What Basketball Can Teach Us About Responsibility

What Basketball Can Teach Us About Responsibility

by Jim Rohn | Mar 13, 2020

What Basketball Can Teach Us About Responsibility

During the years when professional basketball was just beginning to become popular, Bill Russell, who played center for the Boston Celtics, was one of the greatest players in the professional leagues. He was especially known for his rebounding and defensive skills, but like a lot of very tall centers, Russell was never much of a free-throw shooter. In fact, his free-throw percentage was quite a bit below average. But this low percentage didn’t really give a clear picture of Russell’s ability as an athlete, and in one game he gave a very convincing performance.

It was the final game of a championship series between the Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. With about 12 seconds left to play, the Lakers were behind by one point and the Celtics had the ball. It was obvious that the Lakers would have to foul one of the Boston players in order to get the ball back, and they chose to foul Bill Russell.

It was the final game of a championship series between the Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. With about 12 seconds left to play, the Lakers were behind by one point and the Celtics had the ball. It was obvious that the Lakers would have to foul one of the Boston players in order to get the ball back, and they chose to foul Bill Russell.

This was a perfectly logical choice because statistically, Russell was the worst free-throw shooter on the court. If he missed the shot, the Lakers would probably get the ball back, and they’d still have enough time to try to win the game. But if Russell made his first free throw, the Lakers’ chances would be seriously diminished—and if he made both shots, the game would essentially be over.

Bill Russell had a very peculiar style of shooting free throws. Today, no self-respecting basketball player anywhere in America would attempt to shoot this way. Aside from the question of whether it was an effective way to shoot a basket, it just looked too ridiculous.

Whenever he had to shoot a free throw, the 6-foot-11-inch Russell would start off holding the ball in both hands, about waist high. Then he’d squat down, and as he straightened up, he’d let go of the ball. It looked like he was trying to throw a bucket of dirt over a wall.

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5 Steps to Embrace Lifestyle Deflation Without Deprivation

5 Steps to Embrace Lifestyle Deflation Without Deprivation

The Minimal Investor

Written by Adam on March 28, 2021.

Are you one of the millions of Americans who are currently rethinking their finances? If you want to reset and reevaluate not only your money but what your life will be after the pandemic, there are ways to bring it all into balance without feeling deprived.

Let me know if this sounds familiar. When you were younger, you had less money than you have now. You worked hard, and every dollar you earned was a new opportunity to support yourself, buy something fun or have an exciting experience.

As you progressed in your career, perhaps you upgraded different parts of your life. You worked hard, and every dollar you earned was a new opportunity to support yourself, buy something fun, or have exciting experiences with new people. As you made more money, you probably bought more things. Maybe you upgraded from an apartment to a house. Or from an inexpensive area to the center of a city. Or from a cheap used car to buying your dream car.

The path to lifestyle deflation goes at your own pace

How far down this path you go depends on when you pause to reflect. Some people never do and end up with piles of debt, cluttered houses, and empty hearts.

There’s a name for this: hedonic adaptation (also called the hedonic treadmill). Over time you add more luxuries to your life. You start using a dishwasher. Each adult gets their own car. You buy an Instant Pot. As time goes on, this life becomes your new baseline. The cost to support your lifestyle climbs ever higher, but it’s hard to figure out what you could cut out.

Did you know that you can change the speed of your treadmill? You can choose to slow it down and to live a more simple life. You can even lower the speed and bring the life you love with you. Let’s look at a few thought-exercises you can do today (or at any time) to nudge your mindset in a new direction.

1. Find What “Enough” Means To You

For everything in life – from money to possessions to relationships – there’s a sweet spot. Too many relationships, and you’ll be overwhelmed. Too few, and you’ll yearn for more connection to the world (just ask 2020). The trick is finding the sweet spot where you have enough.

Yet most of us, myself included, don’t think about how much enough truly is. If you never reevaluate what enough means to you, how will you ever know when you’re there? You might even have reached enough already but don’t even know it. You could slow down the treadmill while maintaining the same level of happiness you have today.

The concept of enough spans many aspects of your life: 

Enough relationships – Does that mean one life partner? 5 close friends? 5,000 Instagram followers? A group that goes to brunch every week? What do enough relationships look like to you?

Enough money – Is it being able to pay bills and support your family? To afford an education? To create a better future for those you love? Is it enough to become financially independent and retire early?

