When the 59-year old head of Softbank, Masayoshi Son, met with the 31-year old deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) for 45 minutes in Tokyo, MbS committed $45 billion to Son’s Vision Fund. "Forty-five minutes, $45 billion," Son said in September. "One billion dollars per minute." That caught the attention of the investment industry—where your value is measured by your next deal—the fear of missing out is a powerful emotion. Perhaps motivated by the easy money being raised by funds like the Vision Fund, BlackRock has announced it is offering a $10 billion “Long … [Read more...]
Meet the Man Behind the Largest Private Investment Fund
How do you lose most of your wealth in the dot com bust and then rise from the ashes to become one of the 100 richest people in the world? Good question. Meet Masayoshi Son, the 59-year-old head of Softbank, an investment company that raised $100 billion last year alone for its Vision Fund. In watching Mr. Son interviewed by Carlyle group co-founder David Rubenstein, it’s hard not to like the man. Here’s a guy who at age 16 hounded McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc’s office with phone calls asking for just a few minutes of his time simply because he wanted to see him in person. When … [Read more...]
20-Year Review: Stock Market Cuts Investors’ Wealth Roughly in Half—Twice
“Monday’s madness is a reminder that investing in stocks doesn’t automatically make people rich. Twice in the past 20 years—between 2000 and 2002, and again between 2007 and 2009—the stock market has cut investors’ wealth roughly in half,” writes Jason Zweig at the WSJ. When you think about the mathematics of investment losses (see chart below), you quickly realize how difficult it becomes to get back to square one, especially for retirees. And when you think about it in terms of real dollars—seeing $1 million decline to $500,000—imagine how many hours you have to work to make that kind … [Read more...]
Dow Down 1600 Points, Websites Crash, and Vanguard GNMA
When stocks were down 1,600 points yesterday, “The websites of two of the country’s biggest robo-advisers—Wealthfront Inc. and Betterment LLC—crashed,” reports Bloomberg. I’ve never been comfortable with the idea of robo-advisers. What if the technology ends up not working? Will the so called robos have the skill and patience that I know I have? Who knows? The same is true with stop losses. I will never trust my hard earned money with program trading. I’ve never been comfortable with the idea, especially when it comes to stop losses. With stop losses sell orders are placed when a … [Read more...]
Bitcoin is Interesting, But It’s Not the Next Gold
Last year the word bitcoin became part of the everyday lexicon in America, and many parts of the world. The phenomenon "investment," was being traded by grandmas and kids. Coverage of bitcoin's rises and falls has been on TV every day for months now. If there was ever a classic bubble, this was it. Olga Kharif reports at Bloomberg: Bitcoin tumbled for a fifth day, dropping below $7,000 for the first time since November and leading other digital tokens lower, as a backlash by banks and government regulators against the speculative frenzy that drove cryptocurrencies to dizzying heights last … [Read more...]
Bitcoin Down 70% from High
A central bank official quoted by the Wall Street Journal's Steven Russolillo and Andrew Jeong referred to bitcoin as the combination of a bubble, a Ponzi scheme, and an environmental disaster. That trifecta is only a symptom of the frenzied buying of bitcoin in recent months, followed by the somewhat predictable sell-off. Central banks are likely to cut short any attempt to make bitcoin great again. The WSJ writes: “If authorities do not act preemptively, cryptocurrencies could become more interconnected with the main financial system and become a threat to financial stability,” said … [Read more...]
Illinois’ Answer to Saving too Little? Borrow More and Hope
After years of under-funding its state pension programs, Illinois has come up with an idea that can be described as risky at best. Illinois plans to borrow money, and then invest that money, in the hopes of earning more than it must pay back in interest. If you don't see the danger in using money invested in volatile markets to pay fairly predictable pension payments, you're probably an elected official in Illinois. The Wall Street Journal's editorial board highlights something that I have been discussing for years here on YourSurvivalGuy.com (see here, here, here, and here). The … [Read more...]
My Favorite Stories Leading up to Super Bowl LII
“The four never expected to be reunited later in life, but 20 years later, here they are going for another Super Bowl title,” writes WEEI sports radio network’s Ryan Hannable. They were teammates back in 1998 at John Carroll University and are coaches for the New England Patriots today: director of player personnel Nick Caserio ('99), offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels ('99), assistant quarterbacks coach Jerry Schuplinski ('99) and director of pro scouting Dave Ziegler ('00). Their bond was formed as members of the 1998 Blue Streaks, when, “Trailing 27-26 in the final minutes, … [Read more...]
Media Finally Acknowledges the Best Part of Tax Reform
After months of negative press over the prophesied ill effects of tax reform, the liberal media has come to admit the greatest benefit of all from tax reform: rising wages. The AP wrote today that despite the tax bill being "contentious," workers are starting to take home more pay. Big corporations across America have announced wage increases and bonuses as a direct result of the cut in their corporate tax rates. While some have called these benefits for employees "crumbs," the numbers are really beginning to add up. The AP writes: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has estimated that the new … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy Under Fire!: Part I
Dear Friend, Thank you for subscribing to Your Survival Guy. If you are determined to prepare yourself and your family for the future, perhaps there was a moment in your life when you decided to take action. This was mine. “There’s a fire in your yard!” my neighbor said. “There’s a fire in your yard, call 911!” The Calm Before the Storm It was a funny weekend weather-wise. Much of it was spent anticipating the storm that never really came. On Saturday, rather than take our boat out, my daughter and I walked to our slip, made sure the lines were secure, put out an extra bumper and … [Read more...]
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