Invest in stocks or
not?
S&P 500 up 14%
YTD. Is the future
bright for stock investing or not? Many say no; many say yes. There is no
way to know the future so what do you do? Looking at the record of similar
periods, the answer
for the long-term investor is YES. Over most 10-year
periods, stocks and low-cost stock mutual funds provide superior returns to
all other common assets. Even in volatile years, stocks regain their results
quickly. For instance, from 2003 to 2013, the market return was 10.97%. During
the 2012 to 2022 period, the market return was 13.98%. So for most investors
NOT speculators, a low-cost market index fund provides about 11% a year over
time. The real risk is not “holding” stocks but NOT owning stocks or
low-cost stock funds long term. Other assets like gold and fixed income
vehicles may look like greener pastures, but only for short periods. Moving
from stocks to other assets would require a miracle in market timing both out
and back into the markets. If your interest is long-term goal accomplishment,
holding stocks or at least mostly stocks is the safest investment you can make.
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Robo-Advisor-Ultimate-Automatic-Management/dp/1537111957
Why gold investing
does NOT live up to the ‘gold myths’
For most of us, we
consider gold as the best alternative long-term investment and it is up right
now. We drastically underestimate the volatility of gold and gold’s downside
risk. Most of us think gold is an inflation or
currency hedge and haven. It is not. For us, gold is perceived as an asset
that provides superior performance during turbulent macroeconomic times. It
does not. Gold prices declined
over 30% during the worst of the financial crisis. From 1975 to
2022, the real returns for equities and gold were 8% and 1.5%
respectively. There is a 50/50 chance for gold to show negative returns in a
given negative equity month. Looking at a one-year horizon, gold was
riskier (49.7% chance of loss) than both equities (24.9%) and bonds (34.6%). For
long and short periods, gold is NOT a viable alternative investment.
https://www.amazon.com/Earn-11-11-3-69-Investments-choice/dp/1502412187
You may lose up to
63% of your nest egg
“No matter what I
did, I could never beat the S&P 500,” an advisor confesses.
Many fees, charges,
and costs are hidden in your financial relationship. One analysis by a finance
expert shows you
could lose up to 63% of what you would have had during your lifetime of
saving/investing. Over time most of us do not see or add the small individual
costs. The total nest egg over time can make a big difference to how much you
are able to draw as monthly income. For example, you invest $250 a month
($3,000 a year) in your advisor’s mutual funds, choice stocks, bonds and
alternatives. There are fees, charges, and costs in each product plus a
management/firm quarterly fee which total 2%. As promised, you expect to earn
7% on your money over time. You do—but that number is gross—before all the costs. You end up earning only 5% or less
do to bad market timing. So instead of $1.3
million you only get to keep about $670,000 before taxes. You paid $630,000 in investment costs. If you had
used a low-cost index fund (0.04%) and free trading platform, you could have
earned enough to provide at least $52,000 a year in income. Using a Tax-FREE
account, you could have spent every dime ($4,300 a month) for 25 years.
Costs kill: https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Mutual-Funds-Save-taxes/dp/1534939490
Insurance You Really
Don’t Need
There is an
insurance policy for EVERY need. The question you must ask is what is the
chance of me using it and at what cost. To find the answer, you can’t rely on
the answers from the person trying to profit from the sale. You need to search
for that type of policy and a professional analysis of it. The most common
insurance you don’t need are whole life, extended warranties, rental car,
supplemental (Aflac-like) and trip insurance. For instance, every person of the
right age is asked if they have “long-term care” insurance. The sales “hook” is
‘70% of Americans will need some form of long-term care. However, only 7.5
million actually have long-term care insurance. Most costly care is provided by
Medicare or Medicaid. The lifetime chance of someone buying coverage at age 60
and USING
policy benefits was only 35%. So 65% will not. Most people use
it to get care in their own home. So those who pay for help directly and not
own a policy might be better off. Not only are premiums increasing but few nursing homes have a A+
rating. Better: wait until you really need expensive long-term care in a
good institution and use your Medicaid. It pays for most nursing home stays,
not private insurance.
Find the facts: https://www.amazon.com/Long-term-Care-Insurance-Updated-2013/dp/148274001X/
Retiree’s portfolios:
more guaranteed income?
