I Hate My Job! Do I Have to Suck It Up Until the Economy Recovers?’
.I Hate My Job! Do I Have to Suck It Up Until the Economy Recovers?’
The Cut’s financial advice columnist Charlotte Cowles answers readers’ personal questions about personal finance.
I hated my job before the pandemic, and now I hate it even more. I’m a product manager at an apparel company, and the whole place is awful. The hours are never-ending, and there’s even less respect for personal time now that we’re all working from home. I also don’t approve of how the warehouse staff has been treated throughout this crisis.
I’m 29 and have had this job for two years; it was a significant step up from my previous job in terms of salary and title, but the company culture is bad and getting worse.
I was originally planning to quit in May (I’ve been saving up to do so since last fall) and take some time to reevaluate what I want to do next. But now I’m wondering if that’s completely insane.
I will have enough savings to cover my expenses and bills for at least six months (or longer if social-distancing measures keep up), but will I be able to find a new job by then? It seems pointless to look for jobs right now, and I’m not sure when that will change.
All That Glitters: Why I’m Not Investing In Gold
.All That Glitters: Why I’m Not Investing In Gold
By J.D. ROTH| Published: 28 April 2020
Over the past month, I've read a lot of articles about the virtues of investing in gold. Especially in Facebook forums, there's a lot of talk about how gold makes a great long-term investment. (Fortunately, I haven't seen any comments like this in the GRS community on Facebook.)
Whenever the economy gets turbulent, the goldbugs come out in force. They shout from the hilltops that the world is doomed and that the only safe haven is gold. And I'll admit, their arguments can sound pretty convincing.
When I started this site in 2006, I felt unqualified to comment on gold. I hadn't read much about it, and I didn't feel educated enough to offer an opinion. That's changed.
Now, after fifteen years of reading and writing about money, I know enough about economic history and I know enough about gold as an investment to have what I believe is a (somewhat) educated response to this subject. And that response is this: Gold makes a lousy long-term investment.
Silver Hasn’t Been This Cheap In 5,000 Years of Human History
.Silver Hasn’t Been This Cheap In 5,000 Years of Human History
Notes From The Field By Simon Black April 30, 2020 Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico
More than 4,000 years ago, the city of Kanesh was quickly becoming an important commercial trading hub within the ancient Assyrian Empire.
Kanesh was located in the dead center of modern day Turkey, so it was perfectly situated on the route between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and between Europe and Asia Minor.
As a result, Kanesh became a popular trading post. And merchants, scribes, and moneylenders from all over the Assyrian Empire traveled there to profit from the boom in copper, tin, and textiles.
What’s extraordinary about this period of history is how many records remain from those day-to-day transactions.
The Ponzi Scheme That Will Bankrupt The World
.6 Central Banks & The Ponzi Scheme That Will Bankrupt The World
By Tyler Durden Wed, 04/29/2020 - 22:05
Authored by Egon von Greyerz via GoldSwitzerland.com,
The destiny of the world is now in the hands of 6 central banks, Fed, ECB, BoE (England), PBOC (China), BoJ (Japan), SNB (Swiss). This in itself bodes extremely badly for the global financial system. This is like putting the villains in charge of the judicial system. For decades these central banks have totally abused their power and taken control of the world monetary system for the benefit of their banker friends and in some cases their private shareholders.
The central banks have totally corrupted and destroyed the financial system, by printing money and extending credit that doesn’t exist. Everyone knows that creating money out of thin air makes the money totally worthless. These bankers know, that if you stand next to the printing press and get the money first, it does have some value before it circulates. And this is exactly what they have done. Once the money reaches the people, it devalues rapidly. As Mayer Amschel Rothschild said over 200 years ago:
“Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.”
We’ll Get Through This
.We’ll Get Through This
Mar 9, 2020 by Morgan Housel
In the 1930s an Ohio lawyer named Benjamin Roth kept a detailed diary about what he saw during the Great Depression.
In the late 1930s, when the depression had mostly passed, he summarized a few points he had learned from the debacle. He wrote:
“Business will always come back. It will remain neither depressed nor exalted.”
“The stock market forecasts business in only a limited way. The beginning of a stock market movement usually is caused by the trend of business but in the end the movement is carried too high or too low—by the extreme optimism or despair of human nature.”
“Depression is time of greatest profit. The investor who has liquid funds and the courage to act can lay the basis for great profits.”
It’s silly to compare the last week to the Great Depression – unemployment is near a record low and the market is still up over the last 10 months. It’s also hard to think of a time when sentiment has changed so far, so fast, than the last week. And what’s really silly is to assume that abrupt shift won’t both feed on itself and lead to tangible economic problems.
We Lost to Lifestyle Inflation. Here’s How We Fought Back.
We Lost to Lifestyle Inflation. Here’s How We Fought Back.
April 20, 2020 by Ed
Do you find yourself spending every penny you earn, no matter how much you make?
