Dennis Miller - RetireMentor - Miller On The Money

Will The Stock Market Protect You Against Inflation?

May 16, 2019 Dennis Miller Leave a comment

How do baby boomers protect their life savings from the ravages of inflation? Our recent interview with Chuck Butler got the attention of many readers. We reviewed how gold and foreign currencies performed during the high inflation Carter years. During a five-year period beginning 1/1/77, we experienced almost 60% inflation. That destroyed a lot of wealth held by seniors and […]

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The Colleges Are Training Tomorrow’s Board Room Executives

May 9, 2019 Dennis Miller Leave a comment

Good friend Ronnie (fictitious name) has owned a popular bar near a prestigious university for decades. He has me convinced the colleges are doing a great job of preparing the executives of tomorrow. As I sipped on my iced tea, I noticed young folks in line at his cash machines waiting to withdraw cash. I asked, “why two machines?” He […]

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Who Owns You?

May 2, 2019 Dennis Miller 2 comments

Richard Maybury grabbed my attention: “Think about it. There are really only two choices. Either you will own you, or someone else will.” I’ve subscribed to Richard’s “U.S & World Early Warning Report” for years. I re-read the section about capitalism and socialism. Here are some tidbits: (my highlights) “Laissez-faire (less-aa-fair) is from the French laissez nous faire – leave […]

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When Is Capital Preservation Not Enough?

April 18, 2019 Dennis Miller Leave a comment

Pundit Bill Bonner’s article about our growing government debt grabbed my attention. “…. When it comes to government debt, the borrower never pays; the feds have no money. The lenders – big banks, investment funds, well-heeled insiders – don’t want to pay. Generally, they collude with the feds to make sure the real cost is put on innocent third parties […]

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Why Buy Bonds?

April 11, 2019 Dennis Miller Leave a comment

Realizing you are wrong about a basic belief is tough. The last two weeks we discussed “The Bond Fund Risks Your Broker Won’t Tell You” and “Closed-End Bond Funds, Friend or Foe?” We concluded holding top-rated bonds is OK – individually, not in a publicly traded fund. Fund managers, chasing high returns, take risks I’m not comfortable with. If bonds […]

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Closed-End Bond Funds, Friend Or Foe?

April 4, 2019 Dennis Miller Leave a comment

In our article, “Is Your Money Manager Really Listening?”, subscriber Rick G. reported a bad experience when his money manager invested in a closed-end bond fund: “…. He put me in several Closed-End Bond Funds (CEFs). He said they were good deals as they were selling at a discount to Net Asset Value (NAV). Upon further research, these CEFs ALWAYS […]

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The Bond Fund Risks Your Broker Won’t Tell You

March 28, 2019 Dennis Miller Leave a comment

Historically, funds holding investment-grade bonds have been considered a safe investment. Lending money to hundreds of well-known companies had little chance of major default and provided interest income. Has your broker mentioned new risks emerging? Bonds ratings fall into two major groups, investment grade and high yield (called junk bonds). The bond rating generally determines the interest rate borrowers have […]

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