My expectation is that in the near future we will see inflation rates like the 1980s again.

One of the huge problems is that the average person doesn’t know what inflation is and the government misleads us about what the rate of inflation is. This morning I read an article from Germany with an interview with Marc Faber.

Mark gave a very good description of inflation:

“Inflation is essentially an increase in the money supply and a destruction of purchasing power. The official consumer price indices capture only a part of reality. Inflation for different households is very different.

For a housewife, inflation is when food becomes more expensive: potatoes, rice, milk, vegetables. For a tenant, inflation is when rent rises. For families, higher insurance premiums, school fees, taxes and fees are also inflation. Many households can’t save at the end of the month because the cost of living has risen so sharply.

Governments have an interest in low-declaring inflation. If official inflation is only two per cent, pensions, wages or welfare benefits will have to be adjusted less strongly. Private economists often come up with higher numbers. In America, in my view, the actual price increase over many years was more likely to be between five and twelve percent annually. In Germany, perhaps a little less, but even there, people feel more inflation than the official figures suggest.”

My own calculations show that the US dollar has lost purchasing power at an average rate of 5.7% per year since 1985.

So if you haven’t been getting 5% raises from your job every year, you are losing purchasing power over your lifetime. This is why the typical person is feeling like they can’t afford life.

Sure we can actually afford a fairly decent life, but not as nice as we could fifty years ago!

This is grim information of course, so what can we do about it personally?

An obvious improvement would be to get paid more for your job. For a heck of a lot of people, that’s not practical.

One first step is to preserve wealth by saving in gold, not dollars. If you bought gold in 1985, your rate of return now would be about 9.5% per year, that’s well above the 5.7% real inflation rate so your savings would actually be growing.

Gold is a safe way to preserve wealth, but it’s not a great way to create wealth.

To build wealth, we want to consider the concept of letting money work for you, instead of you working for money.

Thus we look at making investments, the most common being the stock market. The important thing here is to realize that your stock investments are only really worth something when you actually sell them (which you don’t want to do while building wealth). The other critical thing to realize is that you should be aiming for a rate of return greater than 15% per year. If you are really good, you might hope for about 25% rate of return per year (long term).

What do you think? Am I accurately predicting that soon we will be facing a very different world that we aren’t used to, with high inflation rates often exceeding 10% per year?

I start with an einkorn tortilla. No unhealthy modern wheat. I warm the tortilla up for a few minutes at 275 degrees so I don’t have a “soggy crust”.

Put some Carbone’s pizza sauce (or whatever pizza sauce you like) on, then sprinkle on: healthy salt, celery seeds, turmeric and some ginger powder.

Add onions, I put a lot around the edges of the sauce to help avoid any cheese or sauce spilling out the sides during cooking.

Add sliced green olives and then layer on some good raw (not pasteurized) healthy cheese from grass fed A2 cows.

Add some cut up gyro meat (which of course you bought from a farmer that engages solely in healthy farming practices).

Add some banana peppers and sprinkle on some garlic.

Bake at 375 degrees in a convection toaster oven for about 11 minutes.

Enjoy!

Upper management is a bit drunk on the idea of reducing costs by using simulated intelligence and firing humans, but it turns out that isn’t always a rosy picture. Some people are realizing that humans are actually better (more cost effective) than simulated intelligence, even at some tasks where AI is considered to be an excellent fit.

Another headline: “Companies Face AI Buyer’s Remorse”

https://gfmag.com/technology/companies-face-ai-buyers-remorse/

This article discusses a few companies (55%) are regretting hiring AI and laying off people.

“Last year, McDonald’s admitted defeat and took out automated orders.”

Yes, simulated intelligence is an amazingly powerful tool. But it has to be used appropriately. It doesn’t just blindly replace humans.

Before we can answer the question of whether or not soulmates exist, we first have to define what a soulmate is.

This topic was inspired by two of Dee Dee Vincino’s conversations / podcasts:

The first was with Jenna McCarthy. At 1:25:00 Dee Dee asks “speed questions” the first of which was “okay, soulmate, myth or true?” to which Jenna answers “myth”.

https://rumble.com/v78jd1g-the-writer-who-says-what-youre-thinking-jenna-mccarthy.html

The second was with Meg Keene. Dee Dee and Meg didn’t discuss soulmates but this was an interesting conversation about relationships and marriage.

https://rumble.com/v794ura-the-woman-who-reached-80-million-peopleand-is-back-to-defend-marriage-meg-k.html

Who knew that flying on an airplane was a good way to meet women?

So what is a soulmate? Is this a perfect person?

If you think a soulmate is perfect then I have to agree with Jenna. There is no such a human that is truly perfect.