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://minafi.com/lifestyle-deflation

Inflation the Biggest Financial Scam Ever

Inflation the Biggest Financial Scam Ever

The Final wake Up Call By Peter B Meyer

  The Virus Economy

More Liquidity is another word for inflation aka Money Theft. Our eyes are on it, because more of it is headed our way. Central Banks justify more intervention. They reassure the mob. After all, they know what they are doing!  The people need explanations for the strange phenomena fake money brings. They need bogus “solutions” to the problems it causes. Cutting off the fake money is not an option, so they invent theories that permit them to do even stranger and more harmful things.

“We have increased spending and now we have $1 trillion budget deficits,” Christine Lagarde pointed out on TV recently. “But we have seen none of the bad things that traditional economists expected. No crowding out. No spike in interest rates. No inflation.” Nothing bad has happened yet, she believes. And from this she extrapolates that nothing bad is likely to happen. Although, according to their own information, the ECB over the pandemic period has increased the money supply with 5 Trillion euros!

Rudolf Von Havenstein had said the same thing in 1920 even he knew it would cause inflation, but he considered it the lesser of two evils. He also seemed to think that the inflation would be moderate, as it had been during the war, and that it would reduce the crushing weight of Germany’s war debt.

One little step led to another. And five years later, when von Havenstein died, the central bank of Germany had printed some 500 quintillion marks. This hyperinflation of the money supply caused a hyper deflation in the value of the mark. One U.S. dollar was worth 4.2 trillion marks by December 1923.

And what about today’s inflation? As long as the economy is operating below “capacity,” it is believed consumer prices won’t rise. As long as there are empty seats in the theatre, like from real estate, crypto currencies, and the stock exchange. In other words, the central banks should try to fill them by printing more money.

In the long run, this fiscal policy will be catastrophic. The world economy now depends on ultra-low interest rates and bond yields. And those depend on ultra-low inflation rates. Keep in mind; you can get ultra-low inflation with easy monetary policies, but not with easy fiscal policies.

The Treasury market is already anticipating rising inflation. Bond prices are falling; yields are rising, exactly what you’d expect if investors were no longer worried about deflation.

Velocity of Money Spurs on Hyperinflation

When consumer price inflation starts to spike in earnest, bonds will fall hard, and all Hell will break loose. And what will the central banks do? What could they do? The responsible thing would be to raise interest rates to head off the inflation. But that would bring on the correction that they have worked so hard to avoid.

Instead, they will do what all irresponsible governments do. More spending, more stimulus, more inflation. And so, inflation could become hyperinflation. But it is said that is still in the future, perhaps long in the future?

From a wealth preservation point of view, this period in time will be the last chance for investors and savers who don’t have enough physical gold and silver to stock up. In the next few months’ gold and silver will go up many thousands of dollars/euro’s an ounce and will be a critical part of investors’ wealth preservation portfolios.

In order to protect their assets from total destruction. As gold and silver markets go up, the massive paper selling of gold and silver, which has been done by governments and bullion banks in order to depress the prices, will come back as a boomerang.

Hyper-liquidity can become hyperinflation via the velocity of money in a crisis of confidence of the paper currencies. Therefore, hyperinflation will be a currency-motivated event.

Notwithstanding, most people say that this will not happen this time. They make this claim because they believe the Central Banks have the capacity and the foresight to prevent this. Which is not.

New Printed Currency Spent For Pandemic Bribes

Much of the new printed currency is used for bribes. Although, obviously no official numbers are emitted, we can be assured that hospitals, police corps, and many other institutions have been bribed with fake money to keep the phony pandemic alive. It has been discovered that every dead corpse registered as a pandemic victim brings in up to 20.000 each. Hospitals are empty, but make more money than before.

 Then, as consequence from the fake pandemic; Consumer purchases have declined, which means that new money is not yet in circulation, and is therefore being used to pay back debt or being saved in old socks, as it is obvious no one is spending or investing. Rather sooner than later, the money shall have to come back into circulation, and to all intents and purposes this shall enter a period of hyperinflation, implicating; lots of money chasing a few goods.

There are so many outside forces that are influencing the markets. How could anyone possibly think that moves by central banks are intelligent decisions that are going to stop volatility? The central banks have been wrong continually.

Nevertheless, governments all over the planet have gone to war and introduced measures to stop subsidies and spending, giving and taking, doing something for your neighbour that they should be doing for you.

 The Destruction Of The Economy

In a normal economy, people work with one another, and create wealth. They trade with each other, too, benefiting from each other’s skills and advantages. Trade means contact and contact transfers not just goods and services, but viruses and bacteria, too. Which leads to the major plot: the destruction of the central bank economy.

