Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for October 01, 2020

I’m too lazy to find the article online, but some magazine writers tried the “close your eyes and throw darts at business names on a cork board” approach, and their “predictions” were among the upper half of major stockbrokers for their accuracy.

Back in the old days when I was in university our business prof told us that most brokers go bankrupt following their own advice.

Yes but are her predictions more accurate than the predictions of the President of the United States? She has better hair.

Best investment advice I heard of -

It was suggested for the person to go home and look around their home. Products that seem to be often used – invest stock in those. The lady went home and eventually aimed for Procter and Gamble (soaps and hair products), and Purina (dog, cat, and horse foods).

Picking cards regarding houses of cards.

On record, the best way to increase your value long term is to simply buy shares in a no-load fund that tracks the S&P or Dow-Jones portfolio. Other options give better results SOMETIMES but they give (much) worse results TOO. Compound interest works best if you don’t keep resetting it to a lower value from time to time.

CFA – Certified Financial Astrologer.

and love the look on the faces of satisfied costumers!

she’s probably more reliable than the old broker…

At this crazy time & at my age, it’s time to invest in people.

My idea of a long-term investment is buying next year’s calendar. These days, it’s still risky.

Way back in 1980 during the Republican primary George H.W. Bush called Ronald Reagan’s economic plans “voodoo economics.” I can’t recall who said it, but the best take on it was “I don’t object to the term ‘voodoo economics’ because it is inaccurate, but because it is redundant.”

The stock market is a crap shoot. I used to shoot crap but I stopped. I still shoot the sh1t, once is a while.

That’s what I thought about Conagra.

Years ago, university econ prof told us about picking stocks. Said to get WSJ and read the stock tables. Think about it for a time, then stick a pin through the pages at random. Look at your choices. Think again. Then use the paper for fire starter, sit back with a hefty belt of good booze, and count yourself lucky to be alive. Worked for me. Still does 60 years on.

Broker. Is that really the name of a profession you want connected to helping you acquire wealth for retirement?

“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.” ― John Kenneth Galbraith

(sees dialogue in the cartoon; senses a certain part of a conversation)

And yet she’s still better at making money than Donald J. Trump.

Back in the 1990’s, when it was almost as cheap as silver, a friend of mine talked me into investing some money ( not a lot, unfortunately ) in palladium. I couldn’t really afford to buy a lot of gold, and platinum, in those days was more expensive than gold, so I took his advice.

One of the few times a long-term investment has ever paid off for me. I still have some palladium coins and Troy 1oz. bars. Back in 1996 when I bought them, they were about $125 USD per ounce. They’re now $2,389 per ounce!

Remember, it’s not an “exact seance”.

Years ago one of the financial papers or magazines did an annual thing with a chimp and a list of securities. Sometimes the chimp beat the market indices for the year. On average they were about the same.

The Stock Market is all a bunch of smoke and mirrors anyway.

“Buy land. They ain’t makin’ any more of the stuff.” —Will Rogers

Why was astrology invented?

To make economics look like a science.

There are some novels set in Victorian San Francisco. The protagonist is a widow who is very adept at financial affairs, having been trained by her father in New York. Since no self-respecting businessman at that time would ask a woman for financial advice she styles herself as a gypsy fortuneteller. She is very successful. M. Louisa Locke. First book good. Second is good but involves some paranormal stuff. That’s all I’ve read. Got them from Google Books.