Who’s Living Large in Retirement?

Posted on March 12, 2013 by MN Gordon

Who’s Living Large in Retirement?
By Dennis Miller, Editor, Money Forever

Who fares better in retirement, pensioners or folks who saved up their own respective nest eggs?  If you look at the numbers, you might be surprised to learn who’s really “living large” after retirement.

Regardless of how you made your money, what determines if you’re rich when you retire?  Frankly, it isn’t how much money you made, but how much you accumulated that counts.  So who are the real rich people?

Retirees generally fall into one of four groups: folks who retired from the private sector with a 401(k), IRA or a lump sum payout in lieu of a private pension; those with a government pension; self-employed folks who saved their own respective nest eggs; and finally, those scraping by on Social Security alone.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that in 2010 the top 10 percent had a median net worth of $1,864,000.  If you’re worth that much or more, 95 percent of the population thinks you’re rich.  But are you? Continue reading →

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On the Good and Proper Way to Celebrate the New Bull Market

Posted on March 8, 2013 by MN Gordon

Something magical happened Tuesday.  The Dow Jones Industrial average closed at a new all-time high of 14,253…eclipsing its previous closing high of 14,164 set nearly five and a half years ago.  What a feat.

Wall Street cheered.  Jim Cramer pumped his fist.  Then, right when it seemed the day couldn’t possibly go any more favorably, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez up and croaked.  We had to pinch ourselves twice to make sure this had all just really happened.

Unquestionably, these sorts of disjointed combinations salt and pepper the world in ways we never could’ve imagined.  Would it have been possible to plan a better day upon rising in the morning?  Perhaps, yes.  Though, it wouldn’t have been nearly as random or satisfying.

Of course, we don’t like to celebrate the dead.  That’s rather uncouth.  But we’re not perfect…we do slipup every now and then.  There was this time and that time, to be exact. Continue reading →

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Dead Wrong

Posted on March 5, 2013 by MN Gordon

New evidence was revealed last week further confirming that not only is President Obama a doomsayer…he’s a liar too.  The first of the President’s deceits was amusing hyperbole.  The second was pure humbug.  Still, they were nothing compared to some other remarks out of Washington…

For while the President was busy prophesizing the apocalypse and Bob Woodward was busy calling him a liar, down the way, over on Capitol Hill, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke let out what must be the biggest whopper we’ve heard since the President uttered, “If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that.”

While responding to questions from Senator Bob Corker, Bernanke said “my inflation record is the best of any Federal Reserve chairman in the postwar period.”  We’re not kidding.  He really said this…take a look yourself.

Bernanke must think we’re all fools.  How else can one explain such a remark?  He either doesn’t know what he’s talking about or he’s two-faced.  Quite frankly, we think it’s the later. Continue reading →

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On Maximum Collective Welfare

Posted on March 1, 2013 by MN Gordon

“Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too.” – Marcus Aurelius

Gradually Reducing the Minds of Men

The Roman Republic was corrupted long before Marcus Aurelius came to be Emperor in AD 161.  The responsibility and representation of consuls had been supplanted by Caesars sometime around BC 27.  Yet the Roman Empire still ran reasonably well, for a while.

There were happy, prosperous, years enjoyed by the empire from AD 98 until Aurelius’ death in AD 180.  But, unfortunately, Aurelius’ passing was the high-water mark for the civilization.  The fortunes of the imperial power slowly receded for the next three hundred years…until its final collapse on September 4, 476, when Romulus Augustus, the last Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, was deposed by Odoacer, a Germanic soldier.

“It is scarcely possible that the eyes of contemporaries should discover in the public felicity the latent causes of decay and corruption,” said 18th century historian Edward Gibbon in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.  “This long peace, and the uniform government of the Romans, introduced a slow and secret poison into the vitals of the empire.  The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military spirit evaporated.” Continue reading →

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