Whole industries are being wiped out. The U.S. and Canadian oil industry, for example, has been decimated. Its bonds are going to zero. Most likely, the oil drillers will never recover. They need high oil prices and ultra low borrowing rates. Neither of those things are likely to happen again anytime soon. Oil is cheap. And who would lend to an oil producer now? Moreover, free energy is on the rise for the people worldwide.

Forever, there is unlimited quantity of free energy available, for daily use. Nicolas Tesla could have made this wireless energy available to us about at least hundred years ago! But, the Deep State didn’t want to let you know about, as it destroys their oil monopoly.

Airlines have lost market share to Zoom Meetings, malls have lost business to online sellers. Bookstores, hotels, convention centres, live sport events and entertainment, are depressed. And how about the Post Offices and railroad companies? How many of these things will really recover? Or even survive?

Industries are always evolving, with some falling and some rising. The governments’ war with the virus seems to have sped things up. And the damage doesn’t stay in the most exposed industries. These businesses have employees, and creditors, and suppliers.

The damage ripples out, like the waves in a lake when you toss in a stone. And all of these businesses and employees pay taxes. April is usually the biggest month of the year for government’s tax receipts. This month, though, the pickings will be slim. For, here are some more numbers

 Closing the shutters for a month is equivalent to an 8% fall in GDP. Two months more makes a depression. Or look at it this way. Last year, 150 million workers spent all year producing a GDP of $20 trillion. But this year, already, 17 million people have filed for unemployment benefits.

That is 11% of the workforce. Most likely another 15 million or so will have joined them by today. This suggests a reduction of output of 21%. Again, that’s a depression. That would be bad enough. But then again, governments could simply claim victory in their battle with the virus, ease off on their restrictions, and let the economy get back to work.

There would be hardship aplenty. Bankruptcies. Defaults. High unemployment. Crashes, with assets going for cents on the Dollar. These economic losses are real. They don’t disappear simply because the central banks print pieces of paper with ink on them. They can only be made to go away by hard work, investment, skill, risk and all the other elements of win-win prosperity.

 Europe is stodgy, lethargic, overtaxed and over-regulated. Its workers take too many vacations, and its businesses lack the dynamic spirit that makes U.S. enterprises so successful. As, George W. Bush reminded, the French don’t even have a word for “entrepreneur.” Compared to the hard-charging American dealmakers, Europe just cannot keep up?

However, there is a silver lining on the horizon. The patriots are letting the Deep State destroy their own systems, while the QFS, the people’s system is ready to replace it. Never intervene when the enemy of the people is destroying itself. It may take more time, but it prevents civil wars.

Moreover, this chaos humanity and the world is going through is the fall of the Deep State tyrants; their Draconian Law is giving way to Unity Consciousness and Universal Law. An empire based on the old ways has no foundation, it will fall, taking down all who live within its walls. Those religious, political and corporate businesses that are not aligned with Unity Consciousness or Universal Law, better known as “Truth”, will either restructure or fail. Anything that is not awakening, will either have to transform or fail.

 We already could have been freed, if it wasn’t that the mass is still asleep. People must fight for their own freedom otherwise it doesn’t provide them the value of liberty! In the end with all the vaccination stuff around society will cull itself. The weak shall fall by the wayside. And the strong will prevail.

 The True Story Behind Evergreen

The DS Great Reset, such as climate change, increased extinction, economic crisis, green revolution, and now the Covid hoax, are being promoted to distract and frighten the populace, to have a justification for more authoritarian control such as wearing face masks, social distancing, and to have an excuse for changing their monetary system, as the financial edifice of the private central banks is rapidly crumbling.

 In response; the container ship Evergreen that blocked the Suez Canal came not only to break the global money system, but also was contrived to break up the entire DS infrastructure, even more their people, children, organs, nuclear weapons and drug trafficking rings.

The symbolic phrase: “We shall see where the ship runs aground” also could signify the end of our nightmare. The Evergreen container ship will be the bombshell that wakes up humanity en masse when discovered that children and women are being trafficked into the containers.

People will become aware of what has been happening for hundreds of years, to satisfy Satanic cults, sacrificing children to Satan is a necessity for their authority on Earth.

 Many will see this crime against humanity live and then understand that the whole pandemic is fake. By bribing hospitals and doctors, who are in the plot of the virus, means another crime against humanity. This must be the moment of our mass awakening and victory over the Deep State.

