Well, I gave Biden some credit back in December for the nice bump that we had seen in the stock market in 2021. I felt obligated to, given how well the market had performed … +27% last year. Still, I noted then that I was worried that Biden wanted to be too helpful and that significant inflation was a real worry. He literally said “help … Continue reading Politicians Too Eager To ‘Help’
I complained a lot about the economy in 2021. I didn’t like the trillions in debt-driven government spending and the ensuing inflation. Still, I acknowledged that the markets continued to rise – as the ‘Trump Bump’ became the ‘Biden Bump’. Yesterday, I tallied up how we finished the year with our portfolio. Our retirement savings were up an impressive +15%. Our gains were led by … Continue reading New Year’s Assessment
In investing, it is often better to be lucky than right. I was very lucky with some predictions that I made this exact week last year and doubly lucky that the market didn’t behave the way I thought it would! Simply put, I predicted that Biden would win the Presidency, that there was a good chance the Democrats would take Congress, and they would work … Continue reading Great Timing (Accidentally)
I am so old, I can remember the day that Dow Jones Industrial Average permanently broke the milestone value of 1,000. It was in December 1982 – when I was still in high school. I was enough of a business & investing geek even then to recall reading about it in the newspaper. Now, with the DJIA pushing almost 35x that landmark, I’m astounded to … Continue reading Stock Market Volatility
I guess it is a good time to be a retiree living off investments. Wall Street is loving the CV19 rebound and loose money policies of government & central banks. The S&P 500 is now up an amazing 83% since last year’s CV19 low point on March 23rd, 2020. Globally, stocks are at an all time high. Still, forgive me if I’m more than a … Continue reading Negative Outlook Amid The Exuberance
I don’t understand the stock market anymore and in the short term, I’ve decided to give up. As the Dow Jones bounces around 30,000 and the Schiller S&P 500 PE sits above 33 (average is 16), nothing makes sense to me. We are still in a global pandemic – the economic fallout of which isn’t fully understood yet – aren’t we? I called our financial … Continue reading Cashing Out From Confusion
Readers were pretty negative when the year 2019 began – with good reason. The financial markets had sunk severely at the end of last year, the government went into a budget shutdown, and many so-called experts were saying that the next recession had already begun. If you like stability, there was very little to feel optimistic about on New Year’s Day when I published this … Continue reading Fast Start On 2019
At MegaCorp, I worked with a Finance Director who use to quip that “good numbers make good meetings”. He was right – when sales and profits are up, meetings and decisions come easy. It’s a good time! While we have always been long-term investors, the living is easy when the market and our portfolio are growing as well. While we are only two months into … Continue reading Early 2019 Bounce In The Market
While I am always sorry to see the old year end, from a financial perspective I’m excited to see what the New Year is going to bring. The year 2018 closed in an ugly way for the markets with Q4 investment returns affected by slowing global economic growth, rising interest rates, and tariff uncertainty. It was the first year in a decade when there were declines … Continue reading New Year, New Markets
Since we are coming up on the end of June – the mid-point of the calendar year – that makes it a good time to look at market performance and see how our portfolio is performing so far in 2018. In short, it has cooled off significantly from last year, although that’s to be expected given the blazing returns posted in 2017 when the S&P … Continue reading Mid-Year Market Musings
MrFireStation 