The Boring Invstr - Your Simple, Digestible Weekly Investing & Finance Newsletter

3 General News Headlines

• Two Tennessee state legislators were expelled on Thursday after taking part in a gun violence protest that halted session. A third state legislator who also participated missed expulsion by one vote. The expulsions are not final, but have support from both parties.

• Spaniard, Jon Rahm defeated the field of 88 players at The Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia this past weekend finishing -12 (276). He is the fourth Spaniard to win The Masters Tournament behind Seve Ballesteros, José María Olazábal, and Sergio Garcia.

• A Texas judge ruled against the FDA ruling to approve Mifepristone or “The Abortion Pill.” Many expect the Biden Administration to challenge the ruling.

3 General Finance News Headlines

• Over the next two years, the IRS plans to deploy $80 billion to hire 20,000 new employees. They will also introduce new technology aiming to improve customer service and implementation.

• On Monday, microinvesting app Acorns acquired GoHenry, a fintech company specializing in financial literacy and money mangement for kids. Together, the companies serve six million customers.

• Early Wednesday morning, sports merchandiser Fanatics acquired Epi, an Italian sports merchandiser. Epi provided merchandise for popular Italian soccer clubs like AC Milan, Juventus, Inter Milan, and the Italian national team.

Welcome to The Second Edition of The Boring Invstr!

I want to state my gratitude to those who read the original edition of The Boring Invstr last week! For those of you who are new, welcome!

Recently, Bloomberg released an article titled “What to Do With Your Money—and Your Life—in a Wild New World.” Claire Ballentine presents sixteen basic and unusual money questions people often ask. This edition of The Boring Invstr will help answer some of the more common and basic questions from the article. If you want to read the article in full, the link will be below.

The first question Ballentine asks surrounds putting cash under your mattress. Ballentine does an excellent job of explaining that this is a horrible idea. With inflation around six percent, cash sitting in your pocket or under your bed is losing value. Even the money sitting in your savings account is not earning as much as it could if you placed your money in an FDIC-insured high-yield savings account or treasury savings bonds (not FDIC-insured).

• The FDIC or The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation supervises financial institutions and insures up to $250,000 from insured banks per account.

Another question Ballentine asks the reader is, “Are stocks cheap?” While stocks are cheaper than they were at the peak of 2020 and 2021, they are still trading at four times their book value according to the head of MosaiQ Investment Solutions, Max Gokhman. Stocks are still overpriced, considering the surge of money into the stock market during the Covid pandemic. As inflation eats away at real income (how much money someone makes taking into account inflation), people invest less. Likely, the market will continue to decrease before it continues in its positive, long-term direction.

I’m sure you’ve also heard all the talk about a possible recession. A recession is a real possibility of becoming ever more likely despite a strong labor market. The economy is not recession-proof. It is especially not recession-proof after the influx of close to six trillion new dollars in the past three years. When the new money growth rate (usually around 3% per year) equals or is close to the inflation rate (usually between 1-2% per year) it stimulates steady positive economic growth as we have seen since 2008. Unfortunately, when you 1.4x the current money supply in three years inflation spikes leading to a short-term end of positive economic growth.

The stock market and index funds likely won't produce the kinds of returns you would like to see out of your investment account. Despite this, it is one of if not the best ways to build wealth and save for retirement.

For those of you who decide the stock market is not the best option for you currently, here are some other viable options that offer good returns with relatively low risk. As always this is purely my opinion, results will vary, and I encourage you to do your own research before you put your money anywhere.

• Gold (Often increases as it is a real asset)

• Treasury Savings Bonds (Offer a fixed rate backed by the US Treasury)

• High-Yield Savings Accounts (Offer between 3 & 4% per year)

• Hard Assets & Commodities

Link to Bloomberg Article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-04-06/what-to-do-with-my-money-a-guide-to-2023-investing#xj4y7vzkg