Nah, it's much more fun to sit back and bitch about the "awful" economy during a time of economic prosperity

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Now if I owned a business, would I hire 'Rube? Probably not.

It's not my problem if you have been brainwashed to believe that these are prosperous times. Tell that to the college grads that can't find jobs after dropping $80K or higher for their diluted undergrad educations.

You know why the participation rate is so high? It's because if you become unemployed in this country, you after a certain period of time, maybe as soon as three months, become unemployable, except in menial low wage jobs. That's the way HR departments work. You are excluded from consideration.

In my industry, HVAC, the average age of the laborer is increasing dramatically every year. Old blood is not being replaced with new. Pay is getting better all the time but workload is increasing because of a fairly serious labor shortage. Expect to pay much more for the trade going forward.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Too many college grads. College could be considered a bad choice over trade schools if you're willing to actually work and make a sweet wage. Problem is people don't want to leave their air conditioned office or look down on actual workers.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

People like Rube are smart enough that they never have to work for someone like Caller Bob, who only dreams of owning a business, when Rube is actually the one that owns a business.

Great economy today

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Yup. Going great for me!! Thanks Trump!!

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College grads who get a degree in a field that is marketable are doing well. The problem is you have college grands who spend 6 figures going to a private liberal arts school to study something like French literature or art and then they wonder why they can't find a job with an income that helps them tackle that debt. People who come out of college with usable skills that can be marketed are finding jobs. Heck, I'm someone who came out of college at the height of the recession. People weren't hiring then, but damn they are hiring now.

The fact is most employers in this country are struggling to find workers. If you give yourself usable skills for the workforce, you'll find a job today, and it will pay decently as well since the employers are for the most part having to fight for each and every available worker.

I don't know what field you're in, but the experience you are touting is not typical for today's job market. Wages are going up, and that is one of the driving forces behind the Fed's decision to repeatedly increase the funds rate in 2018.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

^This story is being repeated across multiple building trades, which is one of the reasons we are seeing a jump in housing prices (there are also supply shortages as well, which is pushing prices up). After years of fewer new builds, people are now looking for new homes and the labor just isn't there to build to demand. I got lucky that I locked in my pricing when I did as my builder is seeing portions of his margin disappear on the home he's building for me. He's making that up by increasing prices on the contracts for the homes he is negotiating now.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Let me add this. You misunderstand me if you think I believe that a truck driver or a carpenter are unworthy jobs. Long time ago I worked as a mover. It's one of the hardest jobs that you could ever do, and I know people who burned themselves out doing that for years and years, so they could feed their families. I imagine it's the same for full-time truck drivers. As for carpentry, my father and his brother, my uncle, were both carpenters. Though not trained as one, I remodeled my whole house in the last two years, doing a lot of the carpentry myself. At the end of my uncle's career, they pushed him out at his company because he could not work fast enough at 60. My father couldn't do it past 50, because he needed a replacement valve for his heart and could no longer do heavy physical labor. To me, it's any industry that eats you up and spits you out, with little or no loyalty. But I think that the work itself is very worthy.

Building costs have risen 20% in the last 2 years, during the recession prices on everything were stagnant.. Nails, screws, drywall, insulation, lumber etc.

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If you are going to be a carpenter you want to be a trim carpenter, you don't want to be a framer at 55.

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Evey industry eats you up and spits you out.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Down 700 points after tariff announcement.

DJIA down 700 pts. Ouch!

Gold futures up $7.30.

GOLD PROSPECTING TRIP!!!!!!!

I want to do that. In South Dakota Black Hills.

http://www.blackhillsprospectingclub.com/

That might have been the most hilarious of Bigfan's bad ideas on this site.

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I dunno. I wouldn't mind sharing a hooch with bigfan, Hank Scorpio and Telegram Sam in Alaskan bush.

No chance that low-t gets anywhere near bush.

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You go invest in gold, I'll invest in S&P 500 Index Funds. We'll see which one of us has a nest egg in retirement.

If you bought gold in 1988 (let's use 30 years here) you would be up about 40%, but if we account for inflation, you would actually find that you had lost money as inflation rates were higher than the change int he price of gold over this 30 year period.

If you bought into the Bogle/Vanguard approach with S&P 500 Index Funds, you would be up over 10 fold from 1988.

Keep on buying gold and taking investment advice from Alex Jones or commercials on Fox News. Let's see how that one works out. I will stick with the tried and true method of watching my money grow at an average rate of 8% per year with the market.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

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Since 2000 gold has outperformed the Dow, 500% to around 220%. Since Nixon took the U.S. off the gold standard in '71, gold has beaten stocks 2900% to 2700%, not adjusted for inflation.

The gold price in '88 was $410.15. Today it's around $1,330. How is that up 40%?? Bad math.

And with the gold price rising that much, it gives you an idea how much the government has destroyed the value of the dollar. You never want to hold depreciating fiat currency.

And no I don't watch Alex Jones. He's a tool.

When they start mining gold on asteroids it won’t be worth shit.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

All of that is meaningless when you look at the fact that when adjusted for inflation, gold is still below the price it was at in the 1980s. If you invested in gold, you literally lost money. Go ahead and throw your money at it if you want.

I on the other hand will stick with my VFIAX Admiral shares. I know that it will grow at 8% per year. Gold on the other hand has no long term track record of reliability as an investment. It isn't even an inflation hedge.

Here is a charts at 40 year periods. This is gold's 40 year chart, compare that to the market. If you want to be broke in retirement, that is your right, but seriously, I implore you to avoid gold. It's an awful investment. It only looks good if you selectively choose dates as if you don't do that, you see the truth of it and the poor track record it possesses.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

You need to adjust your stock returns for inflation then, too, bud.

Aren't stick returns already adjusted?

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Yep, when you adjust for inflation, the stock market has averaged growth of 6% over its lifetime. (8% is the norm unadjusted and average inflation rate has been ~2%)

So yes, stocks (in an S&P 500 mutual fund) are still #1, and the chart I used for gold is without inflation so it looks really uglier when you add inflation there.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson