Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.

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Commit to a Life of Success

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You may be familiar with Shane Ellison from his book Over-the Counter Natural Cures and his action-oriented website www.thepeopleschemist.com. I’ve read his book several times and refer to it, and his website, regularly. Shane suffers no fools. He tells it the way he sees it, often times, with language not meant, shall we say, for the dinner table. Recently a client and I were talking about sports—wrestling in particular—and he was reminded of Shane’s blog: My New Year’s Resolution 2016. In it Shane talks about how he’s helping his 10-year old son Blair commit to a life of success through … [Read more...]

20,000 Mass. Voters Quit Democratic Party

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Voter turnout was huge yesterday. In “blue” state Massachusetts, 16,300 Democrats shed their party affiliation to become independent voters. Since Jan. 1, 3,500 more shifted to the Mass GOP. Why? According to Secretary of State William Galvin’s guess, it’s simple: “The Trump phenomenon." “The tenor of the Republican campaign has been completely different from what we’ve seen in prior Republican presidential campaigns,” Galvin said. “You have to look no farther than the viewership for some of the televised debates. “The New York Times referred to the campaign as crude; I suppose that’s fair,” … [Read more...]

The Maximizers

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“Meltdown? Absolutely baked into the cake as I write to you, and becoming more of a deep midterm concern for me as time passes,” wrote Dick Young in Intelligence Report back in July 2015. And here we are a short way into 2016 and the speculative NASDAQ index is down over 8%. As Dick notes, “In recent issues, my goal has been to work especially hard at providing you intelligence that will keep you safe and dividend-centric during what I consider the inevitable coming meltdown.” Safe and dividend-centric—sort of has a ring to it, does it not? It does to me. Those words have been pounded into my … [Read more...]

Trump Kills Establishment

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This is what the end looks like for the establishment wing of the Republican party. The empire building is over as Pat Buchanan declares: Instead, the establishment opted for empire, for expanding old alliances, dumping over regimes, crusading for democracy, sending our soldiers out to remake Third World countries in the image of Iowa and Vermont. Who now thinks all these wars were worth the cost? Whether Trump wins or loses the nomination, the immigration, trade and foreign policies pursued by the elites since the end of the Cold War are dead letters. The nation has declared them to be so … [Read more...]

How Trump Wins the Nomination

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Trump was good last night, not great, but good enough to win the debate. To win the Republican nomination he needs 1,237 delegates. Trump will have a total of around 85 with the Nevada allocation. The Golden Four states of California, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey hold 389 delegates. Since 1980, the Republican front-runner has swept the Golden Four to win the nomination. Voting takes place later in the season for the Golden Four (CA-June 6/NY-April 19/PA-April 26/NJ-June 7). If history holds true, then Trump’s magic number to hit, prior to the Golden Four contests, is 848 delegates. … [Read more...]

Warren Miller: Your Search for Freedom Part II

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“You know I liked your piece on Warren Miller but he wasn’t the ground-breaking filmmaker on skiing,” said my client yesterday, from Jackson Hole, WY during our regular talk. “The first guy was John Jay. He lived in Williamstown, MA next door to my friend when I was a kid,” he said. “Years later, when I was president of my ski club John Jay put on a great show for us.” I wikipedia’d John Jay and according to Warren Miller, he “virtually invented the ski film in its modern form.” If you’ve ever skied Suicide Six in Woodstock, VT or have seen the skimobile at Mt. Cranmore in North Conway, NH … [Read more...]

How Retirement Affects Health

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You can’t afford to lose meaningful money in retirement. It is the one death blow that is almost impossible to recover from and in my observation it leads to: 1) An obsession with trying to “make” the money back which takes over one’s life or 2), shutting the world out and blaming the loss on someone else. Both scenarios lead to isolation and as it turns out are bad for one’s health. Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D. shares with readers the results of a study concluding that 10 to 25 percent of retirees don’t do well in retirement and are at a higher risk of dying within six years of retiring. According … [Read more...]

2016 Foreign Policy Report Cards

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The American Conservative asks: Which candidates are most likely to be guided by realism and restraint in foreign policy? See the grades below. Presidents have more latitude in foreign affairs than in domestic policy, and the trend over the past two administrations has been for presidents to be more hawkish than their campaign pledges led voters to expect. George W. Bush promised a “humble foreign policy.” Instead, he gave us the Iraq War. Barack Obama was elected in part to end Bush’s wars. But he too pursued regime change, with Pyrrhic success in Libya and abortively in Syria. These … [Read more...]

Guns: My Concealed Carry Update

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A lot of good things can happen to your personal security situation when you take some initiative. For example, what will it take for you to have a "choice" to carry a weapon legally? Having a choice may provide you and your family with a great deal of comfort. As I've told you recently in Protect Your Family, Every Way Possible, I have my resident concealed carry license now in two states, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. With the two, I can legally carry in 33 states. Take a look at the list I've provided for you below, courtesy of handgunlaw.us, run your finger to your state, and see … [Read more...]

Roger Babson Quoted in Book: 1929

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Here’s a reminder about the markets, emailed to me by a client from the Greatest Generation over the weekend. What she sent was not only relevant because I went to Babson College, named after Roger Babson. The quoted passage below shows that with open eyes, a heavy dose of skepticism and abundant caution, you can prepare your portfolio for hard times, or “reef your sails” as Babson says. “Fair weather cannot always continue. The economic cycle is in progress today, as it was in the past. The Federal Reserve System has put the banks in a strong position, but it has not changed human nature. … [Read more...]