What Will $2 Million Get You In Retirement? [View article]
NMD: If you had people in your family with lifelong illnesses, you would be terrified of the government taking your money, money they will need to live. Some families do not have entitlement mentalities and want to provide for their own.
People who bought houses during the bubble years have not yet seen a return to the price they paid. I remember a realtor saying that he had never seen housing prices drop by 40%. Well now he has. Bernanke is creating a bubble in stock prices. Only defense is good asset allocation as Mr. Parnell explained.
Is This Security A Safe Haven? Absolutely Not [View article]
Nothing is safe. I do not like investing in an alternative universe where experiments by central banks are driving equity markets. These very same central bankers including the Fed stared at their navels during the housing market boom and bust.
Neither do I like buying anything when European trading partners are in a depression and China remains impenetrable.
What would Ben Graham say about all of this? He would say buy good businesses at reasonable prices. That suggests a long wait for reasonable prices.
What would my grandmother say, an excellent dividend investor for 70 years? She would say follow Graham's rules, buy companies fundamental to the functioning of civilization, when you get the chance to buy at a good price.
Up 10%, Are Stocks Now Too Dangerous To Hold? [View article]
Europeans became the lab rats of the policy wonks in Brussels. Technocrats have demonstrated remarkable tunnel vision -- ignoring the cultural, structural, demographic and labor rules of the various member nations. Combine this with extremely expensive energy, due again to policy, and Europe is doomed for at least a generation. Not everyone in Europe is a German or thinks like one.
I think many Americans cannot conceive of the insane labor rules in France, for instance. A tiny example: Cafe owners cannot hire seasonal employees. So if you are a cafe owner at a beach, you cannot hire college students in June and release them in September when everybody goes back to work and school. So you don't hire.
How can you run an economy like that? Government interference even in the smallest businesses is destroying commerce. We are beginning to see those effects here. Wait until you see the fallout from Obamacare. Then people will know what happens when you become a lab rat of a policy wonk.
Euro Tremors Send Message: Diversify Currencies And Add Precious Metals [View article]
US government confiscation of bank accounts over $250,000 and IRAs/401Ks would lead to a collapse of the US economy and exacerbate any problem such policies would be created to solve.
The reason is that people use that saved money to invest in businesses. Without that capital, businesses would wither and unemployment would soar to the point of inciting revolution. Unless elections are suspended, few legislators in their right mind would vote for it.
More likely is a VAT tax, used by the Europeans to fund their socialist states, a reduction in SS and Medicare payments based on value of assets, tax rates for the 1% of 65-70%, and elimination of pre-tax IRA contributions. A return of more normalized 10-year rates of 5% would boost treasury purchases, as Boomers, now terrified of the manipulated stock market, would choose to settle for that payment over taking chances on the more volatile market.
As for eliminating businesses, the government has shown its ability to do that through regulation (coal industry) and cuts in payments that crush ability to cover overhead (private practice of medicine). The most dangerous threat to our society right now is the activity of unelected bureaucrats that have never signed a pay check or taken out a bank loan to fund business activity.
Benjamin Graham's Advice For This Stock Market [View article]
Sometimes life can deliver unimagined challenges. I never want my children to be at the mercy of government programs should they or their children suffer from disability or long term severe illness. If anything destroys motivation and a sense of self-worth, it is depending on the government for subsistence. While I know that living on government assistance is a game that many play successfully, I never want my family to be players.
Some parents of children with lifelong, severe illness give up, before the kids find something they can do. They put them on the dole and that is it. Naturally, there are cases where no other option is feasible. But too often, people join the dependent class long before they have to.
Buffet has long preached that children should make it on their own. Given the very large (by most people's standards) of the Buffet children's inheritance from their mother, and eventually, to a lesser degree,from their father, I guess I can understand why he thinks his kids have enough. But I am shocked by his arrogance in believing that very bad things cannot happen to good people. Mother Nature is more powerful than Buffet, believe me.
As a result, I believe that charitable giving is a good thing. But based on personal experience, charity must begin at home. Trusts that are set up to benefit children once they have had a chance to experience the school of hard knocks, to pay mortgages and to begin funding educations, is a way to ensure that they will be covered for tragedies, but will not become slackers.
Your Bond Allocation For 2013: It's Time To Lower Your Risk [View article]
Since everything looks expensive to me, I am holding most of our assets in MM funds. But now, I fear, those have become dangerous. Colin Lockey's Seeking Alpha article, "Treasury Shorts, Negative Repo Rates, and the Poor Money Market Funds," (Feb. 21, 2013) enumerates the risks in the shadow banking system. So what options does one have? Short term CD's in highly rated banks? Buying individual ultra short term treasuries? Any thoughts?
Start Investing Now For Retirement Wealth [View article]
Brilliant. Send your posting to the NYT as a letter to the editor.Economists and policy wonks excel at making simple concepts too difficult for many people to understand. This nails the hazards of income redistribution in a simple to understand way.
By the way, the list of rapid dividend growth companies is great. My problem, in constructing a portfolio for a young person, is which companies are the champions of the future? Which ones have a combination of the technologies, products and markets that will make them soar?
