Even after a mini-correction in the S&P 500, most stocks still aren’t cheap. So what should you buy?  In 1991 I wrote that utilities offered outstanding relative value compared to other securities. Utilities Offer Outstanding Relative Value Three industry groups should be emphasized for new purchases in your portfolio over the next few quarters: electric, gas and telephone utilities. My number one mutual fund portfolio manager (this month’s spotlight), Vanguard Equity Income Fund’s Roger Newell told me recently that electric utilities are now his top industry choice with 18% of his … [Read more...]

Originally posted October 23, 2017. You need income in retirement. It’s that simple. But to many, retirement income, and the lack thereof, is a problem that will never be solved. Over the weekend I read an article in the local paper about how dreadfully ill-prepared the Baby Boomer generation is when it comes to retirement income. And it’s a subject that comes up quite often in my conversations with prospective clients. They ask me, “How will I get income from my investments?” After I explain how we construct portfolios, I tell them that a good rule of thumb is to draw no more than … [Read more...]

When a client of mine called it quits from a successful career working for start-up companies in California, he was young enough to keep working, but old enough to realize the cost was too high. He was stressed out, out of shape, out of the country at times, and plain old tired of the endless hours it takes to get a company off the ground. But not having something to do every day can be terrifying and not having a steady paycheck even more so. Sometimes it’s hard to say, “enough already, I’m retiring.” But he did it. He retired. We talked about part-time work and nothing came of … [Read more...]

Every year, Amazon needs thousands of extra workers to meet the holiday crush, explains Jessica Bruder in “Meet the Camperforce, Amazon’s Nomadic Retiree Army,” Wired’s adaptation from Bruder’s book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century. Many of them are nomadic retirees living in RVs. In Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s estimation, a quarter of all nomadic retirees in RVs will have worked for CamperForce by 2020. Their reasons for working are not necessarily good ones and the story illustrates how quickly one’s retirement plans can be turned upside down—requiring part-time … [Read more...]

Being on the front lines every day talking with investors just like you, it never ceases to amaze me how much you appreciate Dick Young and how he has made you a more comfortable and successful investor. He made you self-reliant. He helped you beat inertia. How? You basically had no choice. You needed to know what he was thinking every month. He got your attention, which reminds me of an interchange we had when I first started working with him back in 1998. My job was to talk with prospective clients, learn about their situations and see if there was a way we could help. Prospects would … [Read more...]

“I'm going to miss hearing from Dick Young every month,” said one long-time reader of Intelligence Report, “I’ve been reading his letter for 25 years. He was the best hands-down. He always wrote to me the way he saw things.” That’s a common refrain I’ve been hearing over the last couple of weeks. In an industry littered with opinions, you could always depend on the integrity of Dick Young and Intelligence Report. Since 1998, when I first started working with Dick and Matt Young, prospective clients have been saying: They trust Mr. Young, they’ve followed his advice for years, and now that … [Read more...]