Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.

Compensation was paid to utilize rankings. Click here to read full disclosure.

  • Home
  • Your Survival
    • Special Report: FOOD SHORTAGE: Crazed Hoarding Is Not Preparing
    • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
      • 2023
      • 2022
      • 2021
    • Constitutional Carry
    • EMP Threat
    • Tucker Explains
    • Newport Gas Outage
    • Water
      • Emergency Water Storage
      • Let There Be Water
    • Get Your Gun and Your Training Now
    • Satellite Phones
    • Navy SEAL Survival Kit
  • Your Money
    • Coronavirus Infects Stock Market
    • Looking for a Better America
    • You Invest, They Win
    • Where to Keep Your Cash
    • Paris
    • How to Buy a Boat
    • Dead or Alive? The Future of Long-Term Investing
    • Is Vanguard too Big?
    • Cryptocosm and Life After Google
    • The Last Intelligence Report
    • The Truth Behind the S&P 500
    • RAGE Gauge
    • How Many “Retirees” Will Keep Working?
    • Your Retirement Life
    • You’ll Love This if You’re Dreaming of an Active Retirement Life
  • Weapons
    • Self Defense
    • Every Family Should Own at Least One Shotgun: Here Are Three
  • About Me
    • Your Survival Guy: “Life on Main Street Hasn’t Been This Hard in a While”
    • Preparing for Times Like These
    • My Videos/Pics
    • Music
      • RIP Neil Peart: You Will Always Be Remembered as a “Modern-Day Warrior”
    • Your Survival Guy: Make Your Bed and The Hero Code
  • You
    • Our Cabin on Kodiak, Alaska
    • If You Are in Pain, this May Help. It Helped Me.
    • How to Save for a Grandchild
    • FIRE! Financial Independence, Retire Early
    • Compound Interest
    • Arithmetic of Portfolio Losses
    • Maximum Portfolio Withdrawal Rate
    • An Efficient Frontier
    • Retirement Compounders
    • Counterbalanced Total Returns
  • Survive & Thrive
    • August 2023: Time Is Money: Are You Over 40?
    • July 2023: When Should You Take Social Security?
    • June 2023: Your Survival Guy in Rome 30-Years A.B. (After Babson)
    • May 2023: “I’m Having Major Surgery Tomorrow,” He Said
    • April 2023: Will the Black Swan Usher in Digital Dollars?
    • March 2023: How Long Have You Been in the Investment Business?
    • February 2023: 4 Life Changing Words: “You Should Try This”
    • January 2023: Stacking Wood and Compounding Money
    • December 2022: Your Survival Guy Prefers Bombardier’s Global Express 7500
    • November 2022: Arriving in Style at Le Bristol Hotel, Paris
    • October 2022: Sink Your Teeth into These Bond Yields
    • September 2022: Do You Have the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People?
    • August 2022: “Watch This Boat off Our Stern,” My Dad Said “He’s Coming in HOT”
    • July 2022: MONEY TALKS: Your Survival Guy’s Best Service in Paris
    • June 2022: “I’ve Been with Richard Young for Over 30 Years Now”
    • May 2022: Survive “If You Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail”
    • April 2022: Dream On! Fishing the Double Down in Key West
    • March 2022: Your Survival Guy Hears the Craziest Investing Stories
    • February 2022: Your Survival Guy’s 2022 Super States
    • January 2022: The Least Affordable Housing Market in the U.S.
    • December 2021: Listen Your Survival Guy is not “Mr. Peanut”
    • November 2021: Joe Biden is Weaponizing Your 401(k) Against You
    • October 2021: Time to Get Your Lazy Cash Off the Couch
    • September 2021: What’s Your Survival Guy Investing in Right Now?
    • August 2021: To Where Will You Flee?
    • July 2021: This Bubble’s Popped Baby
    • June 2021: Your Survival Guy’s Summer Job, Inflation & You
    • May 2021: You’re Telling Me Friends Ask You This Question
    • April 2021: Is There One Best Place in America for ‘Liberty Retirees?’
    • March 2021: America’s Growth Corridors
    • February 2021: Troops in D.C. & Your Authoritarian Virtual Panopticon
    • January 2021: Are You Ready for The Great Reset?
    • December 2020: Disaster Prep in Our Newport Bunker and Your Survival
    • November 2020: Election 2020 Edition: Stock Market is Predicting a Trump Win
    • October 2020: You Invest They Win, AGAIN
    • September 2020: Proud to be an American: Pro-Trump Parade Turns Rhode Island Red
    • August 2020: The Clock is Ticking: You Must Protect Your Family
    • July 2020: What Will Her Life Be Like Now?
    • June 2020: Your Survival Guy’s Home (and Money) Protection Plan
    • May 2020: Future Look at Covid-20, or the Next Deadly Virus
    • April 2020: Only Trump Saw the Risk in America’s Relationship with China
    • March 2020: Coronavirus Infects Stock Market
    • February 2020: Escape the City: Live Small, Cheap, and Safe in America
    • January 2020: Is Your Cash Safe? Probably not This Safe
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • Welcome