My definition of a soulmate is someone that is as close to perfect for you, as you will find in the world. A person who you are completely comfortable with. Someone you trust without any doubt. Someone that you want to be with “all the time”. No “separate vacations”, no regular “girl’s night out” or “boy’s night out” needed on a frequent basis. A soulmate is someone you want to breathe the same oxygen with twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year, for every year of your life.

That’s not to say that a break now and then, a moment away from each other, isn’t good. It is! But time apart shouldn’t be needed.

Will you have disagreements? Sure, but they should be rare and with the chemistry you have with your soulmate it should be intolerably uncomfortable to maintain a disagreement with them. Imagine trying to hold two magnets apart. Sooner or later (usually very soon) they will click back together. They simply can’t be held apart.

Why am I qualified to speak about soulmates? Well, I found one. My wife Cathy was phenomenal. If you passed her on the street you’d no doubt think she was just an average, sweet lady. She was a match for me. That’s not to imply she was perfect (or that I was perfect), but simply that we worked together!

Evidence that this was a magical match would be that I asked her to move in with me five days after we first met. She flew home to New York, packed up her kids and drove halfway across the country to live happily ever after. No complicated conversations, no negotiations, just silent awareness that we should be together. Communication at a non-verbal level.

Have I had other terrific relationships? Yes, absolutely! My life has been full of many wonderful relationships, but none on the level I had with Cathy.

My personality seems to be well suited to getting along with a lot of people. So if you can get along with a humble guy, with an ego and confidence the size of Montana, then you can probably get along with me. If you have an abrasive personality, then you are probably at a disadvantage to finding a soulmate.

Let’s take a moment to talk about the physical aspect of a relationship. Yes, physical connection is very important. With your soulmate, making love is a completely different experience than sex you’ve had with others. If you don’t have an almost constant desire, even after a decade of being together, to make love, then you probably haven’t found a soulmate.

Certainly I’m not the only one to have enjoyed a wonderful marriage. We tend to hear about the nightmare relationships. Those troubles are what get “air time”. But no doubt, many wonderful marriages quietly exist drawing no attention.

How likely are you to find a soulmate? In my opinion, extremely unlikely! Perhaps one in thousands or millions of matches. In other words, the odds are very much against you. Don’t expect to find a soulmate in your lifetime, but if you do, then appreciate the heck out of them!

Is there only one soulmate for each person? Of course not. Out of eight billion people, there are probably a few that would be soulmates with you.

Considering how rare soulmates are, my advice is that if you find someone that is a really good fit for you, then be 100% happy with them (even if they don’t quite qualify as a soulmate). Communicate, put in the work, maintain a great relationship. Don’t second guess.

After reading this, has your mind changed? Do you think soulmates exist? Have you found one?

Two of these Phantom MK1 robots (they cost about $100,000 each) were reported to be deployed in February in Ukraine. In theory they were limited to only “supply carrying tasks” but that in five to ten years they will be fully combat capable.

Time magazine reports: “And on this late February morning, it brandishes assorted high-powered weaponry: a revolver, pistol, shotgun, and replica of an M-16 rifle.”

We’ve seen previous reports that Ukraine actually used (different) robots to capture a position (Russian soldiers surrendering to robots).

Maybe I’m naive, but I’d like to see humanity eliminate war instead of turning it over to robots to conduct. What are the moral implications if robots are killing humans (the other side doesn’t have robots to fight back with)?

Certainly we can use the excuse: “If we don’t do it, our enemies will.” But is that really a good excuse?

Perhaps we should pull the plug on funding wars rather than escalating them?

Trying to be practical, we should rename the “Department of War” back to the “Department of Defense”. The USA should lead the world in de-escalation. Cut our military budget to set an example and allow other nations to also cut their military budgets. Focus on defence only. Take an attitude of “woe be to any nation that actually attacks us” with a clear statement that if a nation attacks us, we won’t just defend ourselves, but we will then proceed to conquer and eliminate that aggressive nation.

We should engage with other nations only in diplomatic efforts and use economic incentives to encourage the other nations to behave as we wish. This could be a hard pill to swallow for many, as we don’t agree with the way other nations conduct their internal affairs, but we must keep foremost in our minds that every human has a different viewpoint. It’s not morally just to impose our viewpoints on anyone else.

To quote Time magazine: “An additional worry is that AI is far from perfect. As anyone who has used ChatGPT or Google Gemini knows, LLMs make mistakes, known as hallucinations, all the time, as generative tools confidently produce false, misleading, or nonsensical information not based on training data.”

Even if a killer robot doesn’t hallucinate, is this really the future we want?

“Human Warfare” seems like an oxymoron to me.

• Coconut Oil

• Raw Honey

• Three Eggs

• Olive Oil

• Baking soda

• Cinnamon

• Vanilla

• Coconut Flour

• Almond Flour

• Shredded Coconut

• Maca

• Water

• Dates

Combine coconut oil, honey, eggs and vanilla. Then, add and mix, coconut flour, almond flour, baking soda, cinnamon and water. Then mix in dates, coconut, and maca.

