As investors, there are always reasons to be cautious and reasons to be optimistic—often simultaneously. The bears and the bulls both have valid points. But to be a successful investor over multiple decades, it pays to remain optimistic.

I bought my trusty 2007 Toyota Yaris in October 2012 for $9,300 with 32,000 miles on it. Today, it has 114,000 miles--plenty of life left to live. While I have intended several times in the past to replace the vehicle for one that will better accommodate a family with five young children, the process has not quite gone according to plan.

How about getting your mortgage paid off before turning 35? Sounds great, right?

If you were living in 1900, you likely did not own any stocks. Only 1% of Americans at that time owned stocks (vs. 56% of Americans today). And if you happened to be a part of that elite 1% stock-owning group in 1900, your main investment option was railroad stocks. Railroads were 63% of US stock market value!

Everyone knows you should start investing as young as possible. But not many people actually start investing at a young age. So how can we get this message into the minds and hearts of our children and grandchildren? My oldest is just 6, so I'll have to report back to you in about 15 years on whether our family has any success in this arena.

Am I concerned about rising inflation, absurdly low interest rates, money-printing on steroids across the developed world, a US political agenda favoring higher tax rates, relatively high stock valuations (compared to the past), and increasing political polarization in the US? Yes, I am concerned about those things. But those things don’t have anything to do with my family’s financial goals, so I won’t adjust my investment portfolio based on those concerns.

The last time I wrote about bitcoin on our blog was September 13, 2018. I was dunking on bitcoin back then, gloating about how smart we and our clients were for avoiding this asset during the late-2017 hype that drove bitcoin up to $19,835. That post hasn’t aged very well. And you know what, this post may not age well, either. Predictions are the toughest game in town. An impossible task. I won’t make any price predictions on bitcoin today, but I will share a bit of what I know.

Mortgage rates are once again at their lowest point in US history. What is a homeowner to do? Still aim to own your home free-and-clear, or keep a mortgage at 2.5% for the next three decades?

I was talking with a client recently about a home he owns in a major US city (not Minneapolis). I was curious about what the historical price appreciation has been in his market, so I pulled some data on his market. The data on his city fascinated me. I then began wondering how other US cities’ real estate has performed over recent periods.

Imagine for a moment that we’re past the worst of the COVID scare. Imagine also that you aren’t watching or reading political news. Then live a typical day in America. Just how good do we have it?

“Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with the 130 IQ. Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing.” —Warren Buffett

There is no shortage of discount cell service providers these days. It's to the point where The Paradox of Choice and inertia set in, leading most folks to simply stick with the same cell provider they have always used. My wife and I switched from Verizon to Consumer Cellular in October 2017. The main only reason we switched was to save money. The tl:dr version of this post is that we really like Consumer Cellular.