Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2424004)

yes, debt needs to be turned around, but it will be made worse by the upcoming new tax percentages. The upper 1% will pay LESS and the middle and lower classes will pay MORE.

Originally Posted by CoachKandSportsguy (Post 2423927)

remember when in school you were a good student, and then a subject came up which you didn't quite understand as quickly as others? homework was good, but tests didn't always get the same results? You felt confident and then the results didn't happen as expected?

Starting to happen alot these days . .

In this case in poker it's called a bluff, a large bet, and the opponent doesn't get intimidated, and you start to second guess the situation. . and then realize you miscalculated, and you have to fold. .

Folding happened with Russia, the outcome didn't match the expected test results
Folding in tariffs would appear more slowly. . and with lots more spin. .

ITs called folding after a bluff. . . because a view of the world isn't a winning view of how the world works for your position. . .

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2424019)

The American consumer was tricked by large American companies that moved off shore to avoid paying Americans and to avoid UNIONS that kept wages high. We made China STRONG and now a MONSTER which competes against the US militarily. And WHY ------to make a FEW, already rich American top 1% types richer that showed no loyalty or patriotism to America. .........If America had spent money to build US factories that used AI and robotics to manufacture products that would be cheaper than off shored products -----then we would NOT be in this MESS.

Originally Posted by rsmurano (Post 2423821)

I listen to the vp at Merrill for my advice! Good luck with that. So I’m guessing he has you sitting pretty with no moves while your portfolio is down 20+%, and it’s still going down. But while you are losing wealth, the vp is still making his money, right?

Unless your vp told you to sell when your holdings were high, then he is no better than a kid on the street making a statement. Does your vp have the same credentials as Buffet? If he does, you would have a lot of cash on hand to make new stock purchases in the near future. I even know this, I sold everything last December and waiting to get back in.

If the vp told you to stay the course, in a couple of years you will be back to what you had at the start of 2025 unless you have to sell shares to live on during this downturn, then it will take longer to recover.

Market risk? IMO, you are at risk if you don’t know what you are doing financially and depend on a broker and assume you will make money in the long run. I have helped so many friends that were paying somebody to handle their investments that were not making them money, or very little money.

I sell high all the time, I can’t remember ever having a loss, maybe back in 2000, but until recently I never sold a share in a downturn until the end of 2021 and last December. Take the emotions out of selling, put a trailing stop loss on your stocks. I would happily pay a couple % in taxes if I’m making hundreds of thousands in gains, better than getting a $3000 write off every year on your taxes for losing money when selling.

Another risk is being too cautious in your investments that you never make money or very little after inflation. For example, I will never buy bonds, never have, you can’t make any money on them unless they are high risk. Annuities will never make you money in the long run and with their high fees, you’ve already lost money. There are hundreds of index funds that have very low risk, high returns, with decent dividends all with around .02-.05% fees. There were many stocks in 2023 and in 2024 that had multiple 100’s % gains and history will repeat itself in the coming months.

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2424031)

Actually, I can agree with that. I would add that it is OBVIOUS that NOT 100% of all Americans are meant to be Silicon Valley millionaires or Wall St. stock brokers. 80% of Americans would be better off working in a blue collar situation with labor UNION protections. Germany works well where management and UNION workers do NOT fight each other, but work together for the benefit of their company and COUNTRY. The US problem goes back to the elimination of high school VOCATIONAL training. That was ELIMINATED to keep property taxes LOW for the rich people with large properties.........Blue collar work SHOULD BE respected.

Originally Posted by fdpaq0580 (Post 2424020)

Any similarities to Germany pre-WWII? Asking for a friend.

Originally Posted by Pugchief (Post 2424035)

Do you have a source with facts to back up this fantasy?

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2424046)

Probably a lot. One that comes to mind Is that Germany threatened countries close around it. And the US has recently been salivating about Greenland.

Originally Posted by Aces4 (Post 2424041)

Unions were the bane of America at the point businesses started leaving. It's one thing to stand up for fair wages, safe working conditions and benefits, it's another to feed the bloated union heads and insist on ridiculous wages and trying make everyone working in a plant instant millionaires.

When you're working the line and union co-workers tell you to slow down, we don't work that fast.. that is a problem since you were dragging home healthy wages and benefits. More for less became the motto.