Using stone pans, lined with parchment paper, place about a dozen balls of dough to be baked.

Bake at 330 degrees for 18 minutes

Enjoy warm with a mug of tea (or hot chocolate).

A typical handgun fires a bullet at between 700 to 1,200 mph. A rifle fires bullets at more like 1,700 to 3,000 mph.

Space debris travels about 17,500 mph! Ouch! That’s one fast bullet! You don’t want to get hit by a piece of space debris, especially not out in space where the environment is very hostile, downright lethal when you consider there is no air up there!

Luckily, space is really, really huge, but as we humans fill it with more and more junk it is becoming more and more hazardous to do space travel.

It’s about time that we start seriously launching space garbage trucks!

A few nations have started testing their ability to destroy dead or rogue satellites, but it’s dubious their actual intent is to clean things up. These attempts so far seem more like proving their military capabilities to eliminate enemy satellites. The methods are mostly rockets fired from Earth using a kinetic collision to obliterate the satellite. Other methods include chemical sprays to blind cameras. Okay, that’s not going to clean anything up, that’s purely a military concept.

There have already been a few actual collisions in space.

The Russians tested, in 2021, a hit to kill kinetic missile. This was beyond reckless and received worldwide condemnation. The targeted satellite was blown into more than 1,500 pieces of metal in the same orbit as the International Space Station.

Will the space frontier follow the model of the wild west?

Who should establish and enforce laws in space? Currently we have a hodge podge of vague agreements. How long will it be before a conflict forces a test of “law” in space?

Should our current governments rule space? We’ve done a crap job of getting along with each other here on Earth. Would we do any better in space?

Starlink, in their terms of service, states: “For services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship or other colonization spacecraft, the parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities. Accordingly, disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith at the time of Martian settlement.”

It sounds to me like Elon Musk has nominated himself to be sheriff of space. This sounds pretty good to me actually. Certainly I like this approach better than the current corrupt governments extending authority into space.

Naturally the UN says this is illegal and that SpaceX has no authority in space.

Apparently I can’t find any of my old photos of Pippin riding around on it. Here Pippin is keeping an eye on it when I first gave it a try. Pippin really surprised me by climbing on it and riding around.

My new (old) home, built in 1900, has the entire first floor as hardwood flooring which is ideal for a robot vacuum. Until a month ago, I had been mopping but that was a pain in the arse and seemed to be very temporary. My daughter visiting motivated me to get out the robot vacuum to finally give it a try.

After charging it up, it only ran few seconds before giving up. My assumption was the battery was long dead and unable to take a charge. But I charged it and tried it a few times, left it charging overnight and finally it came to life with plenty of battery power. Now it happily is ready to work whenever I wish.

My expectations weren’t very high, but now I love it! It’s not a name brand (it’s not a “Roomba”).

My little robot runs around in quirky motions, finding it’s way around the rooms. It has personality! It keeps me company! Most surprising is that it’s actually doing a good job of pulling the dust up off the floor.

Fritz however is rather skeptical and scared of it!

Certainly I wouldn’t use Ian Fleming’s Bond as an example for healthy eating, but I do like to draw the positives from the James Bond world for inspiration.

Simon Waterson’s book “Intelligent Fitness” discusses what Daniel Craig ate to train for his movies as James Bond. Usually I try to avoid using the word “diet” as popular interpretation has a meaning implying restrictive or for weight loss, but really we should understand the proper meaning as simply “the food you regularly eat”.

Simon mentions that for No Time to Die, he and Daniel would have “Theme days”: Vegetarian Mondays, Pescatarian Tuesdays, Vegan Wednesdays, White Meat Thursdays and Red Meat Fridays. Weekends were social and family eating, less restrictive. Variety is very important.

An example breakfast that Simon mentions is: rye toast, poached eggs, avocado, kale and sauerkraut.

Daniel’s post workout shake was:

• 1 banana

• 1 scoop of plant based protein

• 2 large handfuls of fresh spinach

• 1 cup of plant based milk (oat, almond or hemp)

• 1 tablespoon each of hemp seeds, goji berries and chia seeds

• 1 teaspoon of organic maca root powder

• A dash of cinnamon

One thing I like about Simon’s advice is to listen to your body and find your own way. I never follow a “named” diet. My friends and family have commented and assume that I eat a very healthy diet. We are our own biggest critics, in my mind I don’t consume a great diet. My primary focus is to avoid added sugar and processed foods. Personally I don’t eat enough variety even though I make an attempt to! Because I know my diet is weak in some areas, I compensate by taking a lot of supplements.

