Thank you, Harry, for Nvidia.
Despite its parabolic rise, I am not selling it. Been there (after last parabolic rise). Done that. Had to buy it back. Was expensive.
For stocks I feel confident about, I’m sticking with them until Hell freezes over or something radical changes.
Here’s the last year of Nvidia:
Here’s the last five years. Imagine how stupid we’d feel now if we had sold in 2022,
I did recently sell my Tesla shares. I saw it suffering a confluence of truly awful of events — from China competition to ebbing demand for EVs. Late last week Cramer removed TSLA from The Magnificent Seven, making it now the Magnificent Six, which remain my largest holdings — AAPL, AMZN, GOOGL, META, MSFT and NVIDIA. Others I like include LLY, PANW, NVO, CRM, NOW, NVO, TSM, JEPQ (for the yield) and one tech Vanguard EFT — VGT.
How to live forever
The family is on me because they think I am getting old too fast. There is reason. Last year I had my gallbladder hastily removed and suffered two months of pneumonia, with coughing and depilated energy. Then my blood pressure shot up.
Maybe I wasn’t going to love another 50 years. (I’m 81.)
Motivated by the family, I spent the last week reading the latest literature on how to live forever. I learned I wasn’t alone with wanting to live forever. There are billionaires spending serious money – many, many millions – figuring ways to live forever. I won’t bore you with a summary. Suffice, the stuff is kooky, weird and unproven. Better to focus on stuff you can read from the likes of the Mayo Clinic and other researched, proven ways. Hence, my reading:
Funny thing while I’m reading these books, the New York Times publishes this piece:
Here they are (with my smart-ass comments)
- Move more.
The number one thing experts recommended was to keep your body active. That’s because study after study has shown that exercise reduces the risk of premature death.
I play tennis every day. Lately I’ve been playing ping pong also. It’s as energetic as tennis. Seriously.
- Eat more fruits and vegetables.
The experts didn’t recommend one specific diet over another, but they generally advised eating in moderation and aiming for more fruits and vegetables and fewer processed foods. The Mediterranean diet — which prioritizes fresh produce in addition to whole grains, legumes, nuts, fish and olive oil — is a good model for healthy eating, and it’s been shown to lower the risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and dementia.
As a result of all this “live longer” reading, I’ve given up adding salt and sugar to dishes and drinks – like coffee. I’m trying to give up life-long passion, Coca Cola.
- Get enough sleep.
Sleep is sometimes overlooked, but it plays a major role in healthy aging. Research has found that the amount of sleep a person averages each night is correlated with their risk of death from any cause, and that consistently getting good quality sleep can add several years to a person’s life. Sleep appears to be especially important for brain health: A 2021 study found that people who slept less than five hours a night had double the risk of developing dementia.
I’m a big napper. Sometimes twice a day. The experts like seven hours non-stop a night. Napping makes me feel more refreshed, able to play better tennis and make better decisions.
- Don’t smoke, and don’t drink too much either.
This goes without saying, but smoking cigarettes raises your risk for all kinds of deadly diseases. “There is no dose of cigarette smoke that is good for you,” Dr. Rowe said.
We’re starting to understand how bad excessive alcohol use is, too. More than one drink per day for women and two for men — and possibly even less than that — raises the risk for heart disease and atrial fibrillation, liver disease, and seven types of cancer.
I gave up smoking 45 years ago. The experts are now saying even one glass of wine a day is bad. I’ve never drunk alcohol — not for health reasons,. I don’t like the taste. That’s weird me.
- Manage your chronic conditions.
Nearly half of American adults have hypertension, 40 percent have high cholesterol and more than one-third have pre-diabetes. All the healthy behaviors mentioned above will help manage these conditions and prevent them from developing into even more serious diseases, but sometimes lifestyle interventions aren’t enough. That’s why experts say it’s critical to follow your doctor’s advice to keep things under control.
“It’s not fun to take the medications; it’s not fun to check your blood pressure and check your blood sugar,” Dr. Chang said. “But when we optimize all those things in a whole package, they also help us live longer, healthier, better lives.”
This morning’s blood pressure was 139/79. It used to be 120/80. It seems to be coming down.
I’m on four daily pills — Prilosec, lisinopril (for blood pressure), atorvastatin (for cholesterol) and D3 (for sunlight).