Today’s retirees are
living longer than previous generations — and they want greater certainty that
they won’t outlive their money. Thus the appeal of a pension-type annuity
contract is common. However advisors usually fail to explain all the fees,
charges and costs associated with this vehicle. Plus, the current annuity
payout is set at a low level so that there is no recalculation to make up for
inflation. The fact that the annuity initial deposit cannot be returned if a
retiree has an emergency is ignored. Some retirees feel their current portfolio
structure is not modern enough to create more income certainty. A survey finds
investors on average want 80% of their retirement savings to be invested in
“safer investments,” while those protected by a pension or an annuity have a
significantly more positive outlook on their retirement prospects. “Safer
investments” is the chosen description of what retirees say they want but
usually such vehicles provide less of a nest egg and thus less income for life.
Many retirees feel they have not saved enough and that Social Security is not a
guaranteed income source anymore. Retirees can’t have more income from “safer
investments.” Retirees want to protect whatever they do have even if that means
less income later. No more pensions means the risks are all ours.
Choice: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Buy-That-Annuity-Guaranteed/dp/1466494573
?**********ACCOUNTABILITY**************?
Like 1776, this
period is a test
of democracy—We
rejected an "American
fascist" once
The
Path to Dictatorship: 2010-2030
Parallels of this era in the past
may hint at our future: democracy breaks apart legally
Billionaires
paid $881 million for votes in 2022
midterm elections
Nov 2020 Wealthy
discredit election process
Jan
6 2021 Direct
govt overthrow failed: guns
& bombs ready
Trump
engaged in a "criminal
conspiracy" to stop Biden
“I
don’t f—ing care that they have weapons”
Trump was “detached
from reality”
Trump
used mafia-style intimidation on the defenseless
Trump still terrorizing
election woman
Parscale: “a
sitting president asking for civil war.”
Trump:
“Just
say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me”
GOP fascism: “RINO
hunt armed; no bagging limit” J6
comm threat
January
6, 2021 “A
date which will live in infamy”
Trump’s Supremes END
personal rights & state
laws except for weapons
WMDs
Fascism: GOP
to stop women leaving state for abortion
It’s
not a court. It’s a junta: Two Americas
Trump: President
Biden is 'enemy of the state'
Christian
Nationalist Party (CNP) replaces
GOP
Apr 9 Illustrated
Anne Frank book removed by Florida school
Apr 21 Trump: “I
am your justice”
May 9 Trump
guilty of sexual abuse
Jun 8 Trump
indicted by the United States of America
Violation
of the Espionage Act
Conspiracy to obstruct
justice
Making false
statements
Jan 2025 Dictator
pardons himself: his Supremes agree
How Govt wastes our money:
NASA costly rocket: Astronauts’
brains need years to recover from trip: no
one goes!
Pentagon found $6.2
Billion it “lost”! More
“accounting errors”?
Avoid
taxes on investment portfolio: how some folks avoid taxes even without
specialist
SCAMS/SPINS:
Most of us are
"very concerned" about wealth inequality: rich country poverty kills
poor
Millions
dropped from Medicaid as states start a post-pandemic purge of rolls: ERs
full
Old
1970 GOP: Nixon expanded Voting Rights Act of 1965: more voters not less
Recall: Honda
recalling 1.2 million
Recall: 42,000
pounds of Johnsonville
sausages : possible contamination.
Ground water pumping
for years made Earth shape change; North
Pole shifted
Schwab caught: hid
fees in robo-advisor program, Intelligent Portfolios: promised no fees
PIMCO caught failed
to disclose information to investors, failed
to waive fees as ordered
Thomas Vernor frmr
LPL caught: not
disclose he was charged with sex abuse of a child
Three-quarters of financial
exploitation is done by family, friends or caregivers.
No
client protections: Spending Bill Kills SEC's New Custody Rule, Reg Best
Execution
2
killed 3 injured WA campground crowd
1
killed 23 people shot IL parking lot party to celebrate Juneteenth
2
killed 1 injured PA shooter killed
6
shot Milwaukee's Juneteenth celebration
TV scams: Networks Enlist A.I. Script Generator to ‘Save’ Television Industry: writers?