This is a photo which Katie took, ten years ago, during our James Bond adventure / vacation in the Bahamas. I’m coming out of the water near where the iconic photo of Daniel Craig was taken. Currently I’ve put on more weight and I’m trying to trim down and get back into shape, that’s proving to be a bit challenging at age sixty six while still working a desk job that involves sitting all day long, every day.

Katie was of course cuter and more attractive (being 21 didn’t hurt). We have remained friends and still chat about healthy eating.

Sometimes these deaths have monumental, worldwide impact such as the loss of Sergei Korolev. In 1966, Korolev died during a routine surgery (removing a polyp / tumor from his colon). Korolev was the mastermind behind the Soviet space program which up to that point had outdone the American space program at every “first”.

First satellite, Sputnik (1957); first animal in space, Laika (1957) a dog who unfortunately didn’t return; first spacecraft to reach the moon, Luna 2 (1959 but keep in mind this was a ‘crash landing”); first man in space, Yuri Gagarin (1961); first dual crewed spaceflight (1962); first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova (1963); first spacewalk, Alexei Leonov (1965); first soft landing on the moon, Luna 9 (1966).

Korolev was behind an impressive string of “victories”. If Korolev hadn’t died, it’s quite possible the first person on the moon would have been Russian! After his death, the Russian space program endured one disaster after another.

So the next time you contemplate a “routine surgery”, keep in mind that the outcome might have dramatic impact on world history!

If you think all of these deaths are in other nations, a sobering statistic is that in the USA the death rate for routine surgery is one in every 177 patients!

In the USA, approximately 100,000 people die each year within 30 days of a surgery.

As Simulated Intelligence reminds us: “It is important to note that “routine” does not mean zero risk.”

Before your body starts writing up terms of surrender (aka aging), a bit of exploration of health ideas should be on the table.

Thus this article shall be a brief discussion of my latest observations of nutrition that truly are “anti-aging”.

What is “anti-aging”? There are two aspects of anti-aging, the first and easiest is slowing down aging, the second is reversing aging to make the body function as it did when it was younger. This second is of course far more difficult and controversial.

First it is essential to address the basics. I’m not a believer in “magic pills”. First make sure you are consuming a very healthy diet and staying physically active (fit). Second, boost your nutrition with fundamental supplementation. Third, do not underestimate the critical value of a positive mental attitude!

Now that you have that healthy base, you are ready to seriously dive into attempting to reverse aging or seriously slow it down.

In March 2025, I started taking a reasonable (should be effective) dosage of “He Shou Wu”. This is a Chinese herb long regarded to promote a long life (250+ years?) and most famously restored the hair color of Mr. Wu (at age 132?). The boost of He Shou Wu didn’t have any major noticeable impact. Was I wasting my money? (this is 3,000 mg/day of a 10:1 processed extract for a cost of about $1.33 per day) Note: a lot of companies will sell you various forms of He Shou Wu so it can be a bit of a nightmare finding one that might actually benefit you and avoiding the unhealthy versions.

Well, the He Shou Wu wasn’t a miracle, so on with the search for something more effective. Note: I have continued and increased the He Shou Wu. Currently I’m taking 4,800 mg per day.

There are many theories about what causes aging. One of the most important is mitochondrial health. Of course you know that mitochondria are the little energy power plants producing ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) that yields the energy to power your body. Without power you are going to be “old”.

I’ve been taking Nicotinamide Riboside for quite a while (at least more than seven years now), but only 300 mg per day. At that dosage I didn’t notice any benefit. Just because you don’t notice a benefit, doesn’t mean it isn’t helping you.

After a bit of research, I discovered that a dosage of 900 mg per day was very effective in research studies. So in October 2025, I started taking 900 mg per day of Nicotinamide Riboside. Wow! Very noticeable!

The visible evidence is color slowly being restored to my hair.

More noticeable, although not visual, is the boost in energy.

Meditation is very healthy, taking a meditation break in the middle of each day has been a cornerstone of my life for the past thirteen years. This recent change has surprised me. Having so much energy that I find it difficult to take my usual daily meditation break was a change I didn’t expect. I’m still meditating, most days, but now it’s often a challenge to stop and take a break from life!

Back to some technical stuff, nicotinamide riboside is a precursor boosting NAD+ levels. This boosts mitochondrial energy production. But also it activates sirtuins, those magical molecules in resveratrol that reverse aging.

The nicotinamide riboside supplement that I take also includes some resveratrol. More important is that I also take a high dosage research grade, 98% purity, resveratrol supplement. Most resveratrol supplements sold are only 50% purity (the other half being just “weeds”). Thus providing my body with plenty of sirtuins for the NAD+ to activate.

Ubiquinol (CoQ10) also deserves specific mention for it’s role in ATP production. Research has shown however that more isn’t necessarily better, optimal dosage is between 100 to 200 mg per day. Currently I’m taking 100 mg per day of ubiquinol.

