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After sitting through an exceedingly long parade over the Fourth of July weekend I have a new rule proposal: No parade should ever be longer than 30 minutes in length. I mean how many sirens can one family be subjected to? I’m only half kidding here because my kids loved it but it still seems like you could cut 60% from most parades and the kids would still be happy (as long as they get some candy).1 Much like para...

If I was in the fortune cookie advice-giving game this post would list things like learning, reading, maybe even my marriage as some of the best investments I’ve ever made. If I really wanted to blow your mind I would say investing in myself. Investing in yourself pays the best dividends, yada, yada, yada. But I’m not here to give motivational advice you can find elsewhere. I’m talking about actual inves...

Author James Playsted Wood once wrote, “The thing that most affects the stock market is everything.” The point rings true because there are so many factors that impact the markets. Just off the top of my head, you have earnings, the economy, interest rates, inflation, the Fed, government spending, investor risk appetite, innovation, demographics, dividend yields, stock buybacks, price trends, Nic Cage movies a...

This week’s Animal Spirits with Michael & Ben is supported by YCharts: Mention Animal Spirits and receive 20% off your subscription price when you initially sign up for the service. We discuss: Faster markets Why bear markets from high valuations aren’t necessarily worse Robinhood’s S-1 disclosures The benefits of taking a break from social media The pandemic caused a wave of early retirees The comi...

Last week Robinhood filed their S-1 to register for an IPO. Here’s the good and bad of it: This seems good: Robinhood now has close to 18 million active users on its platform and manages around $80 billion in assets. More than half of those 18 million customers said this was their first-ever brokerage account. And Robinhood believes close to 50% of all new retail funded accounts opened in the U.S. between 2016 and 2...

From the pandemic-induced lows of March 23, 2020, the S&P 500 is now up just a shade under 99%: For the sake of this blog post, let’s round it up and call it a clean 100% gain. The stock market has now doubled in a little more than 15 months. As it turns out, investing during a market crash can be lucrative. To some investors, this feels way too far way too fast. To other investors, this gain may feel quaint, e...

Today’s Talk Your Book is presented by Groundfloor: We spoke with Groundfloor co-founder and CEO Brian Dally about earning high yields investing in real estate debt. We discuss: What is the hard lending market? Venture loans How smaller home renovation companies get funding What does the underwriting process look like for renovation loans? Creating a portfolio of high yield real estate debt What are the loss ratio...

A podcast listener asks: Let’s say you win $100,000. What are you doing with that money today? You have a house that’s not paid off yet, no student loan debt, a 401k plan and a solid investment portfolio. This is a very specific amount of money but you could pick any number here and it doesn’t matter. What matters is your framework for dealing with a lump sum of money. It could be an inheritance, a bonus...

If you dig into the components of the consumer price index, you’ll notice housing makes up a big part of the government’s inflation calculation. The latest data from the BLS shows owners’ equivalent rent makes up nearly 25% of the CPI calculation (food and energy currently make up 14% and 7%, respectively, for comparison purposes). With housing prices rising at a rapid clip, many people share the sentime...

Today’s Animal Spirits is presented by Acre Trader: Check out the Talk Your Book we did with Acre Tradr CEO Carter Malloy about the case for investing in farmland. We discuss: Money is still flowing into crypto at a rapid pace Why crypto yields are falling Why it’s so hard to change your mind as an investor High yield bonds are now low yield bonds Why aren’t interest rates higher? Young people are putting ...