Naval traffic data shows the Evergreen passing through Little Bitter Lake. The ship is using its own engines and travels at 8.60 knots. According to initial reports, the container ship may stop in Little Bitter Lake for investigation, but it may also be on its way to Greater Bitter Lake. This means that the channel is “free” for passage of other vessels. The ship will be inspected in the lake and unloaded if necessary.

 This Evergreen operation is brilliant in its simplicity, logistics and efficiency. Especially designed to awaken the masses from their profound inanity. If soon children are freed from the containers, and the media does not report about it, they will nevertheless be shocked and wonder why the MSM does not report about it?

Of course, this malpractice by the Deep State was known long ago and could have been dealt with in other ways without a Suez Canal blockade. But when maximum impact is required, genius is the only solution. An operation that kills several birds with one stone!

 If you found this information interesting, explanatory, valuable, and/or insightful, please share it with everyone you know to help awaken and prepare them. And don’t forget to put up your national flag showing the world you are awake, and motivate the silent awake majority to follow suit. The more flags out show the cabal is losing their grip of power over us. There is much more enlightening information to follow! You are invited to subscribe free of charge.

 Unity is Power

Our liberation process cannot be stopped anymore. Uniting with others who are like minded people creates and shapes our best reality. Worldwide networks of awakening people are being created, such as in Spain in the Marbella / Malaga area, which attracts an increasing number of participants. In just a few months of existence, the group has grown to over 530 members. If you would like to apply or learn how to start your own regional or local group, please contact FWC via email. Our future lies in our own hands specifically in small communities that become the foundation of our self-managed society.

Stay tuned there is more to follow…

http://finalwakeupcall.info/en/2021/03/31/inflation-the-biggest-financial-scam-ever/

Living Below Your Means: The First Step to Wealth

Living Below Your Means: The First Step to Wealth

Written March 4, 2021 by One Frugal Girl

Ask a group of money nerds the best way to get rich, and you’ll likely receive a handful of juicy tips for building your nest egg. While new advice pops up on occasion, most financial gurus stick to a list of tried and true favorites. Living below your means is one such piece of financial advice.

What does it mean to live below your means, and can it really lead to greater wealth?

Living below your means is often defined as paying for all of your bills in full each month. Simply put, you spend less than you earn and never purchase more than you can afford. You can use credit cards to pay for your expenses, but you never need to carry a balance on them.

If you’ve never saved money before, living below your means will point you in the right financial direction. It can help you stop living paycheck-to-paycheck and help you focus on long-term goals.

Living Below Your Means Won’t Generate Significant Wealth.

In theory, this may sound like the ticket to wealth, but unfortunately, it doesn’t always work. If you make a lot of money, living below your means is an easy way to build assets. If you don’t, it could be downright impossible.

When we focus on living below our means, we typically think about decreasing expenses and cutting costs. The trouble is you can only trim so much. If you don’t earn a decent wage, you can’t save a significant portion of it.

Without a sufficient financial support system, many hard-working individuals and families cannot save a considerable portion of their income.

Living below your means often emphasizes a lack of spending, but income is just as important, if not more important than cutting costs. After all, it’s a whole lot easier to earn $100,000 a year and spend less than $75,000 than it is to make $50,000 a year and live off of $30,000.

Living Far Below Your Means

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.onefrugalgirl.com/living-below-your-means/

Get Rich Versus Stay Rich

Get Rich Versus Stay Rich

Posted March 10, 2021 by blair

I don’t help people get rich, I help them stay rich.  My job as a wealth manager is to help clients hold on to their wealth and to preserve and grow it to keep pace with inflation. My number one priority is to ensure that money is there to meet their goals, when they are ready to spend it.  There are a lot of ways to get rich. The most reliable way is to spend less than you earn and invest the rest. Repeat consistently for four to five decades, and you are likely to secure a decent retirement. One of my favorite things about being an advisor is hearing the variety of ways people accumulated wealth.

I’ve seen and heard it all. Stock-based compensation is a common route, as is building a successful, privately-owned business. Then there are high earning professions such as medicine and law. In some cases, I work with the second or third generation of a family. One of my colleagues spoke to a true Tesla millionaire recently. They really do exist, and a few actually took some gains off the table.

A common theme among wealthy individuals is the realization that money earned easily can be lost just as quickly. There is a healthy fear of making a mistake they will regret. Morgan Housel put this perfectly in his book, The Psychology of Money:

There are a million ways to get wealthy , and plenty of books on how to do so. But there’s only one way to stay wealthy: some combination of frugality and paranoia.

