Category: finance

Another Event…

On By JohnIn finance, healthLeave a comment

It’s been a hell of a couple of weeks.

The markets have tanked. If you have stocks or bonds, leave them be — they’ll rebound eventually.

And don’t even think about looking at your 401k — just let it ride and worry about it in another few years.

Companies are laying people off. Many others are are closing up shop.

It’ll get worse. Much worse.

I’ve not looked closely at the numbers for comparison of markets, but I can’t help but think of the stories of the Great Depression in the 1920s.

I have noticed that petty crimes are up. Truck was burgled yesterday — less than $100 in theft. No doubt petty thefts and malicious acts are on the rise because of the perceived lack of law enforcement.

The latest is an order from Gov. Inslee, to stay home.

No legal authority to enforce it, of course. But there’s a guy named Mr. G. Reaper that will see that it’s sorted… I suppose he’ll also see about sorting those petty crimes as well.

Oh, and in other news, something familiar found its way into the house:

Well, that’s disappointing…

On By JohnIn financeLeave a comment

If you’re in it for the Long-Game, then these drops — in the short-term — may be disappointing. But if you’re committed to a long-game, then play it.

Will it change again?

Yep.

By the way, if you have stock in only one or two of FB, AAPL, AMZN, NFLX, or GOOG (or FB or MSFT or any other tech) remember the very old adage: don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

Diversify.

It may seem that I’m picking on Apple* here. I’m not. I’m just using it because it was the alphabetically first in my newsfeed.

Every stock has taken a hit.

And they will for the next few months at least. Disappointing, perhaps. But don’t let it discourage you when you consider, over the longer term, it has consistently shown an increase.

To summarize:

Don’t throw out the baskets you already have, but look at distributing your eggs amongst more than just a few baskets.

*Also, Apple seems to have accelerated their plans for rolling out the Apple Card. Will that change the date it’ll become available? No idea. But they certainly appear to have made efforts to increase its promotion over the past day.

Preaching to Myself?

On By JohnIn finance, lifeLeave a comment

A few days ago, my wife and I had a discussion about our wishes for our children, when we eventually die.

Essentially, it was: inheritance must be invested and never used to pay off debt.

Or, put another way, any debt that you incur is yours alone. Never, ever, expect that an inheritance will pay off your incurred debt.

It sounds simple enough.

It comes down to making meaningful, long-term financial decisions and is dependent upon having a basis for financial frugality.

Perspective 1

You’ve accrued $53,000 in debt and regularly make minimum payments. You quickly buy the new Th’need the moment it’s available. Quite suddenly, your mother passes and leaves you a home in good repair with a market value of $250K. Having a new money mentality and not wanting to have another house to care for, you promptly sell it for the first offer then pay off your $53K in debt, buy a top of the line new car, and take a trip to Tahiti, because it’s found money and you’ve earned it.

Perspective 2

Having a different view of money-matters, you regularly restrain the urge to make frivolous purchases and instead make meaningful purchases that have longer-term reliability and value. You still have debt, student loans, of $53,000. Your mother passes, etc, etc. You continue with your own commitment to repay your own financial debts. And restrain the urge to make additional purchases. Instead of quickly selling the property, you evaluate it and assume complete financial responsibility for it, ensuring it has regular maintenance and repairs and that its taxes are paid. You also carefully consider renting it at a reasonable market rate. You continue to address your own financial debts and sit back happily and comfortably whilst the value of investments grows.

In each case, what’s the enduring value — the worth — of what’s left of your mother’s life?

Now, I have a bit of a dilemma. I’ve reached the point, after *mumble-mumble-mumble*-years, where I’m comfortable putting my money where my mouth is so to speak. Shall I apply the same sort of logic to bonuses and treat them in terms of inheritance?

Apple Card & The Future Of Spend

On By JohnIn finance, techLeave a comment

I absolutely love the idea of the Apple Pay.

A single device that you have with you all the time that affords you the touchless transaction experience.

In Europe, they’ve been using NFC (Near Field Communication) — the same technology that Apple Pay uses — for transactions for years. They typically refer to the concept as “touchless”.

North America is finally moving in that direction.

You have your phone, so NFC is literally at your fingertips. If you have an Apple Watch, you can even catch people off-guard by just waving your hand around a pay kiosk like a Jedi.

Right, so it seems that NFC is too advanced for some — or too trivial and easily exploited for some others — and in several places, they only support chip-cards, which require physical contact.

Apple has revealed their new concept for an Apple Card. A card for those occasions when businesses haven’t quite stepped into the 21st century with NFC… er, I mean… for those businesses that don’t yet support Apple Pay, and are still dependent upon a physical card with a chip. A single card that

  • is meant to integrate seamlessly with Apple Pay
  • contains the encryption enclave chip
  • doesn’t have a trivially-skimmed or accidentally-erased magnetic stripe
  • presents only your name: has no trivially-exploited card number, card security code, expiration date emblazoned across it —  that’s human-readable and exploitable by onlookers or malicious parties

Yes, please.

No, it’s not perfect — nothing is perfect and if you wait until it is, then you’ll be waiting forever. But it certainly is intriguing.

Oh, and you won’t have to charge it.

But something is bugging me: what about those establishments that haven’t yet joined us in the 21st century to use the latest, more secure technologies? Those companies that only support magnetic stripe cards?

You know, things like fuel pumps.

It seems that I’ll need to retain my card for the periodic swipe until we can move everyone else culturally and socially into the future of commerce.

Or find a way to simply no longer need to use them.

The Apple Card? Yep, I’ll be one of the early adopters and even look into transferring my other credit cards’ balances to it.