Red Light Therapy should also be mentioned. Testing devices to find ones that actually are effective has led me to a few red light therapy devices which I use and consider valuable. Red Light Therapy works, in theory, primarily by boosting mitochondrial production of energy (ATP). Phase IV of the electron transport chain is activated by red light. If you don’t consume a lot of plant leaves, you probably should supplement with some chlorophyl / chlorophyllin.

ATP production (and dealing with the oxidative stress it generates) requires twenty one minerals, thirteen vitamins, eight amino acids and two fatty acids. Plus carnitine, CoQ10, cysteine, taurine, glycine and lipoic acid. It should be clear that no single nutrient is the miracle cure for low energy production. Whatever your particular body lacks the most will be the bottleneck.

The Army has a slogan: “Be all you can be” - It’s not a bad slogan, but instead of joining the army, my suggestion is to provide your body with the nutrients it needs so that whether you are twenty or seventy, you can “Be all you can be”.

On a daily basis, I find myself frustrated at how much work I have to do in order to buy from or hire a business. The obvious result of this is that businesses that are easy to work with get repeat purchases from me, while many other businesses lose out on a sale because I get disgusted with how much work it is before I can actually buy anything.

This starts with making your business easy to discover.

This of course means advertising in one form or another. Word of mouth can only go so far! It’s shocking how many companies don’t have a website, don’t have an email address and/or completely fail to reply to email.

Why don’t other people have this issue? I’m sure they do, but many will just go with the flow, grumble under their breath, and usually pay more, or buy lower quality, because it’s easier to just continue on, even at a higher cost, than it is to do the work to try and find a better company to work with.

(Not a good way to do business)

Another mistake is not making doing business enjoyable. If the business has a physical location, there should be ample parking, the building should be attractive and clean, and the staff should be friendly and welcoming.

Interactions should be positive: fun and polite. Not negative and confrontational.

Quality, or rather lack of quality. Selling low quality products (or doing poor quality work) does not encourage repeat business.

These same concepts apply to employment. As an employee, your number one job is to make your manager’s life easier. As a manager, you should appreciate employees that make your life easier. An employee should not have to work to figure out what is desired from them. A manager’s job is to make it easy for an employee to get their work done. The first step of course is to clearly communicate what work they should be doing!

This morning I was reading some intriguing comments (about advice from some books) and thought I’d comment on them.

“Getting wealthy and staying wealthy are opposite skill sets“ – to a certain extent: yes! To get wealthy you need to take risks. To stay wealthy you need to manage risks.

“Staying rich requires... paranoia, frugality, humility, and the constant low-grade terror that what you’ve built can be taken from you” – this means considering possible unforeseen (by most) futures. One example is the typical person that spends an entire career paying social security taxes only to face the repeated claims that “social security is going to go bankrupt in the near future”.

Most doomsday predictions sound like hitting a brick wall suddenly. No, these things almost always play out slowly. In the case of social security, the retirement age continues to be pushed back, the SS tax rate continues to increase, and the maximum wage subject to SS tax has increased. More subtle is that the cost of living adjustments never keep up to the true rate of inflation, so once you start collecting, the value of what you are being paid slowly fades away.

This is a major reason I recommend not depending 100% on social security for your retirement!

“The single most important thing you can do as an investor is not die.” Absolutely! The longer you live, the more your investments can compound and grow. The subtle other angle of this is that you can’t put all of your wealth in one basket. Dying financially is losing everything such that you have nothing to rebuild with.

This gets into the concept of diversifying. Pretty much every financial advisor will advise you to diversify. However, too much diversity in your investments will mean mediocre gains. That is not a path to great wealth.

I’m all for lots of little investments for diversity. This can be educational! But the bulk of your wealth should be in just a few key investments which have a fair amount of risk and correspondingly great returns. Off the cuff, I’d suggest three to six main investments.

“Here’s the number that should change your life: $81.5 billion of Warren Buffett’s $84.5 billion net worth came after his 65th birthday.“ – this is a deceptive statement. First of all, this means that Warren was already absurdly wealthy at age 65 with $3 billion dollars! Second is that he is now 95 years old, so he has had 30 years to turn $3 billion into $84 billion. That is an annual rate of return of slightly over 20%. I’ve personally done far better than that over the past 17 years. Unfortunately I didn’t start with $3 billion dollars.

What is key about this statement is that compounding over a long span of time (thirty years) yields huge gains!

The rate of return you make is critical though! If you invest $1,000 for thirty years (no additional contributions), your wealth increases to:

• $3,243 at a 4% rate of return

• $17,449 at a 10% rate of return

• $66,212 at a 15% rate of return

• $237,376 at a 20% rate of return

• $807,793 at a 25% rate of return

• $2,619,995 at a 30% rate of return

Overall, it’s absurdly unlikely anyone can maintain greater than a 30% rate of return for thirty years! Unless of course you are investing in buying politicians. {grin}

My recommendation is to aim for 25% and be happy if you achieve 20%. If you aim for only a 15% rate of return then you are going to fall in what I consider typical or average. It’s unlikely you will become wealthy with only a 15% rate of return. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be completely happy! But it does mean that you need to contribute more than $1,000 over thirty years if you wish to accumulate any decently large amount of money.

