The Message of Valentine’s Day
Did you know that approximately $13 billion dollars is spent every year celebrating Valentine’s Day? That’s 180 million cards, 198 million roses, 58 million pounds of chocolate, and 36 million heart-shaped boxes. But, as anyone who has ever given a gift knows, the recipient’s heart-felt appreciation and mutual affection is [...]
Money Saving Ideas
None of us need to be reminded that a penny saved is a penny earned. My goal isn’t to tell you what you already know to be true in some elegant way that triggers you to change old habits. I’m no Tony Robbins, so I won’t pretend to be the [...]
January Barometer Redux
A few weeks ago, I described the stock market January Effect test as an indicator of the probable direction of indexes for the rest of 2017. Since one-twelfth of the year has zoomed by, let’s look to see what happened. By the way, the indicator is infinitely more accurate than [...]
What’s the Emergency?
Henry Buckley once said “Save a part of your income and begin now, for the man with a surplus controls his circumstances and the man without a surplus is controlled by his circumstances.” We all know we should save for a rainy day. We heard it repeated often by our [...]
Capitalism at Its Finest
Our present culture, especially media, generally views business through a dirty lense. I watch too many who-dunit television programs and if there is a corporate exec, business owner, or even professional person in the cast, two-thirds of the time there is your evildoer. The only thing to flesh out is [...]
Application of the January Effect
For long term readers of this column, you might remember the stock market January Effect from prior years. The basic premise is that if the stock market is higher after the first five trading days of January, and if it ends the month higher than the end of December, odds [...]
Climbing A Wall of Worry
I must be getting very mature in annual lap counts. Even though I do not feel old at all, the New Year’s Day celebrations are clicking off with but a few days in between them. Seems like a couple of months ago that I was saying good riddance to 2015 [...]
What Goes Up Might Stay Up
Recent financial headlines have focused on the US stock indexes hitting all-time high values most of the days following the US election. You may be experiencing hopes, fears, and concerns around this. Because of this run up, some are saying and you might think that a major collapse is ready [...]
Next Right Thing?
In 60 plus years of this life, I have learned a few things. Some things work. Some things do not work, or they do not work well. It is a great idea to try to learn the difference between those as soon as possible. It is also a wonderful trait [...]
The IRS Calling?
Last week my wife and I had the opportunity to enjoy Thanksgiving with our son and his family in Salt Lake City, Utah. I had expected that with less attention and trading, the stock indexes would fall back a bit. But it was full speed ahead for stocks and lower [...]