Natalie Pace Blogs
Photo of Natalie Pace by Marie Commiskey. Avalon Photography.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Crypto Goes Mainstream. The GENIUS Act Passes. On July 17, 2025., S. 1582. The GENIUS Act passed Congress. This is a major step towards mainstreaming stablecoins in the United States. What does this mean for your crypto assets? I will host a videoconference on Thursday, July 24, 2025, to discuss these developments, as we see how the signing of the law impacts the crypto market over the next week (should be positive). Email [email protected] with GENIUS Videocon in the subject line to join us live. FYI: Bitcoin was listed as our Investment of the Year on March 24, 2024. At that time the coin traded at $65,770. Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $123,212 on July 13, 2025. Here are the things we will cover in this blog. Email [email protected] if you would like an updated Crypto Stock Report Card. The GENIUS Act Are Stablecoins Safe? Terra’s Luna Stablecoin Collapse in May 2022 World Liberty Financial: USD1 StableCoin Gemini’s Bitcoin Credit Card XRP‘s Bank Application Bitconnect, Bitcoin Trading Club and Other Ponzi Schemes and Fraud Generating Income and Avoiding Capital Gains Bitcoin and Ethereum Exchange-Traded Funds And here is more information on each topic. The GENIUS Act The GENIUS Act legalizes stablecoins and provides some important standards that help to protect investors. The permitted issuers must maintain U.S. dollar and cash reserves on a one-to-one basis. They must also publicly disclose their redemption policy and publish the details of their reserves monthly. Click to read the text of the full bill. Are Stablecoins Safe? Having the coin directly tied to U.S. dollar and cash reserves on a one-to-one basis offers greater stability than stablecoins such as Terra Luna that was backed by an algorithm rather than assets. However, there is still risk, especially if the company offering the stablecoin gets into trouble. Stablecoins are not going to be regulated by the SEC. However, they are required to maintain anti-money laundering policies, and there will be annual reports to Congress and published by the Financial Stability Oversight Council. It’s important to note that stablecoins are not backed by anything other than the company and their reserves. They are not yet able to be used to purchase anything. They are not FDIC-insured or SIPC-insured. Another consideration is that stablecoins will charge fees. If they enter a period of instability, they can impose a redemption gate. Redemption gates limit investors from cashing in their coins, which, in theory, would prevent a run on the coin. Finally, you can earn 4% interest in Certificates of Deposit or Treasury Bills. You won’t earn any interest on most stablecoins. And if you do, then they might be a lot riskier than you believe. For instance, investors piled into Luna hoping to receive interest of almost 20%, which is clearly not sustainable and had a terrible outcome. Terra’s Luna Stablecoin Collapse in May 2022 When Terra’s Luna stablecoin collapsed in May 2022, it caused a ripple effect. Not only were investors who thought their money was safe, stunned to learn that it was all gone, but other companies were collapsing as well, including Three Arrows Capital, Voyager Digital and FTX. Bitcoin dropped from a high of $69,000 in November 2021 to a low of $15,000 in November 2022. Do Kwon, the co-founder and former CEO of Terraform Labs, is currently in prison in the United States and is charged with “multiple schemes to deceive investors in order to fraudulently inflate the value of terraform cryptocurrencies.” The investor losses of the collapse are over $40 billion. Terraform Labs filed for bankruptcy on January 21, 2024. The company listed assets and liabilities of $100-$500 million. The deadline for creditors (including investors) to submit claims was April 30, 2025. Since investor losses and creditors’ claims significantly exceed the assets available, investors are not expected to get much back. World Liberty Financial: USD1 StableCoin Token holders of the Trump-backed crypto project World Liberty Financial voted to go public the same day that the GENIUS Act was passed by Congress. World Liberty Financial offers the USD1 stablecoin on Binance and other trading platforms. (It is also conceivable that other big players, such as Elon Musk and Meta, could launch stablecoins.) $WLFI states that the company will break barriers for the unbanked, conceivably in rural, remote areas of Africa and Asia. The wording on the USD1 offering reads, “Backed by dollars and U.S. treasuries that have the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.” If someone is not doing a careful reading of that, they might be thinking the stablecoin is as safe as (or safer than) fiat. On the Risks page, it states clearly (in bold and quite large) that USD1 is not legal tender and is not government backed. Gemini’s Bitcoin Credit Card Gemini just launched a MasterCard-backed credit card where cardholders can earn back 1-4% of their purchases in the cryptocurrency of their choice. With the popularity of cryptocurrencies and no annual fee, this offering by Gemini could be in high demand. Gemini also offers their own stablecoin, staking, and buys, sells and stores Bitcoin and 70 other cryptos. Coinbase offers a Bitcoin credit card, too. It should be noted that Gemini previously had a program called Gemini Earn that suspended redemptions on Nov. 16, 2022. Participants in that program expected to earn up to 7.4% APY in that program but instead had no access to their crypto until May 24, 2024. Click on the blue-highlighted words to learn more about the timeline of the suspension. FYI: The payback settlement did not include interest earned. XRP‘s Bank Application XRP has become the third largest cryptocurrency ($215.3 billion), behind Bitcoin ($2.4 trillion) and Ethereum ($432.3 billion). Ripple Labs, the company behind XRP, also has the Ripple USD stablecoin, which is backed by U.S. dollars and other cash equivalents. Again, as a reminder, many stablecoins don’t pay interest and are not FDIC-insured. It has been reported that Ripple applied for a Federal Bank Trust Charter with the Offices of the Controller of the Currency on July 2, 2025. Bitconnect, Bitcoin Trading Club and Other Ponzi Schemes and Fraud Sadly, there are still many ways to lose money in crypto. One of my clients reported a theft, where over $50,000 of her Bitcoin was stolen from her personal account. Bitconnect was a Ponzi scheme. The Trade Coin Club, promoted by multiple individuals in a multilevel marketing type scheme, was fraud. Another private client was convinced by fabricated statements (Bernie Madoff-style, only more sophisticated) that his “mentor” was making him money hand-over-fist in a gold-backed stablecoin. This convinced him to take out a high-interest credit card loan to the tune of over $40,000 to invest in the scam, which disappeared once he handed it over to the predator, never to return. The new stablecoin law states that coins must have U.S. dollar and cash reserves on a one-to-one basis. As I stated above, this reduces, but does not eliminate, the risk. We have seen weakening in the dollar over the past few months and less liquidity in the treasury market, too. Some companies, like the fraudsters listed above, simply cook the books. I’m repeating myself when I say many stablecoins don’t pay any interest and are not insured or backed by the federal government. Generating Income and Avoiding Capital Gains $1 million could be earning $40,000 annually with 4% interest. $250,000 would be earning $10,000 at 4% interest. Many people could use this extra income. So, it’s important to recognize that your stablecoin is not going to offer income. Stablecoins, like money market funds, typically stay flat and do not increase in their price. They are designed to stay steady (though they can decrease in value). The marketing pitch is that fiat is yesteryear and is a House of Cards waiting to fall. However, if the coin is backed by fiat… Bitcoin and Ethereum Exchange-Traded Funds There has been an important development in that investors can now invest in a Bitcoin or Ethereum exchange-traded fund within their individual retirement account. This means that they can capture gains when things shoot the moon without paying capital gains taxes on it. If the person has a Roth IRA, then they won’t pay income tax when they start taking their distributions. (It has been reported that Peter Thiel has over $5 billion in his Roth IRA.) I discussed this in greater detail in my videoconference of today on Wealth Hacks. Watch it back at youtube.com/nataliepace. Bottom Line Digital innovations are creating a new world. The excitement of Crypto Week and the GENIUS Act has pushed many cryptos at or near their all-time highs. At the same time, in a Debt World, it is very important to understand what guarantees are backing money that we are relying upon before we leap into the promise of a stablecoin, which might be backed by the fiat currency we fear. Because Crypto Winters have occurred two years after the last two Bitcoin halving events, it's also important to have a plan for capturing gains at the high and to reduce our tax burden when we do. Learn more about this in the blogs and videoconferences below. Are You Getting Killed in Capital Gains Taxes? Blog and Videoconference. Gold, Silver and Crypto Soar Get Safe and Hot in 1 Easy Plan 2024 Investment of the Year: Bitcoin Register now to join us at our online Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 where you'll learn how to protect your wealth, save thousands annually in your budget and how to hedge in a volatile Debt World. If you'd like a life-changing adventure of a lifetime, be our guest at a royal manor house in Cornwall, England, March 12-19, 2027. (With just eight rooms available, this exclusive, private, bucket-list adventure sells out a year in advance!) Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] to learn more. The 2025 Restormel Retreat was a magical and royal experience. Click to learn more. Receive the best price when you register for the Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 by July 31, 2025. Request testimonials at [email protected]. You can also view some on the flyer page of the retreat. Learn how to: * Invest in hot industries, such as cryptocurrency, Nvidia, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing, * Hedge against a weaker dollar, * Invest and compound your gains, * Green your retirement plan, * Easy and efficacious nest egg strategies, * Get hot and diversified (including in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and crypto), * Evaluate stocks, * Avoid capital gains and financial predators, * Keep an age-appropriate amount safe, and, * Know what's safe in a Debt World. You'll even discover how to save thousands annually with smarter big-ticket choices. Yes, it's a complete money makeover. Email [email protected] or call 310-430-2397 to learn more and register. Learn the 15+ things you'll master and read testimonials in the flyer on the home page at NataliePace.com. Register with friends and family to receive the best price. "Ten minutes into the first day I was already much smarter about investing than I ever thought I would be in my life and I knew I was in exactly the right place at this retreat. I am amazed at how EASY and FUN it is to make my money work for me and those I love. I think this kind of information should be compulsory in schools. I wish I'd learned this sooner." CM If you’d like an unbiased 2nd opinion on your current wealth plan, email [email protected] for pricing and information.  Receive the best price when you register by July 31, 2025. Visit NataliePace.com to learn more. Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] for pricing, additional information and to register.  Join us for our Restormel Royal Immersive Adventure Retreat. March 2027. Email [email protected] to learn more. Click for testimonials, pricing, hours & details. Register now to receive the best price, the best room and eight private, prosperity coaching sessions. There are only 8 rooms available. This retreat includes an all-access pass to all of our online training for a full year for two. Considering the perks, you're receiving a 65% discount to learn the life math that we all should have received in high school, and the room is free! Email [email protected] to learn more. The best rooms at the 2025 retreat were sold out in 2024! Yes, it's a great idea to register and start transforming our lives now!  Natalie Wynne Pace is an Advocate for Sustainability, Financial Literacy & Women's Empowerment. Natalie is the bestselling author of The ABCs of Money (6th edition) and The Power of 8 Billion: It's Up to Us, and is the co-creator of the Earth Gratitude Project. She has been ranked as a No. 1 stock picker, above over 835 A-list pundits, by an independent tracking agency (TipsTraders). Her book The ABCs of Money remained at or near the #1 Investing Basics e-book on Amazon for over 3 years (in its vertical), with over 120,000 downloads and a mean 5-star ranking. The 6th edition of The ABCs of Money and the 2nd edition of Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is (2nd edition) are the most recent releases of these books. Follow her on Instagram. Natalie Pace's easy as a pie chart nest egg strategies earned gains in the last two recessions and have outperformed the bull markets in between. That is why her Investor Educational Retreats, books and private coaching are enthusiastically recommended by Nobel Prize winning economist Gary S. Becker, TD AMERITRADE chairman Joe Moglia, Kay Koplovitz and many Main Street investors who have transformed their lives using her Thrive Budget and investing strategies. Click to view a video testimonial from Nilo Bolden. Check out Natalie Pace's Substack podcast on Apple and Spotify. Watch videoconferences and webinars on Youtube. Other Blogs of Interest Wealth Hacks: Are You Getting Killed in Capital Gains Taxes? Clean Energy Unplugged. Tesla Sales Slump in 2Q 2025. Our Super Performing Hots and Value Replacements. Is Gold a Tier 1 HQLA Reserve Currency? Is Your Income Strategy Losing Money? Gold, Silver & Crypto Soar. Stocks Offer 5%. Debt Balloons. Some Foreigners are Selling U.S. Treasuries. Get Safe & Hot in 1 Easy Plan. Home Prices Soften. Is Your City Next? Tesla Vision vs. Waymo LiDAR and Air Taxis. Are Any of Them Safe? Archer Aviation is Chosen to be the Exclusive Air Taxi Service for the 2028 L.A. Olympics. Company of the Year? USA Downgraded. Is U.S. Reserve Currency Status Threatened? Utilities: In the Eye of the Natural Disaster Storms. Aging Mom Doesn't Want to Discuss Dilapidated House. Investors Ask Natalie. Sell in May? Tesla, Tariffs, Chinese Competition and Price Wars. Fun Ways to Celebrate Earth Day April 22nd. Will the Correction Become a Bear Market? 21st Century Recessions Look More Like Depressions. Will Oil Prices Sink or Soar? Executives are Uncertain. Health Savings Accounts. Save Thousands. Get a Tax Credit. Provide for Tomorrow's Healthcare Needs. Restormel Manor House 2025. A Truly Royal and Magical Adventure. 9 Ways to Cut Your Tax Bill in Half and Save Thousands Annually. Berkshire Hathaway. Should I Just Invest in Warren Buffett? Should I Have a Money Manager? Top Dividend/Income Strategies for 2025. 10 Rules of Successful Investing. Quantum Computing. Paper Losses. Another Warning About Long-Term Bonds! 2025 Investor IQ Test. 2025 Investor IQ Test Answers. Indonesia: Rich in Nickel with Ambitions of Becoming an EV Battery Hub. RoboTaxis. AI. The Magnificent 7. Why Are So Many Safe Investments Losing Money? Canadian, Australian and U.S. Banks. Are Any of Them Safe? Ireland. Rich in Technology, Biotechnology and Agribusiness. Robo Investing and AI. No, They are Not Foolproof. Copper. Peru ETF Outperforms the S&P500. Will Insurance Companies & Homeowners Weather the Hurricanes? 9 Money Secrets of the Ultra Wealthy. Housing & Budgeting Solutions. Arkansas Sues Temu for Data Theft. We Must Be the Boss of Our Money. Why? Fast Fashion. Fossil Fuels. Plastic Clothing. Atacama Desert Waste Dumps. Fintechs and Brokerages that Fail are Not FDIC-Insured. 5 Green Tips for Clean Beaches Week. So, You Think You Want to Be a B&B Owner... Retiring Soon? Start Planning Now. 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. Answers to the 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. 9 Inflation, Budgeting, Debt Reduction and Investing Solutions. China & Russia Double Their Gold Holdings. Uh. Oh. More Bank Trouble. Housing. Unaffordable. What Works? Case studies and creative solutions. The Underperforming DJIA, Full of Fossil Fuels and Forever Chemicals. The Best ROI* (Almost 40%!) & 7 Life Hacks That Save Thousands. 13 Lifestyle Choices to Reduce Waste, Pollution & CO2 & Save a Boatload of Dough. 11-Point Green Checklist for Schools. 10 Wealth Secrets of Billionaires and Royals. Fiat. Crypto. Gold. BRICS. Real Estate. Alternative Investments. BRICS Currency. Will the Dollar Become Extinct? Why We Are Underweighting Banks and the Financial Industry. Save Thousands Annually With Smarter Energy Choices Is Your FDIC-Insured Cash Really Safe? Money Market Funds, FDIC, SIPC: Are Any of Them Safe? Important Disclaimers Please note: Natalie Pace does not act or operate like a broker. She reports on financial news, and is one of the most trusted sources of financial literacy, education and forensic analysis in the world. Natalie Pace educates and informs individual investors to give investors a competitive edge in their personal decision-making. Any publicly-traded companies, funds or projects mentioned by Natalie Pace are not intended to be buy or sell recommendations. ALWAYS do your research and consult an experienced, reputable financial professional before buying or selling any security, and consider your long-term goals and strategies. Investors should NOT be all in on any asset class or individual stocks. Your retirement plan should reflect an age-appropriate, diversified wealth plan, which has been designed strategically, with the assistance of financial professionals who are familiar with your goals, risk tolerance, tax needs and more. The "trading" portion of your portfolio should be a very small part of your investment strategy, and the amount of money you invest into individual companies should never be greater than your experience, wisdom, knowledge, patience and diversified strategy. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. However, NataliePace.com does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Opinions constitute our judgment as of the date of this publication and are subject to change without notice. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument.  Natalie Pace in Powerscourt, Ireland. Photo: Marie Commiskey. Are You Getting Killed in Capital Gains Taxes? Are you paying too much in capital gains taxes, ignoring your retirement plan, or gambling with your future, or are you building lasting wealth? Ask yourself these questions. Do you put your hottest investments in your Roth IRA? Do you know what you own in your employer-based retirement plan? Are you chasing returns in Bitcoin or the Magnificent 7? Are you gambling with hot tips you see on social media? Do you have a Health Savings Account? Are you aware of the Rule of 7? Are you depositing 10% of your gross income into tax-protected retirement accounts? Here are some of the things that keep us gambling and bleeding cash, instead of building lasting wealth. There are so many ways that we end up making “the system rich” rather than achieving financial freedom ourselves.
