June 2019

student loans

News, Opinion June 26, 2019

Student Loans

$1.6 trillion of student loan debt is spread among 44 million Americans.  More than even avocado toast or a daily latte, student loans are being blamed for Millennials not being able to afford housing (even though they are the largest home-buying cohort).  Some Presidential hopefuls say they’ve got the answer in just erasing the whole thing.  This is a case of finding a gullible voting bloc and riding them as hard as possible in the hopes of building a warchest to retire on, securing a book deal, and hitting the speaking circuit.  It is a proposal along the lines of the Green New Deal – not so much a serious piece of legislation as it is something to garner mentions in the media. Cynicism aside, I’d love to see student loans wiped out.  “But isn’t this unfair to people who took out loans and paid them off?”  Maybe, but it…

Investing, Opinion June 21, 2019

Zombie Apocalypse?

The bull market is (take your pick): in the late stages of the market cycle in the late innings long in the tooth Let’s get another cliche out of the way and say that bull markets don’t die of old age.  Are we headed for a recession or a bear market?  Yes. This is like asking if we’re headed for Christmas.  We’re headed for Christmas whether it’s December 24th or December 26th. It’s impossible to prove that we’re not and I’ve been around long enough to know not to put a deadline on predictions.  It’s one thing to say there will be a recession in the future and another thing to say there will be a recession next year #timestamp. So yes, there’s a bear market or recession on the horizon, but that doesn’t mean the current bull is over any time soon.  Even if you think the market is over-valued…

Barber

Investing June 17, 2019

Do It Yourself or Visit the Barber?

Feed your kids when they are hungry.  Clean your kids when they are dirty.  That’s all that should be written in stone when it comes to parenting and even that cleaning them thing is not necessarily correct 100% of the time (I was the kid that would go straight back to the creek after getting hosed off for lunch).  There are tons of books about child-rearing, many of which conflict with each other.  They are not necessarily written to help parents make decisions so much as to make them feel a sense of control.  “Do this, don’t do that” – it all goes out the window under live action.  Kids do not understand where the boundaries of life sit.  They don’t “think outside the box” because they haven’t registered the existence of the box yet.  Any action is a viable option at any given time. My wife and I got…