“Your life is the sum of your experiences, money is stored life energy, and if you die with money unspent, you have wasted the hours of your life you exchanged for it.” – this nugget of wisdom leads us to some thoughts. First of all, you want money to work for you, not you working for money! This makes investing critically important, because if your only income is from working, then you will truly slave away to make all your income. If on the other hand, you invest a little money, that money can make you more money with virtually zero effort.

I’m okay with dying with a fair amount of money. It makes me happy to think my children and grandchildren will have a nice inheritance. This is also a reminder to actually spend some and enjoy your life! Giving up life in the endless quest for “more” money seems foolish to me.

“The trip you took at 35 pays dividends for forty years. The trip you planned for 75 pays dividends for five, if your knees cooperate.“

Yes, keep those knees in good shape! Health is your best investment! Aim to live (in good health) for over 100 years, not for 75 years!

Consider your “net worth peak”. Your aim shouldn’t be for your wealth to continually climb forever. A life well lived should have a peak in wealth, after which your wealth stays stable or declines slowly.

Let’s end this mostly philosophical discussion with a few suggestions.

Buy gold! Gold is currently at $4,677 per ounce. Many major sources have said gold will reach $6,500 per ounce by the end of the year. That’s a 40% rate of return on a very safe investment. Will it actually go up that much? Probably. Sure there is a chance it won’t go up that much, but there is also a large chance it will go up a lot more.

My recommendation to buy gold and silver five years ago has turned out to be excellent advice. Nothing has changed (in the big picture of the world). The USA is still massively in debt and going further into debt. The central banks continue to “print” money causing inflation so the price of any hard asset will increase along with at least the amount of inflation (ignoring the usual up and down bounces that constantly occur). Humans still haven’t learned how to get along with each other. War hasn’t gone out of style, the world is full of risk.

Don’t tell me you can’t afford gold. If you’ve got $20, you can open a CyberMetals online account and buy a little gold.

As for stocks, some of my primary recommendations now are:

• Silver mines – these companies should continue to do extremely well in the near future.

• Energy – specifically nuclear energy. Energy is the lifeblood of the economy, so any company that can provide energy has the potential for a great future, specifically new technologies such as “small module (nuclear) reactors”

• Space & Robotics – ignore it if you wish but the wealthiest person on the planet (Elon Musk) is pushing forward very strongly in these areas. There are a lot of companies that have the potential for huge growth in the next three to five years.

If you want an entertaining read, consider reading Charlie Garcia’s “Capital Mischief” (much of this article was inspired by his latest post).

Ikigai – “A reason for living” – combining “iki” meaning “life” and “gai” meaning “to be worthwhile”. What gives your life meaning? This might be as simple as enjoying a mug of hot chocolate!

Kaizen – “Continuous improvement” – combining “kai” meaning “change” and “zen” meaning “good”. Are you continuously improving? This concept was actually introduced by the American’s to Japan after World War II. It doesn’t have to be just a business philosophy, it works well as a concept for life.

Mottainai – “Regret over waste” – this encourages us to be mindful of our consumption, grateful for things we have, and values sustainability while finding beauty in objects that have been repaired.

Oubaitori – “Don’t compare” – life is better when you don’t compare yourself to others. Everyone is an individual and unique in their own beauty and talents.

Shikata Ga Nai – “Accept what you can’t control” – like the French “c’est la vie”. Focus on what you can control, don’t stress about things you have no control over.

Shoshin – “A beginner’s mind” – approach life with the view of a beginner. Excitement, openness and a willingness to learn.

Wa – “Harmony” – live in social harmony with others. Embrace humility and let go of your ego.

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Early in my life, a few wool clothing items convinced me that wool was uncomfortable (scratchy / itchy). So I pretty much ignored wool for most of my life.

N.Peal’s James Bond cashmere sweaters changed my mind! Those are absolutely delightful to touch. Like petting a cat!

That led me to buy a pair of cashmere joggers. Again, very comfortable!

Also wool / alpaca socks I’ve found to be superior to cotton.

So I decided to give some wool underwear a try. I ordered some “Forvevo” (never heard of them before).

Amazing! Wonderfully comfortable.

Keeping an open mind can be valuable!

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People panicked in 1929 with the stock market crash. We have stories of people jumping out of windows committing suicide because their wealth was evaporating. The initial crash unfolded over roughly two weeks in October 1929. The decline continued for almost three years, for a total loss of 89%. The recovery was even slower. Not until 1954 did the stock market again reach the peak it had in 1929. Twenty five years! Ouch.

