Saturday, May 26, 2018
Straight Talk from Al Jacobs
HOW NOT TO INVEST
A newspaper ad caught my attention: “Are You House Rich and
Cash Poor?” The seminar they held made it clear. As the lecturer explained,
“your personal residence has all that money locked up just sitting there,
virtually unemployed.” They recommend the homeowner incur a mortgage loan
through their featured “Mortgage Consultant” and permit their “Wealth
Strategist” to invest that money for you.
Let me offer a second opinion. Home equity isn’t
unproductive. My residence, delightfully
free and clear of mortgage, has a monthly rental value. I’d need to generate a
good bit of income if I had to rent my own house. Who sez I’m getting nothing
by having it paid-off?
But it’s more than just a matter of money. I reject the
concept. It’s not smart to take out a loan on your home, which must be paid, to invest in something
that might not generate enough to make the payments. And in this case you’ll
not even be in control. Your fate will be in the hands of a Mortgage Consultant and a Wealth Strategist you don’t even know.
As crazy as this may seem, many persons select their
investments with no more thought than by response to mass solicitation
advertising like this one. This is not a winning formula. Instead, the route to
financial independence requires that you simply avoid these sorts of schemes,
that you know exactly what you’re doing, and that you at least oversee, if not
directly control, the details of your investments.
Al
Jacobs, a professional investor for nearly a half-
century, issues weekly
financial articles in which he
shares his financial
knowledge and experience.
You
may view them on http://www.roadwaytoprosperity.com
Saturday, May 19, 2018
Are your medical bills going up as your care gets worse? You ain’t seen
nothing yet. www.roadwaytoprosperity.com
Straight Talk from Al Jacobs
MEDICAL CARE PROGNOSIS
Our
nation’s health system is now facing a lot of trouble. I’ll spell out the
problem. Medical care is increasingly costly while a growing number of
Americans can’t afford it. Any solution will be tough, because it gets mixed up
in the politics. It will mean our elected leaders will have to take more money
from some of us to give it to others. And all the while those in the health
care business will find themselves working more and making less.
Another
complication is that we’ve come to expect employers to pick up much of the
bill. The result: An increasing number of businesses are ridding themselves of
employees and transferring their assets outside our borders, beyond the reach
of regulators and tax collectors. And lastly, the effective tax rate on a
middle class working American is nearing 50 percent. There’s little slack.
Where will the extra money come from?
Here are my predictions for the future. As medical costs
increase, benefits must shrink. As this happens, government will become ever
more a presence, as a host of laws are passed. For the first time benefits will
be tied to each patient’s income and assets. With this the rule, I foresee our
nation becoming a single payer system, where an HMO run by the federal
government is how it will be for all.
A final comment: For those of you who know how Medicaid
works today, you now know how health care will work for everyone in the future.
Al
Jacobs, a professional investor for nearly a half-
century, issues weekly
financial articles in which he
shares his financial
knowledge and experience.
You
may view them on http://www.roadwaytoprosperity.com
Saturday, May 12, 2018
Do you feel a little sick some days? Check out your stash of cash and you
might find out why. www.roadwaytoprosperity.com
Straight Talk from Al Jacobs
PROSPERITY KEEPS YOU HEALTHY
It’s pretty well established physical health and mental
wellbeing are tied closely together, with estimates that as many as half the
ailments we suffer from are caused by what the doctors call psychosomatic.
What’s less understood is that a main cause of mental anguish is money – a lack
of it. Isn’t it reasonable to expect
that bill collectors beating on the door cause headaches … and God knows what
else?
Just as physical and mental wellbeing don’t come without
working at it, the same is true for financial health. If your MasterCard
borrowing always approaches the credit limit, so you have to pay massive
interest charges when paying just the minimum payment, you’re inviting a case
of ulcers. And if you want to sport the latest model BMW on a budget that
deserves nothing more expensive than a 2012 Toyota Corolla, then plan to have a
lot of stress, with all the symptoms that go with it.
But if you want to keep your step brisk and your smile
broad, then follow these four rules:
●Don’t buy anything by credit card that you can’t pay in
full at month’s end … in this way you pay no interest.
●Don’t get sold stuff you don’t need. Your best financial
advisor is the face you see each morning in the bathroom mirror.
●Your only vehicles are owned outright, with no borrowing of
any sort.
●You don’t go into hock to finance the education of your
children ... they’ll get their schooling on the cheap.
Al
Jacobs, a professional investor for nearly a half-
century, issues weekly
financial articles in which he
shares his financial
knowledge and experience.
You
may view them on http://www.roadwaytoprosperity.com
Saturday, May 5, 2018
A word to you cigarette smokers: You’re just as well off without a
filter. See why. www.roadwaytoprosperity.com
Straight Talk from Al Jacobs
WHAT REALLY CAUSES LUNG CANCER
A single sentence in an Internet exposé recently caught my
attention: “The tar in cigarette smoke has known carcinogens, so it’s
reasonable a filter which reduces tar content will lower lung cancer risk.”
Although my articles normally relate to the making or saving of money, I cannot
resist commenting on this.
It’s true, of course, many substances are carcinogens (an
agent causing cancer). I specifically recall when, as a chemistry prof, we were
prohibited from using a commonly employed organic compound, benzene, in our
labs for this reason. And it’s true the tar in a cigarette is carcinogenic, but
it’s not the agent causing the most pernicious health risk of all – lung
cancer. Let me tell you how it really comes about.
Tobacco is grown in a soil heavily treated with phosphate
fertilizers, which are rich in uranium and its decay products. As a result,
radioactive elements of lead and polonium become firmly attached to the tobacco
leaf. When the cigarette is lighted, the ingredients vaporize, are breathed
into the lungs and then solidify, coating the lungs’ surface areas. One of
these radioactive elements, lead-210, thereafter emits a stream of beta
particles (high speed electrons) with a half-life of 22.3 years. The result: Nearby
lung tissue is bombarded for the next half century with ionizing radiation,
capable of effecting a mutation of the cells – a recognized cause of cancer.
Consider a typical case: A person smokes a pack per day from
age 16 until wising up at 39 and swearing off. During those youthful years the
immune system is vigorous, so the cancerous cells formed are quickly destroyed.
However, by 62 the body’s defenses no longer function as effectively as in the
past. Even though the smoking ended years earlier, the radioactive lead-210 is
still emitting ionizing radiation. This explains why the ex-smoker contracts
lung cancer years after quitting.
Have you seen a smoker’s lung? It’s not pink, as is that of
a nonsmoker. It’s dark brown. What you view are the previously vaporized
tobacco leaves now coating the surface. And although you can’t see them, embedded
amidst the tobacco are countless radioactive lead-210 atoms continuing to pump
out a continuous flow of high speed electrons. You may use whatever sort of
filter you wish, but as long as the smoke gets through, so do the cancer-causing
beta emitters. Lung cancer is the end result.
Al
Jacobs, a professional investor for nearly a half-
century, issues weekly
financial articles in which he
shares his financial
knowledge and experience.
You
may view them on http://www.roadwaytoprosperity.com
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)