Nick Hopwood, Continued

1. Gravy Stack app - new app to teach kids about money and how to create value, and fight the war on entitlement. Teaches families/kids how to save, earn, and invest in a fun way. Rolling out Feb 29 is the new "freemium version". ALLOWANCE TEACHES KIDS NOTHING

 

2. Markets - inflation data came in at 3.1%, which is pretty good, but the market was expecting 2.9% so we had a sell-off. DIVERGENCE DOW THEORY - S&P 500 near all time highs still while DOW "trannies" and financials are well off their best levels. NOT BULLISH. 

 

However, if housing is removed from the CPI equation the inflation rate would be in the 1% range. This is not B.S. because of the way they calculate rent. In reality, rent is flat to down but the way the equation works they are using backwards data which is still pulling inflation higher. 

 

3. Social Security optimizer - free analysis at peakwm.com/gruber

 

4. Retirees often include a travel budget as part of their retirement goal. Saturday my 8th grade boy and I are going skiing. Turns out it is cheaper to fly to Italy to go skiing than it is to go to Colorado or utah! So that's what we are doing! Everyone thought in the internet age the travel agent career would be doomed. Instead, only the strong survive. Must add value and I would not be able to take this type of trip if not for our travel agent. 

 

5. NO LAZY MONEY - money markets still at 5.25% or buy short term treasuries and avoid that brutal state tax. 

 

6. election is less than 9 months away - a collection of clowns in Washington on the left and right - juicing government spending to reckless levels. Did you know the feds hired 36k workers in january? This is out of control - interest on the debt is $80B per month