What can we learn from hurricane season? For one it always seems to come as a surprise. And once again we’re in the thick of a major one. When it comes to investing, I’m always taken aback by how much risk investors take and how they’re surprised when markets go down. Hurricane Prep: Can You Answer These Three Questions about Your Own Preparation? Then you have investors who used borrowed money to leverage returns. But again, they are surprised when the margin calls come in and forced selling occurs at less than ideal prices. Who’s advising these people? Trying to Reason with … [Read more...]
RIGHT TO WORK: Ford Will Build New Truck in Kentucky
Ford has chosen a location for the production of its new F-Series Super Duty truck. The destination for $700 million in new investment and 500 permanent jobs is the Right to Work state of Kentucky. The government of Louisville stated in a press release on the investment: Today, Mayor Greg Fischer joined Gov. Andy Beshear and Ford executives to announce that Ford Motor Co., which has produced motor vehicles in the commonwealth for 109 years, will expand its presence in Louisville with a $700 million investment creating 500 full-time jobs as the company prepares to produce the all-new Ford … [Read more...]
Prices Are Like Adult Kids: You Don’t Have Much Control Over Them
Prices. They’re like adult kids. We don’t have much control over ‘em. What do we do with them? I’ll tell you. Tough love hurts. Spend less, save more. Become an independent inflation fighter. Because inflation means different things to different people. A new iPhone isn’t as important to me as, say, it is to someone else. Simple and to the point. Like an aged fine wine, you’ll be amazed at how smart your adult kids think you’ve become—so I’m told. All I remember right now is, “Dad I want to be a garbage man.” For me, time stands still on a long dirt road not far from our log cabin in … [Read more...]
Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season
“Do you see the waves crashing over that rock dead ahead?” my dad said loud enough for me to hear over the 25-knot winds and 7-foot waves crashing over our bow. “Yes, got it,” I said. “We’re good on this heading. We can round that red can up about a quarter mile ahead.” “It’s at one O’clock,” he said. “I’ve got eyes on it.” That’s where Your Survival Guy and his dad were on Sunday delivering the boat from Mattapoisett back to Newport. There was a small craft advisory that felt like it could have been for large craft. Our trip started out in calm waters, like many do, as we motored … [Read more...]
State Pension Funds Brace for Private Equity Losses
Pensions are bracing for their private equity losses as officials predict grim results. And that’s not even accounting for the fact that valuations can be far worse than reported. From the WSJ: Andy Nick, a managing director at Jefferies’ private capital advisory arm, said private-equity managers tend to understate both gains and losses during individual reporting periods by factoring them over a longer period. He predicted that managers won’t price in the full extent of this year’s losses until December, when auditors review their accounting. “You’ll have the quarterly marks but that’s … [Read more...]
Remembering Ronald Read Who Died with an $8 Million Fortune
Do you remember our old friend Ronald Read who died in Brattleboro, VT, in 2015 with an $8 million fortune? “He lived modestly, working as a maintenance worker and janitor at a J.C. Penney store after a long stint at a service station that was owned in part by his brother,” writes Anna Prior in The WSJ. “Those who knew him talk of how he at times used safety pins to hold his coat together and sometimes parked his 2007 Toyota Yaris far from where he was going to avoid having to feed the parking meter.” Prior continues: Mr. Read owned at least 95 stocks at the time of his death, many of … [Read more...]
How Long Will Your Pension Fund Last?
Retired public employees from California are suffering the ill effects of having their pension fund, CalPERS, the largest in the country, politicized. CalPERS has focused intently on using its influence in markets to achieve political goals, but now shareholders are getting upset with its lackluster performance. The Wall Street Journal's James Freeman reports: There is no such thing as a free lunch. Activists who think they can use public companies to pursue political agendas without endangering shareholder returns are indulging in a fantasy. Disappointing results at a giant government … [Read more...]
Sink Your Teeth into These Bond Yields
“Red sky in morn, sailors take warn,” goes the saying. On this morning, the sun was as red as a lollipop, the kind that turns your tongue so red you want to show it to whoever’s next to you. Your Survival Guy heard it’s the dust, spun up from the wind, reflecting off the sun. Scientific American says it’s from the Bible (Matthew 16:2-3), attributed to a quote from Jesus. "When it is evening, ye say, fair weather: for the heaven is red. And in the morning, foul weather today for the heaven is red and lowering." Your Survival Guy’s 4 Ways to YOUR Wealth NOAA, not Noah of the Ark, has a … [Read more...]
You’ve Created Your Own Kingdom, Your Everlasting Life
What can we learn about lifelong wealth from the passing of Queen Elizabeth II? For one, as I wrote to you yesterday, “to do nothing is the hardest job of all.” If you think about your lifelong endeavor of compounding, like I most certainly do in my life, then you rise above the day-to-day noise like a heavenly spirit. You see life for what it is, a gift. A gift to be cherished. Because your gift can live on forever in the name of your children, your children's children, and theirs. When you separate your emotions from your money, you’ll find it will be difficult to separate it from … [Read more...]
God Save the Queen: To Do Nothing Is the Hardest Job of All
Last night, Becky and I watched episode four, season 1 of The Crown on Netflix as we honor the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. During the episode, a blanket of fog covers the streets of London, overwhelming hospital beds with residents gasping for air. Prime Minister Winston Churchill is under immense pressure to “do something,” but he holds firm with his belief that the fog is an act of nature, and an act of God, and that it will lift. Your Survival Guy: Long Live Queen Elizabeth II When Churchill’s young secretary is fatally struck by a bus, he arrives at a busy hospital where someone … [Read more...]
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