This Question Should Change the Way You Invest

Andy Snyder|August 19, 2020

The dancing girl came back.

This time, she was here to teach. She put an ad on Facebook the day before and promised a good time… and her class filled up.

Half a dozen folks showed up to learn how to forage… and paid us to pick our weeds.

It was a hit.

Nobody got sick.

After the class, we chatted a bit. And as many conversations tend to do this time of the year, we meandered to the topic of our schools.

We went back and forth on what’s being taught these days… and what’s not.

We created a long list of essentials that have been replaced with slop when the out-of-work dancer (remember the pandemic?) jumped in…

“They still teach ballroom dancing in several schools around here,” she boasted.

“Here?” we shot back.

“Yeah, it’s launched the careers of several professional dancers.”

Our gut tightened.

“Do you mean professional as in, they make a living wage?” we asked. “Or ‘professional’ as in they went to school for eight years and now freelance on Friday nights?”

We didn’t like the answer.

Clearly our schools are letting folks down… especially when it comes to definitions.

How to Turn One Dollar Into Two

But it’s not just replacing civics classes with dance routines (yes, it’s happening) that has us concerned. Scratching our head a bit, we come to the conclusion that we’ve made our kids so well-rounded that we rubbed away the cornerstones of education.

The idea is no more prominent than in the realm of our chosen profession… taking one dollar and turning it into two.

These days most kids come out of school with a bad taste for capitalism and investing. It’s what divides us, they’re taught. It’s greedy and bad.

And yet, they’ll give Zuckerberg a buck on Facebook… and Bezos a five-spot through Amazon. And Apple shareholders rejoice each time a youngster begs for his first iPhone.

But don’t blame the kids, though. They were never taught any different.

Buy Apple for $1

It’s a big theme in what we do. Teaching folks the things they need to know – especially in the realm of money – is the core of our mission.

And it’s the idea that takes us to our mailbag… and a note from a reader who clearly doesn’t know any better.

Once again, the Kamala article is soooo pathetically off target.

Perhaps you’re so busy venting that you’re not aware that Apple and Tesla are splitting shares, which will provide more access to the average Joe vs. $1,600 a share for TSLA, etc??

Maybe more shares should be split as it’s hard to rationalize how huge companies like T are under $30 while other relatively less known stocks sell for $250 to $600+ per share.

No reason in a capitalistic society to keep share pricing prohibitively expensive in my book. The more opportunities to invest the better!

Try harder next time, will ya? – Reader A.A.

Ah… ignorance. The cozy, familiar companion of so many. It amazes us how quickly an eye becomes jaundiced when a politician’s name is introduced.

But that’s not our point.

The reason we share this note with you this morning is that those share splits that are mentioned are quickly becoming outdated.

You no longer have to wait and hope that a pricy stock will someday become more affordable.

Again, the financial press hardly covers it, but it’s now possible to get a stake of Apple for just a buck. You can buy Tesla for $5… or $10… or a single buck too.

We’ve written about it before… fractional shares.

Thanks to an innovation that debuted last October, it’s now possible to get in on just about any stock for whatever price you want to pay.

It’s an incredible thing those greedy capitalists have done. They’ve opened the door to Wall Street for anybody… with any wallet size.

The politicians are going to hate it… and the schools will ignore it.

But you can read more about it here.

Trouble Is Brewing… Still Brewing

Sometimes, though, it’s possible to know too much.

We can take all the right information and come to the right conclusion… and still get ourselves in trouble.

Take this note from a reader…

Andy, I cashed out my GM pension in 2015 and put it all in gold, silver and mining stocks… patiently waiting for the global debt bubble to pop so I can retire without worrying about the central bank and their bought-and-paid for politicians’ next move. I have been stacking since 1984. Love your newsletter. – Reader J.M.

Clearly, J.M. has been paying attention. He knows trouble is brewing… and knows a good newsletter.

But a good brew takes a while to age.

Lots of folks die waiting for their favorite bottle of merlot to reach its peak.

That’s what scares us about what’s happening today. We saw so much of it over the last decade.

Folks who are – rightfully – afraid of what’s ahead jumped off the playing field and have their money on the sidelines. Meanwhile, quite a game has unfolded. In fact, since 2009, we saw one of the longest and strongest bull markets of our lives.

Stocks more than tripled in value.

And now the bull is back and faster than ever.

It’s why we’re shouting about the notion of Dow 100,000. We don’t want folks to miss the big surge that comes before the fall.

Gold is a good move, for sure. We recently told our Manward Letter readers to double their allocation.

But we’d never say go all-in on one asset.

That’s trouble.

We’re working on a big project that pulls our entire investment thesis into one document. We’ll share it when we’re done.

And this is probably a good time to quietly make another announcement.

We’re working on an absolutely huge project. Its aim is simple… to show folks step-by-step how to trade in today’s market.

If you’ve never invested a penny… if you’re looking to get better… or if you’re a pro who wants to test out a strategy that our team has beta tested extensively… you’re going to fall in love with this project.

It’s our biggest yet.

And details are coming next week!

Buyback How-To

One more question from a reader. The answer should change the way you invest…

Thanks for the email on buybacks. I do have a couple of questions, however. Where does one find out the current potential buybacks?

By the time we find out, isn’t it too late, or, is this a longer-term play? – Reader J.N.

Great questions. Owning companies with industry-leading buyback plans is a surefire way to consistently beat the market.

We’ve done the number crunching, studied the results and think anybody who wants to outlaw buybacks needs to go back to math class (they do still teach math, right?).

But here’s the best part… unlike an earnings report or some other headline-driven event, it is not too late to buy shares of a buyback-focused stock once the announcement is made.

In fact, it’s just the opposite.

Take Walmart (WMT), for instance. Throughout 2015, it was getting beaten up… badly.

But on October 20 of that year, it announced a record-shattering $20 billion buyback plan.

That day marked the bottom of the company’s downtrend.

Shares have soared ever since… beating the S&P by 2-to-1.

Buybacks are good.

As for tracking them, there are a few options. Here’s a handy site that lists the year’s buyback announcements.

Enjoy.

And keep the questions and comments coming. Send an email to mailbag@manwardpress.com.