Your Survival Guy recently featured the prudent man in this piece “Investing Mistakes to Avoid: #3 Back 40 Back.” As you know, dear reader, I write to you about what I think I know, personal experiences (not all good), and life in general. As a fiduciary, I look to the prudent man as one of my personal guides. If someone you love would benefit from his wisdom, send this along. It’s perfect for the fridge. We’re in this together. A timeless piece from The WSJ: Adam Smith, “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” (1759): The prudent man always studies seriously and earnestly to understand … [Read more...]
Search Results for: Investing mistakes
Expect Your Advisor to Fight Tooth and Nail for You
When Your Survival Guy sees major financial institutions asking how they’re doing (in the form of a questionnaire), it makes me think their complaint box overfloweth. Service is key in times like these. It’s my belief investors want their money fought for tooth and nail, not fighting political ESG and DEI wars. Investing Mistakes to Avoid: #7 DEI DOA Your Survival Guy puts in a solid effort to recycle his trash weekly. Rolling out the blue bin to the curb makes me feel good and a bit anxious, wondering if they can track me down for misallocated debris. But, when it comes to my money, I don’t … [Read more...]
RAGE Gauge July: Don’t Forget History
Your Survival Guy's RAGE Gauge for July is still pegged at maximum risk. Americans are troubled about the state of play in their country today. With an uncertain war in Europe, an uncertain economy at home, and a government that seems determined to encroach on their liberties, is it any wonder? Dissatisfaction with the state of the country is high, despite low unemployment, which would usually dampen Americans' worries. What does it mean when people are fully employed and they still don't feel like things are going the right way in America? It's not a good sign, historically … [Read more...]
Are You Benefiting from the Miracle of Compounding in Your Life?
Once you venture down the path of self-reliance and survival, you quickly realize it can be an expensive endeavor. Stop. Take a deep breath. This is a marathon. Set your own pace. I try to eliminate the financial stress on you and your family every single day by helping you avoid the costly investing mistakes that cause distress for many. For example, in my recent series I wrote to you about long-term investment success that is easy to understand but hard to do. And I’m not talking about the guy you know who timed the market perfectly. The next time he tells you that, ask to look at his … [Read more...]
Survive and Thrive May: Future Look at Covid-20, or the Next Deadly Virus
Dear Survivor, What will the response be for Covid-20 or some other deadly virus down the road? Imagine what it will be like when there are opposing views within families, never mind on the county, state, and country levels. Let’s begin with investing. Guess which area has done well. Companies that offer stuff people need, such as consumer staples—specifically dividend payers with a history of increasing them. Compare a tech app on your iPhone you can delete with a swipe of your finger. How about relationships? When your spouse has a check-list before anyone enters the house, never … [Read more...]
Are You Working with a Fiduciary?
In a conversation this week with the children of clients, we talked about the importance of working with an advisor who is a fiduciary. It’s a simple question yet it can be lost in the madness of everyone’s focus on past performance. I wrote this recently and is worth repeating. Your Survival Guy’s Rich Advisor, Poor Advisor In my more than 25 years working as a fiduciary in the investment business, I’ve observed quite a few areas that separate the rich man from the poor man. One relates directly to the advisory business in what I’ll refer to as Your Survival Guy’s: Rich Advisor, Poor … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy’s Rich Advisor, Poor Advisor
In my more than 25 years working as a fiduciary in the investment business, I’ve observed quite a few areas that separate the rich man from the poor man. One relates directly to the advisory business in what I’ll refer to as Your Survival Guy’s: Rich Advisor, Poor Advisor. I hope you know which one you work with or are planning to work with. You see, the Poor Advisor needs you. He needs you to meet his numbers, not yours. He needs you so he can make his monthly car lease payments, the mortgage payments on his McMansion, the golf and yacht club memberships, and the vacations he’s always on … [Read more...]
Dick Young to Your Survival Guy: “Diversification Is Discipline”
In a 2020 paper titled "The Value of Diversification," professors Paolo Sodini (currently at the Stockholm School of Economics) and Luis M. Viceira (Harvard Business School) called diversification " the only 'free lunch' available to investors." They explain: The idea of diversification is one of the most powerful ideas in Finance, and probably the only “free lunch” available to investors. This Nobel Prize winning idea is behind many of the financial services that help us cope with risk and uncertainty, from car, life, or health insurance to mutual funds, exchanged-traded funds (ETFs), and … [Read more...]
Your Retirement Life: Watching The Masters and More
Happy Monday. I hope you had a nice weekend catching some of The Masters from near and far. I remember like it was yesterday, now 25-plus years ago, how Becky and I, newlyweds, enjoyed having it on while getting dinner ready. Watching it this weekend, it’s hard to believe how fast time goes by. It’s a reminder of how investing is a study in time—making it work for you and how investing, not speculation, requires patience and avoiding the big mistakes. One step in front of the other. When you have shared experiences, it makes your life so much easier and more enjoyable. We were having dinner … [Read more...]
RIP Daniel Kahneman: Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman, one of the founders of behavioral economics, a branch of thought that sees people as they are, impulsive, prone to mistakes, and pushed by their emotions, rather than the fully rational actors of traditional economic thought, has passed away at 90 years old. Kahneman was a psychologist first, and an economist by happenstance. He understood that people's desire to "do something," is what could get them into trouble. He said, "All of us would be better investors if we just made fewer decisions." Sounds like Jack Bogle's "Don't just do something, stand there." Making emotional … [Read more...]
