Greetings Reader, It's Spring Break for us this week and we spent it with our good college friends and their kids at Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg and then Colonial Williamsburg. I've been to Williamsburg a few times (mostly golf trips) and visiting Colonial Williamsburg was a lot of fun. It was amazing to walk through so much history, some of the same buildings are our Founding Fathers. If you've never been, you should consider it. It's a lot of fun! (View this email as a webpage) 📉 Don't...
9 days ago • 1 min read
Greetings Reader, The stock market and tariffs. It has dominated all financial stories last week, with good reason, as the stock market lost 10%+ of its value in just a handful of days. There are a lot of opinions as to what President Trump is trying to do. One theory is he's trying to trigger a recession to force the Fed to cut interest rates, which would make it cheaper for the U.S. to "refinance" the massive debt. Personally, I think he is using the purchasing power of the United States to...
17 days ago • 2 min read
Greetings Reader, This CNN story about a the scam industry in Myanmar changed my thinking about scams. In the past, I thought the scammers were the ones getting the money. In many cases, they are forced to work (both economic and physical) for criminal gangs. I used to think it was funny that you had people baiting these scammers but I'm not so sure anymore... just something to think about. So often, the ones who deserve the blame are not the "front line" workers that face people... seems to...
24 days ago • 1 min read
Greetings Reader, The Conference Board publishes a consumer confidence index each month that captures how Americans feel about their economic future. The latest number for March was the lowest it's been in 12 years. The future is always unpredictable but when we feel bad about it, it becomes even harder to navigate. My advice for this? Be smart and prepare for a recession but stop watching the news about it. It's not good for you or your psyche! (FWIW, 12 years ago in 2013, all the indices...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader, The Federal Reserve meets today and will announce any interest rate changes this afternoon, though traders expect no change. (well, 1% chance of a 25 basis point reduction, which is tiny) The interesting thing is that the Fed may have tamed inflation without causing a recession (yet?). Here's a good article on that subject. Whether or not we will face a recession in the next year or two will yet to be seen, but if you're worried then you'll want to read the first article. (View...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader, The stock market has been like a rollercoaster this year week. With the tariffs on and then off and then on and then whatever... plus stocks being relatively high (even with the pull back on Monday, we were last at this price in September 2024), you might be wondering if you should DO something. If you are nearing retirement, this level of volatility should make you reconsider your portfolio allocation a little bit. Vanguard released a market outlook report late last year that...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Good day to you Reader, Yesterday, President Trump enacted tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico. And the stock market fell, then recovered a little, then fell back... This gave media a lot to talk about (which they love, because that's how you sell ads) but if you're a long term investor, you know this too shall pass. The most important skill in investing is to learn how to manage your emotions and stay the course. Easier said than done... but in the first post below, I share what I do. (View...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Good day to you Reader, Yesterday, President Trump mentioned that the US would start "selling" Gold Cards to wealthy foreigners. They're like green cards except they cost $5,000,000. At first, you might think this is some novel idea but it's not - they're known as golden visas. Several other nations (including the U.S.) offer permanent residency, with a path towards citizenship, in return for investment or donations. I explain in this short Instagram video. More on Golden Visas below 👇 (View...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Good day to you Reader, The S&P 500 hit a new record yesterday and we all expect the Fed to keep interest rate the same (97.5%)... because, well, inflation is still not kicked. Eggs are still expensive. There seem to be new tariffs every day, then not new tariffs, then maybe some tariffs. Such is life. It's a wild time but a good reminder that the best thing you can do is invest in low cost index funds and go on with your life. Nick Maggiulli, who writes Of Dollars and Data, wrote: Nick...
2 months ago • 1 min read