File this under “Things I’m Thankful For, But Have No Control Over”. The S&P 500 is off to a blazing start in 2024. Q1 is ending, and the index is already up double-digits (10.1%). It’s the U.S. equity market’s best start since 2019! I know, a quarter isn’t much to be excited for, but the U.S. market has really been rocking for a full decade … Continue reading Two Different Worlds
We’re at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Center this morning, enjoying the Spring Flower & Garden Festival. They do a great job colorfully bedazzling the parks this time of year. The beauty in the parks is belied by the nastiness of a proxy fight behind the financial scenes at the Walt Disney Company. An activist investor, Nelson Peltz, is trying for the 24th time to gain … Continue reading Proxy Fight Ambivalence
At a board meeting this week, we were lamenting the continued, but predictable, inflationary fiscal practices of the federal government. I jokingly commented that we need to write future contracts in cryptocurrency, to hedge against government mismanagement. It didn’t get much of a laugh, but I figured it was a great time for a crypto joke. Bitcoin is once again in record territory, fueled by … Continue reading Crypto Back In The News
Happy New Year! Before we get too far into the new calendar year, I wanted to look and see where we finished 2023. The stock market had quite a bounce back in 2023. After a -20% loss in 2022, the market jumped +26% this year. That nets out to exactly flat (+0.0%) over the full two-year period. Quite a volatile ride. Over longer periods of … Continue reading 2023 Bounce Back Year
The media keep telling me that inflation is moderating, yet the 4 bags of groceries we bought at SuperTarget today cost $189. What’s going on with inflation?? I’m not the world’s savviest investor, but I’ve done all right. I’ve always looked to the 10 Year Treasury Yield as a decent indicator of what is expected with inflation over the longer term. As you can see … Continue reading What’s Really Going On With Inflation?
President Biden ordered his cabinet secretaries to “aggressively execute” plans for federal employees to “work more in the office” earlier this month. Axios reported that about 75% of federal office space is currently sitting empty, despite Biden pledging that “the vast majority of federal workers will again work in-person” in his State of the Union Address almost two years ago. The federal government lags private … Continue reading Investors: Back To The Office!
Independence Day week is halfway through the year and a good time to see how the markets are faring for the year. A MegaCorp colleague posted this chart showing just how strong the S&P 500 has been year-to-date … An old boss used to say, “the best way to have a good year is to anniversary a bad one” – and that might be the … Continue reading Strong First Half …
If you follow the financial headlines, you’ll see that ESG practices are shaking up the realm of investing. ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance, and it’s all about considering sustainability and ethical factors when making investment decisions. Of course, someone has to determine what is sustainable and ethical. That’s where the rub is. Recently, three tobacco companies were judged much higher than EV darling … Continue reading ESG & Index Funds
When I was at MegaCorp, I had the opportunity to have lunch with Bob Johnson, the wildly successful founder of BET Television. Johnson was on our board of directors and I was on-hand to present an initiative at their offsite meeting. Johnson is a dynamic character and I’ve followed him through the media for the last 10+ years. He’s not afraid to jump into politics … Continue reading 401k Focus
My wife & I took her Dad’s collection of old coins to an appraiser last week. Her father had collected them his whole life. We weren’t at all sure how much they might be worth. We learned a lot about the state of coin collecting today from the floor manager. It turns out, it’s not good. Not many young people are collecting coins anymore, they … Continue reading Collecting Coins?
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