- Prioritize your relationships.
Psychological health often takes a back seat to physical health, but Dr. Chang said it’s just as important. “Isolation and loneliness is as big a detriment to our health as smoking,” she said, adding that it puts us “at a higher risk of dementia, heart disease, stroke.”
Relationships are key to not only living healthier, but also happier. According to the Harvard Study of Adult Development, strong relationships are the biggest predictor of well-being.
Dr. Rowe tells the medical students he teaches that one of the best indicators of how well an elderly patient will be faring in six months is to ask him “how many friends or family he’s seen in the last week.”
My family encourages me to maintain strong “social interactions” — their term for men friends.
- Cultivate a positive mind-set.
Even thinking positively can help you live longer. Several studies have found that optimism is associated with a lower risk of heart disease, and people who score highly on tests of optimism live 5 to 15 percent longer than people who are more pessimistic. That may be because optimists tend to have healthier habits and lower rates of some chronic diseases, but even when accounting for those factors, the research shows that people who think positively still live longer.
If you had to pick one healthy practice for longevity, “do some version of physical activity,” Dr. Moore said. “If you can’t do that, then focus on being positive.”
This one’s the hardest — what with Trump, Israel and Ukraine. Down-the-line winners help. And so actually does writing this blog, which I enjoy. Albeit without earnings. Don’t be fooled by the Google ads in the left hand column. Nobody seems to click on Google’s ads.
You can read the entire New York Times piece on longevity here.
Home Insurance tips
This is true. I’m getting these discounts on my home insurance:
+ Install a home monitoring service.
+ Install a home generator, e.g. Generac.
+ Install solar roof and a Tesla Powerwall, or like.
+ Install a water cut-off system. Here’s the Moen I just installed:
It’s called a Flo Smart Monitor & Shutoff. You can buy it for $480 on Amazon (click here) and install it yourself. Or get a real plumber and pay more. Here’s Nick and Joey from Bradway Plumbing in Hillsdale, NY proudly showing off their work.
My hands look forlorn and geriatric
…until I rub in this magic stuff on
Click here.
I’m learning also to apply sunscreen daily. This one is hard. It gives boredom a whole new meaning. But my dermatologist says it’s critical.
The meaning of Gaza’s tunnels
This piece will blow you away. In it:
Israeli defense officials now estimate that Hamas’s tunnels measure between 350 and 450 miles in a territory that’s just 25 miles long. (By comparison, the London Underground is only 249 miles long.) Some of Gaza’s tunnels are wide enough for cars; some are more than 150 feet deep; some serve as munitions depots; others are comfortably kitted out as command bunkers.
All this should radically reconfigure the world’s understanding of what Hamas has done in, and to, Gaza. It has turned the territory into a gigantic military fortress purpose-built to attack Israel, endure Israeli retaliation and interpose civilian lives and infrastructure as part of its means of defense. Imagine any other government doing something similar to its people — say, putting the NORAD command center directly below Times Square — for a sense of the outrage Hamas is perpetrating against its own people.
That’s not the only outrage. How much did it cost to build these tunnels? How much concrete, steel and electricity did it divert from civilian needs? How many millions of hours of labor were given to the effort? What was the cost of building up its stockpile of thousands of rockets, which continue to be fired at Israel? How many ordinary Gazans had to be conscripted into the effort of miserably shoveling dirt deep underground — and how many perished in the effort?
Read the entire piece here.
Please buy Apple’s Vision Pro
I own Apple shares and I could use your buy.
I speak with forked tongue. I don’t recommend buying the Vision Pro now. It’s heavy. It’s new. It’s too difficult to use (try typing on it). And it lacks apps.
Everyone in the trade press who’s played with it says it’s way too pricey — at $3,500, plus, plus. plus.
Zeiss optical inserts for my weird eyes will cost me another $348. — assuming they can make my weird prescription. Apple says it can’t make all. I haven’t been able to check if it can make mine.
Heck you can buy three MacBook Airs for the price of one Vision Pro.
I’m not a shrinking violet when it comes to owning technology. I have two iPhones, three laptops, three AirPods.
I don’t get the Vision Pro.
Priceless,
Jimmy Kimmel says Goodbye to Ron DeSantis
Wonderful
See you soon. — Harry Newton
