A common question I’ve heard plenty of times from readers is whether it’s a good idea to invest for retirement or to pay off one’s mortgage first. While I don’t give personalized investment advice, I will explain my personal preference, and explain why I focus more on doing what makes me financially secure than whatever ... Read More »
The biggest myth about wealth building is that having a “high income” is the same as being “wealthy”. They’re not the same concepts. People with huge incomes are often flat-out broke. If you keep up with financial news, you’ll hear almost every day about millionaires and billionaires going belly up. You’ll hear about celebrities having ... Read More »
It’s not uncommon to hear economists, politicians, and even normal folks to talk about the different economic “classes” in America. The lower class, the middle class, and the upper class. While dividing people up on the basis of their financial situation is probably not a healthy idea, it’s something that can be useful for looking ... Read More »
Here’s an experiment. Take an economy that’s facing high unemployment, a stagnant growth rate, and excessive tax burdens. Then create a gargantuan unelected bureaucracy with nothing to do but bind up businesses and individuals with a slew of regulations that costs the economy trillions annually. Put the two together, and it won’t be pretty. Here’s another ... Read More »
Yes, the economy is bad — and yes, it’s going to get worse. The Federal Reserve is hell-bent on destroying the dollar. The inflation is already starting… food prices, gold prices, energy prices, and commodities in general are exploding. Wednesday, the UN reported that food prices In 2008, food prices around the world hit a ... Read More »
By now you have plenty of reason to congratulate yourself for having boarded the gold bandwagon. The early tickets are the cheap ones, and you’ve already had quite a ride. The best of the ride, I believe, is yet to come, and it should be very good indeed. It should be so much fun that ... Read More »
One of the most misunderstood topics in all of finance is inflation. If you understand inflation’s real nature, you’ll be leaps and bounds ahead of most economists, financiers, and investors. The inflation rate is extremely oversimplified by almost everyone — experts and laypersons alike. It’s often seen, for “statistical” reasons, as a single number. Money ... Read More »
This name seems cheap on a production and reserves basis. In late March, I pointed to the extreme reading in the oil-to-natural gas ratio and told you natural gas was ridiculously cheap. Back then, oil was trading for around $80 a barrel… and natural gas was under $4 per million British thermal units (mmbtu). The extreme reading ... Read More »
Yesterday was a pretty big day in American politics. The Republican party essentially “won” the election across the board, putting 60 more republicans in the house of representatives. If you’re a conservative, this is great news. Unfortunately, some people seem to see this one victory as a sign that everything is going to be OK. ... Read More »
It’s no secret that inflation eats away at your savings. It’s an infamously invisible financial force that makes your money less powerful, and increases prices. It’s why a dollar can only buy 5% as much as it could back in 1913. Inflation is one of the biggest problems for people who want to save money ... Read More »
Inflation is when prices are increasing; deflation is when prices are decreasing. Understanding which way prices are headed is one of the most important part of finance, economics, and investing. If you know when the prices of a product or commodity are going to increase, you can position yourself to make huge profits because of ... Read More »
As is often the case, there is a big difference between what the government statistics are reporting and what’s going on in the real world. According to the most recent inflation reading published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), consumer prices grew at an annual rate of just 1.1% in August. The government has ... Read More »
The United States Federal Government’s accounting agencies are reporting that the US national debt is between $13 and $14 trillion. But that’s not really true. The real national debt is much, much higher. The reason the real debt is higher than reported is simple: the traditional $13 trillion number doesn’t factor into account the money the ... Read More »
In recent months, worshippers at the altar of Keynes have been hyperventilating over the possibility Congress will run a deficit of “only” $1.5 trillion in 2010. They have issued dire proclamations about a replay of the 1937-1938 Depression within the Great Depression. White House favorite and #1 Keynesian on the planet, Paul Krugman, declared that ... Read More »
It’s not a secret that I’m a huge fan of gold being a part of every investing portfolio that’s based on diversity and security. Gold has never lost value and can be exchanged for other currencies pretty much anywhere and everywhere on earth — it’s been this way for thousands of years. Gold is a ... Read More »
I get emails every day from people looking for basic information about investing. There’s plenty of advanced info out there, but finding a place to actually start learning how to invest your money can be a little tricky. This article is for people who want to invest, but are still wanting to see a list ... Read More »
Investing in gold is complicated. It suffers from unnecessary drama from a lot of investors who bash it because it seems like an old fashioned way to invest. Why buy physical gold when you can take part in the $500 trillion derivatives bubble? The answer is simple. Gold is an old fashioned investment, and it’s a classic ... Read More »
With gold punching the $1,300 mark, thoughts of what a gold mania will be like crossed my mind. If we’re right about the future of precious metals, a gold rush of historic proportions lies ahead of us. Have you thought about how a mania might affect you? Not like this, you haven’t… You log on ... Read More »
A few days ago, Bloomberg News reported that Bill Gross made an $8.1 billion wager that the US economy won’t suffer from a “lost decade” of deflation like Japan just recently experienced. This caused quite the uproar, with some financial experts claiming it was a good bet, with others claiming it was a bad bet. ... Read More »
Don’t buy gold for profit — that’s risky, and you’ll probably time it all wrong. Instead, buy gold for security. If you’re looking for profit, find a way to produce something that people are willing to buy, or buy stock in a company that does. Profit comes from productivity; security comes from being prepared for ... Read More »
I really dislike sounding inflammatory. Saying that things are going to go terribly wrong runs a risk of being classed with those who think the world will end in December 2012 because of something Nostradamus or the Bible says, or because that’s what the Mayan calendar predicts. This is different. In the real world, cause ... Read More »
A couple of months ago, I was with a group of radical anti-capitalists. They thought that government was the answer to life, the universe and everything. They thought that businessmen secretly cheat on their wives and beat their children, whereas the poor starving individual was heroically beaten down by the brutal financial leaders. Maybe I’m ... Read More »