Editor's Note: "Many people, including educated men and women, often get into trouble when they neglect to follow simple and fundamental rules of the type provided [by Natalie]. This is why I recommend them with enthusiasm." Professor Gary S. Becker. Dr. Becker won the 1992 Nobel Prize in economics for his theories on human capital. He also wrote the Preface for Natalie Pace's first book, Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is (2nd edition). Recently, I did a coaching session with a person who is only 15 years away from retirement, who makes over $100,000 a year and has only about $100,000 in his brokerage account. He also has money in an employer-sponsored retirement plan, which he’s never looked at. He has no clue how it’s invested, what the current value is, or what rate of return he might be getting. Another retired client had money in a government retirement plan. When he found out that the S&P500 had earned 57.5% over 2023 and 2024, and had a 13.1% annualized gain over the past decade, he was mortified to discover that his plan had earned just 2.5% annualized for decades. So, let’s dig into the details of how to build lasting wealth, while also having a little fun. Here’s more information on each of the points I listed at the top of this blog. Do you put your hottest investments in your Roth IRA? Billionaire Peter Thiel reportedly has over $5 billion in his Roth IRA (source: Propublica). He didn’t pay capital gains taxes on any of his early Paypal and META investments and warrants that are in his Roth IRA, and when he withdraws from the account, he will not pay income taxes (unless the laws change). Most of us should have a Roth IRA (or TFSA for Canadians) that we max out, in addition to contributing to our employer-sponsored retirement plan (up to the match). Our self-directed Roth IRA gives us freedom of choice, a chance for a much higher rate of return, a shield from capital gains taxes, and the benefit of tax-free distributions in retirement. Do you know what you own in your employer-based retirement plan? Rollovers are very easy and they offer us the world of investing. Many times our employer-sponsored retirement plans only offer a few choices. That means that we can never truly get properly diversified if we are only choosing to invest in our 401K or RSP, unless we’re able to self-direct. Some plans offer this, while others do not. Many employer-sponsored retirement plans underperform the market, especially if we’re using target date funds or an annuity. (Contrary to their promises of diversification and that you can’t lose, these funds are not the great choices they purport to be, for multiple reasons.) You can learn more in these blogs. Is Your Safe, Income Strategy Losing Money? https://www.nataliepace.com/blog/is-your-income-strategy-losing-money#/ Get Safe and Hot in One Easy Plan https://www.nataliepace.com/blog/get-safe-hot-with-one-easy-plan#/ Are you chasing returns in Bitcoin or the Magnificent 7? When stocks and crypto are high, everyone’s a millionaire. When we hit a Crypto Winter or bear market, things go radio silent. The truth is that we should be capturing gains at the high and adding more at the low – which is the opposite of chasing headlines and spectacular gains (after they’ve already happened). Our simple pie chart strategy encourages us to invest in the hottest opportunities, in an age-appropriate, diversified way, and also prompts us to be on the right side of the trade. Learn more in my book The ABCs of Money 6th edition and at our October 11-13, 2025 Financial EDU Retreat. (Register for the retreat by July 31, 2025, to receive the best price.) Are you gambling with hot tips you see on social media? Gamification made investing popular a few years ago, especially when there was extra Stimmy money floating around. However, many of 2021 meme stock companies are either struggling to stay alive or already dead in the water, including Bed, Bath and Beyond, Blackberry, AMC Theatres and Gamestop. Also, I’m seeing so many people who leapt into over 50 different companies without the proper due diligence. (Not even a professional analyst would attempt DD on that many holdings.) Not only are they not doing any research into the companies, but they are not even reading the complete blog or email that brought up the tip. For instance, even though I’m very excited about air taxis, I’m not investing yet.  Archer Aviation has been selected as the official air taxi of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Is there a way to invest in hot exciting new industries without taking on a second job doing trading and proper due diligence? The answer is absolutely yes. Targeted ETFs can focus on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, gold, silver, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and even hot countries, for international diversification. funds have multiple companies, which reduces the risk of betting on one horse. Another important aspect of successful investing is to capture gains at the top and buy more at the low – rebalance 1-3 times a year. This is only possible in our self-directed individual retirement account, which is why we want to have our own self-directed retirement account, in addition to our employer-sponsored RA. Do you have a health savings account? If you are healthy and spending an arm and a leg on health insurance, then it’s time to look into a Health Savings Plan with a high-deductible insurance plan. This will save most people thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars annually, while building up the best long-term health care plan for retirement. Don’t assume that your employer is paying your premiums. Many employers take the premiums out of our paycheck. Add up the amount that is being deducted and you might discover that you are giving thousands of your hard-earned money to the health insurance company. Read my HSA blog and The ABCs of Money 6th edition for more information.  Are you aware of the Rule of 7? Have you doubled your money over the last seven years? The stock portion of our portfolio will double in 7 1/2 years if it’s earning 10% annualized and we are religious about depositing 10% of our gross income. Check out the savings versus investing chart below. This sample plan is based on someone earning just $40,000/annually, who can become a millionaire thanks to the power of contributing annually, compounding gains and avoiding capital gains taxes.  As you can see in the chart below, stocks have achieved 10% gains for three decades. As I mentioned above, the S&P500 earned 57% in the 2-year period of 2023 and 2024.  Are you depositing 10% of your gross income into tax-protected retirement accounts? Investing is the only ticket out of the rat race. Even someone of modest means can achieve financial freedom by focusing on paying themselves first, learning a time-proven investing strategy (such as our pie chart system with 1-3 times a year rebalancing), and by getting creative about adopting a Thrive Budget. This requires strength, courage and wisdom, rather than just buying into the current high cost of things. Most of us will have a few different retirement accounts – our employer-sponsored plan (free money up to the employer match), our self-directed IRAs, our HSA, our children’s college funds. When doing our rebalancing, it’s important to consider all these accounts, as well as our checking, savings, crypto and other paper assets, to see the complete picture. We can then mockup a sample pie chart and use that as our guide for capturing gains high and adding more low. We have many resources, including free videocoaching. Email [email protected] to learn more. Are you waiting to pay off debt before investing? We’re often doing the simple math, thinking, “I’m paying almost 30% on my credit cards, so I’ll wait until I pay that off before investing.” Sadly, that mindset keeps us trapped in a debt prison that few can escape. A debt problem is a budgeting challenge. It’s no reason to stop providing for our own future and investing to increase our personal net worth (which will actually help with the debt problem). Get started by reading the Debt Solutions section of The ABCs of Money 6th edition. We also have a free Debt Solutions videocoaching series. Email [email protected] with Debt Solutions Videocoaching in the subject line to receive free access to this series. Spending 30% or more of our income on housing At some point, we just want to get a place away from our parents and start adulting. However, if our housing budget is taking up 30% or more of our income, then we are making the landlord or bank rich at our own expense. It’s hard to enjoy our freedom if we can’t afford any fun. There are many ways that we can get creative about housing, which will allow us to have room in the budget for paying ourselves first, for charity, for education and for fun. These things can all add up to living the life of our dreams, instead of punching the clock, feeling buried alive in bills or struggling to survive. The Thrive Budget section of The ABCs of Money 6th edition offers essential tips. You might also consider playing our Financial Freedom Game. Click to access the online version on my YouTube.com/NataliePace video channel. Chasing headlines and pump and dump schemes Most of us don’t realize that most of the emails and social media ads we see are pay-to-play. Red flags that we are being suckered in include:
Even celebrities have been caught up in schemes that turned out to be fraudulent – and, even worse, were spokespersons who were paid to convince others to jump in, too. Tom Brady and Kim Kardashian are just two examples of this. However, any time you see a celebrity promoting something on social media, it’s a paid advertisement. The star is getting some sort of incentive or compensation. A better plan is to invest in what we think is hot, dollar cost average into it if it’s near a high and then capture gains when it shoots the moon. That way, when we hit a Crypto Winter or a bear market, we have kept our money safe from the staggering losses, while also giving ourselves the liquidity to buy low instead of having to endure losses of 50% or more of our wealth for the duration of the downturn. It’s been a long time since the Great Recession. Many investors have never seen an extended downturn. However, it’s important to remember that we never want to confuse a bull market with wisdom, and that recessions can take years to recover – during which time most of us will experience extreme financial hardship. In the Dot Com Recession, the NASDAQ Composite Index lost 78% (a million dollars dropped to just $220,000) and took 15 years to recover.   Options and day trading The Nobel Prize winning economist who wrote the book on options trading was on the board of one of the most highly leveraged, biggest bailout in U.S. history. Options and day trading are like playing tennis with Serena Williams. The person on the other side of the trade could be a hedge fund with a team of analysts, who employs high-frequency trading and algorithms, and are even able to legally step in front of you in the priority of their trades. It’s heartbreaking to watch people brag about their returns one month and then get loaded up with high-interest debt that many will struggle to pay and free themselves from. Yet that is a story that I hear far too often: following the wrong guru and watching helpless as our dreams turn to dust – and staggering debt. Crypto and capital gains A few years ago, the SEC approved Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. While we used to have to pay high capital gains on our crypto, we can now purchase an ETF within our tax-protected retirement account. Part of our wealth plan must include reducing taxes. We don’t want our gains flying out the window. Refer to the top of this blog where I discuss the benefits of putting our hot investments in our Roth IRA. Bottom Line It’s easy to get caught up in stories that keep us running in the hamster wheel rather than accumulating real wealth. It’s a lot of work trying fancy tricks and get rich quick schemes. At some point, we should understand that others are benefitting from our fixation more than we are. A good plan costs less time and money – both of which can be better spent on things we like a lot more than trying to game a system (that, like Vegas, has many tricks to game us). The power and magic of the Thrive Budget and a time-proven investing system will transform our lives immediately and forever. That’s why we call it the life math that we all should’ve received in high school. The sooner we educate ourselves about proper financial strategies, instead of allowing ourselves to be tossed around by the current economic conditions, headlines, hot tips, the high cost of housing, et al., the faster we can start creating the life we really want to live. Wisdom and right action are the cures. Register now to join us at our online Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 where you'll learn how to protect your wealth, save thousands annually in your budget and how to hedge in a volatile Debt World. If you'd like a life-changing adventure of a lifetime, be our guest at a royal manor house in Cornwall, England, March 12-19, 2027. (With just eight rooms available, this exclusive, private, bucket-list adventure sells out a year in advance!) Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] to learn more. The 2025 Restormel Retreat was a magical and royal experience. Click to learn more. Receive the best price when you register for the Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 by July 31, 2025. Request testimonials at [email protected]. You can also view some on the flyer page of the retreat. Learn how to: * Invest in hot industries, such as Nvidia, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing, * Hedge against a weaker dollar, * Invest and compound your gains, * Green your retirement plan, * Easy and efficacious nest egg strategies, * Get hot and diversified (including in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and crypto), * Evaluate stocks, * Avoid capital gains and financial predators, * Keep an age-appropriate amount safe, and, * Know what's safe in a Debt World. You'll even discover how to save thousands annually with smarter big-ticket choices. Yes, it's a complete money makeover. Email [email protected] or call 310-430-2397 to learn more and register. Learn the 15+ things you'll master and read testimonials in the flyer on the home page at NataliePace.com. Register with friends and family to receive the best price. "Ten minutes into the first day I was already much smarter about investing than I ever thought I would be in my life and I knew I was in exactly the right place at this retreat. I am amazed at how EASY and FUN it is to make my money work for me and those I love. I think this kind of information should be compulsory in schools. I wish I'd learned this sooner." CM If you’d like an unbiased 2nd opinion on your current wealth plan, email [email protected] for pricing and information.  Receive the best price when you register by July 31, 2025. Visit NataliePace.com to learn more. Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] for pricing, additional information and to register.  Join us for our Restormel Royal Immersive Adventure Retreat. March 2027. Email [email protected] to learn more. Click for testimonials, pricing, hours & details. Register now to receive the best price, the best room and eight private, prosperity coaching sessions. There are only 8 rooms available. This retreat includes an all-access pass to all of our online training for a full year for two. Considering the perks, you're receiving a 65% discount to learn the life math that we all should have received in high school, and the room is free! Email [email protected] to learn more. The best rooms at the 2025 retreat were sold out in 2024! Yes, it's a great idea to register and start transforming our lives now!  Natalie Wynne Pace is an Advocate for Sustainability, Financial Literacy & Women's Empowerment. Natalie is the bestselling author of The ABCs of Money (6th edition) and The Power of 8 Billion: It's Up to Us, and is the co-creator of the Earth Gratitude Project. She has been ranked as a No. 1 stock picker, above over 835 A-list pundits, by an independent tracking agency (TipsTraders). Her book The ABCs of Money remained at or near the #1 Investing Basics e-book on Amazon for over 3 years (in its vertical), with over 120,000 downloads and a mean 5-star ranking. The 6th edition of The ABCs of Money and the 2nd edition of Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is (2nd edition) are the most recent releases of these books. Follow her on Instagram. Natalie Pace's easy as a pie chart nest egg strategies earned gains in the last two recessions and have outperformed the bull markets in between. That is why her Investor Educational Retreats, books and private coaching are enthusiastically recommended by Nobel Prize winning economist Gary S. Becker, TD AMERITRADE chairman Joe Moglia, Kay Koplovitz and many Main Street investors who have transformed their lives using her Thrive Budget and investing strategies. Click to view a video testimonial from Nilo Bolden. Check out Natalie Pace's Substack podcast on Apple and Spotify. Watch videoconferences and webinars on Youtube. Other Blogs of Interest Clean Energy Unplugged. Tesla Sales Slump in 2Q 2025. Our Super Performing Hots and Value Replacements. Is Gold a Tier 1 HQLA Reserve Currency? Is Your Income Strategy Losing Money? Gold, Silver & Crypto Soar. Stocks Offer 5%. Debt Balloons. Some Foreigners are Selling U.S. Treasuries. Get Safe & Hot in 1 Easy Plan. Home Prices Soften. Is Your City Next? Tesla Vision vs. Waymo LiDAR and Air Taxis. Are Any of Them Safe? Archer Aviation is Chosen to be the Exclusive Air Taxi Service for the 2028 L.A. Olympics. Company of the Year? USA Downgraded. Is U.S. Reserve Currency Status Threatened? Utilities: In the Eye of the Natural Disaster Storms. Aging Mom Doesn't Want to Discuss Dilapidated House. Investors Ask Natalie. Sell in May? Tesla, Tariffs, Chinese Competition and Price Wars. Fun Ways to Celebrate Earth Day April 22nd. Will the Correction Become a Bear Market? 21st Century Recessions Look More Like Depressions. Will Oil Prices Sink or Soar? Executives are Uncertain. Health Savings Accounts. Save Thousands. Get a Tax Credit. Provide for Tomorrow's Healthcare Needs. Restormel Manor House 2025. A Truly Royal and Magical Adventure. 9 Ways to Cut Your Tax Bill in Half and Save Thousands Annually. Berkshire Hathaway. Should I Just Invest in Warren Buffett? Should I Have a Money Manager? Top Dividend/Income Strategies for 2025. 10 Rules of Successful Investing. Quantum Computing. Paper Losses. Another Warning About Long-Term Bonds! 2025 Investor IQ Test. 2025 Investor IQ Test Answers. Indonesia: Rich in Nickel with Ambitions of Becoming an EV Battery Hub. RoboTaxis. AI. The Magnificent 7. Why Are So Many Safe Investments Losing Money? Canadian, Australian and U.S. Banks. Are Any of Them Safe? Ireland. Rich in Technology, Biotechnology and Agribusiness. Robo Investing and AI. No, They are Not Foolproof. Copper. Peru ETF Outperforms the S&P500. Will Insurance Companies & Homeowners Weather the Hurricanes? 