Your Survival Guy’s RAGE Gauge is in, and the key thing investors need to remember this month is that there’s nothing wrong with making money slowly. But you don’t need to just take my word for it. Listen to Warren Buffett when he talks about his own wealth and money, and how he keeps making more money the older he gets.
Vanguard founder Jack Bogle said the same things when he was alive, and he sounded surprised at his good fortune even though he was in the “business” of helping Mom and Pop make a fortune of their own. Here’s a secret: It’s hard to believe miracles exist, but I’m here to tell you compound interest is truly one of life’s miracles.
In my frequent conversations with Dick Young, we talk about buying bitcoin and gambling. Kidding. No, we talk about how he’s made the majority of his money and how he’s made more of it in any given year after the age of 65. 
This is how compound interest works. It starts with you saving ‘til it hurts, at a young age if you can do it, and then allowing interest upon interest to do its thing. Again, easy to understand, much harder to do, especially for younger savers living at a time when instant gratification is a strong pull. But it doesn’t need to be.
You do not want to confuse making money slowly with not being a rich man. I know plenty of rich men who made money slowly, and they’re not beating themselves up about missing a boat. No, they’re enjoying their retirement life.
The Positive Signs
The economy investors are looking at is a mixed bag, but the positive signs outweigh the negative at the moment. Remember, Your Survival Guy is not in the predictions business. But I do have my eyes open. Take a look at my charts below:
- First in my gallery is Nonfarm Payrolls, and take a look at the major surprise jump in the number of payrolls reported yesterday. A total of 130,000 were reported, while analysts polled by Bloomberg had predicted a much smaller 65,000.
- Click to the next slide and you’ll see that average weekly initial jobless claims (the four-week moving average) is extremely low at only 212,250.
- Next you’ll see that average weekly hours for manufacturing employees are booming at 41.6 hours. At some point, these manufacturers are going to need to hire more employees to pick up the extra work.
- Despite the good labor news, consumers are still having confidence issues. The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence survey is at 84.5. It hasn’t been that low since May of 2014. Increasingly, these surveys are widely divergent among respondents who identify with different political parties. Confidence today among Republicans is actually quite high, while for Democrats it is at basement-dweller levels.
- For some additional evidence that the underlying economy is strong, take a look at the last slide, Young Research’s Moving the Goods Index. It’s surging.
Action Line: Be prepared, know thyself, and do what you can today. Focus on making small progress toward your goals today rather than waiting for a big miracle to happen later on. Don’t let inertia hold you back. When you need a helping hand building a plan for your investments, email me at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com.
