It would help if the government stopped "borrowing" (stealing) from the Social Security fund and leaving IOU's. There shouldn't be any cap on taxed wages. The real fix is to grandfather everyone in who is on SS today or has started paying, and say that after a future date SS will end. All new workers will be automatically signed up for a diversified, opt-out, Roth IRA (you're signed up automatically but have the option to quit). If AI does take over and start doing all the jobs there should be an AI workers tax. That would go toward a guaranteed minimum income or lowering the work week from a 40 hour 5 day work week to 4 or 3 or even 2 days with a contribution toward the retirement Roth IRA. I'm sure corporations would scream bloody murder about that, but they did the same thing when the 40 hour 5 day work week was mandated.
I used to get a year subscription to the local print newspaper by waiting until I would see one of these collage student sales people in the supermarket who I could talk down to a good price along with a bunch of gift cards. They disappeared after the pandemic, so I started buying only the Sunday paper to save money. I just figured out last week that the undiscounted full price of only the Sunday newspaper times fifty two weeks is the same or more than a full weekly subscription used to be.
I'd rather own gold then crypto. If the price of gold goes down its because the value of the currency has increased. Having a precious metals based currency has been a way to prevent inflation for thousands of years. Gold and silver are stores of value, not an investments. Here's an example, I have a Morgan silver dollar from 1888. According to the JM Bullion website, Morgan silver dollars weigh about 0.942 ounces and are 90% silver. Based on the current silver price of $73.75 that makes it worth about $62.52. So one dollar from 1888 is worth 62 times more that our current dollar, or, our current dollar is worth 62 times less. This has mostly happened since we went off the gold standard in 1971. Our Federal Reserve has an inflation goalof 2%. That's something they actually admit, they're not ashamed at all that they're debasing our money 2% every year.
No problem, I have a pension and Social Security, neither is correlated with the market. I have an IRA and Roth for inflation but haven't started doing withdrawals yet. Turning 70 in June. Any drops are a time to buy.
Gold can fail as a medium of exchange. That happened in the Bible in Genesis 47:15 during the second year of the seven year famine in Egypt when "the money failed". What I think is good store of value is toilet paper. When there's no more toilet paper you can't do you know what with a piece of gold. If I'm a farmer and had a limited amount of food to sell or barter for and had run out of toilet paper and two people come to get food, one has gold and one has a rolls of toilet paper. Which one do you thing is going to get the food? Only thing is toilet paper is bulky, but on the other hand its not heavy and won't spoil like canned food can. During the pandemic, when there was hording, what were the two things that disappeared first? Food and toilet paper.
Debt crisis, it won't go away by its self. I've read several articles that AI isn't as smart as people think it is. You also can't trust it to tell the truth. As long as AI contains self modifying code you can't make it follow any rules. However it can be useful as long as you're careful. I recently used AI to find a US customs code for something I was buying from Israel. I had done some research before I asked my question so I had a general idea what it might be. The first answer was almost right on, but when I asked it the same question again a few times, to see if I would get the same result, it started drifting further and further off track. On the other hand I had a subscription to satellite radio that expired. I was able to bargain the chat AI down to $6 a month for a year. The next day I received their final renewal offer in the mail for $8 per month. My brother did even better at $4.
My mother was taken in by $9.95 life insurance. Its not a scam as long as you don't buy more extra coverage "units". But that's exactly what happened. Every month she was sent notices telling her that funeral costs had increased and she should buy more "units", which she did. After two years, when we finally convinced her to cancel the plan , we found she could have saved the same amount of the insurance policy herself.
My mother sort of did the same thing. She even had a sermon outline for our pastor. We had very little to do after she died, except clean out and sell her house, which took a long time even though she wasn't a hoarder.
Peter Lynch's book, "One up on Wall Street" if you want to do your own stock picking on the side. Another, "The Book of Investing Wisdom", for an overview of a wide range of different types of investing. The chapters were written by the best investor of each type themselves, going all the way back to the 1800's.
I just watched WealthTrack this morning, which had Jonathan on as a guess a few times over the years. Retirement expert Christian Benz, from Monringstar was on, she recommended not to pay an active manager more than 1% of the total portfolio but to aim for 0.5% or lower so 0.58% is right in the ballpark.
Comments
It would help if the government stopped "borrowing" (stealing) from the Social Security fund and leaving IOU's. There shouldn't be any cap on taxed wages. The real fix is to grandfather everyone in who is on SS today or has started paying, and say that after a future date SS will end. All new workers will be automatically signed up for a diversified, opt-out, Roth IRA (you're signed up automatically but have the option to quit). If AI does take over and start doing all the jobs there should be an AI workers tax. That would go toward a guaranteed minimum income or lowering the work week from a 40 hour 5 day work week to 4 or 3 or even 2 days with a contribution toward the retirement Roth IRA. I'm sure corporations would scream bloody murder about that, but they did the same thing when the 40 hour 5 day work week was mandated.
