Jim, thank you for Episode III! Here are some questions/anxieties it induced. I’m laying it out there in case others in your audience experienced similar:
1. Re “own your own home”… There are many people in places like California, NY, etc. where the value of their home has massively appreciated and the home itself has become a huge piece of their net worth. Against the backdrop of financial repression, do you think folks in that situation should “rebalance” by selling the house and diversifying the funds or let it ride? (I struggle with this question. Diversifying appeals to my conservative nature. But one of my wealthiest friends has this line baked into my brain: “You don’t get rich by selling the family real estate.”
2. I fall squarely in the bucket of the passive S&P 500 investor. Literally 100% of my public company stock ownership is there. I also fall squarely into the bucket of “not interested in actively investing in stocks.” Seemingly, if one literally applies your advice, a person in my situation (which I believe is a lot of people) must pick amongst: (1) own no public stock; (2) let it passively ride in the S&P 500; or (3) hire a person to actively trade for you and take on the risks and associated expenses that accompany said hiring. How would you stack rank the 3 alternatives in the face of financial repression?
3. One of my neighbors a couple years ago had gold in a safe in his house that was over seven figures. His wife wanted it out of there for safety concerns. I was there the day he sold it. Literally people with guns doing the transaction. The scene felt Old West and frightening (to me). Of course, buying gold through a fund would come with a different scare that you mention — you are in the “security” world and therefore the SEC has its hooks in. If you were a non-Old West type looking for gold exposure, how would you go about it? How much of the portfolio would you allocate to it?
4. When it comes to agriculture, nuclear energy, fossil fuels… if you are not going to actively trade them, would you stay out or buy them through a fund?
5. It was interesting to me that you included the France images. It made me wonder, on a relative basis, is Western Europe in worse shape or better shape when it comes to financial repression? I also wondered the same re Mexico. (Over the last year, the peso is doing very well against the dollar.)
Jim, thank you for Episode III! Here are some questions/anxieties it induced. I’m laying it out there in case others in your audience experienced similar:
1. Re “own your own home”… There are many people in places like California, NY, etc. where the value of their home has massively appreciated and the home itself has become a huge piece of their net worth. Against the backdrop of financial repression, do you think folks in that situation should “rebalance” by selling the house and diversifying the funds or let it ride? (I struggle with this question. Diversifying appeals to my conservative nature. But one of my wealthiest friends has this line baked into my brain: “You don’t get rich by selling the family real estate.”
2. I fall squarely in the bucket of the passive S&P 500 investor. Literally 100% of my public company stock ownership is there. I also fall squarely into the bucket of “not interested in actively investing in stocks.” Seemingly, if one literally applies your advice, a person in my situation (which I believe is a lot of people) must pick amongst: (1) own no public stock; (2) let it passively ride in the S&P 500; or (3) hire a person to actively trade for you and take on the risks and associated expenses that accompany said hiring. How would you stack rank the 3 alternatives in the face of financial repression?
3. One of my neighbors a couple years ago had gold in a safe in his house that was over seven figures. His wife wanted it out of there for safety concerns. I was there the day he sold it. Literally people with guns doing the transaction. The scene felt Old West and frightening (to me). Of course, buying gold through a fund would come with a different scare that you mention — you are in the “security” world and therefore the SEC has its hooks in. If you were a non-Old West type looking for gold exposure, how would you go about it? How much of the portfolio would you allocate to it?
4. When it comes to agriculture, nuclear energy, fossil fuels… if you are not going to actively trade them, would you stay out or buy them through a fund?
5. It was interesting to me that you included the France images. It made me wonder, on a relative basis, is Western Europe in worse shape or better shape when it comes to financial repression? I also wondered the same re Mexico. (Over the last year, the peso is doing very well against the dollar.)
Thank you again for this series! Very helpful!