Safer passwords: How Hackers Steal Your Password
IM Mastery Academy caught deceptively marketed itself
Cryptocurrency scams involving elders are on the rise: 5 clues help us find scams
JPMorgan
deleted 47 million records, emails and instant messages: avoid penalty?
Dictator: I
can declassify documents “simply by thinking about it”
Hunter
pleads guilty: will it quell the GOP storm?
Supremes
violate own rules: don’t
report; don’t recluse for donor’s gift case: no
trust!
Trump got his
Supremes’ rulings from the ‘Shadow Docket’: opinions
w/o credibility
Supreme Court
rulings are making religion
an all-purpose excuse for ignoring the law
Use
religion for “political power remake [our America] … an actual ‘Kingdom’ of God.”
Biden
allows Russia's military to buy ”Western components" for its weapons
in
Jobs
Jobs for manufacturing
supercycle starting with high pay
Technology
majors thrive in this environment
Companies
Offering Sign-On Bonuses
ways-retirees-can-make-money-through-passive-income/:
some good ideas
Ford gets $9.2 billion for the construction of three
EV battery factories
Who owns your account now?
Higher interest
earned search? Interest
Rate Chaser Calculator
Negotiate mortgage
rate; save
up to $20,000 on change from 6.5% to 6.25%
People over 65 on daily low-dose aspirin were
20% more likely to be anemic
7
Things You Should Do Before Claiming Social Security
10
Best Credit Card Bonus Offers
Free
custom financial plan: get started with your plan, print and customize
Miracles:
In a First, Wind
and Solar Generated More Power Than Coal in
Thanks to the new
robot, an area the size
of two soccer fields can be reforested every day.
People
with incurable cancers may live for decades
Fast-charging
Nyobolt Lotus Eclipse EV can fully
charge in under six minutes
‘Lobster Lady’ turns
103, has been hauling
traps for 95 years
@
Our Universe is Mind-Blowing
Light is both
a particle and a wave depending on how we look at the light.
I
don’t think that there is any such thing as a position or a velocity of a
particle.
Everything (galaxies
to stones) in universe made of subatomic
energy ‘vibrations’
A subatomic ‘particle’
is the smallest possible vibration (quantum) of a quantum field.
Mass–energy
equivalence: E=mc^2. At the smallest
level; Everything is moving
Energy into matter: scientists
converted light energy directly into matter in one step
In place of atomic
lattice, light
waves used to create an optical lattice with same geometry
Physics Nobel Prize:
“entanglement” 2
particles share info instantly at a distance
Quantum
mechanics violates local realism: two objects behave as single system at
distance
“It may be that gravity and quantum mechanics are
exactly the same thing,” Leonard Susskind
Gravity
might induce the collapse of quantum vibrations into 1 quantum state—our
world
Strange state
of physics that allows energy
to flow frictionlessly through a material.
Bending light from
extreme gravity reveals largest black hole
so far
Curved
SpaceTime: heavy masses and simultaneously quantum effects become visible
There is no TIME at this
level because of force fields come and go in all directions.
Universe expanding: events
may not come together like they did before: created our time.
Our planetary
system: rarest
system: only 1% of all systems with same number of planets
Inside protons,
neutrons, it
is the fields of the virtual particles that creates its mass.
Gold
made from neutron stars: collisions produce more neutrons:79 protons,118
neutrons
The proton
is so complicated science still finds new energy entities/forces every
year.
“Empty space is a
boiling, bubbling brew of virtual
particles that pop in and out of existence in a time scale so short that you
can’t even measure them.” Space expanding.
The electricity we use comes
from the field around the wire not from electron itself.
Scientists
build 'baby' wormhole as sci-fi moves closer to fact: inside quantum
computer
starts-with-a-bang/universe-expansion-not-accelerating/
Physicists knew black
holes eventually disappear particle by particle. Now they think everything
else does, too
@
We can apply for
Medicare online: https://blog.ssa.gov/apply-for-medicare-online
We can apply for Social
Security online: https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/
We can apply for
health care online: https://www.healthcare.gov/
IAN
973.746.2014
http://www.theinsidersguides.com/
Alerts available at http://dankeppel.blogspot.com/
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