Powerful lessons from a memory master

I have an incredible first-time guest for you today… 

Chester Santos [15:38] is a U.S. Memory Champion… known as “The International Man of Memory.”

Chester travels all over the world, speaking to institutions and businesses on how to improve memory. While you may not have perfect recall of all Kentucky Derby results since 1875 (like he does)… you can still learn how a better memory will help you get ahead—no matter your profession…

This memory master even shares an example of how to improve your own memory in real time… Follow along, and see if you can pass the test!

Today, instead of a rant, I share a personal story with you. I know there are millions of people with similar stories… And it even relates in a way to markets and investments.

In my educational segment [43:55], I explain how screwed up our healthcare system is. And why it’s time to have some exposure to this industry. I throw a lot of figures at you, but stay with me. It’s critical to understand the risks involved with regard to our economy and stock market.

E-Commerce is Wiping Out Mall Retailers One by One. Here’s the Data

Department store sales hit a new record low in the data going back to 1992.

E-commerce sales in the fourth quarter soared 12.1% from a year ago to a new record of $132.8 billion (seasonally adjusted), the Commerce Department reported this morning. For the whole year 2018, e-commerce sales blew through the $500-billion level for the first time, reaching $513.6 billion, up 14.2% or $64 billion from a year ago.

Not seasonally adjusted, e-commerce in Q4 jumped to $158.5 billion, 11.2% of total retail sales. E-commerce sales have doubled over the past five years.

E-commerce includes sales by the online operations of brick-and-mortar retailers, such as Macy’s, Walmart, and Best Buy, along with the sales of online-focused retailers, from small operations all the way up to Amazon.

American Debt Fiasco as Millennials Sinking Under $1 Trillion in Debt!

Michael Burry Predicted the Financial Crisis. This is His Stock Portfolio Now →

Danielle DiMartino Booth Shares Her Opinion on Fed Direction

This Man Is Buying $10,000 Worth of Bitcoin Per Week

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is one of the world’s biggest bitcoin bulls. And he’s putting his money where his mouth is…

Last week, he appeared on the podcast, Tales from the Crypt. In the interview, he said he’s purchasing $10,000 worth of bitcoin every week.

Now, Dorsey’s a billionaire, so $10,000 per week isn’t much for him. But it’s significant because he’s part of a bigger social media movement called “#StackingSats.” (“Sat” is an abbreviation of Satoshi, the smallest unit of bitcoin.)

The movement is encouraging members to build up their crypto holdings during the bear market—which sounds a lot like what we’ve been saying here at PBRG…

As Crypto Income Quarterly chief analyst Greg Wilson wrote in January 2019, “use the current crypto bear market to start a stake today. I’d start with bitcoin.”

We See Double-Digit Upside Potential in U.S. Stocks Right Now

Your goal as an investor is simple... to make money.

What's the easiest way to do that? It's become an old cliché... "Buy low and sell high."

It sounds routine... like a no-nonsense formula anyone can follow. But investing doesn't usually work that way.

You see, lows can always go on to make even lower lows. And new highs can lead to even higher highs.

Your best chance to make major profits is to wait for the uptrend before buying. You want to take opportunities to "buy high and sell higher."

That's the opportunity we have in U.S. stocks right now. The market started 2019 off with a bang. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 9% so far this year.

He retired at 35 - here are some of his investment strategies

Today’s episode of the Sovereign Man Podcast features non other than Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist, Tim Staermose, talking about not one but two highly successful, targeted investment strategies with proven track records.

If you are a regular SMC or 4th Pillar reader, then you’re familiar with Tim’s wit, his financial probity, and his impressive stock picking skills. Today, he’ll tell you how he goes about looking at the markets at a time when nearly everything is overpriced.

Also, if you’re curious about Tim’s top recommendation today, you can get more details here…

A quick general summary of what’s discussed:

How to Invest a $600,000,000 (or less) Lump Sum of Cash

Buckle Up: The Next Crypto Bull Market Will Be Bigger Than the Last

Justin’s note: Today, we have a big-picture update on the crypto market from Casey Research’s in-house crypto specialist, Marco Wutzer. In January, Marco gave us his outlook on the 2019 crypto market. Since then, the market has been relatively quiet… but as you’ll see, the biggest gains are right around the corner…

Marco shows us why the blockchain and cryptos are still going to create a huge amount of wealth for smart speculators – and why the next bull market will be more powerful than the last…

By Marco Wutzer, senior analyst, Disruptive Profits

Eight seconds.

That’s how long you have to grab someone’s attention before they mentally drift off to the next thing. That’s one second less than a goldfish.

Thanks to constant interruptions by smartphones and multitasking, our attention spans are getting shorter all the time.

