“If ye are prepared ye shall not fear,” is from the Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is quoted in Prophetic Statements on Food Storage for Latter-day Saints, by Neil H. Leash. In the forward to Leash’s book, Duane S. Crowther, author of Inspired Prophetic Warnings, advises to avoid fear and anxiety by making sound preparations, and to approach the subject with an “urgent calm” rather than anxiety and alarm. Leash and Crowther aren’t simply talking about food storage. They’re talking about preserving your well-being beyond food, including money … [Read more...]

There’s a certain discipline required of the stock investor whom adheres to a dividend-centric investment strategy. It’s not for the FOMO (fear of missing out) crowd that talks up their latest stock heroics at cocktail parties—a never in doubt but often wrong crowd if I’ve ever seen one. At the end of the day, it’s the dividend investor whom usually has the last laugh. Looks like a truckload of cash from the recent tax cut will be paid out in the form of dividends. Young Research's Retirement CompoundersSM Portfolio, a dividend-centric stock portfolio, has outperformed the DJIA and the … [Read more...]

After hackers stole digital currency assets from South Korean currency exchange Coinrail recently, the question must be asked, can bitcoin and other crypto-currencies be safe? The problems don't seem to lie in the blockchain technology, but instead in the exchanges that provide servicing to crypto-currency users. This isn't the first time an exchange has been hacked, or even the second or third time. So users must take into account the idea that the place housing their crypto-currencies may not be altogether safe. Can you imagine a rash of bank robberies in your town, but without any FDIC … [Read more...]

“Designed to be addictive, Facebook feels like a giant blood-engorged tick hanging off your frontal lobe,” writes Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone. You may recall, Taibbi coined Goldman Sachs as a “[G]reat vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.” In his piece on Facebook, where the median salary is $240,430, Taibbi makes a case for breaking-up the band which is more like a cult. What is it like to be on the inside of Facebook’s corporate walls? Former senior Facebook worker Antonio Garcia Martinez wrote the book, Chaos Monkeys, in a way that Michael Lewis did about his time … [Read more...]

Congress is actively seeking ways to encourage more small businesses to use retirement savings plans. That's a good thing for America's savers. But be wary that the bill may also encourage greater use of annuities, which I have warned readers about repeatedly (see here, here, and here for a sample). The bill will also encourage greater use of 401(k)s, which like annuities, can also come bearing hefty fees. For many savers too, borrowing against the money in their 401(k) account can be a tempting but risky option. Richard Rubin and Anne Tergesen report on the bill in The Wall Street … [Read more...]

Guess who needs the most of your dollars to survive? You guessed it, Washington D.C. If you're a retiree who has been living and working in Washington D.C. for your entire career, you would without a doubt stretch your dollars further if you moved to a less expensive locale. Washington D.C. is the most expensive place to live in the continental United States. As the Tax Foundation map below makes clear, for $100 of spending in Washington D.C., a consumer only receives about $85.47 worth of goods when compared to the national average. How does a 15% haircut on all your purchases sound … [Read more...]

Let the good times roll? Great lyrics from the Cars but it’s a song I can’t get out of my head thinking about the money piling up by the truckload at Vanguard’s back door. We’re talking nearly $300 billion in the first nine months of this year alone. All of that money unloaded and stacked up with the rest of the $4.7 trillion at the firm. That’s a lot of confidence in one company. And maybe Vanguard deserves it thanks to the tireless work of founder Jack Bogle on the power of low cost index investing. But where is all that money going? As I’ve stated in my piece on balanced funds, I believe … [Read more...]

With oil prices rising once again, the economy of Texas is roaring. In the fourth quarter Texas' GDP increased by 5.2%. However, Texas's success isn't rooted solely in its possession of oil. North Dakota, home to most of the Williston Basin saw its economy decline by 1.3%. The economics of Texas' Permian Basin make its oil industry especially profitable compared to other shale plays around the country. Sarah Chaney reports: The economic recovery in Texas sheds light on how strong oil production in the Permian Basin is closely linked with other sectors, namely manufacturing, and fuels … [Read more...]

Despite the allure of Silicon Valley, Hollywood and it's natural beauty, California has succeeded in driving away a "small but statistically significant percentage of high-income residents after voters approved Proposition 30." If you don't remember, Prop 30 was a ballot measure Californians approved in 2012 raising taxes on high income earners. The measure turned what had been a net-in migration of high income earners to California into what is now a net-out migration. Kathleen Pender explains in The San Francisco Chronicle: For singles, Prop. 30 raised the rate by one percentage point … [Read more...]

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Andy Kessler explains the mistake Isaac Newton made with his investments in the South Sea Co. After investing well and earning 100%, Newton initially sold his shares profitably. But when the South Sea Co.'s shares began to take off into bubble territory, Newton was afraid of missing out and invested once again, ultimately losing what would be millions in today's dollars. Kessler writes of today's bitcoin investors: Why relive this painful history? Because half of bitcoin’s price increase over the past year came from market manipulation via another … [Read more...]