“When we were first starting out our mortgage rate was ten percent, not a two percent adjustable.” –says any parent who bought a home in the 1970s Dear Reader, Remember when you understood how the banking system worked? They lent you money, you bought a home, paid them back for what felt […]
Wealth Management Pitfall: ESG, Part II
Earlier this week, I wrote to you about the pitfall of environmental, social and governance investing, or ESG. Thousands of investment firms have signed a pledge to follow ESG and abide by a United Nations sponsored statement of principles. The problem here is multifold. First, your investment advisor should act as your fiduciary not an […]
Top 10 Reasons to Own an AR-15
You’ll benefit from spending some time reading “Top 10 Reasons You Should Own an AR-15,” by Mark Overstreet writing for the Federalist. One of the major misconceptions with the AR-15 is that it’s “automatic.” This is false. If you pull the trigger of an AR-15 and hold it in for five or ten seconds—one round […]
Wealth Management: Year-End Planning
One of the “must dos” for any serious investor is to make sure your investment house is in order as year-end quickly approaches. Ensuring that you have the best technology is an important way to do that, and I have found through years of experience with different custodians that Fidelity has always been the industry’s […]
Red Flag: SWAT Team Confiscates Your Guns
You have a natural born right to self-defense. The Second Amendment guarantees it. But as we move into 2019, gun control advocates at both the state and federal level are coming for your guns. Are you familiar with a “red flag” order? “Every state has a slight variation in standards, but in general these confiscation […]
RAGE Gauge December: Big Monthly Uptick in Risk
Don’t look now but Vanguard GNMA is up close to 2% over the last four weeks and is even on the year. Remember, half the time you’re going to hate GNMA and half the time you’re going to love it. As the market has struggled, GNMA has performed well. The stock market has been volatile, […]
Wealth Management Pitfall: ESG, Part I
Your wealth manager should act as your fiduciary, plain and simple. Sounds easy. But in reality it’s not. Today, I want to help you overcome one of the more absurd obstacles you may face. It’s called environmental, social and governance investing, or ESG. Thousands of investment managers have pledged to follow ESG—a pledge to abide by […]
Brazil’s Mob Lynchings and Murders
If you have teenage children or grandchildren, then you know about social media and how it can become an online version of Lord of the Flies. What’s terrifying is that, in a lawless society like many in South America we’re seeing how messaging services like WhatsApp facilitate a rule by mob hysteria. Now is the […]
Cryptocosm and Life After Google Part V
Operations Management? When I was at Babson College one of our core curriculum courses was Operations Management. And, at the time, I didn’t see the vast opportunities that would unfold from this course. Who wants to spend a career figuring out how to piece together a supply chain or re-tool a factory? Then, when I […]
Inflated Assets for All and to All a Good Night
Looks like the Fed is keeping the punch bowl full for the holidays with a cheery: “Inflated assets for all and to all a good night.” We’ll see how this plays out when the going gets tough next year. The Fed is already in the danger zone.
Tucker Carlson Says What You’ve been Thinking about Trump
This Christmas when your family is gathered together in conversation, will you stick your neck out yet again in defense of President Trump? The answer might be worth pondering for a moment. Because with Trump, there are only two camps: love him/hate him. The love him camp may not like what he tweets, but they […]