This is not the first time I have referenced that quote from Morgan, and I doubt it will be the last. The truth of the matter is that many Americans have made fortunes in recent years. The current bull market, particularly in popular, high growth stocks, has made millionaires out of employees and investors in these companies. Some of them won’t be able to hold on to it.

Few things compare to the high of making millions off a concentrated bet; whether that bet is on a single stock, building a business, or working for a successful start-up. I imagine the brain responds to this high in the same way it does to addiction. The temptation to chase the next high is all-encompassing. I talk to investors all the time who can’t stop chasing that high.

Getting rich and staying rich are two very different skills. Getting rich is exciting, even thrilling, and often includes lots of risk taking. Staying rich is boring, bordering on mundane. That’s because the only way protect wealth with any degree of certainty is to diversify. Diversification by definition means that parts of the portfolio will always be lagging the rest of the market.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://blairbellecurve.com/get-rich-versus-stay-rich/

Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager Urges Diversification Out Of The Dollar

Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager Urges Diversification Out Of The Dollar

Notes From The Field  By Simon Black March 29, 2021  Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile

Ray Dalio is the founder of one of the largest investment firms in the world and has amassed a personal fortune nearing $20 billion from his business and investment acumen.  In short, he understands money and finance in a way that most people never will. And it’s for this reason that his latest insights are so noteworthy.

In a recent, self-published article entitled “Why in the World Would You Own Bonds When. . .”, Dalio makes some blunt assertions about the alarming US national debt, the decline of the dollar, and other negative trends in the Land of the Free.

Here’s a summary of the major points:

1) Interest rates are now so low that “investing in bonds (and most financial assets) has become stupid.”

Dalio points out that bond yields are so low today that investors would essentially have to wait more than 500 years to break even on their bond investments after adjusting for inflation.

That’s why sensible people are already ditching the bond market.

JP Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon recently said he wouldn’t touch a US government 10-year Treasury Note “with a ten foot pole.” Neither would Dalio, as he told Bloomberg this month.

2) This is a big problem for Uncle Sam. Investors are ditching US government bonds at a time when the US is “overspending and overborrowing”.

They just passed a $1.9 trillion stimulus, and they have another $3 trillion spending package ready to go, plus plenty of momentum for Universal Basic Income, health care, Green New Deal, and just about everything else.

In short, the government is going to have to sell a LOT of bonds (i.e. increase the debt) at a time when investing in bonds has become stupid.

3) This creates a huge problem for the US dollar.

“The frightening thing about this,” Dalio says, is that many investors have already come to the conclusion that bonds are terrible investments.

So these investors could decide to dump the bonds they already own “at the same time as the [US] government has to sell a lot bonds.”

Just imagine-- the US government could easily have to sell another $4 trillion worth of bonds over the next 12-months to cover its massive budget deficit, plus all these wild spending programs.

But then on top of that, investors who currently own US government bonds may decide to dump another $3 trillion worth of the bonds in their portfolios.

This would mean that $7 trillion worth of bonds flood the market at a time when few people want to buy them.

4) As Dalio explains, this would cause one of two things to happen:

“Either interest rates will rise,” in order to entice investors to buy bonds, or the Federal Reserve “will have to print substantial amounts of money to buy [the bonds] that the free-market buyer won’t buy.”

And it’s pretty clear they’re going with option B.

Last year, the Fed was by far the single largest buyer of all the newly issued US government bonds. Yet as Dalio writes, “when they print money and buy those bonds. . . that lowers real rates and it accelerates a depreciation in the value of the dollar, and it also raises inflation pressures.”

5) So what are the potential consequences?

“The real risk, the big risk,” Dalio told Bloomberg, “is of a monetary inflation . . . and that monetary inflation means that even when the economy weakens, inflation rates rise.”

This is essentially stagflation, i.e. rising inflation coupled with a sluggish economy.

6) When does Dalio see these consequences starting to arise? “Late this year.”

7) There are plenty of bigger picture issues too. Dalio acknowledges that the US government is going to need a LOT of money to finance all this spending, so taxes will likely rise. A lot.

As Dalio writes, tax increases “could be more shocking than expected.”

He also believes that “the chances of a sizable wealth tax bill passing over the next few years are significant.”

8) Dalio writes that, as a result of such tax policy and other destructive rules, “the United States could be perceived as a place that is inhospitable to capitalism and capitalists.”