Investors Are Fat, Dumb, and Stupid
Let’s imagine it’s 1999. You’re about to retire. You had a good career. And like anyone else invested in stocks, you’ve had a good run. Then, some time goes by, you’re on a European riverboat cruise, and boom, the tech bust hits. That was the exact moment many investors realized their risk tolerance was, in fact, intolerance. Like a food allergy. But it was too late. In my conversations with some investors—not you, of course—expectations today are still through the roof. That’s what a bull market will do. And as you know, the common refrain is “I want preservation of principal and growth.” … [Read more...]
The #1 Tool Used to Snag Investors
One of the many pitfalls for the investor, and there are many, is the lure of past performance. Past performance is the rock that catches many a ship. Even when the investor might know better, the false confidence that past performance provides can be ruinous. With all the information out there today, it never fails to amaze me how reckless investors can be by betting their savings on yesterday’s winners. If you’ve ever been stuck in the fog, you know what I’m talking about. You think you’re in one place, and when it clears, you can’t believe where you are. What we imagine, or what we … [Read more...]
“Oh, This Is Prime Real Estate,” They Say
Are you hearing about the real estate debt you can buy and get ten percent on your money? I am. No, thank you. I hear it all. I’m Your Survival Guy. I get the offers, too. I don’t like risk. I’m fine collecting the interest on the full faith credits in treasuries. It’s funny (not that funny) how, not too long ago, in a zero percent world, two percent was a decent deal. Now, everyone wants more. Not me. I want my money-back guarantee. I don’t want “great deals” in my portfolio. I remember the brutal markets where it all fell down. “Oh, this is prime real estate,” they say. “It’s … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy: “Life on Main Street Hasn’t Been This Hard in a While”
Are you up to speed with Your Survival Guy? Do you check in daily at www.yoursurvivalguy.com? I’m E.J. Smith, Your Survival Guy. I created www.yoursurvivalguy.com to give Main Street Americans a boots-on-the-ground look at how to protect their most valued assets from natural and manmade disasters. My focus at www.yoursurvivalguy.com is: Retirement investing and planning Fixed income/bond strategies Your Survival Guy’s Super States Living a Liberty Retirement Constitutional Carry States and Freedom Generational wealth strategies for families Disaster prep and … [Read more...]
How Joe Biden Raised Oil Prices
You saw Joe Biden demonize fracking and the oil industry throughout his campaign until the debates when Donald Trump cornered him on it, at which point he denied it all. Then, once he moved into the White House, Biden began his war on oil and helped to drive up prices on everything Americans need. At UnHerd, Ashley Rindsberg explains Biden's war on oil and the mistakes he made that led to Americans paying so much for fuel. Rindsberg writes: One of the many ironies of the Just Stop Oil movement is that, for the past year, their protests have been positively correlated with the price of oil. If … [Read more...]
GREENWASHING: What’s in a Name?
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet.” — Juliet Capulet What's in a name? It turns out the SEC demands that the names of funds be descriptive of at least 80% of what the fund is doing. This new rule was adopted after many funds added language to their names suggesting they were part of the ESG movement but didn't follow up by changing their portfolios to match the strategy. This is a technique known as "greenwashing." The SEC has had enough of the practice, and has acted to purge the misnamed funds. Douglas Gillison and Michelle Price report for … [Read more...]
Preparation and Experience Can Help, But at What Cost?
With everything that’s going on in the world today, Your Survival Guy is concerned about your safety. Stuff happens, and before you know it, you’re stuck in the fog. You know from here and here about my own experiences in fog. It happens fast. You deal with it. Because living life on the dock is no way to live. Preparation and experience can help. But at what cost? You know this market is foggy. You know our government is in debt up to its eyeballs. Remember the government bailout of GM, leaving common shareholders, the investing class, in ruins? The more government creep we have in the … [Read more...]
My Favorite Investment Tool, Real Estate, Water, Fog, and More
Happy Friday. Yes, you can sink your teeth into the short-term end of the yield curve, and there’s plenty of other opportunities along the way. Think of me as your guide. It can get foggy out there. Look at my favorite investment tool and the yields you can get today versus only three years ago. I can tell you investing is a lot like boating in the fog. If you have a plan and some experience navigating in it, then it doesn't need to keep you on the dock. If I stayed home every time there was some threat of fog, I’d miss a lot of good days on the water. The key is to become … [Read more...]
ESG’s New False Choice
Investors buying index funds with ESG mandates from managers like BlackRock have their shares voted for them, and usually without their input. This has raised a red flag among shareholders who don't appreciate the political agendas being pushed by BlackRock and other firms via their corporate voting. In what amounts to a false solution to the problem, BlackRock has enlisted proxy advisors Glass Lewis and ISS as surrogates for index fund owner voting. The problem is, as The Wall Street Journal's editorial board explains, Glass Lewis and ISS are voting exactly like BlackRock, so what seems like … [Read more...]
Survive and Thrive July 2023: HELP: Your Survival Guy is Under Immense Pressure
Dear Survivor, Your Survival Guy’s under immense pressure. (I thought you’d enjoy reading that). But it’s real. I can feel it. And I’m not talking about investing. I can handle that kind of pressure. No, I’m talking about planning for holiday weekends and special anniversaries. One evening this week, Your Survival Guy was in the kitchen sipping a glass of white, listening to music, and washing vegetables when Your Survival Gal asked, “Have you thought about our anniversary?” I looked up for a moment, staring into space, wondering how one might respond. “Yes,” I said, hoping someone … [Read more...]