PCL is The New Thing!

“Retirement” is so yesterday.

How about PCL instead? PCL = Post Career Lifestyle. It may turn out to be the way to go for a number of reasons.

  • First of all, “retirement” may be impossible to imagine if you are embarking on a first job or are early in a career. I mean… age 59½?? That age is nearly irrelevant and definitely forever in the future!
  • On the other hand, “Post-Career Lifestyle” feels way more attainable and easier to imagine. Think: someday… when I can have a lifestyle that is more balanced – on MY terms – somewhere between work and relaxing.

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Money, Therapy, and Life

From the Archives of 2016… updated for the “Coronavirus Life Experience”.

Money and Therapy. Two things that people may love or hate. However, among other things, money and therapy help.

Recently I finished a must-read book for all ages – wealthy or building wealth, married or single. Anyone who wants to have a “life” someday… or even have a life NOW. The book is called The Number* and was written in 2006 by Lee Eisenberg (long time editor-in-chief of Esquire magazine) but reads like he wrote it yesterday.

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Zero Interest Rate World

Low and near-zero interest rates have become a fact of life. Rates could likely remain low for the foreseeable future based on the economic and US Federal Reserve environment. This statement is not meant to be a predictor of where interest rates are going. Still, the fact of near-zero interest rates needs to be on investors’ radar screens, as boring as the topic may sound!

The bond market and interest rates involve far, far more complicated math than stocks. Trying to predict bond prices and interest rates is mostly not worthwhile.

Near-zero interest rates needs to be on investors’ radar screens.

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The GameStop Incident

OK, I’ll admit it. Until last week I had not heard of Gamestop – the company or the stock.

Of course, I have now heard of Gamestop and more including Reddit, wallstreetbets, Webull and Keith Gill (Keith Gill was called the “Original O.G.” by one trader*). And as a financial professional I am knowledgeable about what short-selling is and how “the shorts”, as they call traders who sell short stocks and other securities, can get “squeezed”. Gamestop brought shorts, short-selling and short squeezes to an entirely new level.

As Brett Danko, the founder of my firm, recently described it, “the Gamestop incident of last week transcended the world of stock trading… both for major institutional traders and individual traders”. Keith Gill and the individuals trading off chat board messages transcended stock trading similar to how Michael Jordan transcended the sport of basketball and even Muhamad Ali transcended the sport of boxing. These people and events became larger than real life – for a time.

Emotion is nearly impossible to control in trading – especially when video and social media are added to the equation.

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