Merry post-Christmas. I hope you enjoyed a relaxing couple of days with your loved ones. If we have one “economic” takeaway from this holiday season, it’s that they’re not giving away food, energy, vitamins, toys, you name it. Stuff isn’t cheap. Which has me thinking about all those investors who invested like someone they used to be, not who they are today.
There was a time when my father-in-law Dick Young would advise in his monthly letter Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report to put your age in bonds. Prudent Man, and Ben Graham’s margin of safety come to mind. Today, in my conversations with investors they tell me about relatives who are 65 and invested like they’re 25—loaded up with stocks.
You can’t make up for lost time. You can’t work the hours you used to work. They’re gone. It’s why I consider your retirement to be about keeping what you’ve made. Invest to keep it.
When stock prices are skyrocketing, and they may continue to do so, you need to take a hard look at where you are in life and if you can handle a massive drop. See what we’ve experienced already this century, and tell me how you would handle such a drop. And remember how old you are today vs. then.
Action Line #1: I know it’s tempting, but no sooner do you decide to take action with your fixed income, when you’re hit with rat food products like fixed-rate deferred annuities, leveraged ETFs, and the like.
Action Line #2: You want to have a margin of safety. When you’re ready to talk, let’s talk, but only when you’re serious. Email me at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com.
