Why Invest?

 Why Invest?

Sometimes, people ask me: Why invest?

Well, I thought of a great answer, and I wanted to write it down so I don’t forget. Now, I can just send those folks a link to this page :) And hopefully, other people can benefit from these answers!

As explained below, the answer to this question is: I’d rather die with money than live without it.

Links for August 2021

Free books from financial educator Paul Merriman and his co-author Richard Buck: http://paulmerriman.com/freebooks/
    Note that this now includes their latest from 2020, We're Talking Millions: 12 Simple Ways to Supercharge Your Retirement. Generous indeed! And I should take the opportunity to plug my interview with Mr. Merriman.

A candid assessment of owning real-estate vs. index funds, from an investor in Singapore: https://www.firepathlion.com/buy-property-to-rent-out-or-invest-in-index-funds/

Apparently, the market's last 3 years have been crazier than we realized: https://www.mindfullyinvesting.com/three-years-of-investing-insanity/

Learn from this mistake: https://www.mouthymoney.co.uk/saving/how-my-father-lost-his-life-savings-by-making-one-fatal-investment-mistake/

Abigail Disney pulls back the curtain on how the ultra-wealthy think: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/abigail-disney-rich-protect-dynastic-wealth-propublica-tax/619212/

A 10-year performance record is still basically random: https://www.evidenceinvestor.com/a-ten-year-record-is-random-noise/

A great review of historical data on stocks vs. bonds: https://www.mindfullyinvesting.com/articles/6-what-to-invest-in/6-1-historical-returns-and-risks/

"Endless desire is one of the pitfalls of human nature, and one of the first things you need to cure if you want to get ahead more quickly."
-Mr. Money Mustache, in the Foreword to the revised and updated 2018 edition of Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez's classic Your Money Or Your Life

The $17 Billion Fraud

The $17 Billion Fraud

Almost everybody has heard of Bernie Madoff, the infamous fraudulent "investor" who ran an elaborate Ponzi scheme. You probably have, too; his name was on the lips of a lot of people around 2008-2010, and his scheme was reported often in the news.

http://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/140408170959-bernie-madoff-image-story-top.jpg

Madoff's fraudulent investment scheme was supposed to have been worth $65 billion, which makes this the largest fraudulent scheme ever perpetrated by an individual! In reality, however, people actually put roughly $17.5 billion of their own money into the scheme; the other $47.5 billion refers to profits that never actually existed and therefore cannot be recovered. [The taxes people paid on these fictitious profits are, of course, not recoverable either.]

Attorney Irving Picard is trying to recoup the $17 billion that investors put in. ABC News reports that, as of February 2016, he recovered just over $11 billion for investors who lost money. However, that process is inevitably difficult, as Yale accounting professor Dr. Rick Antle explains.

But do you really know what Madoff did?

Should you trust the stock market? Pt II

Should you trust the stock market? Pt II

Check out Part I here

What if I told you there is a surefire way to invest in winners?

What if I told you about a method of stock selection that automatically dumps the losers—without requiring you to lift a finger?

And what if I then told you that this strategy costs less than other strategies, despite being more effective?!

You'd think I was a snake-oil salesman, right? But what if I'm telling you the truth, and the other guys are the snake oil salesmen?...

S&P 500 through 2015; graph from http://cbsnews1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/2016/01/05/8bc2c493-ba40-4703-9979-c19534cbae20/64b19a4e258194bd5d72f1b77e371301/s-p-500-return-through-2015.gif

From article at http://www.cbsnews.com/news/not-everyone-lost-money-on-the-s-p-500-last-year/

Links for March 2017

Links for March 2017

F-you money: good for employees, bad for employers: http://jalopnik.com/google-paid-fuck-you-money-at-self-driving-car-projec-1792306694  You'd be wise to get some f-you money yourself.

Is a penny saved a penny earned? No: https://www.financialfixation.com/single-post/2017/01/11/A-Penny-Saved-is-Not-a-Penny-Earned

How to raise your kids to become financially independent: http://www.inc.com/marla-tabaka/want-your-kids-to-become-financially-secure-adults-parents-of-todays-wealthy-did.html

Is your retirement in jeopardy?

Due to severe budget problems, Puerto Rico will have to slash its budget, as announced in February 2017 (see http://www.businessinsider.com/the-board-has-spoken-puerto-rico-to-be-hit-with-painful-austerity-measures-2017-2). This includes cutting 10% from the retirement system for government employees, since that system is on the verge of running out of money completely. Sound familiar, U.S. residents?...