Quote Originally Posted by miked View Post
I am a supporter of the Dave Ramsey way of personal finance, he has a web site and a radio program. His focus is on paying off your bills first before investing but he also pushes the slow but sure way of investing.

Once you are debt free life really does get better.

And in direct response to Copper Head's post I say starting early is the best way, time if on your side. To those who believe the concerns of the stock market loosing money I suggest you look at history the market has grown long term constantly.



Dow Jones on Friday Feb 16, 2018 25,219.38. Dow Jones was about 5400 June 1971, the year I graduated from high school. At that time a stock broker would not talk to you with less than $10,000 in your hand. The stock market was only for the rich.

Now anyone can open an account and show up $100 and start investing. There have been some real improvements.

On 1 April my father will be 97 years old and he stays in a nursing home that since he has some money costs him about $5000 per month.

Do not take the defeatist attitude "I can't do anything so why should I try". Cooper Head has supplied you with a way not to retire poor, in fact you would likely retire wealthy if you follow his advise. 73, Mike
Would for the most part concur that it's better to be debt free

**** However ****

There's the problem of inflation.

Let's say that you borrowed 100 k. to buy a house in 1980. The dollar has lost roughly 2/3 of it's value since that time. What it boils down to is that you're paying back the lender with devalued dollars that have only 1/3 the value of what he gave you.

It's a crazy crazy world. How on earth do you map your long term investment strategy when the traditional rules no longer apply ? I suppose you could bury your head in the sand and pretend inflation doesn't exist but at the end of the day you won't be any further ahead.

PM's do seem to move inversely relative to the value of the dollar. As the value of the dollar goes down the price of PM's go up accordingly. It's not a real gain but neither is it a loss.