First Blog

The Silicon Valley Bank crisis has given us some lessons. It’s the regional banks that support the people through loans for commercial and residential real estate and for small businesses and homeowners. Big banks are purely profit machines, dependent on very low interest rates, supporting highly risky adventures like start-ups. They are the lottery players in the banking world, and now the public, through larger banking fees, will pay for their misguidance, incompetence, and greed. Summary, now we, as in you and me, bail out incompetence and greed.  Our return will be higher interest and more difficulty making loans. Wonderful.

Dear Kids,  Experts recommend you save 10% of your income each year for retirement. Do you? This is just the beginning.  Make sure you put the money into a 401K plan, the only way you can build a substantial nest egg.  For me, I would need $500,000 in savings just to pay my property tax with the 1% interest, if I invested in a bank savings account.   Put your money where you can't get at it .  Not banks. "Banks shaft you in two ways, high interest when you borrow and minuscule interest when you save." Only 39% of Americans can meet a $1000 emergency.  Can you?  If you cannot, you are in dire straits.  About 80% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.   Is you, then ditto.  Have a two month minimum, hopefully eight month financial cushion. Actually, much more if you're in your forties. About 38% of Millennials believe $200,000 is enough for retirement.  Do you?  Of course, this is ridiculous.  You need at least $1,000,000 just to begin thinking about ret