Fill your brain with some goodness and read some of these recommended articles on debt, investing, health, time management, and other interesting tidbits to give you a leg up in life.
Simplify your life. Find your truth. Work towards your goals.
Financial Planning
- Average Americans are woefully under-saved for retirement and continue to undersave – https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/23/americans-are-saving-poorly-for-retirement.html
- Well known financial advocate Suze Orman states that the new retirement age is 70. I appreciate her willingness to be more truthful than Wall Street as she is aware of how many people are grossly undersaved heading into retirement. But the unfortunate truth for the majority is that the retirement age will eventually be disclosed as “never.” Wall Street isn’t going to be part of the solution. Wall Street will be part of the problem – Suze Orman says this is the exact age you should retire – https://a.msn.com/r/2/AAtVD1z
- This is very accurate based on my own internal studies of wealthy clients and my own life experiences. People are always looking for “the secrets” to becoming wealthy. The secrets exist. The issue comes down to doing them. Wealth building is simple. It just isn’t easy. – https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/25/heres-the-trick-to-becoming-wealthy-says-tom-corley.html
Debt
- Probably the dumbest advice on mortgage debt I’ve read in a long time – It was probably written by someone who works for the mortgage industry in some way, shape or form. I want you to imagine being debt free for a moment. Then ask yourself, “Would I really miss making that mortgage payment?” The answer is, “no.” The issue for most people is that they just don’t want to suck it up and pay off their debts. Justifying it in various forms only distracts from the underlying issue which is that most people spend too much money and can’t save/accumulate wealth – Why you shouldn’t pay off your mortgage – https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBDkFev
Investments/Valuations
- Legendary and longtime asset manager Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital warns that investors will generate low returns over the next decade. This should come as no surprise for value investors monitoring current extremes in the global markets. This will also only exasperate the building problems and shortfalls in retirement preparation and in areas such as pension funds – Billionaire Howard Marks says financial markets not likely to deliver great returns over next decade – https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/25/howard-marks-stock-bond-markets-not-likely-to-deliver-great-returns.html
Macro
- The IMF begins describing global financial crisis scenarios when markets become disrupted under current conditions – http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-22/here-imfs-global-financial-crash-scenario
- This article may only be for the most advanced market practitioners on the topic of volatility and “short gamma” or shorting volatility through various derivative strategies. It appears for the time being that market volatility has been squashed for good which allows those that “short vol” to turn dirt into gold and generate yield in a zero interest rate environment. But there is an evil dark side to this trade as over $2 trillion is in related short vol trades that if unwound in unison (via machine trading) could create the largest spike in volatility that we have ever seen. The results could be epic leading to market dysfunction and crashes – https://www.marketarmor.com/2017/10/21/in-the-shadows-of-black-monday-volatility-isnt-broken-the-market-is/
Health
- Research continues to show that our health, sickness, disease, and cures are more and more related to our gut and gut bacteria. It will be amazing what breakthroughs are discovered over the next decade in this growing area of health and wellness – https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-26/could-your-gut-bacteria-hold-the-key-to-your-health
Other Tidbits
- I seemed to have a personal belief that China made “poor quality” products that are often darn right dangerous to end consumers and that Japan was a pillar of quality and values. Turns out, Japanese make a lot of crap products and just flat out lied to protect big corporations at the expense of end consumers. The days of trusting any big business seems to be well behind us – https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-19/some-famously-efficient-japanese-manufacturers-are-now-lying-to-compete