9 Money Secrets of the Ultra Wealthy. Housing & Budgeting Solutions. Arkansas Sues Temu for Data Theft. We Must Be the Boss of Our Money. Why? Fast Fashion. Fossil Fuels. Plastic Clothing. Atacama Desert Waste Dumps. Fintechs and Brokerages that Fail are Not FDIC-Insured. 5 Green Tips for Clean Beaches Week. So, You Think You Want to Be a B&B Owner... Retiring Soon? Start Planning Now. 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. Answers to the 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. 9 Inflation, Budgeting, Debt Reduction and Investing Solutions. China & Russia Double Their Gold Holdings. Uh. Oh. More Bank Trouble. Housing. Unaffordable. What Works? Case studies and creative solutions. The Underperforming DJIA, Full of Fossil Fuels and Forever Chemicals. The Best ROI* (Almost 40%!) & 7 Life Hacks That Save Thousands. 13 Lifestyle Choices to Reduce Waste, Pollution & CO2 & Save a Boatload of Dough. 11-Point Green Checklist for Schools. 10 Wealth Secrets of Billionaires and Royals. Fiat. Crypto. Gold. BRICS. Real Estate. Alternative Investments. BRICS Currency. Will the Dollar Become Extinct? Why We Are Underweighting Banks and the Financial Industry. Save Thousands Annually With Smarter Energy Choices Is Your FDIC-Insured Cash Really Safe? Money Market Funds, FDIC, SIPC: Are Any of Them Safe? Important Disclaimers Please note: Natalie Pace does not act or operate like a broker. She reports on financial news, and is one of the most trusted sources of financial literacy, education and forensic analysis in the world. Natalie Pace educates and informs individual investors to give investors a competitive edge in their personal decision-making. Any publicly-traded companies, funds or projects mentioned by Natalie Pace are not intended to be buy or sell recommendations. ALWAYS do your research and consult an experienced, reputable financial professional before buying or selling any security, and consider your long-term goals and strategies. Investors should NOT be all in on any asset class or individual stocks. Your retirement plan should reflect an age-appropriate, diversified wealth plan, which has been designed strategically, with the assistance of financial professionals who are familiar with your goals, risk tolerance, tax needs and more. The "trading" portion of your portfolio should be a very small part of your investment strategy, and the amount of money you invest into individual companies should never be greater than your experience, wisdom, knowledge, patience and diversified strategy. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. However, NataliePace.com does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Opinions constitute our judgment as of the date of this publication and are subject to change without notice. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument.  Clean Energy Unplugged by the Big Beautiful Bill. EV tax credit ends September 30, 2025. Solar and wind tax credits end December 31, 2025. New legislation (H.R.1, The Big Beautiful Bill) pulls the plug on the clean energy industry, some companies of which were already on life-support. The negative effects will ripple throughout many different supporting players, including utilities, inverters, lithium and polysilicon miners and manufacturers and some chip makers. Email [email protected] if you would like an updated Auto, Solar and Wind, Semiconductor, Lithium or Utility Stock Report Cards. Here are the things I will cover in this blog. Electric Vehicles Solar and Wind Inverters and Chipmakers Lithium and Polysilicon Industries Homeowners and Energy Efficiency Tax Credits Utilities Clean Energy ETFs And here is more on each topic. Electric Vehicles Electric vehicles are not one of the clean industries on life-support. This is the fastest growing vertical in the automotive industry. Electric car sales reached 1.4 million in the U.S. and 11 million in China in 2024 (source: IEA.org).  Projections have EVs reaching 71% of the total auto market within a decade. Despite this positive industry news, Tesla’s deliveries were down -13.5% in the 2nd quarter. As I mentioned in my Tesla blog last week, “This could result in a drop of up to $1 billion in quarterly revenue from the 2nd quarter of 2024, due to the intense price wars that EV makers are engaged in, requiring almost all EV automakers to reduce prices to compete.” With inventory building up at Tesla, will the loss of the tax credit force the company to lower prices even more in the U.S. Will people pile in with a purchase in the 3rd quarter, while the EV tax credit is still alive? (This could definitely initiate a near-term bump in sales.) Taking away the $7,500 EV tax credit, effective Sept. 30, 2025, is bad news for Tesla. However, it’s not a death knell for the company. (Tesla sells more cars in China than in the U.S.) Having said that, Tesla’s shares, even with the pullback this year, are very expensive. (Should a company with just $7.13 billion in net income really be valued at a trillion dollars?) Tesla’s shares are priced for years down the road, based on Tesla’s potential in artificial intelligence (particularly in autonomous vehicles) and robotics. While Elon Musk fans believe everything he touches turns to gold, the bet on Tesla Vision without LiDAR is something that many CEOs and engineers strongly disagree with. “We really believe that LiDAR is mission critical,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said last week, according to Fortune magazine. LiDAR could give Waymo the edge over Tesla in the robotaxi market. Why? There's a video that shows this quite clearly in my Robotaxi blog. You can check out my ride in a Waymo on my Instagram page. (Click to access.) Waymo is already operating in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and Atlanta, with expansion plans into Miami and Washington D.C. in 2026. One final note: when the economy slows down, car sales tank. The U.S. economy is expected to fall to just 1.4% GDP growth in 2025, compared to 2.8% in 2024. The 2nd half of 2025 is expected to have slower auto sales than the 1st half. Some analysts believe there will be a bump in 3rd quarter in EV sales before the credit expires. There is a great deal of uncertainty whether car buyers will be able to purchase EVs without the government support, particularly since consumer debt is at an all-time high, and delinquencies on student loans surged in May (source: New York Federal Reserve Bank). Solar and Wind Sunpower declared bankruptcy on August 5, 2024. Commercial, community and utility solar projects have grown, while the residential rooftop vertical struggled – perhaps due to the higher interest rates. By comparison, First Solar’s revenues were up 6.35% year over year in the 1st quarter, and the revenue guidance issued in the 1Q 2025 earnings report was for $4.5-$5.5 billion, compared to $4.1 billion in 2024. While not explosive, this could be enough to keep investors interested. However, this guidance came before the Big, Beautiful Bill passed. First Solar could lower the projection as a result of the solar tax credit getting pulled. However, we could also see a frenzy of activity before the Dec. 31, 2025, expiration of solar credits. At any rate, 2026 will struggle to be as strong for First Solar, unless there is a major mid-term upset in Congress. American Superconductor is another company that is shining brightly as many clean energy companies struggle. (Many companies on our Wind/Solar stock report card have seen their revenue sink, their debt soar and are cash negative.) AMSC’s turbines are useful in military ships, their “protection” degaussing systems cloak war ships, and their clean energy technology and power conduction solutions are popular with utility companies. Defense is always in favor under a Republican Administration, especially when there are active wars going on. AMSC’s revenue was up 58.60% in the 1st quarter and could jump 63.8% year over year in 2Q 2025. Be careful with all individual clean energy companies, as we have yet to see the impact of tariffs and the new legislation, and particularly in a company like AMSC that is trading at a 5-year high, with a very lofty price/earnings and price/sales ratio. Inverters and Chipmakers Inverters and chipmakers, such as Enphase, a former Wall Street darling, are seeing their sales dramatically reduced from the 2022 highs. Many have had their stock hammered. Both Enphase and SolarEdge have high debt-equity ratios – made worse by their new small cap status. Both companies are down by more than -80% in share price and market value, which is a reminder of just how important it is to capture gains. This was before tariffs and having the plug pulled on clean energy tax credits. We suggest rebalancing 1-3 times a year and that sticking with targeted ETFs over individual companies is more appropriate, particularly for busy professionals. If you’d like an Inverter Stock Report Card, email [email protected]. Lithium and Polysilicon Industries Lithium and polysilicon miners and manufacturers have been out of favor for a few years. The problem is that there is a very prolific supply. The demand is high, but the supply is far higher. See the price demise in the charts below.   Homeowners and Energy Efficiency Tax Credits If you are interested in energy efficiency, wind or solar, now is the time to race to get it installed. The tax credit, which is 30%, runs out at the end of 2025. Leases are not eligible. (Read the bill text at this link.) Also, it’s important to reduce your megawatt footprint before you get the quote on the solar. This could save you thousands of dollars. If you live in a sunny state, and you make some smart energy efficiency improvements in your home, which can be very, very cheap, then the payback time of the solar panels could be as low as 4-7 years. Thereafter, the amount of money you save on utilities could be the equivalent of a 15% or higher yield. That is an excellent investment for a hard asset that should hold its value very well and is purchased for a good price (30% off retail). The window on this opportunity is clearly closing quite soon. Utilities 21.5% of the U.S. grid was powered by renewable energy in 2023.  On February 24, 2025, the Energy Information Administration (under the new Administration), projected that solar and battery storage would be the leaders of new power generation in the U.S.  If the new legislation remains intact, 2026 will be a different story. However, what might happen in November of 2026 or 2028? Things can change rapidly, as we saw with clean energy residential and commercial tax credits that were supposed to be in play through 2032 being completed turned off in a matter of months. However, as we saw in 2021, when clean energy was the hottest investment on Wall Street, the opposite can also be the case. Whether a utility has a large amount of renewable energy or not, with more expensive natural disasters being blamed on the companies, this industry is not the safe harbor of yesteryear. If you’ve invested for the dividends, or any other reason, be sure to read my blog and warning on the industry. (Click to acess.) Clean Energy ETFs The iShares ICLN ETF tripled between March 2020 and Jan. 2021. Clean energy was one of the best performing industries that year. Rebalancing 1-3 times a year will help us to capture gains. (Early January is a great time to rebalance.)  Source: MSN.com. (c) Microsoft. Used with permission. ICLN is currently trading near an all-time low. The industry has been very volatile over the last two decades. Administrations change their policies. However, in recessions, the clean energy industry suffers, even if there is a green President in charge. (Individuals and countries that are reeling economically must cancel new projects.) While there’s little to suggest that the clean energy industry will be hot anytime soon, changes can happen swiftly (even as soon as midterm elections). When we wait for the headlines that something is hot, it’s too late. So, rather than selling low now, thinking clean energy is out of favor, it’s a better idea to forecast whether the industry might be in favor going forward. What conditions might change the game? Most people don’t buy low because they aren’t seeing the potential. When the gains are making headlines, everyone wants to buy (high) – even if they have no clue as to why the investment is soaring. (Sometimes, as was the case with many meme stocks, there’s not a lot of true value behind the furor.) If we’ve seen the value when no one else has, then we’re on the top of that wave, capturing gains at the high. Bottom Line Individual companies are tough to invest in, particularly in this feast-or-famine industry. Investing in a clean energy fund will lower risk. However, the industry is volatile. So, rebalancing 1-3 times a year is VITAL to capturing gains and keeping our wealth growing. Would I add clean energy as a hot slice right now? No. However, knowing how much appetite there is for renewable energy throughout the world, and how many of these products make other industries, including defense and utilities, more versatile and resilient, I’m not selling low either. If I owned individual companies, such as Tesla, First Solar or AMSC, I’d move into a targeted ETF (offered by a creditworthy fund company). Most Main Street investors have demanding jobs which prevent us from doing the rigorous analysis and disciplined profit-taking required to win on Wall Street. Register now to join us at our online Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 where you'll learn how to protect your wealth, save thousands annually in your budget and how to hedge in a volatile Debt World. If you'd like a life-changing adventure of a lifetime, be our guest at a royal manor house in Cornwall, England, March 12-19, 2027. (With just eight rooms available, this exclusive, private, bucket-list adventure sells out a year in advance!) Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] to learn more. The 2025 Restormel Retreat was a magical and royal experience. Click to learn more. Receive the best price when you register for the Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 by July 31, 2025. Request testimonials at [email protected]. You can also view some on the flyer page of the retreat. Learn how to: * Invest in hot industries, such as Nvidia, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing, * Hedge against a weaker dollar, * Invest and compound your gains, * Green your retirement plan, * Easy and efficacious nest egg strategies, * Get hot and diversified (including in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and crypto), * Evaluate stocks, * Avoid capital gains and financial predators, * Keep an age-appropriate amount safe, and, * Know what's safe in a Debt World. You'll even discover how to save thousands annually with smarter big-ticket choices. Yes, it's a complete money makeover. Email [email protected] or call 310-430-2397 to learn more and register. Learn the 15+ things you'll master and read testimonials in the flyer on the home page at NataliePace.com. Register with friends and family to receive the best price. "Ten minutes into the first day I was already much smarter about investing than I ever thought I would be in my life and I knew I was in exactly the right place at this retreat. I am amazed at how EASY and FUN it is to make my money work for me and those I love. I think this kind of information should be compulsory in schools. I wish I'd learned this sooner." CM If you’d like an unbiased 2nd opinion on your current wealth plan, email [email protected] for pricing and information.  Receive the best price when you register by July 31, 2025. Visit NataliePace.com to learn more. Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] for pricing, additional information and to register.  Join us for our Restormel Royal Immersive Adventure Retreat. March 2027. Email [email protected] to learn more. Click for testimonials, pricing, hours & details. Register now to receive the best price, the best room and eight private, prosperity coaching sessions. There are only 8 rooms available. This retreat includes an all-access pass to all of our online training for a full year for two. Considering the perks, you're receiving a 65% discount to learn the life math that we all should have received in high school, and the room is free! Email [email protected] to learn more. The best rooms at the 2025 retreat were sold out in 2024! Yes, it's a great idea to register and start transforming our lives now!  Natalie Wynne Pace is an Advocate for Sustainability, Financial Literacy & Women's Empowerment. Natalie is the bestselling author of The ABCs of Money (6th edition) and The Power of 8 Billion: It's Up to Us, and is the co-creator of the Earth Gratitude Project. She has been ranked as a No. 1 stock picker, above over 835 A-list pundits, by an independent tracking agency (TipsTraders). Her book The ABCs of Money remained at or near the #1 Investing Basics e-book on Amazon for over 3 years (in its vertical), with over 120,000 downloads and a mean 5-star ranking. The 6th edition of The ABCs of Money and the 2nd edition of Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is (2nd edition) are the most recent releases of these books. Follow her on Instagram. Natalie Pace's easy as a pie chart nest egg strategies earned gains in the last two recessions and have outperformed the bull markets in between. That is why her Investor Educational Retreats, books and private coaching are enthusiastically recommended by Nobel Prize winning economist Gary S. Becker, TD AMERITRADE chairman Joe Moglia, Kay Koplovitz and many Main Street investors who have transformed their lives using her Thrive Budget and investing strategies. Click to view a video testimonial from Nilo Bolden. Check out Natalie Pace's Substack podcast on Apple and Spotify. Watch videoconferences and webinars on Youtube. Other Blogs of Interest Tesla Sales Slump in 2Q 2025. Our Super Performing Hots and Value Replacements. Is Gold a Tier 1 HQLA Reserve Currency? Is Your Income Strategy Losing Money? Gold, Silver & Crypto Soar. Stocks Offer 5%. Debt Balloons. Some Foreigners are Selling U.S. Treasuries. Get Safe & Hot in 1 Easy Plan. Home Prices Soften. Is Your City Next? Tesla Vision vs. Waymo LiDAR and Air Taxis. Are Any of Them Safe? Archer Aviation is Chosen to be the Exclusive Air Taxi Service for the 2028 L.A. Olympics. Company of the Year? USA Downgraded. Is U.S. Reserve Currency Status Threatened? Utilities: In the Eye of the Natural Disaster Storms. Aging Mom Doesn't Want to Discuss Dilapidated House. Investors Ask Natalie. Sell in May? Tesla, Tariffs, Chinese Competition and Price Wars. Fun Ways to Celebrate Earth Day April 22nd. Will the Correction Become a Bear Market? 21st Century Recessions Look More Like Depressions. Will Oil Prices Sink or Soar? Executives are Uncertain. Health Savings Accounts. Save Thousands. Get a Tax Credit. Provide for Tomorrow's Healthcare Needs. Restormel Manor House 2025. A Truly Royal and Magical Adventure. 