Dividends are back. “The humble dividend is reclaiming its rightful place as the arbiter of stock-market value. In three of the four biggest developed markets, shares offer a higher yield than the longest-dated government bond, and in the fourth—the U.S.—the dividend yield beats even a 20-year bond,” writes James Mackintosh at The WSJ. But offering higher yields than the longest-dated government bonds is like jumping over a candle stick. “The low returns on the longest-dated bonds are extraordinary: 0.3% on Japan’s 40-year government bond, 0.9% on Germany’s 30-year bund, 2.1% on Britain’s … [Read more...]

“There is no doubt that we are in the first innings of a washout in hedge funds,” said Dan Loeb of Third Point LLC in a quarterly letter dated April 26. $15 billion has been withdrawn from hedge funds in the first quarter and a lot more is headed that way. Why? The 2 and 20 game seems to have rubbed investors the wrong way—an arrangement where they collect a 2% management fee and 20% of the profits leaving you with the letters e, t, and s of your assets. Then you pay taxes. What’s the word on the street as this dreadful group gathers in Las Vegas for the SkyBridge Alternatives conference … [Read more...]

Gold is here to stay. Make sure you own some. As I’ve said in the past, I don’t worry too much about the short-term action of gold. And I don’t buy it to make money. I buy it to hedge against the unexpected. It’s an insurance policy for my portfolio if you will. Is there any insurance for a reckless Federal Reserve the world over? No one knows exactly how this race to the bottom by Central Banks will end. But it is clear that they don’t have much regard for maintaining the value of their currencies. “It makes a great deal of sense to own gold. Other investors may be finally starting to … [Read more...]

Here you get a glimpse into what really caused the stock market crash of 1929 from the Cato Institute’s Alan Reynolds courtesy of his 1979 article in National Review. [gview file="https://www.richardcyoung.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/reynolds_speech_19791109.pdf" width="640px" save="1"] … [Read more...]

So you’ve created a Roth IRA because: “My accountant suggested I convert to a Roth IRA.” I get it. Sure it could make sense long-term if the growth of the portfolio is good, and if the law remains the same. That’s too many ifs for me. To feel more comfortable I’d prefer you didn’t have to deal with the issue all together as I pointed out here: Chris [Edwards] is Cato Institute’s Director of Tax Policy Studies and editor of DownsizingGovernment.org. If you’re looking for a way to help advance the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace, you’ve found it in … [Read more...]

Dividend paying stocks may not always get the recognition they most certainly deserve (they are now!). But they some how have a knack of paying you to be invested. And that’s enough recognition for me. Don’t be afraid of investing in the forlorn, the unloved, or the out-of-favor. They tend to be the one’s that surprise you when they grow-up.  In the March 2016 issue of Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report, Dick Young wrote: The Great John Neff John Neff, in his Vanguard Windsor fund days, was an outstanding proponent of investing in the forlorn, the unloved, the out-of-favor. John was … [Read more...]

Buy of course! As I wrote to you in Parts I, and II the key for you is to be creative and get started: Make the jump from a life of paying “The Man” to one where you pay yourself. A simple concept, yet hard to do. What did I do when I was your age? I made the monumental change in my own mindset—I became determined to pay myself. I bought a multi-family, rented the top two floors and lived on the first with two co-workers from Fidelity Investments. I want you to buy a multi-family type property.  It can be a two-family, four-family, you can live in the basement of a brownstone. It doesn’t … [Read more...]