Negative Interest Rates In The US Are Virtually Guaranteed Now
.Negative Interest Rates In The US Are Virtually Guaranteed Now
Notes From The Field By Simon Black
March 4, 2020 Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico
On October 19, 1987, the US stock market suffered the worst crash in its more than 200 year history, dropping more than 23% in a matter of hours.
It wasn’t just in the United States, either. More than 20 major stock markets around the world, from London to Hong Kong to Australia, fell by similar amounts.
And economists estimate that stocks worldwide lost roughly $1.7 trillion of value (approximately 10% of global GDP at the time) during the October 1987 crash.
The next morning on October 20th, the Federal Reserve announced that they would do whatever it takes to support the economy.
Great Depression 2.0
.Great Depression 2.0
The Final Wake Up Call By Peter B Meyer
The Necessity Of A Free Market For Each Individual Economic Actor
An economy is geared to produce for real demand. But for decades it has been misled by artificially low interest rates to produce for a level of demand that doesn’t in reality exist. This deception can go on for a very long time. But, eventually, some form of adjustment must take place – usually a recession restores order by reducing both production and consumption. If it goes on for too long, or to a too great an extent, as it did in Germany in the late ’20s, economic activity becomes disorganised, which actually started The Great Depression 1.0.
The stimulus is working, they said. The problem is not that anyone believes this, but just that everyone believes in it. It is duped group thinking on a massive scale. Markets are not mathematical, nor mechanical; they’re ethical. Their purpose is not to make people wealthy, but to make them wise. If they purely were mathematical, one would be able to anticipate price movements with computers and PhDs in math. Many have tried it, but so far as known none has ever really succeeded.
Probate 101: What You Should Know
.Probate 101: What You Should Know About Probate (or Avoiding Probate)
By Jessica Sillers — Sep 3, 2019
When you’re grieving, a complicated legal and financial process is the last thing you want to deal with. But often, that’s exactly what happens when families go through the probate process after losing a loved one.
Understanding the probate process can help keep you from getting caught by surprise.
Who takes charge of a will after someone dies? What happens if someone dies without a will? Is there any way to avoid a lengthy probate process and pile of legal paperwork?
We’ll break it down for you.
The Biggest Truth In Personal Finance
.The Biggest Truth In Personal Finance
By J.D. Roth February 18 2020
For the past six weeks, I've been hard at work writing my “introduction to financial independence and early retirement” project for Audible and The Great Courses. It's been challenging — and fun — to rework my past material for a new audience in a new format.
Naturally, I'm emphasizing two important points in this project: profit and purpose.
I believe strongly that you need a clear personal mission statement in order to find success with money (and life).
I also believe that the most important number on your path to financial freedom is your personal profit, the difference between your income and your spending. (Most people refer to this number as saving rate. I prefer the term “personal profit” because it's, well, sexier.)
That last point is important.
Too many people want magic bullets. They want quick and easy ways to get out of debt and build wealth. They believe (or hope) that there's some sort of secret they can uncover, that somehow they've missed. Well, there aren't any secrets. Money mastery is a combination of psychology and math. And the math part is so simple a third-grader could understand it. Wealth is the accumulation of what you earn minus what you spend.
Financial Goals: Your Prioritization Guide
.Financial Goals: Your Prioritization Guide
Beth Braverman
You already know the most basic principle of personal finance--spend less money than you make. Once you’ve got that covered, however, figuring out how to achieve all your financial goals at once can feel overwhelming.
Should you direct any extra cash toward paying off your student loans or saving for retirement? Building an emergency fund or chipping away at credit card debt?
As you grow your family and advance in your career, there may be even more competing goals, such as buying a house, saving for your kids’ college education or taking a dream vacation.
In general, this is how you might think of prioritization for your financial goals, from the most to the least important.
.The Key To Successful Investing Is Patience
.The Key To Successful Investing Is Patience.
Tanza Loudenback
The CEO of a $13 billion investment firm says there's one lesson everyone has to master to build wealth: patienceThe Key To Successful Investing Is Patience
Compound interest is the most important concept to understand about money, Mellody Hobson said.
Mellody Hobson, a co-CEO of Ariel Investments, told the New York Times that the key to successful investing is patience.