And the combination of high taxes, high inflation, and hostility towards capitalism may compel many investors and businesses to shift their capital and operations overseas and “run from less hospitable places to more hospitable places.”

9) But don’t expect the US government to sit idly by while capital leaves the country. Dalio believes there is “the possibility of capital controls” to prevent money from exiting the United States, as well as “prohibitions against capital movements to other assets” outside of the US dollar like “gold, Bitcoin, etc.”

So, in short: too much debt and money printing leads to a declining value of the US dollar, and potentially stagflation.

As a result, the government is likely to drastically raise taxes and chase business and capital away from the United States, leading to capital controls and prohibitions on alternative investments.

This is not some wild conspiracy theory or crazy conjecture. This is one of the wealthiest, most successful fund managers in human history bluntly calling the end of the US-dollar debt supercycle.

We’ve been writing about this theme for more than a decade, so our readers will not be surprised by either Dalio’s comments, or the solutions he proposes.

His top recommendation, for example, is “a well-diversified portfolio of non-debt and non-dollar assets.”

And in Dalio’s view, diversification means “currency diversification, country diversification, as well as asset class diversification.”

In other words, don’t keep all of your eggs in one basket, one country, or one currency.

You can read the entirety of this article here, or watch his interview with Bloomberg.

To your freedom,  Simon Black, Founder, SovereignMan.com

https://www.sovereignman.com/international-diversification-strategies/billionaire-hedge-fund-manager-urges-diversification-out-of-the-dollar-31723/

P.S. Join the Official Sovereign Man Telegram Channel: https://www.sovereignman.com/tg

Time is Money, but Money Can’t Buy Time

 Time is Money, but Money Can’t Buy Time

The Physician Philospher

“This broken water heater is going to set us back.  If it costs $2,000 to replace, that’s an extra two weeks of payments towards our student loans.”  Please, tell me I am not the only one who thinks like this?  For a while, my monetary mindset revolved around our biggest financial goal: Paying off our refinanced student loans. Time is money, and I didn’t have the time for costs that slowed our financial progress down.

It is important to realize, though, that money is a means to an end. It is not the end itself.  This is a common concept that many struggle with in medicine, particularly if you work in private practice or you work in a shift work specialty.

Time is Money

The first person to use the phrase “Time is Money” was Benjamin Franklin in his book “Advice to a Young Tradesman, Written by an Old One”.

The original quote is actually the following:

Remember that Time is Money. He that can earn Ten Shillings a Day by his Labour, and goes abroad, or sits idle one half of that Day, tho’ he spends but Sixpence during his Diversion or Idleness, ought not to reckon that the only Expence; he has really spent or rather thrown away Five Shillings besides. ~Benajamin Franklin

The point that Benjamin Franklin was trying to make is that for every moment that you do not work, this will cost you money.  Of course, this is only true if there is a job that would pay you during times that choose not to work.

Shift work and The Problems it Entails

For those of us that do shift work, this idea hits close to home.  For example, I know that if I get sick and cannot go to work that is going to cost me what my shift normally pays.  As a physician who earns a lot of money, getting sick just got expensive!

Or what about that week of vacation you want to take to the beach?  That week, for me, is five days of missed work.  So, that beach trip costs more than just renting the house, buying the gas to drive the cars, and the cost of food.  It is also missed opportunity cost from not working.  Most of the time our beach trip costs more than twice what we paid for it.  Speaking of vacation, I know that in many private practice groups people will have to pay others to get a day off.  All of this costs money.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://thephysicianphilosopher.com/time-is-money/

Gold Vs. The Stock Market

Gold Vs. The Stock Market

Notes From The Field By Simon Black

March 16, 2021  Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile

More than 3,000 years ago in the early 12th century BC, Greco-Roman legend tells us of a mythical pair of monsters located in the Strait of Messina in southern Italy.  The monsters were named Scylla and Charybdis. And both Homer’s Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid describe the terror of sailors who came into contact with them.

Scylla was on one side of the Strait, and Charybdis on the other. But because the Strait is so narrow, it was impossible for sailors to avoid both of the monsters, essentially forcing the captain to choose between the lesser of two evils. In Homer’s narrative, for example, Odysseus is advised that the whirlpools of Charybdis could sink his entire ship, while Scylla might only kill a handful of his sailors.

So Odysseus chooses to sail past Scylla: “Better by far to lose six men and keep your ship than lose your entire crew.”

The story is a myth. But the idea of having to choose between two terrible options is very real.  It appears that the Federal Reserve has landed itself in this position.

