Enough......................

 

Being content with what you have, regardless of the number, is the true sign of wealth.

-Ben Carlson

the formula...................

 

At the Sun Valley Conference a number of years ago, Jeff Bezos told the story about asking Warren Buffett for advice on a phone call.  It went like this:

     Bezos:  "If you're the second richest guy in the world and your investment thesis is so simple, why isn't everyone just copying you?"

     Buffett:  "Because no one wants to get rich slow."

     There is no formula for getting rich in a hurry.  It's pure luck or timing.  But there is a formula for building wealth slowly.  You have to live below your means, have a healthy savings rate, regularly invest your money into risk assets and then wait.

-Ben Carlson, Risk & Reward

focus on creation.......................

 

     Debates over wealth differentials and inequality are important for every society as we seek to reduce poverty and guarantee opportunity for all citizens.  Yet capitalism is much like what Winston Churchill said of democracy: "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."  Capitalism does produce wealth inequalities but has also proven to be the most successful system at wealth creation and opportunity in history.  The focus should not be on wealth concentration alone but economic and social barriers to wealth creation.

-Jonathan Turley, Rage and The Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution

Don Surber..................

 

................lays out the impact of wealth, both its creation and its spending, on the U. S. of A.

a condition..................

 

Smith then inquired into wealth’s causes. He didn’t inquire into the causes of poverty. Smith understood that that poverty is humanity’s default mode. Nearly all people before Smith’s time — and still most people during his time — were mired in poverty. Poverty is simply the condition we suffer when wealth isn’t created. Wealth, not poverty, demands explanation because wealth, not poverty, has causes.

- Don Boudreaux, from here

Unearned wealth has its risks...........

 

The broad inflation in the prices of bonds, stocks, real estate, cryptos and just about every other financial asset produced an extraordinary surge in wealth.  In the years between the stock market trough in early 2009 and the tenth anniversary of Lehman's bankruptcy, US household wealth nearly doubled.  By late 2018, American households were worth more than $100 trillion, a sum equivalent to five times US GDP.  By comparison, household wealth in the post-war decades averaged just over three and a half times GDP.  Total household wealth was higher than at its twin peaks in recent real estate and internet bubbles.  Never before had Americans been so rich.  Never before had they done so little to amass so much wealth.

-Edward Chancellor, The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest

True, until it's not..............

 

Through time and across countries, history has shown that there is a symbiotic relationship between those who have wealth and those who have political power, and that the type of deal they have between them determines the ruling order.  That ruling order continues until the rulers are overthrown by others who grab the wealth and power for themselves.

     Wealth and power are mutually supportive.

-Ray Dalio, Principles for Dealing with The Changing World Order:  Why Nations Succeed and Fail

Hey.....what?....wait a minute...........

 

I’ve seen all sorts of estimates for the coming wealth transfer from baby boomers to the next generation.  $16 trillion. $84 trillion. $124 trillion. . . .

Here’s the one part of this conversation we’re not really touching on — The Great Wealth Transfer requires that the baby boomer generation dies off. Death and taxes, right?

-Ben Carlson, from here

Checking in...................................

 

............................with Ray Dalio:

No system of government, no economic system, no currency, and no empire lasts forever, yet almost everyone is surprised and ruined when they fail.

To see the big picture, you can't focus on the details.

What I don't know is much greater than what I know.

I have been wrong more times than I can remember, which is why I value diversification of my bets above all else,

. . . throughout time and in all countries, the people who have the wealth are the people who own the means of wealth production.  In order to maintain or increase their wealth, they work with the people who have the political power, who are in a symbiotic relationship with them, to set and enforce rules.

-All quotes culled from the early-going of his book, Principles for Dealing with The Changing World Order

naturally.......................

 

Contentment is natural wealth.  Luxury is artificial poverty.

-attributed to Socrates

Naval Ravikant.....................

 

Understand ethical wealth creation is possible.  If you secretly despise wealth, it will elude you.

Ignore people playing status games.  They gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games.

You're not going to get rich renting out your time.  You must own equity—a piece of a business—to gain your financial freedom.

-Naval Ravikant, from this Twitter thread

Certainly not my plan.....................

 

...........................So don’t expect ‘die with zero’ to become a rallying cry for the Boomer generation.

Harder than it looks..............

 

The money I have accumulated I will give away, in due time, through sources that will do the least amount of harm and the greatest possible good; but my real wealth—that portion of it which I wish to donate for the good of mankind—consists of the principles of personal achievement which I am entrusting to you.

-Napoleon Hill, quoting Andrew Carnegie in How to Raise Your Own Salary

Living better than the Royalty of old..........

 The great European cathedrals were built over generations by thousands of people and sustained entire communities. Similarly, the electric grid, the public-water supply, the food-distribution network, and the public-health system took the collective labor of thousands of people over many decades. They are the cathedrals of our secular era. They are high among the great accomplishments of our civilization. But they don’t inspire bestselling novels or blockbuster films. No poets celebrate the sewage treatment plants that prevent them from dying of dysentery. Like almost everyone else, they rarely note the existence of the systems around them, let alone understand how they work.

-from this Charles C. Mann essay

Understanding the concept..............

 

..........................................of enough.

The perfect level of wealth is the one you’re content with.

-Ben Carlson

On eating the rich.....................

  Effective anti-poverty strategies should focus on fostering self-sufficiency rather than perpetuating dependency.

-from the Mises Institute

via

All people are created equal..........

 

..............They just don’t stay that way very long.

the generational circle of life...........................

 

...........this Boomer is rooting for the Millennials.

That's a lot of equity........................

 

Since the start of the pandemic, U.S. homeowners have added more than $13 trillion in home equity. As recently as 2015, that was the total amount of home equity.

-Ben Carlson, as he looks at the housing market

Overshooting...............................

 

.....................................longevity estimates:

The financial impact of overshooting longevity estimates isn’t insignificant, the report said. According to one startling calculation, a 65-year-old man who has met his income replacement ratio goal based on age 95, but is then projected to live only up to 86 because of his high cholesterol, may potentially be able to spend an additional $447,000 in retirement.

Seriously?