Patience leads to compound interest, which is the most important concept to understand about money, Hobson said.
How Safe Is It to Transfer Money Overseas Online?
.How Safe Is It to Transfer Money Overseas Online?
Protect Your Money / By Michael Dinich
In today’s digital world, international money transfers can be done online. Whether it’s for purchasing property, remittances, or return of funds, sending money abroad has become a common thing. However, it’s essential to determine which money transfer options work best for your financial needs.
One of the vital facets that should be taken into account in the process is security. With the increasing number of scammers online, you need to keep your funds secure while getting the best deal.
Here’s what you need to know regarding international money transfers and how safe it is to make one online:
Three Financial Lessons From Squirrels
.Three Financial Lessons From Squirrels
Protect Your Money / By David Somerville
Over the years, I have been studying wildlife in the woods behind my house.
My favorite critters are the squirrels that scamper and dash among the trees, and I spent a lot of time learning about their habits.
One of the aspects of squirrels that fascinates me is how they make it through winter. The survival tactics of squirrels have evolved over millennia in the ultimate testing ground of Mother Nature.
Winter survival is the wildlife equivalent of financial planning for people. Squirrels have to allocate resources, deal with risk/reward scenarios, and execute a plan consistently.
Let’s take a look at how squirrels do “financial planning” and see how we can apply that to our lives.
To Will or Not To Will?
.To Will or Not To Will?
By Muhammad Ali
Generally, when I ask my Dinarians what's the first thing you want to do after RV? Settling my debts seem to be the top answer, of course after giving thanks to the Almighty.
I had the occasional, take a long overdue holiday and get into some banking investments, but I've never had anyone tell me, I need to update my Will or get my Will done first.
It seems to me that the focus on Wills is secondary to many other things.
A few months back I met with a legal consultant on Wills, he’s been doing Will preparations here in Malaysia for the past 16 years, and he opened my eyes to a lot of very important things.
The Invention of Money
.The Invention of Money
By John Lanchester July 29, 2019
When the system buckles, how do we know what money is really worth?
In three centuries, the heresies of two bankers became the basis of our modern economy.
When the Venetian merchant Marco Polo got to China, in the latter part of the thirteenth century, he saw many wonders—gunpowder and coal and eyeglasses and porcelain.
One of the things that astonished him most, however, was a new invention, implemented by Kublai Khan, a grandson of the great conqueror Genghis. It was paper money, introduced by Kublai in 1260. Polo could hardly believe his eyes when he saw what the Khan was doing:
He makes his money after this fashion. He makes them take of the bark of a certain tree, in fact of the mulberry tree, the leaves of which are the food of the silkworms, these trees being so numerous that whole districts are full of them.
What they take is a certain fine white bast or skin which lies between the wood of the tree and the thick outer bark, and this they make into something resembling sheets of paper, but black. When these sheets have been prepared they are cut up into pieces of different sizes.
All these pieces of paper are issued with as much solemnity and authority as if they were of pure gold or silver; and on every piece a variety of officials, whose duty it is, have to write their names, and to put their seals.
And when all is prepared duly, the chief officer deputed by the Khan smears the seal entrusted to him with vermilion, and impresses it on the paper, so that the form of the seal remains imprinted upon it in red; the money is then authentic. Anyone forging it would be punished with death.
That last point was deeply relevant. The problem with many new forms of money is that people are reluctant to adopt them. Genghis Khan’s grandson didn’t have that difficulty.
The Benefits of Economic Collapse
.The Benefits of Economic Collapse
By Jeff Thomas
I first began to predict a major economic collapse back in 1999. Although I understood that it was at least fifteen years off and possibly more, I believed that it would be wise to begin to prepare for it then, as the actual date of collapse could not be predicted. (Better to be a few years early than even one day too late.)
Not surprisingly, back then, this prediction appeared to most people to not only be unlikely, but laughable.
Today, we’re a good bit closer to the onset of an economic crisis and it now not only seems possible, but quite likely to an increasing number of those people who are paying attention.
And not surprisingly, as so many people are now realising the inevitability of such a crisis, they’re also realising that they should have been preparing for it. Preparation for a major event such as this requires a fair bit of time and many people are belatedly coming to realise that they may be caught with their pants down when the initial crashes begin.