“I have $50,000. I want to retire. Next year we’re going to have a recession. Hence, I should buy gold bars and treasury bills.“
No. No. No. And No.
You can’t retire on $50,000.
Next year, we’re not gong to have a recession.
No one should own gold bars. They ‘re too hard to sell. And they’re too costly to sell.
Treasury bills pay far too little to retire on.
The speaker was a old friend, nearly as old as I am.
Why didn’t he buy a Vanguard index fund 30 years ago and drop $1,000 into it each month?
He’d now have his nest egg.
Yuch.
Please harass your kids into thinking about retirement early on — from the first day of their first job.
Yesterday was a milestone.
I received a proposal to invest money in an industry I’ve been in for 48 years — namely telecom.
Yet I didn’t understand one word of what they did!
I did see fancy hyper-optimistic financial projections.
If they achieve half of what they project, I will kick myself for not investing. But they won’t.
It got me thinking. What should they have done?
+ Stop sending me only PowerPoints. PowerPoints are not prose. They are lists, with no explanation and no logic. PowerPoints raise more questions than they answer.
+ Stop overloading me with acronyms. I write a dictionary. But I avoid 99% of acronyms. Anyone can make up an acronym. And anyone does.
+ Stop telling me how gigantic your market is. I know there are 323 million people in the U.S. and probably more in the rest of the world. Many of these people will buy anything, even what you’re selling — maybe. If I understood what you’re selling, what your benefits are and who your competitors are, I can make my own mind up.
+ You should should have written a mini-red herring. The good ones have great one-page summaries and endless pages of “risks” explained. Also useful.
+ There should be a video demo — like what you see on YouTube.
+ You should have a simple budget showing what you’re going to with my money.
+ You should commit yourself to quarterly reporting to me.
+ You should talk about an “Exit Strategy” — even if it’s theoretical and far in the future. Remember investors like to see a cash profit on their investments, eventually.
Learned
+ Sennheiser wireless headphones save marriages. I have proof. To buy a set, click here.
+ Please include your email address and wiring instructions on your invoices.
+ Anything that isn’t an envelope will cost you a minimum of $2.67 postage. You have to take your package to the post office, hand it to them, and swear on a stack of bibles your “package” is not going to explode. It’s really silly. UPS and FedEx are much better. You can hand your package to their drivers.
+ “Alexa, Play The Sound of Music.” For the next two hours, we listened to The Sound of Music many times. Alexa is great for grandkids. Alexa will also tell the time, the weather and wake you up when the next Game of Thrones is coming on. I like my $50 Amazon Echo Dot.
Best Buy is amazing
How it survives is beyond my tiny imagination. Yesterday I had to buy a powered USB 3.0 hub. I walked to Best Buy. They had only one in stock. It was too small.
I asked did they have anything larger? They said NO.
I looked quizzical.
They replied “Tough.”
Great customer relations.
But I needed something. So I bought it.
Their retail price was $49.99. Their online price was $46.99. Amazon was selling it for $39.88. Which is what I finally paid Best Buy after showing them my iPhone with the price Amazon was selling it for.
I wondered if Best Buy is routinely 25% more expensive than Amazon?
This chart of Best Buy this year blows me away.
Peter Lynch said buy stocks whose products you like. Fortunately he didn’t say “Sell stocks whose products you don’t like.” Otherwise I would have shorted Best Buy eons ago…. and lost oodles of money.
Now to buying stocks whose products you like …
Here’s why you should own Berkshire Hathaway
I took my granddaughter to Dairy Queen (which Berkshire owns) for a
(also called a grandfather treat).
This is the result:
With much begging, she reluctantly let me have a taste.
DQ’s chocolate dipped cone is really good. I am addicted.
Absolutely criticial reading:
This article shows how a small group of ultra well-heeled people can turn the nation’s thinking using money and effort. Fascinating on the one hand and depressing on the other.
How G.O.P. Leaders Came to View Climate Change as Fake Science
Click here.
Testimonials from readers
Alan Buck writes:
The 2017 Subaru Outback “LTD” is indeed a very nice car and fun to drive. In heavy traffic it automatically slows down and speeds up according to traffic providing the cruse control is set. When changing lanes (blind spot) or backing out of a parking spot at the mall it warns you of cars and people approaching on either side or walking behind your car. Lane departure warnings are good on the open road…I suspect it might be irritating in city traffic where you might be changing lanes often…of course it does not activate if your signal light has been turned on…you can shut it off. I have had mine for 4 months and it is great little car with lots of cargo room. The cross bars on the roof swing back to eliminate noise…neat.
While driving in traffic with the cruise control engaged my car automatically slows down when the vehicle ahead of me (even a motorcycle) slows down…when it speed up again my Subaru resumes the pre-set speed…car ahead slows again so does mine…speeds up, so does mine.
If a vehicle or animal jumps out in front of me my car automatically breaks and I receive both a visual and audible alarm…this has actually happened to me once when a car cut in front of me too close in traffic…my car automatically braked.
When I wander across the white or yellow line (either direction) without putting my turn signal on to change lanes I receive an audible and visual Lane Deviation Alert.
Also, when I wish to change lanes I am alerted audibly and visually in my side mirrors that there is a car in my blind spot and I should not change lanes yet.
When I back-up out of a parking space at a mall or supermarket, let’s say, I receive both visual and audible alerts that cars or people are approaching from either side or the rear. My backup camera, of course alerts, me visually as well.
How to stay in good shape
Harry Newton, who loves Square and dislikes Intel. CNBC interviewed Intel CEO this morning on Mobileye, which Intel had bought for the humongous sum of $15.3 billion. If Intel ever makes money out of Mobileye, I’ll eat several large hats. The only thing Intel has ever made good money on is chips for PCs. And that they do a very good job of. ..
I’ll post more often, now that my granddaughter is safely back with her mother, who doesn’t believe in Chocolate Dipped Cones for her precious daughter.
As is its wont, the NYT article views the whole climate change issue strictly in terms of politics. It never once examines or even acknowledges the gross manipulation of world temperature data by NOAA, the fact that all the climate models have been wrong, or the fact that the basic theory that CO2 is responsible for the asserted temperature rise has been shown to be wrong. Beyond that, there is a reasonable question as to what to do if CO2 is the culprit. The Paris accord exacted a significant cost on the US but would have had essentially no impact on the warming implied by the models. And people do not like subsidizing the Solyndras and wind farms. Look behind the curtain and you will find many communities and even states that have stopped wind farm construction.
Harry, what are your thoughts about President Trump taunting Kim Jong UN and saying he’s going to rain fire and fury on N. Korea if Kim doesn’t toe the line? I like what Trump is doing! IN flyover country we admire Trump’s backbone! God knows Hillary would never have had the cajones to take a tough stand. If Hillary won the election North Korea would be taking over our nation by now. Lock her up! If there is a nuclear war I hope either the U.S. or North Korea takes out Australia.
almost as cute as Harry’s grandchildren: https://youtu.be/ftDTS0suC80