2007/2008 saw a drop in the stock market of about 50%. This occurred over roughly a year and a half. The peak was regained in 2013, only about five years later.

Where is the talk of the crash of 2022? The Biden Administration oversaw the Dow Jones Industrial Average drop from 36,338 to 28,725 during the first nine months of 2022. A drop of 21%. In the same time span the NASDAQ dropped from 15,645 down to 10,466. A drop of 33%. Last year we had a pretty severe drop from January to March. Crashes happen.

My view is that crashes are a result of greed. A banking system which loans too much money for speculation, not productive expansion.

Keep in mind that these crashes are of “paper wealth”, not real wealth or day to day activities. Unfortunately, the impact on any single individual can be catastrophic if they lose their job.

With fiat money, we have softened the crashes at the expensive of long term inflation. This lets the wealthy speculate (and get richer) while crushing the common person via inflation.

Undoubtedly we will have more crashes, however what I’m more concerned by is the collapse of the empire of the USA. This has been going on for about fifty years already!

How long did the decline of the Roman Empire last? Roughly 200 to 300 years.

How long was the decline of the United Kingdom? I’d say roughly a bit over one hundred years.

Modern empires typically have a cycle of about three hundred years. Empires crumble usually over a period of about one hundred years. Hapsburg Spain collapsed from roughly 1600 to 1700. The Dutch collapsed from roughly 1700 to 1800. China collapsed from roughly 1800 to 1900. France collapsed from roughly 1850 to 1950.

Nations haven’t ceased to exist, they have lost their wealth and power in the constant shift and struggle of one people vs others.

How does a collapse impact the common person? Usually by suffering through greater tyranny (much like the Soviet Union or the modern day United States). Governments grasp to retain power by imposing more tyranny and forcing more and more people to become dependent (welfare / social programs) upon the government for survival. Often wars become more common. With modern surveillance technology the threat of tyranny is greater than ever.

The Zombie Apocalypse isn’t going to happen overnight. It’s been a gradual process of decades. People come home from work, have a beer (or six), park themselves in front of the TV (or a video game) or now pull out their phone and doom scroll.

What is the primary thing you can personally do in order to ride through a crash? Have patience.

What is the primary thing you can personally do in order to ride through a collapse? Own solid real wealth: gold and silver (or own a productive business).

Do you save every penny possible in order to have a better future? (my Dad)

Or do you spend my money now and enjoy life without concern for the future? (my Mom – note: she didn’t spend it on herself, she was very generous in helping others. In particular my brother and myself.)

Naturally you can imagine these conflicting approaches created numerous marital problems for my parents (who foolishly enough didn’t get divorced until they were seventy!).

Juggle these opposing approaches? (Me for most of my life) Spend in bursts, to enjoy life, but also save and plan for the future so you can have another burst to spend.

What I failed to do for most of my life / career was to “pay yourself first“. In other words, every time you have income, invest some of it. Then pay your bills and party with the rest.

Now after bungling the sale of my Minnesota house, I’m very much in the mode of invest every penny to assure a comfortable retirement.

Which brings me to “define comfortable“. In theory, if I trusted inflation wouldn’t go insane, I could retire this summer with very little extra for fun or trips. Basically spend the next fifty years reading books and writing articles. 😇

Or I could stick with my plan to not retire for three more years, invest like crazy and then if I do moderately well at investing, I’d have an extra $18,000 a year to spend on “fun”.

Planning for the future has one major flaw: the future is unpredictable.

My guess is that most people planning retirement are not factoring in inflation, or at least not true inflation. Since 1985, the USA has averaged 5.7% inflation. If you are retiring on Social Security as your primary income, keep in mind that only three times in the past twenty years have Social Security cost of living adjustments kept up with inflation. On average, the Social Security cost of living adjustment is less than half of inflation.

Balancing a budget involves not just looking at the income you will have, but also what your expenses will be. If you are relying on Social Security 100%, you might be comfortable at first, but after a decade you might be feeling a financial pinch (with no options to do anything about it).

For myself, I’ve adjusted my expenses so that I can live comfortably on just social security, with a big cushion built in for inflation. In addition to that, I have my retirement accounts (Roth, IRA and 401k). IRA’s have the requirement of RMDs (Required Minimum Distributions) which means that at age 73 you are forced to start drawing a significant amount. Your children didn’t need any inheritance did they?

What is financially comfortable for you?

Have you achieved it? Will you achieve it? Are you still living in a fantasy that a miracle will happen in the future?

Do you have a plan? Do you need help making a plan?

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As usual, I would advise that nothing is “Yes / No”, “Black or White”. Every situation has it’s good points and bad points.

So here is my view on the Iran situation:

We are in the dark, looking out into the dark.

Of course, those of us with nearly zero influence can basically do nothing but “wait and see” (and spew out opinions).