This is also reflected in absurd investor behavior…

Over the last five decades, the average holding period for a stock has steadily declined. It’s fallen from eight years to a mere four months since the 1960s. You can see this in the chart below:

North American Seafood Firm to Use Blockchain Tech in Supply Chain

North America’s largest branded shelf-stable seafood firm Bumble Bee Foods has launched a blockchain platform for seafood traceability. The project was created in collaboration with German tech company SAP specializing in enterprise software, according to a press release on March 8.

Based on SAP Cloud Platform Blockchain service, the new platform can purportedly monitor the supply chain of yellowfin tuna from Indonesia to end customers.

The announcement was made at the annual industry conglomerate South by Southwest Conference (SXSW) that is taking place from March 8 to March 17 in Austin, Texas, United States.

Customers will purportedly be able to observe the entire supply chain, and access information on products’ origins and shipping history by using a smart device to scan a QR code on the product package.

The blockchain-stored data will include the size of the catch, the point of capture, as well as information about authenticity, freshness, safety, and trade fishing certification.

Jim Puplava - Things Are Going to Change #4256

[INSIDE] A Stock that Goes Up During Good Times and Bad

Today my objective is simple…

I want to show you why packing up your portfolio and getting out of the stock market during scary stretches is a really, really bad idea.

As you’ll see, time in the market is the key, not timing the market.

However… I realize this is easier said than done.

Therefore, in addition I’ll also be giving you a top quality stock that will position your portfolio to profit in both a rising AND falling stock market.

This will make following through on today’s objective a whole lot easier.

So let’s get to it!

Over Time the Stock Market Does One Thing… Goes Up

The last quarter of 2018 was nothing short of a horror show.

In just the last three months of the year, the S&P 500 dropped a whopping 14%. For comparison, out of the 370 quarters since 1926, there have been only 20 that were worse than Q4 2018.

The secret to a powerful network

I’ve met some amazing people in 20 years of doing something I love. A longtime listener asks how I keep such a powerful network of contacts. The key is something you may not expect… 

I’ve been talking about growing my company, and this has led some folks to worry that we’ll take on too many subscribers… that it might become difficult to get into our recommendations. I explain why that will never be a problem. 

And there’s no such thing as a perfect exit strategy, but you’ve got to have an exit plan in place to manage risk. I answer a great question on hard stops and trailing stops… and how I decide which one to use.

Ep. 50: The secret to a powerful network           

$14-$17/Hour Work-From-Home Job Available for March 2019

State of the World’s Biggest Debt Slaves: Americans Wimp Out in 11th Place

And where do Chinese consumers fit in?

Americans are infamous for their eagerness to spend money they don’t have. A whole industry has grown up around making that happen, from payday lenders to the government that guarantees or insures a large portion of the mortgages so that lenders and investors don’t have to carry the risk. Consumer debt is turned into asset-backed securities, from government-guaranteed mortgage-backed securities to subprime-auto-loan-backed securities whose top tranches carry an AA-rating or even a AAA-rating.

It all worked out. But then came the moment when Americans deleveraged, mostly by defaulting on their debts, particularly their mortgage debts, which triggered the US Financial Crisis and then the Global Financial Crisis. The world should have learned a lesson, but no. Who has learned a lesson? American consumers whose household debt in relationship to US GDP has continued to decline.

How to Invest like a Dealmaker

“Little Red Book” App – Will It Destroy Democracy?

You are probably familiar with the most printed book in the world: the Bible.

But you’ve probably never even heard of the second-most printed book. It’s known as the “Little Red Book,” or officially “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung.”

It’s a collection of statements from the speeches and writings of Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic of China.

Mao, who once said that “to read too many books is harmful,” had more than one billion copies of this single book printed and distributed.

Its purpose was to force people to internalize Mao’s ideals. This elevated him to the status of deity within China.  

The book remained an icon of Mao Zedong’s cult of personality and a mainstay in Chinese culture through the ‘70s.

As a result, an entire generation of Chinese have grown up not knowing anything better than what the Party has to offer them.

And now, the Chinese government is doubling down their efforts to control the thoughts of its 1.4 billion citizens…

Warren Buffett’s Radical Shift

All serious investors should read Warren Buffett’s annual letters. They’re masterclasses on how to make money…

At the beginning of each Berkshire Hathaway yearly report, Buffett gives his latest thoughts on investing and the markets.

And his 2019 letter was no exception…

The Oracle of Omaha wrote about his usual fare: why he likes stock buybacks… the power of compounding… and even how corporations can essentially get an interest-free loan from the government (it involves deferred income taxes).

But this year’s letter also contained a big surprise—and it reads like heresy to many investors… Buffett is ditching “book value” for measuring the value of companies:

Long-time readers of our annual reports will have spotted the different way in which I opened this letter. For nearly three decades, the initial paragraph featured the percentage change in Berkshire’s per-share book value. It’s now time to abandon that practice. The fact is that the annual change in Berkshire’s book value—which makes its farewell appearance on page 2—is a metric that has lost the relevance it once had.

Have You Heard of the 770 Account?