9 Ways to Cut Your Tax Bill in Half and Save Thousands Annually. Berkshire Hathaway. Should I Just Invest in Warren Buffett? Should I Have a Money Manager? Top Dividend/Income Strategies for 2025. 10 Rules of Successful Investing. Quantum Computing. Paper Losses. Another Warning About Long-Term Bonds! 2025 Investor IQ Test. 2025 Investor IQ Test Answers. Indonesia: Rich in Nickel with Ambitions of Becoming an EV Battery Hub. RoboTaxis. AI. The Magnificent 7. Why Are So Many Safe Investments Losing Money? Canadian, Australian and U.S. Banks. Are Any of Them Safe? Ireland. Rich in Technology, Biotechnology and Agribusiness. Robo Investing and AI. No, They are Not Foolproof. Copper. Peru ETF Outperforms the S&P500. Will Insurance Companies & Homeowners Weather the Hurricanes? 9 Money Secrets of the Ultra Wealthy. Housing & Budgeting Solutions. Arkansas Sues Temu for Data Theft. We Must Be the Boss of Our Money. Why? Fast Fashion. Fossil Fuels. Plastic Clothing. Atacama Desert Waste Dumps. Fintechs and Brokerages that Fail are Not FDIC-Insured. 5 Green Tips for Clean Beaches Week. So, You Think You Want to Be a B&B Owner... Retiring Soon? Start Planning Now. 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. Answers to the 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. 9 Inflation, Budgeting, Debt Reduction and Investing Solutions. China & Russia Double Their Gold Holdings. Uh. Oh. More Bank Trouble. Housing. Unaffordable. What Works? Case studies and creative solutions. The Underperforming DJIA, Full of Fossil Fuels and Forever Chemicals. The Best ROI* (Almost 40%!) & 7 Life Hacks That Save Thousands. 13 Lifestyle Choices to Reduce Waste, Pollution & CO2 & Save a Boatload of Dough. 11-Point Green Checklist for Schools. 10 Wealth Secrets of Billionaires and Royals. Fiat. Crypto. Gold. BRICS. Real Estate. Alternative Investments. BRICS Currency. Will the Dollar Become Extinct? Why We Are Underweighting Banks and the Financial Industry. Save Thousands Annually With Smarter Energy Choices Is Your FDIC-Insured Cash Really Safe? Money Market Funds, FDIC, SIPC: Are Any of Them Safe? Important Disclaimers Please note: Natalie Pace does not act or operate like a broker. She reports on financial news, and is one of the most trusted sources of financial literacy, education and forensic analysis in the world. Natalie Pace educates and informs individual investors to give investors a competitive edge in their personal decision-making. Any publicly-traded companies, funds or projects mentioned by Natalie Pace are not intended to be buy or sell recommendations. ALWAYS do your research and consult an experienced, reputable financial professional before buying or selling any security, and consider your long-term goals and strategies. Investors should NOT be all in on any asset class or individual stocks. Your retirement plan should reflect an age-appropriate, diversified wealth plan, which has been designed strategically, with the assistance of financial professionals who are familiar with your goals, risk tolerance, tax needs and more. The "trading" portion of your portfolio should be a very small part of your investment strategy, and the amount of money you invest into individual companies should never be greater than your experience, wisdom, knowledge, patience and diversified strategy. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. However, NataliePace.com does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Opinions constitute our judgment as of the date of this publication and are subject to change without notice. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument.  President Trump purchased a Tesla on the White House lawn on March 11, 2025. Tesla. Sales Slump as the White House War of Words Rages. I want to start off this blog by acknowledging the massive feat achieved by Tesla, under the aegis of Elon Musk, to disrupt the ICE* industry and make electric vehicles de rigueur. It was an impressive feat. However, today, the competition for EVs has erupted into a price war, while the Bromance breakup between Mr. Musk and The President has descended into a war of words and threats. These stress factors are showing up in sales. *Internal Combustion Engine. Tesla, as a trillion-dollar company with exciting projects in development, should have a bright future for decades to come. However, the real question is, “Should Tesla be valued at more than twice the combined market caps of Toyota, General Motors, and Ford Motor Company combined?” To answer that, we must look beyond the headlines and our own biases and dive into the details. Here are the topics we’ll cover in this blog. Deliveries are Down Intense EV Competition and Price Wars Regulatory Credits (and that White House War of Words) Revenue and Net Income Down Weakening Economy Expensive Price And here is more information on each point. Deliveries are Down Tesla issued a 2Q 2025 deliveries report on July 2, 2025. Tesla delivered 14% more vehicles in the second quarter than they did in the first quarter of 2025. However, year over year, deliveries are down. The company delivered 384,122 vehicles in the 2nd quarter of 2025, compared to 443,956 vehicles in the same quarter in 2024 – a decline of -13.5%. This could result in a drop of up to $1 billion in quarterly revenue from the 2nd quarter of 2024, due to the intense price wars that EV makers are engaged in, requiring almost all EV automakers to reduce prices to compete. It should also be noted that the company is building up inventory, producing 26,122 more vehicles in the 2nd quarter than the company sold. In the 1st quarter, Tesla produced 25,934 more vehicles than the company sold. Intense EV Competition and Price Wars BYD is the top selling electric vehicle maker in the world, even though Tesla still has one of the most popular cars in the world. The Tesla Model Y has been the #1 bestselling car since Q1 2023. However, according to JATO Dynamics, the Toyota RAV4 beat the Y by a margin of just 0.16% in 2Q 2025 to become the best-selling vehicle.  When we look at a stock report card of the fastest growing automakers, many are Chinese-based. This has a lot to do with China being the largest electric vehicle market by far. Of more than 17 million EVs sold globally in 2024, 11 million were purchased in China. Tesla is very popular in China. However, there are many options to choose from that are much more affordable. Tesla has had to lower prices to compete.  Many European countries and the U.S. have kept Chinese EVs out of their markets with very high tariffs. However, BYD and other Chinese EVs are available for purchase in Mexico, South America, Africa and Asia. If you are interested in an updated auto stock report card email [email protected]. Regulatory Credits (and that White House War of Words) Tesla’s regulatory credits were $595 million in the first quarter of 2025. Without the credits, Tesla’s earnings results would have reflected a net loss instead of net income of $409 million. It’s interesting to think that the DOGE department that Elon Musk set up might in fact go after some of these regulatory credits now. That was a threat posted by the President on Truth Social on July 1, 2025. Revenue and Net Income Down Tesla did a company-wide factory renovation in the first quarter of 2025. So, it is possible that the second quarter net income can be a little more robust than the weak 1Q net income of just $409 million. That still could put the range somewhere between $500 million and perhaps $1 billion. The full year revenue could be down by more than half compared to the $7.3 billion net income in 2024, and even more depressed than the $15 billion in net income that Tesla enjoyed in 2023. Weakening Economy There are more than a few headwinds for the auto industry. The U.S. economy is expected to grow by 1.4% GDP growth in 2025, compared to 2.8% in 2024. Student loan delinquencies began being reported in May of this year. Since then, we’ve seen a spike in 90-day+ delinquencies to 7.74%. This will result in lower credit scores and higher interest rates for anyone wanting to purchase a vehicle. Tariffs on steel will increase the costs of automakers and reduce profit margins, unless they are able to raise their prices. There are additional tariffs for foreign made vehicles. This is one area where Tesla’s build-local motto is in the company’s favor. Tesla builds cars for the U.S. market in the U.S., for Europe in Germany, and for China in China. Automakers struggle when unemployment rises or consumers have difficulty borrowing due to low credit scores or high interest rates. While interest rates are not egregiously high on a historical basis, many Americans have gotten accustomed to almost zero since the Great Recession. With inflation so high, the restrictive rates could negatively impact all auto purchases. It’s important to remember that General Motors and Chrysler both had to go through bankruptcy debt restructuring in the financial crisis of 2008 and the Great Recession. We’ve already seen an auto parts manufacturer go belly-up – Marelli (on June 11, 2025). Expensive Price Tesla is one of the most expensive stocks on Wall Street. The company is worth over $1 trillion, with a price/earnings ratio of 166. Yes, Tesla has some exciting projects and products in development. However, should a company that might earn less than $6 billion in net income in 2025 be valued at over a trillion dollars? General Motors and Ford Motor Company had $6 billion in net income in 2024, with current market values of just $51 billion and $47 billion, respectively. It can take years for robotaxis to be embraced and rolled out in a meaningful expansion. It’s questionable whether we’re all going have our own Optimus robot before the next recession. There have been a lot of reports of safety incidents from the Tesla robotaxi launch in Austin, and engineers have raised concerns about the use of cameras only (Tesla FSD) versus LiDAR and cameras (what Waymo uses). (Click to read my blog on that.) Pricing companies out years from now, when there are so many risks in the marketplace, is walking quite a tight rope. Tesla’s share price is volatile, plunging as low as $182/share in July of 2024, hitting a high of $488.54 in December of 2024 and then plunging again to $222/share in early April of 2025. Prices are back to $315/share. However, with the public and White House backlash aimed at the CEO, and the daily headlines those skirmishes generate, volatility will likely continue. That’s quite a rollercoaster. Even sophisticated traders and hedge funds might find it difficult to be on the right side of that trade. Bottom Line I would never bet against Elon Musk because he has proven himself to be one of the most productive CEOs ever. When the company is on the ropes, he finds ways to bounce back and soar above the competition. Disrupting an industry that’s been around for a century is a tall order, and it is very impressive what Tesla has achieved. However, in a slowing economy, people tend to buy fewer cars. In price wars, companies must lower prices to compete. The current Administration is not friendly to clean energy companies and has threatened to take away subsidies and credits. Those are number of headwinds for a company priced for what people hope will be the value years from now. Anyone who bought Tesla stock early in the game, or even at this year’s low, has enjoyed gains. However, in addition to the auto industry challenges, we’re long overdue for a recession. A correction or bear market could come as quite a shock for newer traders who haven’t experienced a time when the markets didn’t bounce back quickly. Register now to join us at our online Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 where you'll learn how to protect your wealth, save thousands annually in your budget and how to hedge in a volatile Debt World. If you'd like a life-changing adventure of a lifetime, be our guest at a royal manor house in Cornwall, England, March 12-19, 2027. (With just eight rooms available, this exclusive, private, bucket-list adventure sells out a year in advance!) Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] to learn more. The 2025 Restormel Retreat was a magical and royal experience. Click to learn more. Receive the best price when you register for the Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 by July 31, 2025. Request testimonials at [email protected]. You can also view some on the flyer page of the retreat. Learn how to: * Invest in hot industries, such as Nvidia, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing, * Hedge against a weaker dollar, * Invest and compound your gains, * Green your retirement plan, * Easy and efficacious nest egg strategies, * Get hot and diversified (including in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and crypto), * Evaluate stocks, * Avoid capital gains and financial predators, * Keep an age-appropriate amount safe, and, * Know what's safe in a Debt World. You'll even discover how to save thousands annually with smarter big-ticket choices. Yes, it's a complete money makeover. Email [email protected] or call 310-430-2397 to learn more and register. Learn the 15+ things you'll master and read testimonials in the flyer on the home page at NataliePace.com. Register with friends and family to receive the best price. "Ten minutes into the first day I was already much smarter about investing than I ever thought I would be in my life and I knew I was in exactly the right place at this retreat. I am amazed at how EASY and FUN it is to make my money work for me and those I love. I think this kind of information should be compulsory in schools. I wish I'd learned this sooner." CM If you’d like an unbiased 2nd opinion on your current wealth plan, email [email protected] for pricing and information.  Receive the best price when you register by July 31, 2025. Visit NataliePace.com to learn more. Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] for pricing, additional information and to register.  Join us for our Restormel Royal Immersive Adventure Retreat. March 2027. Email [email protected] to learn more. Click for testimonials, pricing, hours & details. Register now to receive the best price, the best room and eight private, prosperity coaching sessions. There are only 8 rooms available. This retreat includes an all-access pass to all of our online training for a full year for two. Considering the perks, you're receiving a 65% discount to learn the life math that we all should have received in high school, and the room is free! Email [email protected] to learn more. The best rooms at the 2025 retreat were sold out in 2024! Yes, it's a great idea to register and start transforming our lives now!  Natalie Pace in Powerscourt, Ireland. Photo: Marie Commiskey. Natalie Wynne Pace is an Advocate for Sustainability, Financial Literacy & Women's Empowerment. Natalie is the bestselling author of The ABCs of Money (6th edition) and The Power of 8 Billion: It's Up to Us, and is the co-creator of the Earth Gratitude Project. She has been ranked as a No. 1 stock picker, above over 835 A-list pundits, by an independent tracking agency (TipsTraders). Her book The ABCs of Money remained at or near the #1 Investing Basics e-book on Amazon for over 3 years (in its vertical), with over 120,000 downloads and a mean 5-star ranking. The 6th edition of The ABCs of Money and the 2nd edition of Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is (2nd edition) are the most recent releases of these books. Follow her on Instagram. Natalie Pace's easy as a pie chart nest egg strategies earned gains in the last two recessions and have outperformed the bull markets in between. That is why her Investor Educational Retreats, books and private coaching are enthusiastically recommended by Nobel Prize winning economist Gary S. Becker, TD AMERITRADE chairman Joe Moglia, Kay Koplovitz and many Main Street investors who have transformed their lives using her Thrive Budget and investing strategies. Click to view a video testimonial from Nilo Bolden. Check out Natalie Pace's Substack podcast on Apple and Spotify. Watch videoconferences and webinars on Youtube. Other Blogs of Interest Our Super Performing Hots and Value Replacements. Is Gold a Tier 1 HQLA Reserve Currency? Is Your Income Strategy Losing Money? Gold, Silver & Crypto Soar. Stocks Offer 5%. Debt Balloons. Some Foreigners are Selling U.S. Treasuries. Get Safe & Hot in 1 Easy Plan. Home Prices Soften. Is Your City Next? Tesla Vision vs. Waymo LiDAR and Air Taxis. Are Any of Them Safe? Archer Aviation is Chosen to be the Exclusive Air Taxi Service for the 2028 L.A. Olympics. Company of the Year? USA Downgraded. Is U.S. Reserve Currency Status Threatened? Utilities: In the Eye of the Natural Disaster Storms. Aging Mom Doesn't Want to Discuss Dilapidated House. Investors Ask Natalie. Sell in May? Tesla, Tariffs, Chinese Competition and Price Wars. Fun Ways to Celebrate Earth Day April 22nd. Will the Correction Become a Bear Market? 21st Century Recessions Look More Like Depressions. Will Oil Prices Sink or Soar? Executives are Uncertain. Health Savings Accounts. Save Thousands. Get a Tax Credit. Provide for Tomorrow's Healthcare Needs. Restormel Manor House 2025. A Truly Royal and Magical Adventure. 9 Ways to Cut Your Tax Bill in Half and Save Thousands Annually. Berkshire Hathaway. Should I Just Invest in Warren Buffett? Should I Have a Money Manager? The Cleanest Cities in the World. Can Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Gaza Become Edens? Rebuilding Gaza. American Companies Will Benefit. Top Dividend/Income Strategies for 2025. 2025 Crystal Ball: Who Will be the Superstars of Wall Street? Gold & Crypto IRAs and the Risk of Fraud and Losses. 10 Rules of Successful Investing. Quantum Computing. Paper Losses. Another Warning About Long-Term Bonds! 2025 Investor IQ Test. 2025 Investor IQ Test Answers. Apple iPhone Sales Plunge in China. Indonesia: Rich in Nickel with Ambitions of Becoming an EV Battery Hub. RoboTaxis. AI. The Magnificent 7. Charitable Giving. Nonprofits that are Worthy of Supporting. Why Are So Many Safe Investments Losing Money? A Bargain-Priced AI Company. Canadian, Australian and U.S. Banks. Are Any of Them Safe? Ireland. Rich in Technology, Biotechnology and Agribusiness. Robo Investing and AI. No, They are Not Foolproof. Stocks Soar as Nvidia Joins the DJIA. Copper. Peru ETF Outperforms the S&P500. Will Insurance Companies & Homeowners Weather the Hurricanes? 9 Money Secrets of the Ultra Wealthy. Housing & Budgeting Solutions. Arkansas Sues Temu for Data Theft. We Must Be the Boss of Our Money. Why? Fast Fashion. Fossil Fuels. Plastic Clothing. Atacama Desert Waste Dumps. Can Crowdstrike Recover from its Colossal Catastrophe? Featuring a Cybersecurity Overview. Fintechs and Brokerages that Fail are Not FDIC-Insured. 5 Green Tips for Clean Beaches Week. So, You Think You Want to Be a B&B Owner... Retiring Soon? Start Planning Now. 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. Answers to the 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. 9 Inflation, Budgeting, Debt Reduction and Investing Solutions. China & Russia Double Their Gold Holdings. 