Originally Posted by Aces4 (Post 2424045)

I think you have a tendency to use cyclop's vision for most matters. Vocational training was eliminated due to the drop in interest because college had become the "thing" and is being restored in many school districts at this point. To proclaim it was eliminated for the benefit of the rich has no merit. It is much easier for the wealthy to pay property taxes than the middle income or poor population.

Originally Posted by Aces4 (Post 2424048)

Time for some to take a nap, the conversation has turned ludicrous.

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2424054)

Actually, the Greenlanders are worried and so are MANY CANADIANS.

Originally Posted by dewilson58 (Post 2424052)

I loved the TV comedy show "According to Jim" with Jim Belushi & Courtney Thorn-Smith.

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2424053)

Normal thinking would agree that it would/should be easy for the wealthy to pay school property taxes, but don't forget , they are greedy for MORE money. To them money is GOD. VOCATIONAL education was NOT eliminated from LACK of INTEREST. It cost MORE than just pens, pencils and textbooks. VOCATIONAL requires equipment. In my home town (back in time) we had 2 high school, college prep and vocational 50% of 8th graders went to Vocational. Girls went to hair dressing classes and food prep classes. Boys went into car repair, car body work, and even accounting assistants. That is a short history on the disappearance of Vocational schools in the US. I am sure that books have been written about it. Also, it could be googled. Believe me, I am NOT lying. I LIVED it.

Originally Posted by J1ceasar (Post 2424075)

Avocados are mostly grown in Mexico blueberries and strawberries and other fruits of grown in Venezuela and South America, all those items will either be in short supply or vastly overpriced compared to this year.
thankfully we grow beef,chickens and eggs, most feel is from Australia sorry guys you can't get your real parmesan anymore reasonable

Originally Posted by Pballer (Post 2423957)

reuters.com

Get ready for massive corruption as companies grovel for tariff exemptions.

Originally Posted by Aces4 (Post 2424097)

Avocados can be grown in Hawaii, California and Florida.

Blueberries can be grown in Washington, Oregon, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, California, and Florida.

Strawberries can be grown in fresh strawberries are primarily grown in California (roughly 90 percent annually) and Florida (about 8 percent), followed by New York, North Carolina, Oregon, and Washington and many other states seasonally.

Originally Posted by Aces4 (Post 2424094)

Could this possibly be your impression of money projected on the rich? Seriously, the wealthy people of whom I am aware are full steam ahead for education and often gifts are awarded to schools through them.

The people you are profiling for wealth sound as though they are scrambling to make ends meet and taxes make them sweat.

Originally Posted by Aces4 (Post 2424094)

Could this possibly be your impression of money projected on the rich? Seriously, the wealthy people of whom I am aware are full steam ahead for education and often gifts are awarded to schools through them.

The people you are profiling for wealth sound as though they are scrambling to make ends meet and taxes make them sweat.

Originally Posted by daniel200 (Post 2424106)

True, they can be grown in the states and then rot on the vine as the fruit pickers leave the USA. It is similar with eggs. All the large corporate “egg factories” in the USA depend on immigrant labor. Same with the beef and pork processing plants.

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2424120)

That is true, but is it RIGHT to bring in illegals to RUIN a country just for the GREED of few owners. There should be ZERO jobs for ILLEGALS. Pay US workers enough for them to work, let them be unionized to protect their HEALTH. If employers need to have slave- laborers, that is their problem. They should get into another business. Their children go to schools and clog up already overcrowded classrooms and they have no health records or immunizations. It is just a bad disgusting system that brings down America. And all for GREED.

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2424117)

The upper 10 % do NOT do things for money per se, but mostly for POWER and bragging rights. Some keep working because they like the challenge. Warren Buffet could have quit long ago.

Originally Posted by golfing eagles (Post 2423604)

That's all well and fine, but my tendency is to listen to my senior VP of wealth management at Merrill Lynch and not the "talking heads" on TV and the internet

Originally Posted by golfing eagles (Post 2423763)

EXCEPT——When that advisor is also a long time personal friend and pretty much does the same with his own money as he does with mine

Originally Posted by MorTech (Post 2424122)

What if Latvia triggers a NATO Article 5 event...What are YOU going to do?
USA has no obligation to NATO....NONE!
It ain't 1990 anymore.

