Earlier this year, Your Survival Guy received two books and a note from a long-time client. We’ve been working together now for what will be 20-years come August 2023. That’s an eternity in this field of work where “what have you done for me lately?” can rule the day. But that’s the nature of the beast, and my job is to help protect my customers from the dangers trying to separate them from their money that lurk around every dark corner. This is hardball. Years ago, my client decided to eschew the pressures of Christmas cards and gifts and to send his thanks at his own “intentional” pace. … [Read more...]
FRIEND OR FOE: Are You Investing with Time, or Against It?
As pensions loaded up on real estate as a “sure thing, can’t miss” investment, office buildings are drowning from a wave of sublease space. Konrad Putzier reports on the glut of office space in The Wall Street Journal, writing: The amount of space listed for sublease surged in the first year of the pandemic to the highest level in decades in some cities. But it fell in the second half of 2021 as offices leased up and some companies took listings off the market. Now it is rising again. Sublease availability across the U.S. increased 3.6% in the first quarter to 159 million square feet, … [Read more...]
ESG Is Another Way to Attack Conservative Principles
You know from here, here, and here how I feel about ESG investing. It’s a politicized money grab for finance and government to extract more fees from investors and to choose winners and losers subjectively. It’s good to see Utah is standing up against the mob. Utah’s treasurer, Marlo Oaks, is fighting back against an effort by S&P Global Ratings to issue credit ratings for states and municipalities partially based on ideological criteria. S&P wants to apply ESG to muni bond ratings. It doesn’t take much deep thought to realize that rewarding or punishing democratically elected … [Read more...]
Don’t Throw Your Bond Portfolio Out the Window
Remember, as interest rates rise, you’re able to buy bonds at higher yields. We’re not that far from an interest rate level that will be a game-changer for retirees. I like this from Jason Zweig at The Wall Street Journal: Thanks to the recent plunge in prices, the yield on the aggregate U.S. bond market, at about 3.6%, has doubled since Dec. 31. People always chase the past with their money. Investors added more than $445 billion to bond funds in 2020, largely because past returns were so strong. But by the end of that year, the yield on the U.S. bond market had fallen to barely more than … [Read more...]
The Truth About the S&P 500 is Finally Out
You have been reading warnings about the S&P 500 and the truth behind it here on Your Survival Guy for years. Now, everyone else is catching up. The big firms making up a disproportionately large part of the index’s value are suffering declines and bringing the index with them. Matt Murray writes in The Wall Street Journal’s 10 Point email: The 2022 pullback in U.S. stocks is changing investors’ behavior, with more volatility expected. The breadth of the market’s selloff has been striking, dragging valuations lower and tempering enthusiasm for risky bets in the options market. Shares … [Read more...]
LOOKING FOR LIBERTY: Retirees Revive Rural America
You know Your Survival Guy is passionate about helping hard-working Americans achieve a “liberty retirement” in a Super State. A Liberty Retirement means maintaining a strong standard of living, even after retirement, in a state where the government looks at you as a customer to be served, not as a piggy bank to raid. Thanks to the 2020 census, it’s easy to see just how many retirees are actively pursuing their own liberty retirement plans, and the impact they’re making on rural America. As Matt Murray notes in The Wall Street Journal’s 10 Point email: Retirees are helping swell the … [Read more...]
Intelligence Report: How $10,000 Grows to $28 Million
Your Survival Guy wants your grandchildren to be as rich as Croesus. How can you help them do that? Get them on the path to riches by putting time on their side. It’s time that’s the key ingredient to compound interest. As Dick Young wrote to you back in July 2016: How $10,000 Grows to $28 Million I’m assuming each of my grandchildren invests $10,000 at age 25 with a goal of compounding that investment for either 30 or 50 years. Each will purchase 500 shares of a stock (at $20/share) with a long history of paying dividends and offering an initial 4% dividend yield. Using an early … [Read more...]
Here’s What the Fed SHOULD Do, and Why It Probably Won’t
Your Survival Guy’s take on the Fed’s wavering on future rate increase amounts? Business as usual. The Fed’s a political beast and always fails at doing its one real job—protecting the value of your dollar. The Fed’s been in the business of ruining dollars forever. This is nothing new. So why the uproar? Well, tech investors are getting a dose of reality with Nasdaq down 21.3% YTD. Welcome to investing. When you have politicians pulling levers to get reelected—or in the case of Fed Chairman Powell to get reappointed—then the waters are muddied. Listen. I have the answer. But I’m Your … [Read more...]
You Can Do Better than Mutual Funds and ETFs with Your Cash
You know how I feel about Fidelity and Vanguard. Great custodians, but there’s a better mousetrap than the mutual funds and ETFs they sell for stock investing. That’s why I favor individual dividend-paying stocks with a track record of consistent dividend increases. Do not take this as a call to immediately sell your mutual funds/ETFs, but it may be time for a revisit. How? Maybe look at your lazy money sitting on your couch, eating your ice cream, and doing nothing. Let’s go. Wake up. Get it out the door. Beat inertia. Dividend investing isn’t a fad. It’s always in style if you care about … [Read more...]
Kill the Death Tax
States taxing death are hurting themselves, writes Regina M. Egea, president of the Garden State Initiative, a New Jersey-based independent research and educational organization. Ms. Egea's state, New Jersey, is one where assets are taxed upon death. At Real Clear Policy, she explains how detrimental policies like New Jersey's can be: As a Founding Father and inventor, Benjamin Franklin was a visionary without peer in his time. His famous utterance “nothing is certain except death and taxes” could easily apply to New Jersey in 2022, as residents of one of the highest taxed states in the Union … [Read more...]