Comments on Wisdom Steps 101 ... Be Weird...Be Debt Free: Can You Still Believe in Buffett?

Buffet is suffering the same way that everyone els...

2009-01-25T18:25:00.000-06:00

Buffet is suffering the same way that everyone else is. That's why they call it systemic risk. When the entire market gets crushed, there simply isn't a way to avoid it unless you take a highly concentrated position and pick the right niche. Regardless, the market continues to work just fine and this market decline is actually normal. If you pull up a chart on the Dow going back to the Great Depression, you will see that we run in 15-20 year cycles alternating between zero growth and exponential growth. During those zero growth periods, there are market ups and downs that will swing 50% on the downside (like now) and 100%+ up from the bottom. It's nonsense to think our system doesn't work and for anyone thinking of taking away our right to invest in companies is nuts. Thanks for the solid post!

I don't know much about any of that stuff, just st...

2008-11-15T15:50:00.000-06:00

I don't know much about any of that stuff, just stopping buy to say hi. I still check your blog every few days.

With regard to your 401k's - in Australia ours are...

2008-11-14T14:23:00.000-06:00

With regard to your 401k's - in Australia ours are called "Superannuation Funds" and they are like highly regulated managed funds into which your employer MUST put an additional 9% of your salary.

I just recieved my statement, and despite our share market loosing 46% in the last year, my fund is down only 3.85%, but has maintained over 10%pa for the last 5 years.

Also, our government will give workers who earn under $40k an additional $1500 if they contribute $1000 of their after-tax money. In addition we can salary sacrifice - which means put money in out of our before tax income, and some employers pay more than 9% (I have heard of up to 15%.

It kind of sounds like this is the road he would like to go down, and despite its complexities I think it's a real benefit to our retirement savings - it happens without us thinking about it, we can't get at it and it saves the government money in the long term.

I like the idea of encouraging all people to get i...

2008-11-14T08:36:00.000-06:00

I like the idea of encouraging all people to get into a 401k plan. I like the idea of an additional tax credit for those, under a certain income level, who do put money into a 401k. I have not heard Obama say anything that makes me think he's intending to move everyone's 401k's into some big government owned fund....

In terms of Buffet, I still think he has the right idea. For investors that don't need their money anytime soon, this is a good time to buy. Stocks are on sale! Lord knows we consumers will buy almost anything else when it's on sale - whether we need it or not.

Dave Ramsey explained the 401k comments on the air...

2008-11-13T11:43:00.000-06:00

Dave Ramsey explained the 401k comments on the air, he said it was all right wing lies...