Look at the mountain of cash in money markets today, and you’ll soon realize what it will take to get that money back into stocks, if that's even possible. It’s called return on one's capital, and historically, stocks paid a dividend to their owners. Today, the hubris at tech companies and the focus on stock options is misplaced. Investors want predictable cash, especially as the pig-in-the-python Baby Boomer generation demands more income from passive investments. Your Survival Guy looks for stock investors to get paid first in the form of dividends. This is absolutely a competition, and … [Read more...]
DIVIDEND: Because You Will Need One to Survive
How do you feel about taxation without representation? Not good, right? How about working your day job for an IOU? Exactly. Not going to happen. But that’s what we see with most tech stocks these days. You have management giving away stock options to retain employees and to goose their own net worth, living on a prayer that the stock price will go up. And the average investor, day trader? They’re not raising money for companies. Please. They’re trading. It’s a zero-sum game. This will change. There was a time when investors demanded a cash return on their money in the form of … [Read more...]
Are You Looking for Investment Counsel? 2 Questions
With all your research and interviews, are you asking the right questions? Are you looking for investment counsel? If you are, then Your Survival Guy recommends asking these two questions first: "Are you a fiduciary?" and "Who is your custodian?" Because once you get the answers to those two questions, a lot of confusion and heartache can be avoided. Here's why. When you work with a fiduciary, you work with someone who is required by law to make investment decisions in your best interest. On the other hand, those held to the less strict and more common suitability standard are not. They … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy: Wine, Guns, Chicken, and Stocks
Your Survival Guy just finished reading Climbing the Vines in Burgundy: How an American Came to Own a Legendary Vineyard in France about Alex Gambal’s journey in the wine business. Not that he needed to do it. He wanted to. He left the family commercial real estate business and with his young family became entrenched in all things Burgundy. It’s a detailed account but not necessarily a happy one. As with nearly all entrepreneurs, it involves sacrifice. One small comment that stood out to me was how the locals like the store-bought chicken not the much sought-after poulet de Bresse. You can … [Read more...]
See How “Prices” Have Replaced “Investing”
If you want to see how much “prices” have been replacing “investing,” then look no further than the Nasdaq-100 benchmarked Invesco QQQ Trust ETF. Look at how the money just follows the prices. This cannot end well. Stay tuned. Jack Pitcher details the questions surrounding the ETF in The Wall Street Journal, writing: Technology companies are powering the stock market ever higher, a few widely held stocks are responsible for most of the gains, and Microsoft is the U.S.’s most valuable company. The year is 1999, a date that also marks the debut of the Invesco QQQ Trust exchange-traded fund, … [Read more...]
Investors Livin’ on Prices Are Livin’ on a Prayer
How is it that investors treat their money like they’re living on a prayer—hoping for the stock market to do something for them—but when it comes to everyday spending, they hold on to every nickel like it’s the last one they’ll have? They read, and read, and read about this car and that one. They know this washing machine vs the others. They know when there will be “sales,” and they scour the internet, putting artificial intelligence to shame. Then, ask them what their stocks do to make money, and there’s, wait for it…silence. Ahhh, the sound of silence. But that doesn't last long…because … [Read more...]
COSTLY CUISINE: Dining Out Isn’t Cheap
Another round of CPI inflation data was released yesterday, and for the eleventh month in a row, the cost of dining out rose faster than the cost of food at home. The difference in inflation at restaurants was not inconsequential either. While the cost of eating at home rose 1.2% compared to the year before, eating in a restaurant cost those celebrating Valentine's Day over 5% more this year than last. Evie Liu reports in Barron's: Prices for food away from home, which tracks the cost of dining out and takeout meals, rose 0.5% in January from the previous month, according to the … [Read more...]
“Then One Day the Grandfather was Gone”
Originally posted on September 28, 2023. Your Survival Guy has a client whose grandfather left him some money. That was nice. But the real gift was how his grandfather would teach him about money when they were together. How to roll pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters sitting on the floor and talking. Adding up the pile and feeling the weight in their hands. The boy was taught what interest was, how it was paid, and the miracle of interest on interest. Compounding small amounts into larger ones. The small talk never felt like big life lessons. But they were. As they got older, the … [Read more...]
Congratulations Brad Marchand on Your 1,000th NHL Game
Brad Marchand of the Bruins chalked up his 1,000th game for the team on Tuesday night, as Your Survival Guy had previewed earlier that day. In The Boston Globe, Kevin Paul DuPont describes Marchand's career in Boston, writing: Brad Marchand’s Tuesday night found him lined up at his customary spot on left wing, awaiting puck drop at the Garden, fussing and fidgeting and looking to gain an inch, the slightest territorial edge, as he bodied up against Nicholas Paul, the Lightning’s 6-foot-3, 229-pound right winger. They are the kind of matchups the 5-foot-9 winger has faced for 15 years, one … [Read more...]
Radical Progressives Distort Tax Fairness
Radical progressive politicians are aiming to implement a wealth tax that will strip Americans of the assets they own. Your Survival Guy has discussed the dangers and problems of wealth taxes before. The wealth tax is a pet project of radical progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). In The Spectator, Lewis M. Andrews discusses Joe Biden's indirect appeal for "tax fairness" as a stealth push for wealth taxes. Andrews writes: As the level of US debt zooms past the $34 trillion mark, it has become increasingly clear that the American left has no intention of trying to help control government … [Read more...]
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