Financial Wisdom

I have not read his book, Crash Proof, but it sounds like Mr. Peter Schiff could see what many of us could see coming. I really felt like the home prices around me here in Utah, as well as my own was a false, blown-up bubble that would pop. It was unhealthy, unsupported growth.

I can remember practicing in a combined choir with Brian Weston and Lynn (I can't remember his last name) when a guy next to me was asking what I thought of the government's deficit spending. I remember telling him something to the effect that anybody or any organization who continues to go into debt further and further will one day have to pay the consequences. I can remember being discouraged at the fact that the government was not balancing its budget. I am not a financial wizard, nor the world's greatest budget-keeper, but I know I feel better when I save my money and am able to make sound investments. Many of us in the U.S. have borrowed way too much and it is now coming back to bite us.

An address from President Gordon B. Hinckley has been a great guide to me in my life. It is entitled, To the Boys and To the Men, and was given in November of 1998. I include what is to me the most significant excerpt:

Now, brethren, I should like to talk to the older men, hoping that there will be some lesson for the younger men as well.

I wish to speak to you about temporal matters.

As a backdrop for what I wish to say, I read to you a few verses from the 41st chapter of Genesis.

Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, dreamed dreams which greatly troubled him. The wise men of his court could not give an interpretation. Joseph was then brought before him: “Pharaoh said unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river:

“And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fatfleshed and well favoured; and they fed in a meadow:

“And, behold, seven other kine came up after them, poor and very ill favoured and leanfleshed. …

“And the lean and the ill favoured kine did eat up the first seven fat kine: …

“And I saw in my dream … seven ears came up in one stalk, full and good:

“And, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them:

“And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears: …

“And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, … God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.

“The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one. …

“… What God is about to do he sheweth unto Pharaoh.

“Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt:

“And there shall arise after them seven years of famine;

“… And God will shortly bring it to pass” (Gen. 41:17–20, 22–26, 28–30, 32).

Now, brethren, I want to make it very clear that I am not prophesying, that I am not predicting years of famine in the future. But I am suggesting that the time has come to get our houses in order.

So many of our people are living on the very edge of their incomes. In fact, some are living on borrowings.

We have witnessed in recent weeks wide and fearsome swings in the markets of the world. The economy is a fragile thing. A stumble in the economy in Jakarta or Moscow can immediately affect the entire world. It can eventually reach down to each of us as individuals. There is a portent of stormy weather ahead to which we had better give heed.

This counsel has guided me in many decisions. I am thankful for a prophet who just simply wanted us to live wisely, both spiritually and financially.

And now, just for fun, here is an excerpt worth watching that my brother Andrew showed me today. Note how Mr. Schiff is almost mocked by some of the other investment advisors because of his opinion:

Sweet!

50 Greatest Experiences

For the past several years I have carried around in my scriptures a sheet of paper listing the beginnings of what a either a teacher in a past Sunday meeting encouraged us to to do: Create a list of 50 of your greatest experiences so far in your life. I do not remember who it was, but have resolved over this Thanksgiving weekend to finish this list that I started, and then record them in my journal.

I express my gratitude for the individual that extended this challenge and for some of the great examples of journal-writers in my life: Wilford Woodruff, Kenyon Platt, and Annie Weber.

Abraham Lincoln's "Proclamation of Thanksgiving"

Let's go back to 1863 and use this proclamation from President Abraham Lincoln to reflect on our own blessings...

Proclamation of Thanksgiving

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battlefield; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed,

Done at the city of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State

Mitt on motorcars

From my brother Andrew:

In an Opinion page editorial in today's [Tuesday's] New York Times, Mitt Romney says "Let Detroit go Bankrupt!" If this radical non-political pandering spinal fortitude behavior persists, I will quit my job and work full-time on Mitt's 2012 campaign.

Way to go Mitt!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/opinion/19romney.html?_r=1&hp

~Andrew



A teaser...

If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.

Cool toys...

When I was a kid one of our favorite toys were the two Nerf Men we got for Christmas one year. We threw them all over the house. They were probably confiscated to prevent damage because I don't remember much more of them. Maybe they were so much fun we didn't do our chores. Or maybe my dad made good on his threat that he'd "cut it in half if you throw it in the house."

Anyway, I read an article on Monday in the Deseret News about toys. It highlighted a blog, The Toy Snob, kept by Nicole Bradley that reviews creative, aesthetic, classic-type toys. I took a peek and found a toy that I almost bought for my nephews last year- the Automoblox cars:
You can drive one of these for just $32 plus shipping from a great on-line game and toy store, Fat Brain Toys. They have great deals on pretty unique games and toys. The article also talked about the purpose of toys. I remember that a lot of our play as children was invented and much of it took place outside. I remember spending hours driving our Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars around a dirt hill with my brothers and friends.

These Automoblox cars come apart and even come in smaller versions ($10) and in sets of three for $26. Pretty cool.

The mini-cars:

I had better get married and have a kid so I can get some of these... for the kids, of course.

The Land of the Free!

Don't blame it on the president!

Everyone needs to see this:



Let us never forget that we are free and accountable for our own actions.

If I were a reporter, this is the kind of stuff I would like to create.
Good job John Stossel!

More on Fannie May & Freddie Mac

Bill reflects...



Apparently Mr. Clinton states that the primarily Democratic congress during his administration shares a lot of the blame in the Fannie May and Freddie Mac problems that began to grow during his administration. Apparently a group of Republican Senators were attempting to regulate them more, but it didn't make it too far. Thanks Bill!