I'm Picking Omega Healthcare Because I Want My Daughter To Be A Winner [View article]
Before long,Medicare will penalize hospitals if patients are re-admitted within 30 days. This policy will be a boon to skilled nursing facilities that survive Medicare cuts. By the way, the MSM fails to report that Medicare withholds, cuts and bundles payments all the time without Congressional directive.It withheld payments in 2010, if I remember correctly, and nearly bankrupted many medical practices that serve Medicare patients frequently like cardiology and onclology. There is always a technical excuse for doing so, but it's actually a political strategy to assert power and authority and to wipe out providers to reduce access. So beware.
I'm Picking Omega Healthcare Because I Want My Daughter To Be A Winner [View article]
Before long, hospitals and their employed doctors will be penalized if a patient is re-admitted within 30 days of dismissal. This should be a boon for skilled nursing facilities that survive more Medicare cuts. People who have chronic, serious illnesses will not be re-admitted to hospitals, becuase the hospitals won't be paid.. Because the MSM does not report on what is really going on with Medicare reimbursements, most Americans think that Congress is making the cuts. Not so. Medicare witholds, cuts and bundles payments all of the time without Congressional directive.
What Will $2 Million Get You In Retirement? [View article]
Senior Loan ETFs Yielding 6% Face New Actively Managed Rival [View article]
New S&P 500 Price Target: 2001 [View article]
Is This Security A Safe Haven? Absolutely Not [View article]
Neither do I like buying anything when European trading partners are in a depression and China remains impenetrable.
What would Ben Graham say about all of this? He would say buy good businesses at reasonable prices. That suggests a long wait for reasonable prices.
What would my grandmother say, an excellent dividend investor for 70 years? She would say follow Graham's rules, buy companies fundamental to the functioning of civilization, when you get the chance to buy at a good price.
That is why I am buying nothing now.
Bank Of America: With No Dividend Hike Shareholders Are Fleeing [View article]
7 Reasons Why Cyprus Is Hugely Important [View article]
Up 10%, Are Stocks Now Too Dangerous To Hold? [View article]
I think many Americans cannot conceive of the insane labor rules in France, for instance. A tiny example: Cafe owners cannot hire seasonal employees. So if you are a cafe owner at a beach, you cannot hire college students in June and release them in September when everybody goes back to work and school. So you don't hire.
How can you run an economy like that? Government interference even in the smallest businesses is destroying commerce. We are beginning to see those effects here. Wait until you see the fallout from Obamacare. Then people will know what happens when you become a lab rat of a policy wonk.
Euro Tremors Send Message: Diversify Currencies And Add Precious Metals [View article]
The reason is that people use that saved money to invest in businesses. Without that capital, businesses would wither and unemployment would soar to the point of inciting revolution. Unless elections are suspended, few legislators in their right mind would vote for it.
More likely is a VAT tax, used by the Europeans to fund their socialist states, a reduction in SS and Medicare payments based on value of assets, tax rates for the 1% of 65-70%, and elimination of pre-tax IRA contributions. A return of more normalized 10-year rates of 5% would boost treasury purchases, as Boomers, now terrified of the manipulated stock market, would choose to settle for that payment over taking chances on the more volatile market.
As for eliminating businesses, the government has shown its ability to do that through regulation (coal industry) and cuts in payments that crush ability to cover overhead (private practice of medicine). The most dangerous threat to our society right now is the activity of unelected bureaucrats that have never signed a pay check or taken out a bank loan to fund business activity.
Benjamin Graham's Advice For This Stock Market [View article]
Some parents of children with lifelong, severe illness give up, before the kids find something they can do. They put them on the dole and that is it. Naturally, there are cases where no other option is feasible. But too often, people join the dependent class long before they have to.
Buffet has long preached that children should make it on their own. Given the very large (by most people's standards) of the Buffet children's inheritance from their mother, and eventually, to a lesser degree,from their father, I guess I can understand why he thinks his kids have enough. But I am shocked by his arrogance in believing that very bad things cannot happen to good people. Mother Nature is more powerful than Buffet, believe me.
As a result, I believe that charitable giving is a good thing. But based on personal experience, charity must begin at home. Trusts that are set up to benefit children once they have had a chance to experience the school of hard knocks, to pay mortgages and to begin funding educations, is a way to ensure that they will be covered for tragedies, but will not become slackers.
Your Bond Allocation For 2013: It's Time To Lower Your Risk [View article]
Give In To The Dark Side [View article]
Start Investing Now For Retirement Wealth [View article]
By the way, the list of rapid dividend growth companies is great. My problem, in constructing a portfolio for a young person, is which companies are the champions of the future? Which ones have a combination of the technologies, products and markets that will make them soar?
I'm Picking Omega Healthcare Because I Want My Daughter To Be A Winner [View article]
I'm Picking Omega Healthcare Because I Want My Daughter To Be A Winner [View article]
20 Signs The U.S. Economy Is Heading For Big Trouble In The Months Ahead [View article]