 In its efforts to boost the economy during the pandemic, the Fed slashed interest rates so much that the average 30-year mortgage rate for homebuyers reached an all-time low of 2.65% earlier this year.  

Similarly, AAA-rated corporate bond yields reached record low 2.14% last summer.  The US government 10-year Treasury Note dropped to a record low 0.52%.

And the 28-day US government Treasury Bill rate actually turned negative for a brief period-- something that has never happened before.  The effects of such cheap rates are obvious.

With corporate borrowing rates so low, the stock market has boomed. With consumers able to borrow money so cheaply, home prices have surged to an all-time high.

Yet in slashing interest rates to record lows, the Fed has essentially sailed right into the Strait of Messina. And they’re about to find themselves stuck between two monsters.

On one side of the Strait is the Inflation Monster, which grows stronger and more menacing with ever dollar the Fed conjures into existence.

Last year the Fed increased the supply of US dollars in the financial system (M2) by 26%-- the single largest annual increase since 1943.

The Fed has nearly doubled the size of its balance sheet in the last 12 months alone, and nearly 10x’d its balance sheet since the financial crisis of 2008.

In simple terms, the Fed ‘prints’ money (albeit electronically) and sprinkles it around the financial system.

This is a form of debasement, not much different than how ancient Roman emperors cut corners by reducing the purity of their gold and silver coins.

Historically speaking, debasing the currency eventually causes inflation.

There are famous historical episodes, like Zimbabwe, Venezuela, or the Weimar Republic, where the government’s endless money printing caused hyperinflation.

But there are countless ‘quieter’ examples of inflation-- like in Brazil, where inflation is now over 5%, or Turkey, where the annualized inflation rate is about 15%.

15% isn’t exactly hyperinflation. But it does make life pretty uncomfortable, especially when wage growth fails to keep pace. Every year people find themselves poorer and worse off.

Yet the Federal Reserve ignores these countless historic examples, recently claiming to Congress that relentless money printing will not cause inflation.

The Fed’s reasoning is that, because their money printing hasn’t caused inflation yet, it never will. This is pretty dangerous logic, given that rule #1 in finance is ‘past performance is no guarantee of future results.’

But I’ll come back to that in a moment, because on the other side of the Strait is the Market Monster.

Like the Inflation Monster, the Market Monster grows larger with ever dollar the Fed creates. It FEEDS on cheap interest rates.

Look at the US stock market: prior to the pandemic, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a record high of just over 29,000 points. Today, the market is more than 10% higher

And yet--

1. Corporate earnings are DOWN. The average Earnings per Share in the S&P 500 is 30.47% LOWER than prior to the pandemic.

2. Corporate revenue is also down. Yet corporate DEBT is substantially higher.

3. The US economy as measured by GDP is weaker. Consumer spending is still lower than before the pandemic. Unemployment is higher.

4. Government debt is hilariously out of control, and the new ruling party just announced that they want to raise taxes.

Lower profit, lower revenue, higher debt, higher taxes-- NONE of these trends should be favorable for stocks. Yet the market is UP, with the average Price/Earnings ratio in the S&P 500 now an incredible 40x.

The Fed knows that the strength of the stock market… along with the real estate and bond markets… is based on cheap interest rates.

They also know that if they raise rates, these markets could suffer a dramatic downturn.

So the Fed has two options to choose from, and neither is good: raise rates and cause markets to crash. Or, don’t raise rates, and risk inflation.

They’ve pretty much already told us they’re choosing inflation.

I’m not suggesting that the US is going to turn into Zimbabwe and suffer terrible hyperinflation.

But inflation levels similar to Brazil or Turkey are definitely possible. It happened before in the 1970s when inflation hit double digits-- and stayed that way for years.

And given the Fed’s refusal to acknowledge the slightest chance of inflation (heresy!), it makes sense to consider preparing for the possibility.

I would point out again that gold has a 5,000 year track record of performing well during times of inflation.

It’s also among the few major asset classes that’s NOT currently at a record high.

Unlike the stock market, which has reached an all-time high despite lower earnings and higher debt, gold is down 16% from its peak even though inflation expectations are the highest they’ve been in years.

On that basis, gold looks pretty undervalued.

To your freedom and prosperity   Simon Black, Founder, SovereignMan.com

Gold vs. the stock market | Sovereign Man

Being Rich – What Would Change in Life?

Being Rich – What Would Change in Life?

