If you are a certain age, you might have carried a Franklin Day Planner with you to meetings like I did. Before Smartphones, these zippered, leather-backed, “monarch-sized” portfolios were essential to MegaCorp life. I would get to work early and dutifully plot out my objectives for the day. I especially enjoyed seeing the daily quote that accompanied each page. How long ago that seems now! … Continue reading Quotable Financial Quotes
A few readers / friends sent me this cheeky t-shirt image, celebrating the stock market’s quick bounce-back from the Trump tariffs. Folks thought I was too negative about Trump’s move to correct long-standing “trade imbalances” – even though my official investor position was to “stay the course”. Related: Stay The Course Still, I thought it was important to acknowledge that the S&P 500 has quickly … Continue reading Trump Tariff Bounceback
Spring has wonderfully sprung in Minnesota, with warm weather, flowers blooming, and outdoor sports. Unfortunately, the real estate market hasn’t noticed. In Minnesota, every real estate agent will tell you to get your property ready for spring, when buyers flood back into the market. That’s the approach we’ve used for the rental townhouse we’d like to sell. Our son moved out in March (on a … Continue reading Spring Housing Stall
It’s dark in Budapest 🇭🇺 now, but I just achieved a positive ROI on the Viking Cruise Line drinks package with my 15th frosty beverage in the ship’s bar & lounge. Like a lot of people, we got carried away coming on to the ship a week ago with the promise of unlimited drinks for the low price of 169 Euro 💶. Our math suggested … Continue reading Drinks Package Success
We’re over in Europe right now for a Danube River Cruise starting on Sunday. The trip includes stops in lovely Prague, romantic Vienna, and mysterious Budapest. Incidentals for the trip would have been a bit cheaper a month ago, before Trump’s trade strategy beat up the stock market, bond funds, and … the U.S. dollar. What was set to be our best exchange rate ever … Continue reading Euros & Europe
The stock market was relatively flat over the last week with investors still try to puzzle their way through the Trump/GOP approach to tariffs, taxes, debt, and new statements on inflation & interest rates from the Fed. Our neighborhood investor club members were as puzzled as anyone when we met for the last meeting of the Spring. Everyone had their own take on what was … Continue reading Crystal Ball Predictions: Investor Club Input
Even before Trump “paused” his questionable trade policy yesterday, Wall Street analysts offered updated projections for where they thought the stock market would finish up the year. The S&P 500 started the year at 5,869 and had dipped below 5,000 (-15%) after Trump’s 10% minimum tariff and demand for balancing trade deficits. Still, most investment banks were quite positive in their forecasts for where the … Continue reading Crystal Ball Predictions
Plenty of people are running scared after the bears trampled -10.5% out of Wall Street on Thursday & Friday. I’m not sure what will happen to the S&P 500 on Monday morning (futures are -2.5% as I write this on Sunday night), but I’m keeping the faith that some order will be restored over the next few weeks, months, and years. If you saved for … Continue reading Staying The Course …
Just a short, early end-of-the-week post today. I’m trying to make sense of the headlines coming out of Washington DC. I think it’s safe to say that they are more nonsense than common sense. It’s no surprise that the market is in a bit of a free-fall today. How do these make sense …. ? I don’t follow this … If we’re getting $7T in … Continue reading Stormy Fiscal Headlines
Living in Celebration FL, has been a unique experience. While some people don’t like the idea of living in an HOA-managed community, Celebration really makes it work. The town was originally designed by The Walt Disney Company, and thanks to the dedication of our HOAs, it has largely maintained that original vision of charm, order, and community spirit. One thing that sets Celebration apart is … Continue reading HOAs Working Well In Celebration