Lifestyle inflation (a.k.a lifestyle creep) was our biggest financial mistake. Sure, education isn’t a path to extreme wealth, but you can earn a decent living. Even as two brand new teachers, we earned above the median household income. Over time, with use of the education career ladder and teacher side hustles, we tripled that initial income. Then we spent every cent.
The result? After 15 years, we had a barely positive net worth. We’d gone from spending just over $3k a month to spending 3x that. A mountain of debt balanced out our assets – two car loans, a house that was too big, and a vacation home. We’d lost to lifestyle inflation. Badly. Here’s how we woke up and fought back. You can too.
What Is Lifestyle Inflation?
Lifestyle inflation means your living expenses grow as fast, or faster, than your income. If you’ve experienced this, you may feel weak or dumb. We certainly did when we became aware. Don’t.
You Can’t Choose The Cards, But You Can Always Play The Hand You’re Dealt
.You Can’t Choose The Cards, But You Can Always Play The Hand You’re Dealt
April 27, 2020 · by The Escape Artist · in Health & Happiness · 10 Comments
There is something missing from the debate on Covid-19.
As far as I can see, most of the news and related debate involves looking for someone to blame.
China, Dominic Cummings, Donald Trump and the World Health Organisation all make excellent pantomime villains (the choice of which to blame depends largely on your political biases).
The problem with The News is not its bias. The problem is the media pretending to be unbiased. When you control the editing and publishing, you can control what gets seen, heard and discussed.
We all have our biases. As someone who writes a blog based on the idea (partly tongue-in-cheek) that we are living in a Matrix-style Prison Camp created by big corporations, big government and the Deep State, I was struck by this tweet promoting a communist regime from a globalist bureaucracy pretending to be a health charity:
World Health Organization (WHO)✔@WHO
Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China🇨🇳. 7:18 AM - Jan 14, 2020
Staying Calm When Facing Financial Uncertainty
.Staying Calm When Facing Financial Uncertainty
Calming Your Nerves When Facing Your Own Financial Uncertainty
March 30, 2020
The reality is that we all need money to live. We have rent to pay, loans to pay back, and food to buy.
So when our source of income is threatened by some unforeseen circumstance, it’s easy to feel a rush of nerves. It’s a scary situation. But there are steps we can take to help us calm our nerves when faced with financial uncertainty. And by taking these steps we can start to feel confident in our finances and relieve some of our anxiety.
This is exactly what I did recently when feeling overwhelmed with all of the recent what-ifs of life. I sat down, opened my budget, ran some numbers, and laid out some contingency plans. Doing this simple exercise helped put my mind at ease. It gave me a sense of relief while also giving me the information I would need to make future financial decisions. Knowledge is power. If you are feeling nervous about your potential financial future, here are a few steps you can take to ease your nerves.
Finding Financial Confidence To Make Smart Money Decisions
.Finding Financial Confidence To Make Smart Money Decisions
Find the Financial Confidence You Need To Make Smart Money Decisions
March 10, 2020
Making financial decisions, and feeling confident about them, is no easy task.
The decisions we make for our money can have long term effects on our financial well-being. And that can be a terrifying realization.
Decisions like: How much mortgage can I afford? Is this the best price I can get on airfare? How much should I be saving? Do I invest my savings? What do I invest in? Can I quit my job? Do I have enough money to retire?
These are all tough decisions, and it’s easy to stress out about making the “right” choice. If we aren’t a financial professional, money expert, or a travel hacking guru, we may not believe we have the expertise needed to make smart money choices. And this makes feeling confident in our financial decisions hard.
America Finally Found The Lost City Of Gold
.America Finally Found The Lost City Of Gold
Notes From The Field By Simon Black April 23, 2020 Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico
In the early 1530s, a Spanish conquistador named Diego de Ordaz was exploring modern-day Venezuela when he first heard rumors of a nearby City of Gold.
Ordaz thought he was about to hit the jackpot. And he wasted no time ordering expeditions of the area to find this city-- what eventually became known as El Dorado.
The mission failed, and most of Ordaz’s men died. But one survivor, a crewman named Juan Martinez, claimed that he had been captured and held prisoner for 10 years in El Dorado.
Martinez told sensational tales about the city’s golden structures adorned with precious stones, and even said that the local king bathed in gold dust every morning.
The Next Giant Industry In Need Of A Bailout
.The Next Giant Industry In Need Of A Bailout
Notes From The Field By Simon Black April 20, 2020 Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico
Well this is starting to become a trend.
Over the past few weeks, state governments across the Land of the Free have been feverishly proposing new legislation that will virtually guarantee the entire insurance industry is wiped out.
The root of the issue has to do with something called business interruption insurance.
Business interruption is a pretty common type of insurance that’s designed to protect business owners against a number of risks.
For example, let’s say you own a restaurant and you have a bad kitchen fire that forces you to shut down for a month. You’d most likely have a fire insurance policy to cover the direct damage of the fire. And a lot of companies would also have a business interruption policy to help them stay afloat during that one-month period while the business is closed for repairs.