I recall a corporate strategy course in the 1990s where one of the assignments was to compare the competitive strategy of American giant General Electric with that of Swedish conglomerate ABB, and to predict which one would meet with more success going forward. At the time, GE was firing on all cylinders and was among the top firms in the United States, so very few MBA students favored ABB. But GE fell on hard times within only a few years, and it almost failed. It had to shed units and it went through a handful of CEOs. Meanwhile, while ABB has had its share of fluctuations, it is still chugging along, with a share price close to its 20-year peak, if not longer (20 years was as far back as I could check). The moral of the story: Nothing is forever, and the marketplace will constantly surprise investors.
The concept that my accounts are just entries in a giant spreadsheet susceptible to hacking, fraud, computer bugs and societal upheaval has long worried me. For a while, I thought it would be prudent to keep a small stash of real dollars - currency - available to me in my home. But after a few years, the thought that the value of those bills had been melting day by day caused me to give up. What became hard was getting rid of them. I hadn't thought about that. I don't use much cash any more, but I am finally near the end of my dollar liquidation. (The day I get rid of the last bill will likely be the day financial Armageddon strikes, ha ha.)
I'm with you, Mr. Quinn. Allowing investments without reliable performance histories and full disclosures will be an invitation for bad people to get into the pension and retirement savings game, and for even good people to limit disclosures and add much broader caveats to investment agreements to protect themselves. Lowered standards will inevitably lead to bad conduct, misrepresentation and/or fraud, and maybe just a lot of bad mistakes. Ultimately, there will be many instances of great harm to individual investors. I can see the class actions now, and, unfortunately, the penniless citizens who will have no realistic avenue for relief.
I'm not sure I will even recognize what part of price increases are due to tariffs unless a specific line item is actually printed on a price sticker, invoice or receipt, and I'm not sure I'd even trust the information on them as truthful. The presence of tariffs sometimes offers businesses a convenient villain for pricing moves that they want to make anyway. (Will businesses credit any positive trade benefits of more open markets for any corresponding positive pricing moves that might also occur? I doubt it. They'll talk instead about how they alone drove their products to offer better value.) The net impact of tariffs is one of those ingredients that goes into the overall pricing "stew" with a lot of other things. While there is no doubt there will be some impact from tariffs, it would be a big mistake to assume that every upward pricing move for a product should be blamed on the impact of a tariff. There are just so many other ongoing cost and pricing pressures in the marketplace, and IMHO, they are all mostly up.
I smile when I see an article written by "HumbleDollar's editor", but I think I like it a lot better when I actually see your name as the author. I would venture a view that other HumbleDollar readers also would still like to see your name on your articles, for as long as possible, certainly as long as you are writing. (And regardless of how much AI you use. This article didn't have much opportunity for AI, ha ha. AI wouldn't know how to describe a Christmas Club bank account.) (Finally, to me, your name on an article is also a bit of a warranty.)
In a way, isn't the US dollar kind of a stablecoin? While we have paper currency and coins, the US dollar is now based on a promise by the government that is basically that it will support the dollar (see caveat in the next sentence), give it "full faith and credit", and pay someone in bills and coins when they want to convert some part of their digital dollar account into something tangible. (Of course, the government will only pay what it determines the dollar is worth at any given time, and while it pays interest on its debt, it also allows the dollar to become less valuable over time with ongoing inflation.) All that said, I don't see a stablecoin as offering much more to me, and arguably it will offer a lot less. There is a lot more risk, and none of that "full faith and credit" promise from the richest nation on earth. I'll watch from the sidelines and hope the new structures don't lead to a broader collapse.
Someone with this balance sheet can probably easily enter retirement, but with a caveat. There is no disclosure of debt or budgeted (and unbudgeted) spending habits. Big mortgage? Country club? Expensive cars? Lots of discretionary spending? That could make a difference. I wasn't completely sure myself that I had enough when I retired, but I knew I was a hard conservative about money. What sealed it for me was watching my "flow" over the last two years of working, i.e., how my spending rose and fell each month. I did the same thing after I retired. I found that there was only a small difference, and I could "smooth" my income and expenditures easily, even without having a paycheck. My 401(k) and SEP, plus social security, were easily enough to do what I wanted to do. I didn't really have to dip into my core retirement accounts at all. The biggest expense? Taxes!
Always do the best you can. You never know when a little thing is really a big thing. People you work for and people who work for you will know, and more importantly, you will know. You have to look in the mirror every day.
I have two children. Both are fine individuals, and they get along well with one another. One is married with three children. One is single. That doesn't matter. I have had "adult" relationships with them for years - we have conversations as equals, and I've tried to treat them as equals since they could walk. All I care about is that they know I love them. It is up to them what they feel they should do with what I leave them. I won't be around.
The eternal fight, between two groups of competing theorists, between two groups of investors, and between two groups of researching academics: Is the market efficient, or is it emotional with lots of momentum? The answer is "Yes".
Comments
I recall a corporate strategy course in the 1990s where one of the assignments was to compare the competitive strategy of American giant General Electric with that of Swedish conglomerate ABB, and to predict which one would meet with more success going forward. At the time, GE was firing on all cylinders and was among the top firms in the United States, so very few MBA students favored ABB. But GE fell on hard times within only a few years, and it almost failed. It had to shed units and it went through a handful of CEOs. Meanwhile, while ABB has had its share of fluctuations, it is still chugging along, with a share price close to its 20-year peak, if not longer (20 years was as far back as I could check). The moral of the story: Nothing is forever, and the marketplace will constantly surprise investors.
