I am an investor, not a speculator. I fear dividend cuts, not bear markets. If the company's dividend is still reasonably safe, I hold the stock even if its price is dropping. Sometimes I get burned (Lehman Brothers!!!). But I do appreciate speculators, since they provide liquidity to the markets. When trying to unload a stock in a panic as its price plunges, it's the speculator who buys it from you, hoping to make a killing. Owning gold makes sense to me as a store of value only, since it pays no dividend. My two cents...
When I started work in the early 1970s, my company pension cost me ZERO per month, and my health insurance cost for a family of three was $ 7.00 per month. When I retired, a pension was unavailable to anyone hired after the year 2000 (they got a company 401K plan, with Wall Street folks taking an outrageous fee of 1% of assets per year to run, with the company kicking in 3% of salary per year). The cheapest health insurance for a family of three was more than $ 1000 per month. Young people today are really getting a raw deal!
Ha - ha- ha -ha - HAAA! Thank you for that, it made me think of my dear departed Depression-era, WWII Vet stepFather who was my DAD for 40+ years. That was one of his favorite sayings and you brought me a great belly laugh thinking of him. He had some real gems -
"Don't take in any wooden nickels..."
"There's a place for everything, and everything has its place..."
"I wouldn't pay that much to see a piss ant eat a bale of hay..."
Upon greeting: "I've seen better heads on a nickel beer..."
"You're smarter than you look. It's a good thing..."
"Girls are like street cars. There's one on every corner..."
"I'd rather be Frank than Earnest..."
And my favorite that the soldiers in the European Theater used to say to each other:
"It's not very big around, but it sure is short."
What a GREAT MAN he was. Born in Indiana, grew up during the (first) Great Depression, then saw a Newsreel at the theater showing a close-up of a French man with tears streaming down his face as the NAZI's marched through the Arc de Triomphe and decided he had to go help those people. Problem - this was '40 or early '41 and the US wasn't in the war yet. So my dad ran away, hitchhiked and rode rails to Canada, lied about his age (he was 16 at the time) to join the Canadian Army. My dad went overseas as a Tanker in the Tri (Tres?) Rivers Regiment of the Royal Canadian Army. Fast forward a couple of years and a LOT of close calls later and we announced the formation of what would later become our Air Force. My dad tried to pilot but his eyes didn't make the cut, so he switched to Radio Operator/ Bombardier, successfully completing the training. He eventually flew 24 combat missions over Germany in B-17 aircraft. When he started, airmen had to survive 15 missions to get back home but as the war progressed, our military kept upping the ante. My dad was one of the few "lucky charms" for all the airmen coming in that were replacing other veterans who had been shot down and/or KIA. Everybody wanted to rub his head before they took off on a bombing run. Finally, when 24 was the magic number to go back stateside and my dad had lived through it, his CO told him that if he would fly just one more mission he would be put in for the Distinguished Service Flying Cross. Dad says he respectfully laughed in the man's face - "Do you imagine that I would think my life less valuable than a MEDAL?" By that time, he had seen HUNDREDS of his friends and co-Patriots killed, maimed, or otherwise not returned, whereabouts and disposition unknown. Well, as he boarded the plane to return to America, his CO walked up and presented him with the citation anyway.
He came back stateside and started very successful Florida businesses in both insurance and real estate. He met my mom in the early 70's and I thank God EVERYDAY that their love was strong enough for him to be willing to saddle his comfortable, successful life with a new wife and three boys ages 8, 11 and 12. And what a ride it turned out to be for all of us!
Anyway, in 2007 he self-published a book about his life called "Patriots Will." It is a fascinating story filled with humor, history, respect and common sense. He sold thousands of copies at Air Shows, "manning the booth" as he used to say, right up until his very peaceful passing in 2017. If anyone is interested, let me know as my mom still has some copies around that she would surely sell you ($20.00 per copy, shipping and handling not included.) :)
I miss him and am so very grateful to have had the chance to know him so well. Thanks for the reminder Bill...
SE, in keeping with your stepfatherโs verbal gems, I offer these sentences from the โIntroductionโ to his book:
โSince you will read about my education or lack of, during the Great Depression, I decided not to edit any of the letters [written to his mother during the Second World War]. I also did not want to lose the flavor of some of our speech expressions over 50 years ago.โ
The reviews at Amazon were so laudatory I ordered the book immediately. Please ask your mother to forgive me!
Thank you for your constant work. There is one secret you don't share with us.....How in the world do you combat jet lag, with your constant breaching of time zones?
Bill that Irish water must be doing you a world of good .. like this summation today, calm collected and steady as she goes .. well that's 3 days in a row so maybe the spirits of Keats Yeats etc are with you ...? nice simple read without to much agro .. love it!
We are usually sold the idea that inflation โgoes up and downโ. It generally doesnโt, at least not the price you pay for the thing youโre buying. Sometimes the increase is substantial, sometimes the increase is more gradual. But the debasement is clear, it just isnโt often shown. Usually, if you do a search for โinflationโ, youโll find zigzag graphs depicting the change in interest rates.
In science class I recall the difference between speed and acceleration. I liken the interest rates to acceleration. Even when interest rates are โmoderateโ, the prices are increasing. That canโt be a representation of something normal?! Normality would be inflation AND deflation. But weโve all been sold the idea that deflation is somehow โbadโ. What a load of crap.
I am an investor, not a speculator. I fear dividend cuts, not bear markets. If the company's dividend is still reasonably safe, I hold the stock even if its price is dropping. Sometimes I get burned (Lehman Brothers!!!). But I do appreciate speculators, since they provide liquidity to the markets. When trying to unload a stock in a panic as its price plunges, it's the speculator who buys it from you, hoping to make a killing. Owning gold makes sense to me as a store of value only, since it pays no dividend. My two cents...