NEVER INTIMIDATED: Face Life Head-On Like Larry Bird

December 10, 2021 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

By Tracy Grazley @ Shutterstock.com

Happy Friday, as Your Survival Guy thinks about America’s rusty supply chain, will loads of Christmas goodies arrive just in time for Easter?

Life Comes at You Fast. Slow It Down with My Friday Email. It’s Free.
  • Your Survival Guy has no problem Christmas shopping on the Fourth of July. My mom used to take us to Building #19 in New Bedford to look for “Good Stuff Cheap.” “You don’t go in there looking for something in particular,” she would say. “You just go to see where the deals are.”
  • This from The Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street:

    Off-price retail has a record of thriving under uncertainty. Take 2011, when a surge in cotton prices led apparel sellers to respond in different ways. According to a Citigroup research note, some retailers responded by ordering more units to get per-unit costs down, while others ordered fewer units and tried to pass higher costs on to customers. Some placed orders earlier to get in front of further cost increases even as others postponed and waited for cotton prices to cool down. Today’s supply-chain disruptions are likely to lead to a similar disarray in 2022, but off-price retail could once again come out ahead.

  • When Larry Bird scored a franchise record 60-points in a road game, players on the opposing team were fined for cheering for Bird. That’s the way it was for Bird’s Celtics in ’86. There were no away games. The next day, covering the Celtics for The Boston Globe, Dan Shaughnessy brought a couple of Cokes to Bird’s hotel room, pulled up a chair while Bird stretched across his bed, and talked about shooting the basketball. Shaughnessy captures the moment in his wonderful, fresh-off-the-printing-press book, Wish It Lasted Forever: Life with the Larry Bird Celtics. A few excerpts from Shaughnessy:
    • “I just aim for the big cylinder. The thing that helped me was when my high school coach told me you could squeeze two basketballs through there at one time. I always thought, ‘Hell, if you can do that, you should be able to put one through there pretty easily.’”
    • “I’ve made a living off guys who can run and jump higher. I’m never intimidated when I’m on a basketball court. Maybe in high school a little, but not in college and not now. In college I remember a guy on the other team trying to get into my head during layup lines before a game. He had his hair in cornrows and he was yapping during warm-ups. He was a big dude and I could tell he was intimidating our players. I went over to him and said, ‘When this game’s over, you’re going to be kissing my ass.’ I scored forty-eight on him.”
    • “Guys who jump real high—they can do that when nobody’s got their ass into them. You put your ass into them and box them out, and it takes away their legs and then you can jump as high as any of them. That’s why I always try to put a body on people. I’m strong enough to hold them off. I’ve proven that a white boy who can’t run and jump can play this game.”
    • “Buckner had an additional theory: ‘Larry is a lot stronger than people think. If he puts his forearm on me, I can’t move. I think it’s from throwing all that hay into the loft when he was a kid.’”
  • When my dad and I played one-on-one basketball on Baker Lane we’d keep a running tally of wins on the kitchen chalkboard. Mom knew who won simply by noticing who picked up the chalk. And when we played, it was always “Larry Bird for the win.”
  • You may have noticed Amazon Web Services (AWS) was down this week for a few hours, wreaking havoc on cloud reliant appliances and security systems. Yet another reason why I don’t want you relying on technology for your peace of mind. The sooner you secure your situation off-grid, becoming more self-reliant, the better.
  • Can anyone compete with Amazon when it comes to wage labor and benefits? Talk about a monopoly.
  • Inflation keeps surging. Up 6.8% in November. Anyone who buys ammo knows that shortages have pushed prices to levels that were unfathomable just years ago. But even prices of Americans’ basic needs are rising fast, hurting the economy. CNBC reports “The consumer price index, which measures the cost of a wide-ranging basket of goods and services, rose 0.8% for the month, good for a 6.8% pace on a year over year basis and the fastest rate since June 1982.”
  • The more I think about South Carolina, the more I love its pro-business environment, weather, and overall proximity to New England (if I need to get out) and Florida (a frequent stopping point for Your Survival Guy). As much as I like Charleston, I’ve got Greenville, tucked away in the northwestern corner of the state, on my mind.

