You may recall a couple of months ago, Your Survival Guy was close to being caught in the tariff battle with Canada because our house project involves Canadian-made Loewen windows and doors (excellent). Fortunately for us, we dodged a bullet.
The reason I’m telling you this is because we’ve been living down the street in my in-laws’, Dick and Debbie Young’s guest house. My routine is to work on my posts early in the a.m. from the main house, where I talk regularly with Dick about investing. I have a pile of reports to peruse. The one in front of me is Vol. II, Number 5 from February 1987, and if we are to learn one thing from financial history, it repeats.
In this Feb. ‘87 issue Dick begins with an article from The Boston Globe describing a recent raid on commodity futures broker First Commodity, noting that until that year it was the largest retail broker of commodity futures in the nation. That is, until it got tangled up with the FBI, faced fines and suspensions for separating investors from their money with high fees and investment losses. You know the tune.
“Do you get the message?” Dick writes. “A lifetime financial program must be based on concepts of common sense, diversification, conservatism and specific knowledge. Commodities futures trading should not be part of your game plan, nor should any leverage portfolio investment.”
And do you think investors learn their lessons?
Of course not. Just look at what’s being offered to you today. There’s a hard push for leveraged gold, leveraged ETFs betting on sectors, and the push for you to bail out private equity pigs as they seek an exit strategy from overpriced investments. Financial engineers will always enrich themselves through high-pressure sales tactics, high fees, and, unfortunately, in ways that hurt you. This is nothing new. Invest accordingly.
Action Line: The key to your investment success never changes. Find someone you trust, work on a plan, and compound your money. Easy to say. Hard to do. When you want to talk to someone who trusts you and works hard to earn your trust, email me at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com. And click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.
Originally posted on Your Survival Guy.