Post: Harder Than It Looks
Link to comment from August 18, 2025
The concept that my accounts are just entries in a giant spreadsheet susceptible to hacking, fraud, computer bugs and societal upheaval has long worried me. For a while, I thought it would be prudent to keep a small stash of real dollars - currency - available to me in my home. But after a few years, the thought that the value of those bills had been melting day by day caused me to give up. What became hard was getting rid of them. I hadn't thought about that. I don't use much cash any more, but I am finally near the end of my dollar liquidation. (The day I get rid of the last bill will likely be the day financial Armageddon strikes, ha ha.)
Post: Have you seen your money lately?
Link to comment from August 17, 2025
I'm with you, Mr. Quinn. Allowing investments without reliable performance histories and full disclosures will be an invitation for bad people to get into the pension and retirement savings game, and for even good people to limit disclosures and add much broader caveats to investment agreements to protect themselves. Lowered standards will inevitably lead to bad conduct, misrepresentation and/or fraud, and maybe just a lot of bad mistakes. Ultimately, there will be many instances of great harm to individual investors. I can see the class actions now, and, unfortunately, the penniless citizens who will have no realistic avenue for relief.
Post: Hedge funds, venture capital. private equity, etc. in a 401k. BAD IDEA!
Link to comment from August 11, 2025
I'm not sure I will even recognize what part of price increases are due to tariffs unless a specific line item is actually printed on a price sticker, invoice or receipt, and I'm not sure I'd even trust the information on them as truthful. The presence of tariffs sometimes offers businesses a convenient villain for pricing moves that they want to make anyway. (Will businesses credit any positive trade benefits of more open markets for any corresponding positive pricing moves that might also occur? I doubt it. They'll talk instead about how they alone drove their products to offer better value.) The net impact of tariffs is one of those ingredients that goes into the overall pricing "stew" with a lot of other things. While there is no doubt there will be some impact from tariffs, it would be a big mistake to assume that every upward pricing move for a product should be blamed on the impact of a tariff. There are just so many other ongoing cost and pricing pressures in the marketplace, and IMHO, they are all mostly up.
Post: Reacting to the Tariffs
Link to comment from August 11, 2025
I smile when I see an article written by "HumbleDollar's editor", but I think I like it a lot better when I actually see your name as the author. I would venture a view that other HumbleDollar readers also would still like to see your name on your articles, for as long as possible, certainly as long as you are writing. (And regardless of how much AI you use. This article didn't have much opportunity for AI, ha ha. AI wouldn't know how to describe a Christmas Club bank account.) (Finally, to me, your name on an article is also a bit of a warranty.)
Post: My Money Memories
Link to comment from August 11, 2025
In a way, isn't the US dollar kind of a stablecoin? While we have paper currency and coins, the US dollar is now based on a promise by the government that is basically that it will support the dollar (see caveat in the next sentence), give it "full faith and credit", and pay someone in bills and coins when they want to convert some part of their digital dollar account into something tangible. (Of course, the government will only pay what it determines the dollar is worth at any given time, and while it pays interest on its debt, it also allows the dollar to become less valuable over time with ongoing inflation.) All that said, I don't see a stablecoin as offering much more to me, and arguably it will offer a lot less. There is a lot more risk, and none of that "full faith and credit" promise from the richest nation on earth. I'll watch from the sidelines and hope the new structures don't lead to a broader collapse.
Post: Smart Move?
Link to comment from August 11, 2025
Someone with this balance sheet can probably easily enter retirement, but with a caveat. There is no disclosure of debt or budgeted (and unbudgeted) spending habits. Big mortgage? Country club? Expensive cars? Lots of discretionary spending? That could make a difference. I wasn't completely sure myself that I had enough when I retired, but I knew I was a hard conservative about money. What sealed it for me was watching my "flow" over the last two years of working, i.e., how my spending rose and fell each month. I did the same thing after I retired. I found that there was only a small difference, and I could "smooth" my income and expenditures easily, even without having a paycheck. My 401(k) and SEP, plus social security, were easily enough to do what I wanted to do. I didn't really have to dip into my core retirement accounts at all. The biggest expense? Taxes!
Post: 100% Base Pay Replacement: What Does It Mean?
Link to comment from July 28, 2025
Always do the best you can. You never know when a little thing is really a big thing. People you work for and people who work for you will know, and more importantly, you will know. You have to look in the mirror every day.
Post: What’s the best career advice you ever got?
Link to comment from July 28, 2025
I have two children. Both are fine individuals, and they get along well with one another. One is married with three children. One is single. That doesn't matter. I have had "adult" relationships with them for years - we have conversations as equals, and I've tried to treat them as equals since they could walk. All I care about is that they know I love them. It is up to them what they feel they should do with what I leave them. I won't be around.
Post: Letting Go
Link to comment from July 28, 2025
The eternal fight, between two groups of competing theorists, between two groups of investors, and between two groups of researching academics: Is the market efficient, or is it emotional with lots of momentum? The answer is "Yes".
Post: Going to Extremes
Link to comment from July 28, 2025