2024 Investment of the Year? Bitcoin Sets a New Record High. The Importance of Rebalancing. Uh. Oh. More Bank Trouble. Housing. Unaffordable. What Works? Case studies and creative solutions. The Underperforming DJIA, Full of Fossil Fuels and Forever Chemicals. The Best ROI* (Almost 40%!) & 7 Life Hacks That Save Thousands. 13 Lifestyle Choices to Reduce Waste, Pollution & CO2 & Save a Boatload of Dough. China Bans Apple 11-Point Green Checklist for Schools. 10 Wealth Secrets of Billionaires and Royals. Bank of America has $100 Billion in Bond Losses (on Paper) Fiat. Crypto. Gold. BRICS. Real Estate. Alternative Investments. BRICS Currency. Will the Dollar Become Extinct? Why We Are Underweighting Banks and the Financial Industry. Save Thousands Annually With Smarter Energy Choices Is Your FDIC-Insured Cash Really Safe? Money Market Funds, FDIC, SIPC: Are Any of Them Safe? My 24-Year-Old is Itching to Buy a Condo. Should I Help Him? The Bank Bail-in Plan on Your Dime. Important Disclaimers Please note: Natalie Pace does not act or operate like a broker. She reports on financial news, and is one of the most trusted sources of financial literacy, education and forensic analysis in the world. Natalie Pace educates and informs individual investors to give investors a competitive edge in their personal decision-making. Any publicly-traded companies, funds or projects mentioned by Natalie Pace are not intended to be buy or sell recommendations. ALWAYS do your research and consult an experienced, reputable financial professional before buying or selling any security, and consider your long-term goals and strategies. Investors should NOT be all in on any asset class or individual stocks. Your retirement plan should reflect an age-appropriate, diversified wealth plan, which has been designed strategically, with the assistance of financial professionals who are familiar with your goals, risk tolerance, tax needs and more. The "trading" portion of your portfolio should be a very small part of your investment strategy, and the amount of money you invest into individual companies should never be greater than your experience, wisdom, knowledge, patience and diversified strategy. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. However, NataliePace.com does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Opinions constitute our judgment as of the date of this publication and are subject to change without notice. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument.  Our Super Performing Hots and International Value Replacements The international equity and hot ETFs featured in our sample pie charts have doubled, tripled and quadrupled the returns of the S&P500 in 2025. Is your plan performing at par, above the market, or are you suffering from poor performance and paper losses?  Sources: MSN.com and Coinbase. Used with permission. Here are the topics we’ll cover in this blog. Back to an All-Time High The S&P500 Has Doubled in 5 Years Hot Funds Value Replacement Funds Income Strategies Asia And here is more information on each topic. Back to an All-Time High The S&P500 is back to an all-time high, hitting an intraday peak of 6,215.08 on June 30, 2025. However, it’s important to put this in context, as 5.5% year to date return in the market is not as impressive as many of the other rallies we’ve seen in:
These are all sectors we’ve been focusing on in our hot slices and value replacements for years. (Click on the blue-highlighted words to read my blogs on these industries and countries.) The S&P500 Has Doubled in 5 Years Has the at-risk (stock) portion of your wealth plan doubled in the last five years? Conservative investors are often missing large cap growth funds, where the Magnificent 7 stocks are overweighted. Without the Magnificent 7 stocks, the S&P performance would have been half as powerful. This is one of the reasons why the S&P500 has trounced the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the past three years. If you don’t know what you own, now is the time to get better diversified – and hot. Conservative investors can overweight more to the safe side to satisfy their risk appetite, while still participating in the spectacular returns of Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. These trillion-dollar+ companies have embedded themselves in our daily lives. It’s silly to think that Dow components, such as Boeing and 3M, are more stable. Hot Funds It’s a great idea to add hot funds to increase the performance of our wealth plan. If this is done in an age-appropriate, diversified way, then we are not adding much risk for a potentially higher performance. When we rebalance regularly, we’re capturing gains at the high, taking some of our money off the table, while ensuring that we are still properly protected from volatility and from stocks sinking. This simple strategy earned gains in the Dot Com and the Great Recessions and outperformed the bull markets in between, and is less time and money of most managed plans.  Email [email protected] if you'd like to personalize your own pie chart using our free web app. Most of the managed wealth plans that I look at (to provide an unbiased 2nd opinion), do not have enough safe (protected from losses), are heavily overweighted in large cap companies, do not have enough of the Magnificent 7, and are missing the hots altogether. If a conservative investor has been given value funds and bonds for “income,” they are more likely to be suffering from paper losses, high fees and illiquidity, in addition to underperforming the S&P500. Are you reading the fine print of your managed plan? Are you aware of the fees you’re being charged, or of the paper losses? Are you factoring them in to discover the true income you’re earning (perhaps half of what you think)? Learn more in my blog, “Is Your Income Strategy Losing Money?” Value Replacement Funds Value funds are supposed to contain stocks that are on sale. However, equities are very expensive today, by many measurements. Prices are high. Debt is outlandish. This makes U.S. value funds problematic. For that reason, we’ve been using value replacement funds for years. Peru, Australia and Ireland have all been on fire this year. Income Strategies The Australia ETF offers a higher yield than most U.S.-based value funds, while also enjoying a higher credit rating in many of the banks and companies. The Peru ETF’s yield is 4.52%, compared to the 2.5% yield of the Morningstar Mid Cap Value ETF (symbol: IMCV). So, in addition to superior returns, we might be taking on less risk for more income. That sounds like a win-win. On the safe side of our wealth plan, it’s tricky to earn income without the paper losses, but doable, if we adhere to a few fundamental rules (which are outlined for a full day on Day 3 of our Financial Freedom Retreat). Check out some of the strategies in my blog, “Top Income Strategies for 2025.” Email [email protected] to learn more about our next retreat. Register by July 31, 2025, to join us for the best price. Asia There is a lot of conflict in the world – outright wars, but also economic shifts. As I’ve discussed in many BRICS blogs, China and Russia are trading amongst themselves using the Chinese yuan in an attempt to break the U.S. dollar’s dominance as a global reserve currency. (And no, gold has not just become a Tier 1 currency.) Is this the reason U.S. investors have mostly abandoned Chinese equities? It has more to do with their unaudited financial results and that their economy is considered to be repressed (source: Index of Economic Freedom). Most Chinese-based ETFs are still down -43% from their February 2021 highs, even though they have enjoyed a little rally so far in 2025. Indonesia is one of the countries that I’ve been featuring. There are many reasons why this country could enjoy breakout performance again, as it has many times over the past 15 years. Check out my Indonesia blog for details. Indonesia’s economy is growing at one of the highest rates in the world. The country is the top producer of nickel – an essential mineral in electric vehicles. The 2025 pullback of -7.0% in the iShares Indonesia ETF (symbol: EIDO) is a reminder of the importance of 1-3 times a year rebalancing. EIDO enjoyed gains of 67% between March 2020 and March 2022. Rebalancing and capturing gains allow us to keep our wealth and have liquidity, in case a pullback creates a buying opportunity (assuming we still believe the investment is a good idea). Bottom Line We can get safe, hot and diversified in one easy plan. (Click to read that blog.) This increases performance and protection. So far in 2025, most of our value replacement and hot funds have been super performers! Register now to join us at our online Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 where you'll learn how to protect your wealth, save thousands annually in your budget and how to hedge in a volatile Debt World. If you'd like a life-changing adventure of a lifetime, be our guest at a royal manor house in Cornwall, England, March 12-19, 2027. (With just eight rooms available, this exclusive, private, bucket-list adventure sells out a year in advance!) Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] to learn more. The 2025 Restormel Retreat was a magical and royal experience. Click to learn more. Receive the best price when you register for the Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 by July 31, 2025. Request testimonials at [email protected]. You can also view some on the flyer page of the retreat. Learn how to: * Invest in hot industries, such as Nvidia, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing, * Hedge against a weaker dollar, * Invest and compound your gains, * Green your retirement plan, * Easy and efficacious nest egg strategies, * Get hot and diversified (including in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and crypto), * Evaluate stocks, * Avoid capital gains and financial predators, * Keep an age-appropriate amount safe, and, * Know what's safe in a Debt World. You'll even discover how to save thousands annually with smarter big-ticket choices. Yes, it's a complete money makeover. Email [email protected] or call 310-430-2397 to learn more and register. Learn the 15+ things you'll master and read testimonials in the flyer on the home page at NataliePace.com. Register with friends and family to receive the best price. "Ten minutes into the first day I was already much smarter about investing than I ever thought I would be in my life and I knew I was in exactly the right place at this retreat. I am amazed at how EASY and FUN it is to make my money work for me and those I love. I think this kind of information should be compulsory in schools. I wish I'd learned this sooner." CM If you’d like an unbiased 2nd opinion on your current wealth plan, email [email protected] for pricing and information.  Receive the best price when you register by July 31, 2025. Visit NataliePace.com to learn more. Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] for pricing, additional information and to register.  Join us for our Restormel Royal Immersive Adventure Retreat. March 2027. Email [email protected] to learn more. Click for testimonials, pricing, hours & details. Register now to receive the best price, the best room and eight private, prosperity coaching sessions. There are only 8 rooms available. This retreat includes an all-access pass to all of our online training for a full year for two. Considering the perks, you're receiving a 65% discount to learn the life math that we all should have received in high school, and the room is free! Email [email protected] to learn more. The best rooms at the 2025 retreat were sold out in 2024! Yes, it's a great idea to register and start transforming our lives now!  Natalie Pace in Powerscourt, Ireland. Photo: Marie Commiskey. Natalie Wynne Pace is an Advocate for Sustainability, Financial Literacy & Women's Empowerment. Natalie is the bestselling author of The ABCs of Money (6th edition) and The Power of 8 Billion: It's Up to Us, and is the co-creator of the Earth Gratitude Project. She has been ranked as a No. 1 stock picker, above over 835 A-list pundits, by an independent tracking agency (TipsTraders). Her book The ABCs of Money remained at or near the #1 Investing Basics e-book on Amazon for over 3 years (in its vertical), with over 120,000 downloads and a mean 5-star ranking. The 6th edition of The ABCs of Money and the 2nd edition of Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is (2nd edition) are the most recent releases of these books. Follow her on Instagram. Natalie Pace's easy as a pie chart nest egg strategies earned gains in the last two recessions and have outperformed the bull markets in between. That is why her Investor Educational Retreats, books and private coaching are enthusiastically recommended by Nobel Prize winning economist Gary S. Becker, TD AMERITRADE chairman Joe Moglia, Kay Koplovitz and many Main Street investors who have transformed their lives using her Thrive Budget and investing strategies. Click to view a video testimonial from Nilo Bolden. Check out Natalie Pace's Substack podcast on Apple and Spotify. Watch videoconferences and webinars on Youtube. Other Blogs of Interest Is Gold a Tier 1 HQLA Reserve Currency? Is Your Income Strategy Losing Money? Gold, Silver & Crypto Soar. Stocks Offer 5%. Debt Balloons. Some Foreigners are Selling U.S. Treasuries. Get Safe & Hot in 1 Easy Plan. Home Prices Soften. Is Your City Next? Tesla Vision vs. Waymo LiDAR and Air Taxis. Are Any of Them Safe? Archer Aviation is Chosen to be the Exclusive Air Taxi Service for the 2028 L.A. Olympics. Company of the Year? USA Downgraded. Is U.S. Reserve Currency Status Threatened? Utilities: In the Eye of the Natural Disaster Storms. Aging Mom Doesn't Want to Discuss Dilapidated House. Investors Ask Natalie. Sell in May? Tesla, Tariffs, Chinese Competition and Price Wars. Fun Ways to Celebrate Earth Day April 22nd. Will the Correction Become a Bear Market? 21st Century Recessions Look More Like Depressions. Will Oil Prices Sink or Soar? Executives are Uncertain. Health Savings Accounts. Save Thousands. Get a Tax Credit. Provide for Tomorrow's Healthcare Needs. Restormel Manor House 2025. A Truly Royal and Magical Adventure. 9 Ways to Cut Your Tax Bill in Half and Save Thousands Annually. Berkshire Hathaway. Should I Just Invest in Warren Buffett? Should I Have a Money Manager? The Cleanest Cities in the World. Can Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Gaza Become Edens? Rebuilding Gaza. American Companies Will Benefit. Top Dividend/Income Strategies for 2025. 2025 Crystal Ball: Who Will be the Superstars of Wall Street? Gold & Crypto IRAs and the Risk of Fraud and Losses. 10 Rules of Successful Investing. Quantum Computing. Paper Losses. Another Warning About Long-Term Bonds! 2025 Investor IQ Test. 2025 Investor IQ Test Answers. Apple iPhone Sales Plunge in China. Indonesia: Rich in Nickel with Ambitions of Becoming an EV Battery Hub. RoboTaxis. AI. The Magnificent 7. Charitable Giving. Nonprofits that are Worthy of Supporting. Why Are So Many Safe Investments Losing Money? A Bargain-Priced AI Company. Canadian, Australian and U.S. Banks. Are Any of Them Safe? Ireland. Rich in Technology, Biotechnology and Agribusiness. Robo Investing and AI. No, They are Not Foolproof. Stocks Soar as Nvidia Joins the DJIA. Copper. Peru ETF Outperforms the S&P500. Will Insurance Companies & Homeowners Weather the Hurricanes? 9 Money Secrets of the Ultra Wealthy. Housing & Budgeting Solutions. Arkansas Sues Temu for Data Theft. We Must Be the Boss of Our Money. Why? Fast Fashion. Fossil Fuels. Plastic Clothing. Atacama Desert Waste Dumps. Can Crowdstrike Recover from its Colossal Catastrophe? Featuring a Cybersecurity Overview. Fintechs and Brokerages that Fail are Not FDIC-Insured. 5 Green Tips for Clean Beaches Week. So, You Think You Want to Be a B&B Owner... Retiring Soon? Start Planning Now. 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. Answers to the 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. 9 Inflation, Budgeting, Debt Reduction and Investing Solutions. China & Russia Double Their Gold Holdings. 2024 Investment of the Year? Bitcoin Sets a New Record High. The Importance of Rebalancing. Uh. Oh. More Bank Trouble. Housing. Unaffordable. What Works? Case studies and creative solutions. The Underperforming DJIA, Full of Fossil Fuels and Forever Chemicals. The Best ROI* (Almost 40%!) & 7 Life Hacks That Save Thousands. 13 Lifestyle Choices to Reduce Waste, Pollution & CO2 & Save a Boatload of Dough. China Bans Apple 11-Point Green Checklist for Schools. 10 Wealth Secrets of Billionaires and Royals. Bank of America has $100 Billion in Bond Losses (on Paper) Fiat. Crypto. Gold. BRICS. Real Estate. Alternative Investments. BRICS Currency. Will the Dollar Become Extinct? Why We Are Underweighting Banks and the Financial Industry. Save Thousands Annually With Smarter Energy Choices Is Your FDIC-Insured Cash Really Safe? Money Market Funds, FDIC, SIPC: Are Any of Them Safe? My 24-Year-Old is Itching to Buy a Condo. Should I Help Him? The Bank Bail-in Plan on Your Dime. Important Disclaimers Please note: Natalie Pace does not act or operate like a broker. She reports on financial news, and is one of the most trusted sources of financial literacy, education and forensic analysis in the world. Natalie Pace educates and informs individual investors to give investors a competitive edge in their personal decision-making. Any publicly-traded companies, funds or projects mentioned by Natalie Pace are not intended to be buy or sell recommendations. ALWAYS do your research and consult an experienced, reputable financial professional before buying or selling any security, and consider your long-term goals and strategies. Investors should NOT be all in on any asset class or individual stocks. Your retirement plan should reflect an age-appropriate, diversified wealth plan, which has been designed strategically, with the assistance of financial professionals who are familiar with your goals, risk tolerance, tax needs and more. The "trading" portion of your portfolio should be a very small part of your investment strategy, and the amount of money you invest into individual companies should never be greater than your experience, wisdom, knowledge, patience and diversified strategy. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. However, NataliePace.com does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Opinions constitute our judgment as of the date of this publication and are subject to change without notice. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument.  