Ideas on Personal Finance
What if America wins back its factories – and loses its financial superpower status in the process? We all know the story: China builds stuff. America moves money. That’s been the case for years. China is the world’s factory – cranking out everything from smartphones and solar panels to your neighbor’s Halloween decorations. China makes … Read more
Everyone thinks they can do it: Buy low; sell high. Retire early. Go on CNBC and talk about it. But April 2025 has been a masterclass in why that almost never happens in real life – unless you have a crystal ball! Let’s look at a couple of examples. April 9: A 90-Day Pause and … Read more
We’ve seen this movie before. And like most sequels, it’s louder, flashier, and still misses the point. The dot-com boom of the late 1990s promised to change everything. Groceries, news, relationships – even dog food – suddenly had a .com slapped on it like gold stars on a kindergarten report card. Investors threw money at … Read more
Regular readers of this blog have seen a few bear markets with me. However, there is nothing regular about this bear market. The speed at which markets have fallen has been unnerving. Most banks are now forecasting a recession. Even if a recession is somehow avoided, there is definitely a slowdown in the economy ahead. … Read more
What a difference a month makes! This time last month, the US stock market was hitting all time highs. Now the market is in a correction (down more than 10%). I try to avoid talking about politics—this is a personal finance blog, after all! However, there are times when politics has such a big impact … Read more
In theory, investing is pretty straightforward – Buy Low, Sell High! Buy things when they are down. Sell things when they go up. In practice, investing is pretty difficult. Let’s take the first part of the equation – buying low. When stocks go down, we should buy them, right? But when stocks fall 10% there … Read more
A couple of years ago, the stock market crashed, and everyone was freaking out. The S&P 500 index fell from a high of around 4,800 to a low of about 3,500 in 2022—a 27% drop. Many stocks fell even more—Amazon’s stock dropped by half, and Meta (Facebook) was down 65%. Back then, I wrote a … Read more
When people worry about the threat from AI, they invariably imagine robots coming for us, like in the movie Terminator. They envision AI suddenly becoming self-aware and sending Terminator robots to exterminate humanity. But does the real threat from AI come from Terminators; or from our increasing over-reliance on AI? AI and Driving Let’s take … Read more
In my last blog post, I discussed the growing concerns about the risk of World War 3. While I still consider such an event unlikely, it is worth exploring how one can prepare for extreme scenarios. Lessons from History Many books delve into the impacts of war on wealth. For instance, Wealth, War & Wisdom … Read more
Lately, headlines warning about the possibility of World War 3 seem to be increasing. Normally, I’m not one to worry about such things. However, when respected voices, like the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, start raising alarms, it’s worth paying closer attention. Why I Used to Dismiss the Idea I always believed World War 3 was … Read more