Originally Posted by Boomer (Post 2424256)

Yeah, I saved him from a big tax mistake. It took him a while to listen to me though. I have no doubt it was because I am a woman. Women talking about investments seems to bother certain types of guys.

Boomer

Originally Posted by Aces4 (Post 2424227)

If one is sure "the rich", whatever amount of money that means to one, are so vile why does one stay?

It appears to be very important to some to level everything to nothing and live a programmed life. There are countries available in this world to where they can move and life their perfect life. I suggest they should pack and move on, they will never be happy with the American lifestyle. They need suppression in their life and everything squat level. Easy peasy solution and good for their health perhaps if they don't have to worry about their prejudices all the time.:crap2:

Originally Posted by Boomer (Post 2424256)

Hey, ge,

All I did was suggest a couple of general listens. No need for you to take umbrage. So a big bank’s advisor is your friend. Whatever makes you happy with your investments is certainly no concern of mine. But why be condescending?

Full disclosure from me:

I admit that I do not have a soft spot for your friend’s firm. As previously stated somewhere in this meandering thread, I am not a fan of big banks — and BAC acquired that firm for their advisory. Are BAC and its stockholders in line to be paid from advisors’ sales?

Yes, I said, “sales,” but that does not always mean what we usually think of as sales commissions on annuities or other insurance policies. I am referring to expense ratios on funds.

Expense ratios along with AUM fees go on even when the investor is not making money. (said Boomer, stating the obvious)

All financial advisors are in sales. Successful salespeople tend their relationships. I will resist asking if your friend was your friend before you were courted by his firm.

My other bias when It comes to advisors, in general, is that I would prefer an arms-length, professional relationship. That way, if breaking up becomes necessary, it is not hard to do.

A friend of mine has his money with his nephew. The friend was always bragging about his nephew’s lifestyle. When QCDs first became an ongoing thing in tax law, his nephew told him he could put his money in a DAF and not have to include it in his AGI.

In a string of emails, my friend kept insisting his “brilliant” rich nephew was right. Finally, I got an email that said, “Thank you for being so persistent.”

Yeah, I saved him from a big tax mistake. It took him a while to listen to me though. I have no doubt it was because I am a woman. Women talking about investments seems to bother certain types of guys.

Boomer

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2424291)

Yes the US IS still a member of NATO and is therefore BOUND by Article 5 which states that an attack on ONE member is considered an attack on all. Note - there are currently 30 member countries of NATO.

Originally Posted by Pballer (Post 2424131)

Or do what Florida wants to do - let teenagers work as much as they want on school days for crappy wages to make up for the expulsion of illegal workers; if they are too tired to get an education no big deal, this is Florida after all.

Originally Posted by J1ceasar (Post 2424074)

By the way I've been in importer from China for about 40 years so I think I know a little bit of what I speak.

This is probably also going to kill at least a few hundred billion of business for wholesalers and employers as well as make it a lot more expensive for the average person when they go shopping in Walmart. Everyday item is that average people buy such a sneakers or green beans may go up things like jeans t-shirts etc it's going to take one or two years for factories to relocate to places like Vietnam and Malaysia the other decided to only give 0% import tariffs to the US.
Just my two cents

Originally Posted by Pugchief (Post 2424306)

So many fallacies:
1. If more teenagers were working, less would be getting into trouble. Not instead of school, in addition. Maybe make part time jobs mandatory!
2. "Crappy wages" are paid to unskilled, somewhat unreliable teens because that's what the free market will bear. No one is forcing them to take those jobs, but most would for some pocket money. My first job in 1975 at a fried chicken chain paid $1.65/hour, well less than minimum wage and I was thrilled to get the job.
3. Illegal workers are ILLEGAL, and shouldn't be here in the first place. Even if working, the freebies cost taxpayers a fortune.

Originally Posted by daniel200 (Post 2424101)

And now 24 hours later, it seems the exemption is being walked back. Another course reversal/flip-flop.

Originally Posted by Pballer (Post 2424131)

Or do what Florida wants to do - let teenagers work as much as they want on school days for crappy wages to make up for the expulsion of illegal workers; if they are too tired to get an education no big deal, this is Florida after all.