By Jim @ Route To Retire / March 2, 2021

Ah, the allure of tons of money… who hasn’t had the dream of being rich?!

The things you could afford, the places you could go, the luxurious good times you could have. It’s fun to imagine all the cool things you could do with boatloads of money.

Wait a minute, Jim – aren’t you already rich? You retired a couple of years ago at 43 for Pete’s sake!

We’re definitely in a position that I’m more than elated for – we’re financially independent. That’s a blessing more than we could ever ask for in life.

But we’re far from rich. I talked about this in my post, Being a FIRE Millionaire Doesn’t Mean You’re Rich. Essentially, through the 4% rule, we have a “fixed income” of roughly $50,000/year we can spend while still sustaining our portfolio for the long haul. This, of course, assumes neither one of us ever works again, but it’s still an important number to understand.

There’s no doubt that $50k/year is a nice chunk of money that, so far, works nicely to cover our annual expenses. We have breathing room in there to live our normal family life including taking vacations… but being rich is not something we are. “Set” might be a better way to put it.

Remember though that we’re living a semi-frugal lifestyle. We still need to think through all our spending and when we do make choices, you can bet that money is almost always a factor in our decisions.

The fun part though is the idea of taking money completely out of the equation – no worries about cost whatsoever. Imagine what we could do if we were really rich.

I’ll tell you what I would do and then you tell me what you would do if money was no object.

Being rich involves owning a boat, right?

Haha, not in this guy’s dreams – that’s for sure!

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.routetoretire.com/being-rich-change-life/

Transforming The Future Via The True Halls Of Power

Transforming The Future Via The True Halls Of Power

Information Briefing #166   by whitehatsauxiliaries

(Asiatic Dynastic Power Awakens. Benevolent Goals Devoid Of Parasitic Usury)

From extensive discussions today starting early morning with the Dynasty Elders, progression towards a meaningful Global reorganization is being achieved. Real people. Real leaders.

What’s coming, with key UN support, will affect all nations. Real issues. Real project needs. Real contributors, getting Real cash soon, for helping effect Real Change. People, Real people, responding when called, will help make it happen.   This will become the forward march of We the People. You – Matter!

The last few years, out of Public sight, Elders, their wives, Attorneys and Interpreters, have been quietly progressing enormously important agendas re financing, restructuring, out of public sight.

The corridors of power. What you don’t see. 

Self help, mind power. Not an invisible Higher Power, never there when really needed, is it? That Eureka moment, to realize you’re alone. Just real people. Humble, with a respectful agenda towards our fellow man. Off radar, one agenda to put back so much.

Today was a good session. Focused consensus. Re-tracking hope, not hopium!

It’s coming. Today was a good day. Progressive and Stage One money is already stockpiled in the US! Positive steps.

It’s ready when it’s ready; and owes no one. That it’s happening, is all.

Cool nerve, calm hands now. Professionals. Important moves now. This will be the full Global deal released in stages. Huge!

Stay tuned…

https://whitehatauxiliaries.com/2021/03/24/information-briefing-166/

What Are The 7 Steps In The Financial Planning Process?

What Are The 7 Steps In The Financial Planning Process?

The financial planning process is important to understand as it helps you create efficient action items to better your money.   Financial Planning ProcessThis series of steps will be your go-to strategy that outlines how to budget, where to invest, and what other assets will help you achieve your financial goals. 

Oftentimes you might be unsure of where to start with a plan due to a lack of know-how and might want to work with an expert.  While you certainly can work with a financial planner, you absolutely can improve your finances on your own too.  If you’re interested in DIY finance, then you can follow the basic seven steps in the financial planning process below.

A financial plan is a personal document created to help assess your current financial situation, create various money goals, and help you make better financial decisions going forward. You can create this plan on your own or work with a certified financial planner.

And according to the CFB Board, the financial planning process is defined as:

A collaborative process that helps maximize a Client’s potential for meeting life goals through Financial Advice that integrates relevant elements of the Client’s personal and financial circumstances.”

Why Is a financial plan Important?

During the financial planning process, you start to learn quite a bit about your overall financial health. And it’s possible that you might not have even realized you were in rough shape without building your personal plan.

Here are a few reasons a financial plan is important:

Helps you understand your income

Understand your current cash flow

Learn how to build more capital

Improve your family’s finances

Helps you start building better investments

Maximizes your budget and spending

Creates steps for you to achieve your money goals

The 7 Steps of the Financial Planning Process

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://investedwallet.com/financial-planning-process/