Although 2034 seems a long ways off, not too early to be rethinking Social Security plans.  It’s due to run out of assets during our lifetime.  2034 is when the Trust Fund part runs out.  Assuming we get lucky for 13-more years! Actually, we doubt it will be that long.  Because Covid 19 and the … Read More

Getcherass outa-bed and hoptuit!  Enough of this fenagling around the house and rat killing!  Time to get out of bed and go make (or destroy) something. I’ve decided on the latter.  Because, as mentioned in the Monday column, looks to me like the price of lumber is out of slumber, so with kids in schools … Read More

Markets in Coriolis Enjoy the euphoria while you can.  There are serious reasons for concern which we will poke at for a moment.  Since getting the rest of the year wrong could be life-altering. Seasonality Matters September is almost traditionally one of the worst-performing months for the stock market.  It is up there – in … Read More

Reader Notes:  Because high frequency ham radio antenna design is maybe not your “thing” it’s a good idea to read the Saturday column (Part 1) to grasp some of the underlying technical angles. There is one general shop tool note at the end of this article.  If you’re not a ham, that may be more … Read More

Bet you didn’t know there are over a million drones now registered in the U.S., did you?  Are there any prepping angles to them?  The answer, says your newly-minted Part-107 Remote Pilot is “Hell yeah!”  It’s a long weekend and care to guess who has play on his mind? Of course, there’s the money-stuff, too: … Read More

Reader Note:  This is a grown-up discussion about my years-long pursuit of the Perfect Ham Antenna. It actually relates closely to our usual Sunday ShopTalk format because building a serious ham radio antenna is as much about the execution of construction plans (and parameters) as it is about the underlying electronics. Point being?  If you are … Read More

The Jobs Report is out – and as we’ve been telling you, it doesn’t look half bad. “Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 235,000 in August, and the unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 5.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. So far this year, monthly job growth has averaged … Read More

It’s axiomatic that there’s a modest upside bias to markets ahead of three-day weekends.  There’s also a bias to summer rallies.  Perhaps related to more “sunshine Vitamin D” when people are out in it. Or, it’s just the Federal Reserve trying to paper-over the Second Depression which was ushered in a year-and-a-half ago when Covid-19 … Read More

I don’t like to be overly focused on “automatic money.” But it’s important to look at our returns on personal investments of time… Especially when some people spend hours every day looking at stock prices.  Is there a good ROI in that? Automatic Money is a simple concept and it can usefully guide your “side … Read More

Housing is up more than 18-1/2% in one year!  Want to ring the bell when you feel hyperinflation due to Fed money jiggering? YEAR-OVER-YEAR The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, reported a 18.6% annual gain in June, up from 16.8% in the previous month. The … Read More

Can someone please explain to me who is running up the market?  We’re pretty sure that rampant CV-19 in a country whose military was just embarrassed by an inept CiC, and which will scream through $30-trillion in federal debt shortly, isn’t something a sane person would go out and “invest in.” Sure, gamble…aye, that’d be … Read More

We can already plot out the week, so an early column.  Got up in the wee hours with my “brain on fire” about this week’s topic on Peoplenomics Wednesday:  Automatic Money. Before digging into that, our Monday cuppa is pretty-much tame: Tick-Tock in Kabul Sorry, but color us skeptical of this report:  “Taliban promises it will give … Read More

With the holiday weekend ahead – and a break in summer weather across the South from hurricane Ida, due to come ashore within the day – time to line up projects and tools for the big important projects this Fall. With this in mind, a quick overview of the first of our Four Shop Operations … Read More