How are your investments doing?

[CloverKnollFarms]

Doesn't printing money simply CAUSE inflation... It's not an additional cost on top of inflation?

So, can you really say increasing money supply by 5-8% is an ADDITIONAL cost on top of 3% inflation?

It seems that instead that 5-8% increase in money supply, is then felt through the resulting inflation it creates. Say 3-4%

Gains on investments are also compounded. Your tax burden on those gains are not. It's fixed.

So in 12 years you turn $1M into $3M and pay long term capital gains on $2M. A lot of people, me included, pay 0% long term capital gains. Even if you do pay the tax, it's equal to about 10% of that $3M account. The account grew 200%

Better yet, that money is in a Roth and you aren't paying taxes on the growth at all.

So I'm not sure the 20% return to become wealthy is accurate

 

[Hay Dude]

Killing it on precious metals. Silver up 121% YTD.
Gold up 61% YTD
Traditional paper assets not doing that well, but still pleased.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Speaking of gold and sliver... I had some cool old American gold pieces but I sold most of that back I think around 2010 when we had the first big increase. I still have some silver. I think this is the most unique silver currency I still have.

 

[steve tym]

I just looked at the first silver I bought in May of 2024, year and a half ago. I bought it at $30 including my dealers premium.

 

[dmccarty]

I don't have any kids (that I know of), but I don't have a problem with paying my share of education costs. Every dollar of my share that I don't pay gets put onto someone else. Raising a child is expensive, why add to parents' burden more than you have to. The only thing that kind of frosts me is the attitude many school boards have is "you don't have any kids in school, your opinion on what we do doesnt' matter". Bull. Almost 70% of my property taxes go towards schools, yeah it DOES matter....

Agreed. Years ago our local school board had a survey and one of the questions was do you have kids in the school system. That question, and there were a few others, I think was going to be used to filter out responses. We had kids in the school system but that question really ticked me off.

People living in the county are paying for the schools. Period. Home owners and renters are paying property tax, and a good part of the property tax is to the school system.

Everyone has a vested interested in having an educated population. A democracy really demands an educated population and someone who lacks education is almost certain to be a cost to the tax payer, one way or the other.

 

[jyoutz]

Speaking of gold and sliver... I had some cool old American gold pieces but I sold most of that back I think around 2010 when we had the first big increase. I still have some silver. I think this is the most unique silver currency I still have.

View attachment 4562471 View attachment 4562472

Wow. A collector’s piece for sure.

 

[ultrarunner]

Seems fake US silver coins are peddled everywhere now.

I was going to give some youngsters silver dollars but now wondering if they are even real Morgan Dollars or fake?

 

[Snobdds]

Doesn't printing money simply CAUSE inflation... It's not an additional cost on top of inflation?

So, can you really say increasing money supply by 5-8% is an ADDITIONAL cost on top of 3% inflation?

It seems that instead that 5-8% increase in money supply, is then felt through the resulting inflation it creates. Say 3-4%

Gains on investments are also compounded. Your tax burden on those gains are not. It's fixed.

So in 12 years you turn $1M into $3M and pay long term capital gains on $2M. A lot of people, me included, pay 0% long term capital gains. Even if you do pay the tax, it's equal to about 10% of that $3M account. The account grew 200%

Better yet, that money is in a Roth and you aren't paying taxes on the growth at all.

So I'm not sure the 20% return to become wealthy is accurate

Printing money causes the stock market to go up. Printing money causes a debasement of the dollar. Printing money actually causes less inflation as it causes more dollars to buy the same amount of something, then people just forgo the purchase. Most QE dollars end up in equities.

I just don't know how much the bubble can still be inflated.

Plan accordingly...

 

[Snobdds]

Killing it on precious metals. Silver up 121% YTD.
Gold up 61% YTD
Traditional paper assets not doing that well, but still pleased.

Last week I was able to sell all my precious metals.

Finally, I am out of that albatross.

Never again.

 

[WM75Guy]

Above our annual target of 5-10% at 13% YTD. ExxonMobil raised the quarterly dividend to $1.03/share for a 3.55% return, starting this quarter. That is 43 consecutive years of dividend increases. One of the few stocks we own outright, most of our funds are in ETF portfolios based on the risk level.