, you look at the disasters with crypto or memes stocks, for example, and it’s a rat’s nest of trades gone bad. Life isn’t easy. And it gets harder. As my father-in-law Dick Young reminds me, “Survival Guy getting old isn’t for the faint of heart, and it’s expensive. More … [Read more...]
Friends Are You Living Like The Intelligent Investor?
In the mind of Ben Graham, author of The Intelligent Investor, and teacher of star pupil Warren Buffett, his thinking was to build a margin of safety into a portfolio. In addition, Buffett recalls that Graham taught that it was OK to go against the grain and avoid the crowds. And that being well-rounded in life was good for your body and soul. As my father-in-law Dick Young says, investing is more art than science. And finally, live a life of generosity—that does not necessarily mean with money, but with your time. In The Intelligent Investor, Graham wrote, “In the old legend the wise men … [Read more...]
Investing Habits of the Fairly Wealthy: #8 “Safety”
“History repeats.” “It’s different this time.” “Real estate always goes up.” “I’m a long-term investor.” “I’m a contrarian.” I remember “It’s different this time,” back in the late 90s when investors were partying in tech stocks like Prince’s song “1999.” Then the tech bust happened, and serious money was lost, never to be seen again. “Real estate always goes up” was true right up until the financial crises in 2008, and once again, money was lost, never to be seen again. I could go on. And I will. “I’m a long-term investor,” I hear more than I care to admit. Then … [Read more...]
“No Pain, No Gain,” They Chant
What we’re seeing in markets is a repricing of risk—an often misunderstood four-letter word until it hits one’s portfolio. Risk is not a word Your Survival Guy even likes using because it implies dangerous stuff could happen. Risk control is more my speed. Your Survival Guy’s risk tolerance is most likely lower than that of most investors (and they might outperform), but I’m okay with that. The rah, rah, rah of the crypto bros, the look-at-me crowd, and the cocktail party big shots chant “No pain, no gain” in an upward-moving market. Then they wake up one morning and see the real … [Read more...]
Investing Habits of the Fairly Wealthy: #9 FTX
You don’t need to know a thing about cryptocurrencies to understand the bankruptcy of crypto-exchange FTX, or that the current trial of founder Sam Bankman-Fried is a story less about blockchain and more about human nature. These stories most often are. Because most financial disasters begin with a new technology and fail not because of the new toy but because of the people. That’s why investors need to have guardrails (to borrow a term from WSJ columnist Dan Henninger’s classic piece), in a world where there are fewer of them all the time. My first guardrail is this: I want you to work … [Read more...]
“Doctor, What Are You Doing?” “Nothing,” He Said
“The weather’s been crazy up here,” he said. “The crosswinds on the landing strip are the worst I’ve ever seen.” This was part of a conversation I had with a client yesterday. He spends weeks at a time fishing the big country of Alaska. He said the winds were so bad, guys he knows crashed their bush plane and, luckily, thanks to pilot awareness, walked away from it. He said that on the last trip, the fishing was excellent. It was the first time he could recall where they were the only ones on the river. They caught enough silvers (salmon) to feed them for the rest of the trip. “But,” he … [Read more...]
“Oh, This Is Prime Real Estate,” They Say
Are you hearing about the real estate debt you can buy and get ten percent on your money? I am. No, thank you. I hear it all. I’m Your Survival Guy. I get the offers, too. I don’t like risk. I’m fine collecting the interest on the full faith credits in treasuries. It’s funny (not that funny) how, not too long ago, in a zero percent world, two percent was a decent deal. Now, everyone wants more. Not me. I want my money-back guarantee. I don’t want “great deals” in my portfolio. I remember the brutal markets where it all fell down. “Oh, this is prime real estate,” they say. “It’s … [Read more...]
Investing Habits of the Fairly Wealthy: #10 Powerball
Your Survival Guy knows a lot about highly successful, fairly wealthy people because I talk to them. On the flip side, I know plenty about those who’ve won and lost a fortune. I know about the guy who can’t hold onto his money. He just spends every penny, afraid it might be gone tomorrow. And sure enough, it is. I also know all about the billionaires thanks to the real estate sections, the virtual tours of their homes, the shows on Netflix and HBO, and the books by Walter Isaacson. Plenty of drama to go around. Entertaining. Maybe not the best family life. That’s why when I say I’m … [Read more...]
“You Didn’t Eat That Again, Did You?”
As Your Survival Guy, I understand the immense pressure you’re under to “do something.” Everyone’s got a plan of what to do with your money. I know this not because you tell me what they’re telling you, but just from experience. I know, for example, when you’re asking me, “Why are we holding this position?” It’s usually the one that’s down the most. That’s human nature. But instead of looking for the exit, sometimes it’s positions selling at a deep discount that deserve additional money. I know you’re being tempted. I see the attractive teaser rates, annuities that promise a lifetime … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- …
- 69
- Next Page »