Post: Fixing Social Security once and for all
Link to comment from April 19, 2026
I used to get a year subscription to the local print newspaper by waiting until I would see one of these collage student sales people in the supermarket who I could talk down to a good price along with a bunch of gift cards. They disappeared after the pandemic, so I started buying only the Sunday paper to save money. I just figured out last week that the undiscounted full price of only the Sunday newspaper times fifty two weeks is the same or more than a full weekly subscription used to be.
Post: Penny Wise, Pound Foolish
Link to comment from April 19, 2026
I'd rather own gold then crypto. If the price of gold goes down its because the value of the currency has increased. Having a precious metals based currency has been a way to prevent inflation for thousands of years. Gold and silver are stores of value, not an investments. Here's an example, I have a Morgan silver dollar from 1888. According to the JM Bullion website, Morgan silver dollars weigh about 0.942 ounces and are 90% silver. Based on the current silver price of $73.75 that makes it worth about $62.52. So one dollar from 1888 is worth 62 times more that our current dollar, or, our current dollar is worth 62 times less. This has mostly happened since we went off the gold standard in 1971. Our Federal Reserve has an inflation goal of 2%. That's something they actually admit, they're not ashamed at all that they're debasing our money 2% every year.
Post: Investment Versus Speculation
Link to comment from April 4, 2026
No problem, I have a pension and Social Security, neither is correlated with the market. I have an IRA and Roth for inflation but haven't started doing withdrawals yet. Turning 70 in June. Any drops are a time to buy.
Post: Any concern?
Link to comment from April 2, 2026
Gold can fail as a medium of exchange. That happened in the Bible in Genesis 47:15 during the second year of the seven year famine in Egypt when "the money failed". What I think is good store of value is toilet paper. When there's no more toilet paper you can't do you know what with a piece of gold. If I'm a farmer and had a limited amount of food to sell or barter for and had run out of toilet paper and two people come to get food, one has gold and one has a rolls of toilet paper. Which one do you thing is going to get the food? Only thing is toilet paper is bulky, but on the other hand its not heavy and won't spoil like canned food can. During the pandemic, when there was hording, what were the two things that disappeared first? Food and toilet paper.
Post: Why Marlboro Gold is better Than Gold
Link to comment from March 14, 2026
Debt crisis, it won't go away by its self. I've read several articles that AI isn't as smart as people think it is. You also can't trust it to tell the truth. As long as AI contains self modifying code you can't make it follow any rules. However it can be useful as long as you're careful. I recently used AI to find a US customs code for something I was buying from Israel. I had done some research before I asked my question so I had a general idea what it might be. The first answer was almost right on, but when I asked it the same question again a few times, to see if I would get the same result, it started drifting further and further off track. On the other hand I had a subscription to satellite radio that expired. I was able to bargain the chat AI down to $6 a month for a year. The next day I received their final renewal offer in the mail for $8 per month. My brother did even better at $4.
Post: Is AI going to affect our investments
Link to comment from March 2, 2026
My mother was taken in by $9.95 life insurance. Its not a scam as long as you don't buy more extra coverage "units". But that's exactly what happened. Every month she was sent notices telling her that funeral costs had increased and she should buy more "units", which she did. After two years, when we finally convinced her to cancel the plan , we found she could have saved the same amount of the insurance policy herself.
Post: The $9.95 scam…
Link to comment from February 28, 2026
My mother sort of did the same thing. She even had a sermon outline for our pastor. We had very little to do after she died, except clean out and sell her house, which took a long time even though she wasn't a hoarder.
Post: Your two best investing books—and do you also keep an End-of-Life “family binder”?
Link to comment from February 7, 2026
Peter Lynch's book, "One up on Wall Street" if you want to do your own stock picking on the side. Another, "The Book of Investing Wisdom", for an overview of a wide range of different types of investing. The chapters were written by the best investor of each type themselves, going all the way back to the 1800's.
Post: Your two best investing books—and do you also keep an End-of-Life “family binder”?
Link to comment from February 7, 2026
I just watched WealthTrack this morning, which had Jonathan on as a guess a few times over the years. Retirement expert Christian Benz, from Monringstar was on, she recommended not to pay an active manager more than 1% of the total portfolio but to aim for 0.5% or lower so 0.58% is right in the ballpark.
Post: The High Cost of Financial Advice: A Tale of Two Portfolios Revisited
Link to comment from February 7, 2026