Dear Survivor, A few years ago, at a Cato event, Your Survival Guy and Gal had the great pleasure of sharing a table with billionaire investor Jeff Yass, among others. All was going swimmingly until the keynote speaker, investor Ken Fisher, took to the podium and told the room his net worth was more than everyone else’s combined. Way to ingratiate yourself with the room, right? During the Q and A, Fisher made some comment that he was one of the most successful people in the history of America. Yass took issue with that and when Fisher asked him to name someone more important said, … [Read more...]

The 2024 Summer Olympics are underway in Paris, France. Your Survival Guy was recently in Paris, and the city didn't seem quite prepared at the time. But it appears that progress is being made. Much of the progress and glamour of the Paris games will be attributed to France's wealthiest man, Bernard Arnault, and his family, who control the world's largest luxury conglomerate, LVMH. Tom Lamont explains the intense support for the Paris Olympics by LVMH's many luxury houses in GQ, writing: Paris, that most presentable of capitals, is being polished before it hosts the Summer Games. Around … [Read more...]

Dear Survivor, A long time ago, Vanguard founder Jack Bogle came up with a novel idea for a mutual fund company. Keep fees low, passively mimic the market, and let the shareholders mutually own the company. Then he went out to tell the world about his anti-Wall Street creation and thankfully had help along the way. In his monthly newsletter Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report (IR), Dick Young echoed Bogle’s low-cost investing approach to his tens of thousands of readers. According to Bogle, Dick Young brought more investors into the Vanguard fold than any other newsletter writer. IR … [Read more...]

Dear Survivor, OK, imagine you have a pile of cash. What are you going to invest in today? What are your objectives with this money? Will you need it for the purchase of a home down the road? Or for living expenses? Are you in debt? These are just a few questions to get you thinking about investing your cash. As you know from Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report, inertia is a mighty foe. You don’t want to be in the business of saying to yourself or, worse, to your spouse, “I should have done that.” By that time, it’s too late. On the flip side, once you’re invested and have set sail … [Read more...]

Dear Survivor, Our dog Louis passed away on April 17th. He was thirteen. When he was a puppy, our kids were in elementary school. “Hi, Mom,” one said. “We’re home.” That was our cue to release him from around the corner to meet them for the first time. And that was the beginning of Louis doing almost everything with us. Trips to the grocery store. Riding shotgun to pick up burgers, pawing at me to share a fry. Walking the beaches and going on hikes. Long car rides to New Hampshire in the back with the kids watching them unwrap their sandwiches. And kayaking down the Saco River, which … [Read more...]

Dear Survivor, As my nephew asked me the other day, home from college and all the stuff one learns: “Uncle E, how you livin’?” “How I’m livin’?” I thought to myself. I haven’t thought about it. But it gets right to the point, doesn’t it? Which brings me to my conversations with you. I know how you’re livin’—quite well—because you tell me. Here’s what you’re doing. Fly fishing the Keys, catching some rays in St. Somewhere, hitting the powder out West, spending plenty of time relaxing on the beach, paying exorbitant prices for boat drinks, building houses and dreams, planning more … [Read more...]

Dear Survivor, Your Survival Guy and Gal were in Key West recently to confirm for New England that the sun still exists. It does. But as you snowbirds know, Florida hasn't exactly felt like Margaritaville. Which brings us to one night during our trip, where we were able to find two seats for Mac McAnally's fourth and final sold-out show at the Key West Theater. Mac, as many of you Parrotheads know, was Jimmy Buffett's right-hand man on stage as a member of his Coral Reefer Band. Mac's two-man shows, with fellow Reefer and percussionist Eric Darken, have been a healing tour mixing in … [Read more...]

Dear Survivor, Your success as an investor has much to do with your temperament. It’s more art than science. That’s not coming from me. That’s from years of reading my father-in-law’s newsletter, Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report. He’s pulled me aside many a time to remind me: “Survival Guy, listen to me, investing is more about art than science. Yes, you’ve got to have the chops, but it’s the art that makes the music.” And here we are at the national anthem stage of 2024. And yes, it’s been a wild couple of years for the S&P 500. Sort of reminds me of the Daytona 500, with … [Read more...]

Dear Survivor, Your Survival Guy received some Christmas emails asking about a certain economist’s stock market prediction that the bubble’s about to burst. My take? Why ruin Christmas? Maybe he’s right, maybe he’s wrong. What I know for sure is he’s in the business of selling books and making headlines. That’s not acting like a fiduciary. I remember back in 1998 when this same economist wrote a book calling for the roaring 2000s. The roar turned out to be the sound from investors pummeled by the tech bust a few years later. Then he called for, in 2004, another boom to come, taking … [Read more...]