Four nines fine standard 400 oz gold bars. Photo: Chepry. Wiki commons. Used with permission. Will Gold Become a Tier 1 HQLA Currency on July 1, 2025? There’s been a lot of chatter online about a Basel III change effective July 1, 2025, when gold allegedly moves from a Tier 3 to a Tier 1 asset. According to both ChatGPT and Google AI, this would drive a “surge in demand for physical gold.” All artificial intelligence platforms warn that AI can make mistakes. So, is this earthshattering event really happening or not? At the top of this blog, I want to stress in the most clear way possible that two of the most trusted, independent organizations in the gold space, The World Gold Council and the London Bullion Market Association, are both denying this. According to the LBMA, “There have been inaccurate reports online that gold will be reclassified as Tier 1 HQLA (High Quality Liquid Asset) under Basel III as of July 1, 2025. This information is not correct; no official announcement has been made or is expected on gold gaining HQLA status.” Of course, even when rumors are untrue, they can spark a frenzy. So, will investors pile into gold over the next few days? Why is gold down -6.4% over the last two weeks? Here are the things I’ll cover in this blog. How Did Artificial Intelligence Get It So Wrong Hallmarks and Red Flags of Scams. The World’s Top Holders of Gold Is There a Physical Gold Rush? Breaking the U.S. Dollar’s Grip on the Global Reserve Currency The Return of the Gold Standard The Volatility of Gold And here is more information on each topic. How Did Artificial Intelligence Get It So Wrong Any of us who have had our virtual assistant AutoCorrect to silly (or even obscene) words knows that artificial intelligence can get it wrong. In the case of the inaccurate reporting about gold becoming a Tier 1 currency, which is wrong, the data that both ChatGPT and Google AI were relying upon were from gold bug websites, not from respected data providers. In other words, the source data was inaccurate and those providing the misinformation had money to gain from it going viral. The sophisticated analyst will know how to look for the source data and determine whether it is provided by an unbiased independent provider or by an opportunistic marketing campaign, that could in fact be predatory. However, many Main Street investors might have a more difficult time discerning the difference. For now, it's very important to verify what AI says before acting on the information. This tip came from someone in our community. We’re always grateful when you reach out to inform us and we are able to issue an Investor Alert. Hallmarks and Red Flags of Scams. Whenever I see a deadline that encourages people to act now or lose out, that’s a neon red flag. If we must act before XYZ date or the world ends or we lose all our money, that is actually a warning that predatory marketers have their claws in us. Yes, of course, there can be certain events that are scheduled to happen on XYZ date. However, most will be known about well in advance, particularly if they are as game changing as moving gold to a Tier 1 currency. We know the exact dates that the Bureau of Economic Analysis will release the monthly GDP reports about a year in advance. We also know when the FOMC meetings will occur, and which ones will contain the Summary of Economic Projections – a year in advance. Another red flag is when the website or person providing the data has a track record of problems with the SEC or is based out of Florida or Texas. (Both are homestead states where some assets are protected from lawsuits). FINRA.org and the SEC offer BrokerChecks. However, some fraudsters can slip through the cracks by simply setting up a new company. The World’s Top Holders of Gold So, who are the top holders of gold in the world? Are countries stockpiling and hoarding it? Below is a list of the top 20 biggest holders of gold in the world, along with whether they are increasing or decreasing their gold holdings. Black means that the holdings have remained the same this year, while blue indicates an increase and red indicates a decrease in holdings.  Source: World Gold Council. Gold.org. The U.S. is the top holder of gold in the world by far. The holdings have remained constant for years. Is There a Physical Gold Rush? As you can see above, Main Street ETF investors are very interested in gold and have increased their holdings, pushing the price up. China, India, Turkey, Poland and Taiwan also increased their holdings, while Russia and Uzbekistan sold some gold. Gold prices hit an all-time high of $3,509.90/ounce on June 13, 2025. As I mentioned at the top of this blog, gold is down -6.4% from that all-time high. Gold has been the top performing investment so far in 2025, with gains of 23% year to date. Silver has also been spectacular, with gains of 21%. By comparison:
(The underperformance of the DJIA is one of the reasons why we are using value substitutions in our sample Wealth Plan pie charts.) The S&P500 hit a record high on June 27, 2025, making headlines. However, that milestone doesn’t reveal the real story so far this year. Breaking the U.S. Dollar’s Grip on the Global Reserve Currency The BRICS currency is designed to break the dollar’s dominance as the global reserve currency. The countries promoting this currency have made that quite clear. Is it working? As I indicated in prior blogs, there are many reasons why the world, outside of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, doesn’t yet trust the BRICS currency. Over the past two decades, the dollar has slipped from 71% of the global currency to 57.3% of the allocated reserves. That mostly has to do with the launch of the euro in 1999. The dollar is still dominant, followed by the euro. Learn more in my Global Reserve Currency blog. The BRICS currency isn’t really held outside of the five-country alliance. The Chinese yuan is slightly more popular, but it is still just 2% of the allocated foreign exchange reserves. China’s economy is large and growing. However, safety, trust and liquidity remain concerns. The Index of Economic Freedom considers China to be a repressed economy. The Return of the Gold Standard There is far too much debt in the world for there to be a return of the gold standard. It would be impossible for the supply to meet that demand anytime soon. The World Gold Council and the London Bullion Market Association would love to see gold as a Tier 1 HQLA currency, and lobby for that constantly. While the gold market is highly liquid at this time, we have seen periods where it was quite a frozen market and stuck at very low prices. In fact, there was a quarter of a century between the highs of 1980 and about 2005, when gold was stuck in a trading pattern of $350/ounce, down about 56% from the high of $800 in 1980.  The Volatility of Gold Gold has been volatile more recently, as well. On Sept. 5, 2011, gold hit a high of $1,920/ounce. It dropped to the $1200 range in 2013 and to $1000 in 2015, down by almost half. Gold didn’t come back to the 2011 highs until the pandemic (2020). It is important for gold bugs to understand that precious metals are an emotional investment. During frenzies (which happened in 2011 and in 1980), many people get caught buying high, before a period of prolonged weakness. Most of us can’t afford to lose half of our wealth for a decade. It makes life very difficult and could even cost us our home. However, there is a difference between all and nothing. As you can see in our sample pie charts, it’s a good idea to lean into hot investments – within reason. If we’re interested in gold, silver or Bitcoin (perceived safe havens from a weak economy or dollar), consider these assets as “at-risk” investments in our age-appropriate, diversified wealth plan. The pie chart system with regularly balancing will help to keep us on the right side of the trade, prompting us to capture gains at the high and buy more low if we hit a period of weakness. This is a lot better than just riding the rollercoaster of prices of this precious metal, and it is certainly better than betting the entire farm on it. Full disclosure: I’m leaning into silver in my personal hot slices. Bottom Line Gold is not going to become a Tier 1 HQLA reserve currency on July 1, 2025. However, it is certainly popular, particularly with Main Street investors around the world. The future for gold could continue to be bright because of the level of concern over elevated debt and leverage in the world and a weakening dollar. Stocks and real estate have remained strong and are at historic highs. If we hit weakness in stocks or if housing prices start to fall, we could see even more people interested in gold, Bitcoin and gold’s sibling, silver. Recessions do occur, although it’s been quite a while since we had a real one. (We borrowed our way out of a recession during the pandemic with trillions of dollars.) At the beginning of the recession, gold and silver prices typically drop with stocks. However, there is a point when they decouple and soar. This historic trend makes a case for using the pie chart format for our precious metal holdings. Register now to join us at our online Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 where you'll learn how to protect your wealth, save thousands annually in your budget and how to hedge in a volatile Debt World. If you'd like a life-changing adventure of a lifetime, be our guest at a royal manor house in Cornwall, England, March 12-19, 2027. (With just eight rooms available, this exclusive, private, bucket-list adventure sells out a year in advance!) Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] to learn more. The 2025 Restormel Retreat was a magical and royal experience. Click to learn more. Receive the best price and a complimentary 50-minute private prosperity coaching session (value $400) when you register for the Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 by June 30, 2025. Request testimonials at [email protected]. You can also view some on the flyer page of the retreat. Learn how to: * Invest in hot industries, such as Nvidia, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing, * Hedge against a weaker dollar, * Invest and compound your gains, * Green your retirement plan, * Easy and efficacious nest egg strategies, * Get hot and diversified (including in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and crypto), * Evaluate stocks, * Avoid capital gains and financial predators, * Keep an age-appropriate amount safe, and, * Know what's safe in a Debt World. You'll even discover how to save thousands annually with smarter big-ticket choices. Yes, it's a complete money makeover. Email [email protected] or call 310-430-2397 to learn more and register. Learn the 15+ things you'll master and read testimonials in the flyer on the home page at NataliePace.com. Register with friends and family to receive the best price. "Ten minutes into the first day I was already much smarter about investing than I ever thought I would be in my life and I knew I was in exactly the right place at this retreat. I am amazed at how EASY and FUN it is to make my money work for me and those I love. I think this kind of information should be compulsory in schools. I wish I'd learned this sooner." CM If you’d like an unbiased 2nd opinion on your current wealth plan, email [email protected] for pricing and information.  Receive the best price and a 50-minute private coaching session with Natalie Pace when you register by June 30, 2025. Visit NataliePace.com to learn more. Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] for pricing, additional information and to register.  Join us for our Restormel Royal Immersive Adventure Retreat. March 2027. Email [email protected] to learn more. Click for testimonials, pricing, hours & details. Register now to receive the best price, the best room and eight private, prosperity coaching sessions. There are only 8 rooms available. This retreat includes an all-access pass to all of our online training for a full year for two. Considering the perks, you're receiving a 65% discount to learn the life math that we all should have received in high school, and the room is free! Email [email protected] to learn more. The best rooms at the 2025 retreat were sold out in 2024! Yes, it's a great idea to register and start transforming our lives now!  Natalie Wynne Pace is an Advocate for Sustainability, Financial Literacy & Women's Empowerment. Natalie is the bestselling author of The ABCs of Money (6th edition) and The Power of 8 Billion: It's Up to Us, and is the co-creator of the Earth Gratitude Project. She has been ranked as a No. 1 stock picker, above over 835 A-list pundits, by an independent tracking agency (TipsTraders). Her book The ABCs of Money remained at or near the #1 Investing Basics e-book on Amazon for over 3 years (in its vertical), with over 120,000 downloads and a mean 5-star ranking. The 6th edition of The ABCs of Money and the 2nd edition of Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is (2nd edition) are the most recent releases of these books. Follow her on Instagram. Natalie Pace's easy as a pie chart nest egg strategies earned gains in the last two recessions and have outperformed the bull markets in between. That is why her Investor Educational Retreats, books and private coaching are enthusiastically recommended by Nobel Prize winning economist Gary S. Becker, TD AMERITRADE chairman Joe Moglia, Kay Koplovitz and many Main Street investors who have transformed their lives using her Thrive Budget and investing strategies. Click to view a video testimonial from Nilo Bolden. Check out Natalie Pace's Substack podcast on Apple and Spotify. Watch videoconferences and webinars on Youtube. Other Blogs of Interest Is Your Income Strategy Losing Money? Gold, Silver & Crypto Soar. Stocks Offer 5%. Debt Balloons. Some Foreigners are Selling U.S. Treasuries. Get Safe & Hot in 1 Easy Plan. Home Prices Soften. Is Your City Next? Tesla Vision vs. Waymo LiDAR and Air Taxis. Are Any of Them Safe? Archer Aviation is Chosen to be the Exclusive Air Taxi Service for the 2028 L.A. Olympics. Company of the Year? USA Downgraded. Is U.S. Reserve Currency Status Threatened? Utilities: In the Eye of the Natural Disaster Storms. Aging Mom Doesn't Want to Discuss Dilapidated House. Investors Ask Natalie. Sell in May? Tesla, Tariffs, Chinese Competition and Price Wars. Fun Ways to Celebrate Earth Day April 22nd. Will the Correction Become a Bear Market? 21st Century Recessions Look More Like Depressions. Will Oil Prices Sink or Soar? Executives are Uncertain. Health Savings Accounts. Save Thousands. Get a Tax Credit. Provide for Tomorrow's Healthcare Needs. Restormel Manor House 2025. A Truly Royal and Magical Adventure. 9 Ways to Cut Your Tax Bill in Half and Save Thousands Annually. Berkshire Hathaway. Should I Just Invest in Warren Buffett? Should I Have a Money Manager? The Cleanest Cities in the World. Can Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Gaza Become Edens? Rebuilding Gaza. American Companies Will Benefit. Top Dividend/Income Strategies for 2025. 2025 Crystal Ball: Who Will be the Superstars of Wall Street? Gold & Crypto IRAs and the Risk of Fraud and Losses. 10 Rules of Successful Investing. Quantum Computing. Paper Losses. Another Warning About Long-Term Bonds! 2025 Investor IQ Test. 2025 Investor IQ Test Answers. Apple iPhone Sales Plunge in China. Indonesia: Rich in Nickel with Ambitions of Becoming an EV Battery Hub. RoboTaxis. AI. The Magnificent 7. Charitable Giving. Nonprofits that are Worthy of Supporting. Why Are So Many Safe Investments Losing Money? A Bargain-Priced AI Company. Canadian, Australian and U.S. Banks. Are Any of Them Safe? Ireland. Rich in Technology, Biotechnology and Agribusiness. Robo Investing and AI. No, They are Not Foolproof. Stocks Soar as Nvidia Joins the DJIA. Copper. Peru ETF Outperforms the S&P500. Will Insurance Companies & Homeowners Weather the Hurricanes? 9 Money Secrets of the Ultra Wealthy. Housing & Budgeting Solutions. Arkansas Sues Temu for Data Theft. We Must Be the Boss of Our Money. Why? Fast Fashion. Fossil Fuels. Plastic Clothing. Atacama Desert Waste Dumps. Can Crowdstrike Recover from its Colossal Catastrophe? Featuring a Cybersecurity Overview. Fintechs and Brokerages that Fail are Not FDIC-Insured. 5 Green Tips for Clean Beaches Week. So, You Think You Want to Be a B&B Owner... Retiring Soon? Start Planning Now. 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. Answers to the 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. 9 Inflation, Budgeting, Debt Reduction and Investing Solutions. China & Russia Double Their Gold Holdings. 2024 Investment of the Year? Bitcoin Sets a New Record High. The Importance of Rebalancing. Uh. Oh. More Bank Trouble. Housing. Unaffordable. What Works? Case studies and creative solutions. The Underperforming DJIA, Full of Fossil Fuels and Forever Chemicals. The Best ROI* (Almost 40%!) & 7 Life Hacks That Save Thousands. 13 Lifestyle Choices to Reduce Waste, Pollution & CO2 & Save a Boatload of Dough. China Bans Apple 11-Point Green Checklist for Schools. 10 Wealth Secrets of Billionaires and Royals. Bank of America has $100 Billion in Bond Losses (on Paper) Fiat. Crypto. Gold. BRICS. Real Estate. Alternative Investments. BRICS Currency. Will the Dollar Become Extinct? Why We Are Underweighting Banks and the Financial Industry. Save Thousands Annually With Smarter Energy Choices Is Your FDIC-Insured Cash Really Safe? Money Market Funds, FDIC, SIPC: Are Any of Them Safe? My 24-Year-Old is Itching to Buy a Condo. Should I Help Him? The Bank Bail-in Plan on Your Dime. Important Disclaimers Please note: Natalie Pace does not act or operate like a broker. She reports on financial news, and is one of the most trusted sources of financial literacy, education and forensic analysis in the world. Natalie Pace educates and informs individual investors to give investors a competitive edge in their personal decision-making. Any publicly-traded companies, funds or projects mentioned by Natalie Pace are not intended to be buy or sell recommendations. ALWAYS do your research and consult an experienced, reputable financial professional before buying or selling any security, and consider your long-term goals and strategies. Investors should NOT be all in on any asset class or individual stocks. Your retirement plan should reflect an age-appropriate, diversified wealth plan, which has been designed strategically, with the assistance of financial professionals who are familiar with your goals, risk tolerance, tax needs and more. The "trading" portion of your portfolio should be a very small part of your investment strategy, and the amount of money you invest into individual companies should never be greater than your experience, wisdom, knowledge, patience and diversified strategy. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. However, NataliePace.com does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Opinions constitute our judgment as of the date of this publication and are subject to change without notice. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument.  