Action Line: You have to be strong, like Larry Bird, and innovate your way around the problems you face in life like they’re seven-foot four-inch centers who’ve just beaten up your teammate in the championships (like Ralph Sampson in the 1986 NBA Finals). He was never intimidated, and always motivated. You have to stay motivated to achieve your goals, and get serious. If you need help staying motivated, click here to sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive newsletter, where I’ll push you to achieve your goals. But only if you’re serious.

P.S. You know I’m a fan of Rush, and especially the late Neil Peart. A friend recently sent me these photos and this message, “Thought you’d enjoy these….(although I KNOW you’ve been there and seen these before). From your drumming friend in Wolfeboro, NH.”

The following two tabs change content below.
  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Instagram profile

E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Instagram profile

Latest posts by E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy (see all)

  • Will the Fed Hold Up Its End of the Bargain? - September 21, 2023
  • Are Most NFTs Now Worthless? - September 21, 2023
  • 2ND AMENDMENT ALERT: Biden to Create New Anti-Gun Office - September 21, 2023
  • Don’t Ask Me When to Haul Your Boat - September 20, 2023
  • You May Be Surprised by America’s “Least Woke City” - September 20, 2023

If you enjoyed this post, email it to a friend:

  • Email
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp

Related Posts

Money 101

Trending

  • “I Want to Be a Farmer, a Garbageman, or Tom Brady”
  • “Jesse’s Going Crazy, Just Running Along the Edges”
  • Do You Know What Stagflation, Deflation, and Inflation Are?
  • RAGE Gauge October: “We’re Moving On,” They Say
  • Bond Funds and State Taxes
  • RAGE Gauge August: This Market is Foggy
  • "Mr. Protect and Preserve:" For Where We’re Going
  • Hurricane Lee Spaghetti Models and Your Lazy Cash
  • Jimmy Buffett’s: A Pirate Looks at 40
  • Survival Guy's Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season

Must Reads

  • PREPPING: You Don’t Have to Save the World in a Weekend
  • Here’s Why You Need a 15-Year Retirement Investment Plan
  • Why Mutual Funds and ETFs No Longer Work
  • Why Investors Should Forget Prices and Focus on Income
  • Your Survival Guy: Emerging Food and Energy Crisis
  • Prepared for When the Next Black Swan Swoops In?
  • Bad Guy with a Gun STOPPED by Good Woman with a Gun
  • Why You Can’t Afford to Miss the Boat
  • “I Need Preservation of Principal and Growth”
  • The Importance of a Balanced Portfolio

Recent Posts

  • Will the Fed Hold Up Its End of the Bargain?
  • Are Most NFTs Now Worthless?
  • 2ND AMENDMENT ALERT: Biden to Create New Anti-Gun Office
  • Don’t Ask Me When to Haul Your Boat
  • You May Be Surprised by America’s “Least Woke City”
  • GREENWASHING: What’s in a Name?
  • Americans Are Not Happy with Bidenomics
  • “Oh, That Wasn’t So Bad”
  • Prepared for When the Next Black Swan Swoops In?
  • Investing Mistakes to Avoid: #1 Y-O-U
Only if You’re Serious
Only if You’re Serious
Only if You’re Serious
Crazed Hoarding Is not Preparing
How to Save Rainwater Effectively
Your Survival Guy in Paris
Key West Insider Guide
Your Survival Guy's Fishing Stories
Financial Independence, Retire Early
Money 101
Pandemic Creates Virtual Panopticon
Emergency Water Storage
Find Freedom in America
Second Amendment
How Can You Save Money for Your Grandchild
Great Reset
See Who's Missing the Boat
Richard  Young Reports
How You Can Save Money for Your Grandchild
Why Fidelity is Number One
The Best States for Survival
You Invest, They Win
Escape the City
Why Vanguard is Too Big for YOU
Island Life

Copyright © 2023 | Terms & Conditions

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.