When I started work in the early 1970s, my company pension cost me ZERO per month, and my health insurance cost for a family of three was $ 7.00 per month. When I retired, a pension was unavailable to anyone hired after the year 2000 (they got a company 401K plan, with Wall Street folks taking an outrageous fee of 1% of assets per year to run, with the company kicking in 3% of salary per year). The cheapest health insurance for a family of three was more than $ 1000 per month. Young people today are really getting a raw deal!
I got news for everybodyโฆโฆ ALL investment is speculationโฆ.. financial markets are NOT quantitative absolutesโฆ. just probabilities
Caveat Emptor!!!
What do stockbrokers, used carsales reps, politicians and world bankers have in common ?
Youโre a contributor to their next meal ticket - they are not your best friend, if you should be asking for advice.
You forgot the lawyers...
Ah! the standard famous โOn the one hand and then on the other, maybe you are right or wrongโ
My invoice for payment please, due in 14 days.
Hi Bill -
"He had a reservation; but he went ahead anyway."
Ha - ha- ha -ha - HAAA! Thank you for that, it made me think of my dear departed Depression-era, WWII Vet stepFather who was my DAD for 40+ years. That was one of his favorite sayings and you brought me a great belly laugh thinking of him. He had some real gems -
"Don't take in any wooden nickels..."
"There's a place for everything, and everything has its place..."
"I wouldn't pay that much to see a piss ant eat a bale of hay..."
Upon greeting: "I've seen better heads on a nickel beer..."
"You're smarter than you look. It's a good thing..."
"Girls are like street cars. There's one on every corner..."
"I'd rather be Frank than Earnest..."
And my favorite that the soldiers in the European Theater used to say to each other:
"It's not very big around, but it sure is short."
What a GREAT MAN he was. Born in Indiana, grew up during the (first) Great Depression, then saw a Newsreel at the theater showing a close-up of a French man with tears streaming down his face as the NAZI's marched through the Arc de Triomphe and decided he had to go help those people. Problem - this was '40 or early '41 and the US wasn't in the war yet. So my dad ran away, hitchhiked and rode rails to Canada, lied about his age (he was 16 at the time) to join the Canadian Army. My dad went overseas as a Tanker in the Tri (Tres?) Rivers Regiment of the Royal Canadian Army. Fast forward a couple of years and a LOT of close calls later and we announced the formation of what would later become our Air Force. My dad tried to pilot but his eyes didn't make the cut, so he switched to Radio Operator/ Bombardier, successfully completing the training. He eventually flew 24 combat missions over Germany in B-17 aircraft. When he started, airmen had to survive 15 missions to get back home but as the war progressed, our military kept upping the ante. My dad was one of the few "lucky charms" for all the airmen coming in that were replacing other veterans who had been shot down and/or KIA. Everybody wanted to rub his head before they took off on a bombing run. Finally, when 24 was the magic number to go back stateside and my dad had lived through it, his CO told him that if he would fly just one more mission he would be put in for the Distinguished Service Flying Cross. Dad says he respectfully laughed in the man's face - "Do you imagine that I would think my life less valuable than a MEDAL?" By that time, he had seen HUNDREDS of his friends and co-Patriots killed, maimed, or otherwise not returned, whereabouts and disposition unknown. Well, as he boarded the plane to return to America, his CO walked up and presented him with the citation anyway.
He came back stateside and started very successful Florida businesses in both insurance and real estate. He met my mom in the early 70's and I thank God EVERYDAY that their love was strong enough for him to be willing to saddle his comfortable, successful life with a new wife and three boys ages 8, 11 and 12. And what a ride it turned out to be for all of us!
Anyway, in 2007 he self-published a book about his life called "Patriots Will." It is a fascinating story filled with humor, history, respect and common sense. He sold thousands of copies at Air Shows, "manning the booth" as he used to say, right up until his very peaceful passing in 2017. If anyone is interested, let me know as my mom still has some copies around that she would surely sell you ($20.00 per copy, shipping and handling not included.) :)
I miss him and am so very grateful to have had the chance to know him so well. Thanks for the reminder Bill...
Star. Wonderful story!
SE, in keeping with your stepfatherโs verbal gems, I offer these sentences from the โIntroductionโ to his book:
โSince you will read about my education or lack of, during the Great Depression, I decided not to edit any of the letters [written to his mother during the Second World War]. I also did not want to lose the flavor of some of our speech expressions over 50 years ago.โ
The reviews at Amazon were so laudatory I ordered the book immediately. Please ask your mother to forgive me!
Thank you SO much Mr. Eade! I hope you enjoy his story...
Thank you for your constant work. There is one secret you don't share with us.....How in the world do you combat jet lag, with your constant breaching of time zones?
Bill that Irish water must be doing you a world of good .. like this summation today, calm collected and steady as she goes .. well that's 3 days in a row so maybe the spirits of Keats Yeats etc are with you ...? nice simple read without to much agro .. love it!
We are usually sold the idea that inflation โgoes up and downโ. It generally doesnโt, at least not the price you pay for the thing youโre buying. Sometimes the increase is substantial, sometimes the increase is more gradual. But the debasement is clear, it just isnโt often shown. Usually, if you do a search for โinflationโ, youโll find zigzag graphs depicting the change in interest rates.
In science class I recall the difference between speed and acceleration. I liken the interest rates to acceleration. Even when interest rates are โmoderateโ, the prices are increasing. That canโt be a representation of something normal?! Normality would be inflation AND deflation. But weโve all been sold the idea that deflation is somehow โbadโ. What a load of crap.
Correct! Inflation must be balanced by deflation for โnormalโ price action. This is the principle of reversion to the mean.
Which entity will by an asset at its peak? Will they not lose all there investment?