Is Your Income Strategy Losing Money? Over the past few years, we’ve had many blogs on the risks that conservative investors are taking on – most of the time without ever realizing it — how people are being told that they’re earning an income, while many are losing principal, or even being sold into things that they can’t get rid of without substantial losses. Many conservative investors think they are protected from losing money because that is what they’ve asked for. When they ask about the performance of their plan, they might be told about the “income“ they are earning, without being informed in clear language that, due to paper losses, combined with the expenses and fees of the managed account, their wealth is performing at less than half of the speed of the "income," or even shrinking rather than growing. Wall Street was on fire in 2023 and 2024, earning more than 50% cumulatively. (Stocks are only up 4.6% so far this year. Click to learn more in my June 23, 2025, blog.) So, if your plan isn’t worth a great deal more than it was in 2022, it’s time to understand why. Why didn’t your plan have 50% or more gains, at least in some of the funds/slices of your strategy? Has your wealth more than doubled over the last decade? What’s the easiest way to measure performance? Simply ask your broker-salesman for a performance chart of your plan, including fees, compared to the S&P500 for the past 3, 5 and 10 years. That will include the spectacular performance of 2023 & 2024, the correction of 2022 and the pandemic. It should also be easy to see if a simple S&P500 index fund, with no cost at all at an online discount brokerage, performed better than your complicated, expensive plan. Here are the things we will cover in today’s blog. Are You Really Earning Any Income? The Risk of Income-Producing Stocks Annuities: You Can Lose Up to 9% The Minute You Purchase It. Bonds & Treasuries Money Market Funds & Certificates of Deposit What is Safe? Fixed Income Without Paper Losses Masterclass Oct. 18 And here’s more information on each point. Are You Really Earning Any Income? Our brokerage statement will show us almost everything we need to know about our plan. However, since the information might be located on different pages, we might not be adding up the complete picture. When we think about income, we must subtract the fees and any paper losses in order to understand whether or not we are making any money. One page of our brokerage statement might show us all of our paper losses, another will show us how much we paid in expenses and fees, while yet another tells us how much income we’re making. If we are only looking at the income and not factoring in the fees and paper losses, then we are not aware of just how little we are earning – or how much we might actually be losing. Paper losses are far more problematic than we are being told. They reduce our wealth and our FICO score and prevent us from accessing our money. They might be more permanent than the moniker indicates. Holding to term is going to be impossible in many long-term bonds, either because the payback date is longer than we will live, or due to the elevated credit risk, which increases the probability of principal loss due to debt restructuring. I’ve seen conservative investors sold into 85-year term junk bonds. Do you know what you own? The Risk of “Income-Producing” Stocks A few of the most infamous examples of trying to earn a small amount of income while putting our principal at great risk are found in the 2017 GE dividend rate cut, the GM bankruptcy, the PG&E bankruptcy restructuring, and the MF Global bankruptcy. Click on the blue-highlighted words to access additional information on those. With over half of the S&P500 at or near junk-bond status, it’s best to understand that most of the time, the higher the dividend, the higher the risk. If you are a conservative investor who doesn’t want to lose any money, it’s quite important to know the financial health of the company before buying into an income that could be less than 4-5%. In our sample pie charts, we are using international value replacement funds. Some of those funds offer higher credit quality and higher yield. So, we’re getting paid more to take on less risk. The pie chart system itself helps us to capture gains at the high and add more at the low – increasing performance – something that is impossible to do in a target date retirement plan or an account with hundreds of holdings. Additionally, the fund company matters. In the case of the MF Global bankruptcy, gold investors were distressed to discover that their gold fund investments were part of the bankruptcy. Investors were eventually made whole, but it took four years of fighting and waiting. Some investors are jumping into funds with enticing names, without realizing how risky a new fund company really is. How hundreds of stocks might not be diversified at all… We might think that having hundreds of different companies protects us, when in fact we might be in the same kind of company (large value size/style with very high debt, flat or negative sales growth and low margins). 18 pages of holdings often adds up to a lot of large cap companies, with very little exposure to anything else. We could have one page with 10 funds that would be far more diversified at lower cost. Another concern of the 18-page, hundreds of holdings plan is that the fees might be killing our returns. Email [email protected] if you’d like to personalize your own nest egg pie chart with our free web apps, or if you might be interested in an unbiased 2nd opinion of your current wealth plan.  Sample wealth plan of a 30-year old who is overweighting 20% safe. Annuities: You Can Lose Up to 9% The Minute You Purchase It. Annuities are very popular. At the same time, as FINRA.org, warns, “Annuities are complex and can be costly. Make sure you understand all the fees, expenses, charges, and any features or added benefits (often sold as “riders” at an additional cost) before making a purchase.” A good salesman might assure us that our money will be safe and cannot lose. However, are we being told that the minute we purchase certain annuities we can lose up to 9% of our principal? (They call it a surrender fee.) Annuities can have hidden fees, pay high commissions to brokers, and typically underperform the market. Other risks of annuities are as outlined below.
Bonds & Treasuries The weakness in long-term bonds and treasuries were at the root of the problem in 2023, when we saw 5 banks fail. The problem didn’t go away. (We’ve had another 3 fail since then.) It’s just that the Federal Reserve did some financial engineering to prevent other banks from failing. Long-term bonds (including long-term treasuries) are carrying credit risk and duration risk. This doesn’t go away with interest rate cuts for a number of reasons.
 Traditionally, bonds and T-bills were considered safe. However, due to duration and credit risk, they are not as safe as they were in the past. Bonds have lost more than stocks over the past three years, as you can see clearly in the performance charts below. The safe side is where we want to preserve our wealth – not lose our money.   Money Market Funds & Certificates of Deposit Money market funds are funds. That means they are not FDIC-insured, and they can go down in value. These funds can get into trouble in recessions. When interest rates get cut, the yield of the MMF goes down. So, in addition to these being riskier than FDIC-insured certificates of deposit, if interest rates get cut (as they are expected to do over the next couple of years), you could be getting paid less to take on more risk. Certificates of deposit can charge us if we need the money before the term is up. So, it is important to determine when we’re going to need that money before we buy the C.D. Also, due to heightened credit and duration risk, it’s important to keep the terms short and the creditworthiness high in all of our fixed-income investments. It’s also important to observe FDIC insurance levels. Uninsured deposits are not protected by the FDIC. In addition to short terms and high creditworthiness, rolling maturity dates ensure that we always have access to our money to take advantage of opportunities that might arise. What is Safe? So how do we protect our principal while earning a little money? Every year what’s hot and what’s safe changes. If you had attended one of our Financial Freedom Retreats between 2009 and 2016, we were strongly suggesting that you consider safe, income-producing hard assets, namely real estate. Real estate more than doubled over that period; it was a great idea. Now with real estate prices at an all-time high, investing is a lot trickier (though doable with a creative template – something we teach in our Real Estate Masterclass). After the Great Recession, with interest rates at zero, there wasn’t a lot of income to be made. Today, it’s easy to get a safe 4% ROI, but it is tricky. (Many fixed-income investors are experiencing those problematic paper losses.)
Again, this is not forever. There will be future opportunities (which is why we want to keep our money and have access to it). It’s also important to remember that if we have $1 million earning 4.2% that’s about $42,000 each year. Of course, it’s only that amount if we are not being charged a management fee or investing in something that has paper losses. Fixed Income Without Paper Losses Masterclass Oct. 18 Please join me for our masterclass on how to earn a reliable 4% income without paper losses on October 18, 2025. This is the Saturday after our October 11-13, 2025, Financial Freedom Retreat. We spend one full day on what safe at the retreat, which is a key preparation for the masterclass. So, it’s important to attend the retreat before the fixed-income masterclass. We offer a special bundling package for attending both together. You might also consider purchasing a 12-month all-access pass to all our online master classes and retreats (3-4 of each per year). The cost of the-all access pass is a savings of 72% off the retail price. Email [email protected] or call 310-430-2397 to learn more now. If you register for the October retreat or purchase an all-access pass by June 30, 2025, you will also receive a 50-minute private coaching session (value $400). Here are a few more important blogs on purportedly “safe” income-producing strategies. Should You Have a Managed Portfolio? Paper Losses. Why are So Many "Safe" Investments Losing Money? Bottom Line In my private coaching practice, I am seeing a lot of conservative investors who are told they are earning income without the broker-salesman revealing that their rate of return is under 2% or may be negative when you factor in all the paper losses and the fees. It is very important that we know the basics of investing, and to read the fine print rather than having blind faith in whatever we are being told. Stocks are high. Real estate is high. Bonds and other fixed-income assets can be risky and illiquid. (Even some banks with Ivy League analysts have failed). The economy is expected to slow down this year, which could make things more challenging. So now is a great time to know exactly what we own and why, and to fix the roof while the sun is still shining. Register now to join us at our online Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 where you'll learn how to protect your wealth, save thousands annually in your budget and how to hedge in a volatile Debt World. If you'd like a life-changing adventure of a lifetime, be our guest at a royal manor house in Cornwall, England, March 12-19, 2027. (With just eight rooms available, this exclusive, private, bucket-list adventure sells out a year in advance!) Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] to learn more. The 2025 Restormel Retreat was a magical and royal experience. Click to learn more. Receive the best price and a complimentary 50-minute private prosperity coaching session (value $400) when you register for the Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 by June 30, 2025. Request testimonials at [email protected]. You can also view some on the flyer page of the retreat. Learn how to: * Invest in hot industries, such as Nvidia, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing, * Hedge against a weaker dollar, * Invest and compound your gains, * Green your retirement plan, * Easy and efficacious nest egg strategies, * Get hot and diversified (including in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and crypto), * Evaluate stocks, * Avoid capital gains and financial predators, * Keep an age-appropriate amount safe, and, * Know what's safe in a Debt World. You'll even discover how to save thousands annually with smarter big-ticket choices. Yes, it's a complete money makeover. Email [email protected] or call 310-430-2397 to learn more and register. Learn the 15+ things you'll master and read testimonials in the flyer on the home page at NataliePace.com. Register with friends and family to receive the best price. "Ten minutes into the first day I was already much smarter about investing than I ever thought I would be in my life and I knew I was in exactly the right place at this retreat. I am amazed at how EASY and FUN it is to make my money work for me and those I love. I think this kind of information should be compulsory in schools. I wish I'd learned this sooner." CM If you’d like an unbiased 2nd opinion on your current wealth plan, email [email protected] for pricing and information.  Receive the best price and a 50-minute private coaching session with Natalie Pace when you register by June 30, 2025. Visit NataliePace.com to learn more. Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] for pricing, additional information and to register.  Join us for our Restormel Royal Immersive Adventure Retreat. March 2027. Email [email protected] to learn more. Click for testimonials, pricing, hours & details. Register now to receive the best price, the best room and eight private, prosperity coaching sessions. There are only 8 rooms available. This retreat includes an all-access pass to all of our online training for a full year for two. Considering the perks, you're receiving a 65% discount to learn the life math that we all should have received in high school, and the room is free! Email [email protected] to learn more. The best rooms at the 2025 retreat were sold out in 2024! Yes, it's a great idea to register and start transforming our lives now!  Natalie Wynne Pace is an Advocate for Sustainability, Financial Literacy & Women's Empowerment. Natalie is the bestselling author of The ABCs of Money (6th edition) and The Power of 8 Billion: It's Up to Us, and is the co-creator of the Earth Gratitude Project. She has been ranked as a No. 1 stock picker, above over 835 A-list pundits, by an independent tracking agency (TipsTraders). Her book The ABCs of Money remained at or near the #1 Investing Basics e-book on Amazon for over 3 years (in its vertical), with over 120,000 downloads and a mean 5-star ranking. The 6th edition of The ABCs of Money and the 2nd edition of Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is (2nd edition) are the most recent releases of these books. Follow her on Instagram. Natalie Pace's easy as a pie chart nest egg strategies earned gains in the last two recessions and have outperformed the bull markets in between. That is why her Investor Educational Retreats, books and private coaching are enthusiastically recommended by Nobel Prize winning economist Gary S. Becker, TD AMERITRADE chairman Joe Moglia, Kay Koplovitz and many Main Street investors who have transformed their lives using her Thrive Budget and investing strategies. Click to view a video testimonial from Nilo Bolden. Check out Natalie Pace's Substack podcast on Apple and Spotify. Watch videoconferences and webinars on Youtube. Other Blogs of Interest Gold, Silver & Crypto Soar. Stocks Offer 5%. Debt Balloons. Some Foreigners are Selling U.S. Treasuries. Get Safe & Hot in 1 Easy Plan. Home Prices Soften. Is Your City Next? Tesla Vision vs. Waymo LiDAR and Air Taxis. Are Any of Them Safe? Archer Aviation is Chosen to be the Exclusive Air Taxi Service for the 2028 L.A. Olympics. Company of the Year? USA Downgraded. Is U.S. Reserve Currency Status Threatened? Utilities: In the Eye of the Natural Disaster Storms. Aging Mom Doesn't Want to Discuss Dilapidated House. Investors Ask Natalie. Sell in May? Tesla, Tariffs, Chinese Competition and Price Wars. Fun Ways to Celebrate Earth Day April 22nd. Will the Correction Become a Bear Market? 21st Century Recessions Look More Like Depressions. Will Oil Prices Sink or Soar? Executives are Uncertain. Health Savings Accounts. Save Thousands. Get a Tax Credit. Provide for Tomorrow's Healthcare Needs. Restormel Manor House 2025. A Truly Royal and Magical Adventure. 9 Ways to Cut Your Tax Bill in Half and Save Thousands Annually. Berkshire Hathaway. Should I Just Invest in Warren Buffett? Should I Have a Money Manager? The Cleanest Cities in the World. Can Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Gaza Become Edens? Rebuilding Gaza. American Companies Will Benefit. Top Dividend/Income Strategies for 2025. 2025 Crystal Ball: Who Will be the Superstars of Wall Street? Gold & Crypto IRAs and the Risk of Fraud and Losses. 10 Rules of Successful Investing. Quantum Computing. Paper Losses. Another Warning About Long-Term Bonds! 2025 Investor IQ Test. 2025 Investor IQ Test Answers. Apple iPhone Sales Plunge in China. Indonesia: Rich in Nickel with Ambitions of Becoming an EV Battery Hub. RoboTaxis. AI. The Magnificent 7. Charitable Giving. Nonprofits that are Worthy of Supporting. Why Are So Many Safe Investments Losing Money? A Bargain-Priced AI Company. Canadian, Australian and U.S. Banks. Are Any of Them Safe? Ireland. Rich in Technology, Biotechnology and Agribusiness. Robo Investing and AI. No, They are Not Foolproof. Stocks Soar as Nvidia Joins the DJIA. Copper. Peru ETF Outperforms the S&P500. Will Insurance Companies & Homeowners Weather the Hurricanes? 9 Money Secrets of the Ultra Wealthy. Housing & Budgeting Solutions. Arkansas Sues Temu for Data Theft. We Must Be the Boss of Our Money. Why? Fast Fashion. Fossil Fuels. Plastic Clothing. Atacama Desert Waste Dumps. Can Crowdstrike Recover from its Colossal Catastrophe? Featuring a Cybersecurity Overview. Fintechs and Brokerages that Fail are Not FDIC-Insured. 5 Green Tips for Clean Beaches Week. So, You Think You Want to Be a B&B Owner... Retiring Soon? Start Planning Now. 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. Answers to the 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. 9 Inflation, Budgeting, Debt Reduction and Investing Solutions. China & Russia Double Their Gold Holdings. 2024 Investment of the Year? Bitcoin Sets a New Record High. The Importance of Rebalancing. Uh. Oh. More Bank Trouble. Housing. Unaffordable. What Works? Case studies and creative solutions. The Underperforming DJIA, Full of Fossil Fuels and Forever Chemicals. The Best ROI* (Almost 40%!) & 7 Life Hacks That Save Thousands. 13 Lifestyle Choices to Reduce Waste, Pollution & CO2 & Save a Boatload of Dough. China Bans Apple 11-Point Green Checklist for Schools. 