Consider a few points:

Do we want Iran to have nuclear weapons?

Do we want Russia to have nuclear weapons?

Do we want North Korea to have nuclear weapons? Spoiler: they already do.

Do we want the USA to have nuclear weapons?

Hopefully we can all agree that weapons of mass destruction (lethality) whether they are nuclear, biological or of any other form, are undesirable. Nuclear weapons are a reality and many nations already have stockpiles. So far, a bit of restraint has kept them from being used since World War II.

Is it desirable for nations to interfere with the culture or politics of other nations?

Jenna McCarthy wrote another interesting article on the attack on Iran. She uses a real life experience to illustrate when intervention can be the right thing to do, while at the same time being horrified and terrified that your loved one might be hurt in the action. My counter point would be that there is a big difference between seeing, with your own eyes, someone being hurt vs speculating on a war happening on the other side of the world, instigated by people who have information sources the rest of us don’t have.

Another important point to ponder is the comment from a person in Germany who has been to Iran: “The people of Iran hate their government, but they hate the USA and Israel just as much or more.”

The saying “Live by the sword, die by the sword.” is perhaps worth remembering. If someone kills their neighbor (for whatever justification), it follows that another neighbor might kill them (for some other justification). Violence should not be celebrated. Our first reaction should be horror.

Something I try to do is tie world events back to how it impacts our own lives. So a few more points to ponder:

War is profitable. Are you one of the ones profiting from it? Or are you one of the people paying for it?

Is spending huge amounts of money on the USA military desirable? Certainly this increases inflation and thus hurts the common person, but it also boosts the wealth of the rich. Historically military conquest has been a path to wealth, but the greatest success has been enjoyed by the USA sitting back, letting other nations waste their money on warfare, while profiting by selling arms. Has modern warfare evolved into a new approach where an enemy is defeated and quietly business opportunities are opened up for those with connections?

If the war costs the USA a few hundred billion dollars, will our companies profit by more than that in the future?

The violence in Iran is going to drive up oil prices, at least temporarily. Increases in fuel costs results in increases for the cost of just about everything else. Perhaps that will be offset by lower oil costs, for a longer span, in the future? Short term economic harm, but perhaps long term economic benefit?

Will this bring more stability to the world in the future? In at least the short term, we can expect the price of gold to increase. More war equals higher gold prices. Surprisingly, gold is only slightly higher priced since the start of the attack.

Only slightly related:

Yesterday, at Target, I watched a person push their cart to a cart corral, further than it would have been for them to push the cart back inside! Come on people, pull your heads out of your asses and start thinking!

Maybe I’m crazy, but every time I visit a store, I push a cart in as I walk in. This costs me nothing, it’s not even an inconvenience. If everyone did this, we wouldn’t have to waste money paying for store staff to have to bring carts in.

Let’s all do our part, even if it’s tiny, to make the world a better place.

Until 1540, inheritance was simple: the oldest son got everything.

Then we had to muck it up with lawyers and introduce some semblance of fairness and individual desires.

Every state in the USA has different laws for handling wills, so it’s very difficult to write a short comprehensive guide.

Some basic information:

Set up beneficiaries on all of your accounts. These will take precedence over your will (if you even have a will). To repeat: your will has no effect on assets (like a bank account or 401k account) that you have specified a beneficiary for!

Your goal should be to have no “probate assets”. If everything is already accounted for, with a specified beneficiary, then you don’t need a will. But if you have minor children then you may want a will (if you haven’t set up a trust).

If you want specific items to go to specific people, instead of specifying that in a will, you may want to make a “letter of instruction” also known as a “personal property memorandum”.

If you name an executor in your will, you may want to name an alternative in case the first person dies before you! Talk to the person you’ve named as executor so they know where to find the paperwork!

Never “scratch out” to update a will. Make a fresh copy (new will)!

You may want to download this checklist to help you organize:

https://www.americanbar.org/products/inv/book/421855729/5460229-download/

You might want to buy Sally Balch Hurme’s book “Checklist for My Family: A Guide to My History, Financial Plans, and Final Wishes, Second Edition” ($20 for paperback).

Now a bit of trivia:

In ancient Egypt a small figurine was placed in the tomb to act as a proxy to ensure the deceased’s wishes were carried out.

The “rule against perpetuities” in some legal systems limits how far into the future a will can control property. This prevents multi-generational control of assets.

In medieval England, “Widow’s Wit” was a clause which could be added to allow the widow to retain a portion of the land for life.

A bit of trivia: only about one third of people in the USA actually have a will. The percentage of course increases with age.

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A postmark will now date when the post office processes your mail, not when you dropped it off.

Humanity continues to cut corners and make life difficult for the common person.

So be careful and make sure you mail your bill payments, legal paperwork, tax return or anything else time sensitive: early!

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