10 Wealth Secrets of Billionaires and Royals. Bank of America has $100 Billion in Bond Losses (on Paper) Fiat. Crypto. Gold. BRICS. Real Estate. Alternative Investments. BRICS Currency. Will the Dollar Become Extinct? Why We Are Underweighting Banks and the Financial Industry. Save Thousands Annually With Smarter Energy Choices Is Your FDIC-Insured Cash Really Safe? Money Market Funds, FDIC, SIPC: Are Any of Them Safe? My 24-Year-Old is Itching to Buy a Condo. Should I Help Him? The Bank Bail-in Plan on Your Dime. Important Disclaimers Please note: Natalie Pace does not act or operate like a broker. She reports on financial news, and is one of the most trusted sources of financial literacy, education and forensic analysis in the world. Natalie Pace educates and informs individual investors to give investors a competitive edge in their personal decision-making. Any publicly-traded companies, funds or projects mentioned by Natalie Pace are not intended to be buy or sell recommendations. ALWAYS do your research and consult an experienced, reputable financial professional before buying or selling any security, and consider your long-term goals and strategies. Investors should NOT be all in on any asset class or individual stocks. Your retirement plan should reflect an age-appropriate, diversified wealth plan, which has been designed strategically, with the assistance of financial professionals who are familiar with your goals, risk tolerance, tax needs and more. The "trading" portion of your portfolio should be a very small part of your investment strategy, and the amount of money you invest into individual companies should never be greater than your experience, wisdom, knowledge, patience and diversified strategy. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. However, NataliePace.com does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Opinions constitute our judgment as of the date of this publication and are subject to change without notice. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument.  Gold and Silver Soar. Stocks are Flat. Debt Balloons. Some Foreigners Abandon U.S. Treasuries. Gold and silver have been super performers this year with gains of 27% and 22%, respectively. By comparison, the S&P 500 is barely above where it started the year, at 6,025, with gains of just 2.7%. What’s behind the strength in precious metals and the subdued performance in stocks? Why are some countries dumping their U.S. treasuries? Should we be concerned? Should we join the precious metal or crypto party? Crypto is performing at half the speed of gold and silver this year, at 11.2% gains year to date.  Gold (pink), silver (green) and stock (blue) performance year to date (June 23, 2025). MSN.com. (c) Microsoft. Used with permission. So which countries abandoned U.S. treasuries and why? Which countries own more than they did in 2018? Who’s buying all that extra gold? Should you join them? How do you know if you own U.S. treasuries, perhaps in your pension plan, money market fund, or retirement account? All this and more in the blog below. Here are the topics we will cover. Gold and Silver The Top Holders of Gold Crypto The Top Holders of U.S. Treasuries Who is Selling U.S. Treasuries? Debt in the U.S. Soars (Far Higher Than $36.2 Trillion) Spending Bill Projected to Make Debt Worse The U.S. is Currently Using Extraordinary Means to Pay Bills Your Best Move And here is more information on each point. Gold and Silver Gold is trading very close to its all-time high of $3,510 an ounce. Analysts are saying it could soar to $4000/ounce over the next year. Gold bugs have been saying for two decades it’ll blow past that to above $5000/ounce. One thing for sure, as the world gets increasingly concerned about:
More individuals and countries may be interested in increasing their gold, silver and perhaps even crypto holdings. While gold is trading close to its all-time high, silver is still rather subdued from its $48.70/ounce price in 2011. Will silver rally and break through that barrier? While we can profit by simply owning an ETF that invests in gold and silver, we could also look at some gold or silver miners. Many are trading close to an all-time high, so consider dollar-cost averaging into your hot slice. For those of you who are interested in taking on more risk for a potentially higher reward (Vegas money), I was particularly interested in First Majestic Silver. The company saw revenue jump by 130% in the most recent quarter. They’ve also established First Mint, a 100% owned minting facility, and are selling coins directly to consumers. I’m expecting to buy a few shares after this blog is published. Remember that investing in individual companies isn’t right for everybody and if you do choose to do this, you must do a lot of babysitting and analysis before any buy or sell decision, with the exit strategy always in mind anytime you buy. Email [email protected] if you’d like an updated Stock Report Card. Be careful about anyone who attempts to hard sell us into placing all our eggs in the gold, silver or crypto basket. The fraudsters run rampant and profit on our fear. Learn more in my Safe Haven IRA blog. (Click to access.) The Top Holders of Gold Below I’ve listed the top holders of gold. The countries highlighted in blue have increased their holdings since January of this year, and include China, India, Turkey, Poland, and Taiwan. Investors have also poured into ETFs over the past few months. According to the World Gold Council, the U.S. is the top holder of gold, by far.  Source: The World Gold Council. Gold.org. Three BRICS nations increased their gold holdings – namely China, India and South Africa. Brazil held steady at 129.7 tons, while Russia sold a little bit of gold. While these nations are certainly interested in breaking the dominance of the U.S. dollar, and are making small gains toward that goal, they still have quite a long way to go. Check out my Reserve Currency blog. (Click to access.) Crypto Bitcoin is close to its all-time high of $111,999. The second most widely traded crypto, Ethereum, is still down by half from its all-time high of $4,606/coin, set on November 3, 2021. There are many important things to consider about crypto. • Crypto winters are very severe. Investors can lose 70% or more and take more than a year to recover. It can be devastating to watch your million dollars sink to just $300,000. If you’ve borrowed against it, you’re in trouble. • It’s important to use our hot slice and pie chart system with crypto (and any hot liquid investment) to help us to capture gains, add more at a very low price in Crypto Winters, and stay on the right side of the trade. You can learn more about how our pie chart investing system works, in my book The ABCs of Money 6th edition or at our online Financial Freedom Retreat. • If you are capturing crypto gains and you do not have your Bitcoin or Ethereum investments in ETFs within a tax protective retirement account, you are getting hit hard with capital gains taxes. There are now Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, which we can purchase in a self-managed tax-protected retirement account. These relatively new products have only been available for a couple of years. Remember that who you purchase your fund from counts. Choose publicly traded, multi-billion dollar corporations with high credit quality. iShares is owned by Blackrock, an AA- rated publicly traded company. If you just purchase any ETF, it might be from I Just Started My ETF This Year.com. How well funded or trustworthy is the company and its executives? • If the historical trend of halving events holds true, the next Crypto Winter could happen as soon as summer 2026. Read my 2024 Investment of the Year blog for additional information. The Top Holders of U.S. Treasuries Foreigners own about a third of the U.S. public debt. Japan, the United Kingdom and China were the largest holders of U.S. treasuries, as of April 2025. As you can see in the chart below, Japan, Europe and Taiwan all increased their treasury holdings since 2018.   Who is Selling U.S. Treasuries? While China is still one of the largest holders of U.S. public debt, the country has reduced its holdings by -35.78% since June 2018. Brazil’s holdings are down by -29.36%, while Saudi Arabia’s holdings of U.S. treasuries dropped by -18.86%. Russia dumped most of their U.S. treasuries in June 2018 (under President Trump’s 1st term), going from $165 billion to $15 billion. (Click to read our report on that.) However, India (one of the BRICS nations) increased their holdings by 64.54%. Debt in the U.S. Soars (Far Higher Than $36.2 Trillion) Debt is skyrocketing in the United States. It was bad before the pandemic, and since then has really gotten out of hand. We hear a lot about the $36.2 trillion in US public debt, which is staggering. What we don’t hear as much about is the total U.S. debt and loans, which is an eye-popping $103 trillion.  As a result of concerns over the debt, we are seeing strength in gold, silver and bitcoin right now. I’ve talked about those assets above and encourage Main Street investors to consider these emotional assets as a hot slice or two of an age-appropriate, properly diversified strategy that gets rebalanced 1-3 times a year – in order to capture gains and keep on the right side of the trade. (We’ve had these as part of our sample hots, alongside breakthrough technology, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and other hot industries, for quite a few years now.) You might have more exposure to U.S. debt than you might know. If you have paper losses in your retirement account or managed wealth plan, it’s time to know exactly what you own and why, how high your exposure is to risky debt, and how to get a comparable, yield in safer fixed income assets without those paper losses. We spend one full day on What’s Safe at our Financial Freedom Retreat, or you can consider getting an unbiased 2nd opinion through my private coaching program. Email [email protected] to learn more. Spending Bill Projected to Make Debt Worse The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act is projected to increase the U.S. deficits by $2.8 trillion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. This has the Republican party divided, as hardliners push for more budget cuts. If the Republican party unites, the bill could pass, and be signed into law before Independence Day, which is what the White House wants. The U.S. is Currently Using Extraordinary Means to Pay Bills On May 9, 2025, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sent a letter to the Speaker of the House and other Congressional leaders urging them to raise the Debt Limit by mid-July. The Treasury Department is currently using extraordinary means to pay bills, having hit the previously set Debt Ceiling. The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act would increase the Debt Limit by $4 trillion. Your Best Move Stocks are high, as are home prices. If you own either, then you might feel rich. If you don’t, you’re probably being strangled by the cost of basic needs and struggling to find a solution. Waiting for politicians and regulators to fix things can be frustrating. If we come together as a family, we can learn how to keep our wealth and stop making everyone else rich, including the tax man, the bank or landlord, the health insurance company and medical/pharmaceutical industry, the gas station, the utility company and more. We teach many remedies that are gamechangers in an expensive Debt World. You can read about them in my books and blogs, or learn and implement them at my retreats, masterclasses and private coaching. Email [email protected] for testimonials, to do your due diligence into our time-proven 21st Century budgeting and investing strategies. Bottom Line Most managed financial plans do what the market does. If you’re a conservative investor, you might be suffering from paper losses, while taking a wild ride on Wall Street for no reward. If you’re into gold, silver or crypto, you might be sitting pretty and thinking that the party will last forever. (Gold, silver and crypto are all volatile assets, with a history of soaring and plunging.) A well-balanced plan that gives us heat and protection is easier than you might realize, which is why we call it the life math that we all should have received in high school. Now is the time to know exactly what we own and why, rather than having blind faith that someone else is protecting our future for us. Wisdom is the cure. Register now to join us at our online Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 where you'll learn how to protect your wealth, save thousands annually in your budget and how to hedge in a volatile Debt World. If you'd like a life-changing adventure of a lifetime, be our guest at a royal manor house in Cornwall, England, March 12-19, 2027. (With just eight rooms available, this exclusive, private, bucket-list adventure sells out a year in advance!) Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] to learn more. The 2025 Restormel Retreat was a magical and royal experience. Click to learn more. Receive the best price and a complimentary 50-minute private prosperity coaching session (value $400) when you register for the Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 by June 30, 2025. Request testimonials at [email protected]. You can also view some on the flyer page of the retreat. Learn how to: * Invest in hot industries, such as Nvidia, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing, * Hedge against a weaker dollar, * Invest and compound your gains, * Green your retirement plan, * Easy and efficacious nest egg strategies, * Get hot and diversified (including in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and crypto), * Evaluate stocks, * Avoid capital gains and financial predators, * Keep an age-appropriate amount safe, and, * Know what's safe in a Debt World. You'll even discover how to save thousands annually with smarter big-ticket choices. Yes, it's a complete money makeover. Email [email protected] or call 310-430-2397 to learn more and register. Learn the 15+ things you'll master and read testimonials in the flyer on the home page at NataliePace.com. Register with friends and family to receive the best price. "Ten minutes into the first day I was already much smarter about investing than I ever thought I would be in my life and I knew I was in exactly the right place at this retreat. I am amazed at how EASY and FUN it is to make my money work for me and those I love. I think this kind of information should be compulsory in schools. I wish I'd learned this sooner." CM If you’d like an unbiased 2nd opinion on your current wealth plan, email [email protected] for pricing and information.  Receive the best price and a 50-minute private coaching session with Natalie Pace when you register by June 30, 2025. Visit NataliePace.com to learn more. Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] for pricing, additional information and to register.  Join us for our Restormel Royal Immersive Adventure Retreat. March 2027. Email [email protected] to learn more. Click for testimonials, pricing, hours & details. Register now to receive the best price, the best room and eight private, prosperity coaching sessions. There are only 8 rooms available. This retreat includes an all-access pass to all of our online training for a full year for two. Considering the perks, you're receiving a 65% discount to learn the life math that we all should have received in high school, and the room is free! Email [email protected] to learn more. The best rooms at the 2025 retreat were sold out in 2024! Yes, it's a great idea to register and start transforming our lives now!  Natalie Wynne Pace is an Advocate for Sustainability, Financial Literacy & Women's Empowerment. Natalie is the bestselling author of The ABCs of Money (6th edition) and The Power of 8 Billion: It's Up to Us, and is the co-creator of the Earth Gratitude Project. She has been ranked as a No. 1 stock picker, above over 835 A-list pundits, by an independent tracking agency (TipsTraders). Her book The ABCs of Money remained at or near the #1 Investing Basics e-book on Amazon for over 3 years (in its vertical), with over 120,000 downloads and a mean 5-star ranking. The 6th edition of The ABCs of Money and the 2nd edition of Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is (2nd edition) are the most recent releases of these books. Follow her on Instagram. Natalie Pace's easy as a pie chart nest egg strategies earned gains in the last two recessions and have outperformed the bull markets in between. That is why her Investor Educational Retreats, books and private coaching are enthusiastically recommended by Nobel Prize winning economist Gary S. Becker, TD AMERITRADE chairman Joe Moglia, Kay Koplovitz and many Main Street investors who have transformed their lives using her Thrive Budget and investing strategies. Click to view a video testimonial from Nilo Bolden. Check out Natalie Pace's Substack podcast on Apple and Spotify. Watch videoconferences and webinars on Youtube. Other Blogs of Interest Get Safe & Hot in 1 Easy Plan. Home Prices Soften. Is Your City Next? Tesla Vision vs. Waymo LiDAR and Air Taxis. Are Any of Them Safe? Archer Aviation is Chosen to be the Exclusive Air Taxi Service for the 2028 L.A. Olympics. Company of the Year? USA Downgraded. Is U.S. Reserve Currency Status Threatened? Utilities: In the Eye of the Natural Disaster Storms. Aging Mom Doesn't Want to Discuss Dilapidated House. Investors Ask Natalie. Sell in May? Tesla, Tariffs, Chinese Competition and Price Wars. Fun Ways to Celebrate Earth Day April 22nd. Will the Correction Become a Bear Market? 21st Century Recessions Look More Like Depressions. Will Oil Prices Sink or Soar? Executives are Uncertain. Health Savings Accounts. Save Thousands. Get a Tax Credit. Provide for Tomorrow's Healthcare Needs. Restormel Manor House 2025. A Truly Royal and Magical Adventure. 9 Ways to Cut Your Tax Bill in Half and Save Thousands Annually. Berkshire Hathaway. Should I Just Invest in Warren Buffett? Should I Have a Money Manager? The Cleanest Cities in the World. Can Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Gaza Become Edens? Rebuilding Gaza. American Companies Will Benefit. Top Dividend/Income Strategies for 2025. 2025 Crystal Ball: Who Will be the Superstars of Wall Street? Gold & Crypto IRAs and the Risk of Fraud and Losses. 10 Rules of Successful Investing. Quantum Computing. Paper Losses. Another Warning About Long-Term Bonds! 2025 Investor IQ Test. 2025 Investor IQ Test Answers. Apple iPhone Sales Plunge in China. Indonesia: Rich in Nickel with Ambitions of Becoming an EV Battery Hub. RoboTaxis. AI. The Magnificent 7. Charitable Giving. Nonprofits that are Worthy of Supporting. Why Are So Many Safe Investments Losing Money? A Bargain-Priced AI Company. Canadian, Australian and U.S. Banks. Are Any of Them Safe? Ireland. Rich in Technology, Biotechnology and Agribusiness. Robo Investing and AI. No, They are Not Foolproof. Stocks Soar as Nvidia Joins the DJIA. Copper. Peru ETF Outperforms the S&P500. Will Insurance Companies & Homeowners Weather the Hurricanes? 9 Money Secrets of the Ultra Wealthy. Housing & Budgeting Solutions. Arkansas Sues Temu for Data Theft. We Must Be the Boss of Our Money. Why? Fast Fashion. Fossil Fuels. Plastic Clothing. Atacama Desert Waste Dumps. Can Crowdstrike Recover from its Colossal Catastrophe? Featuring a Cybersecurity Overview. Fintechs and Brokerages that Fail are Not FDIC-Insured. 5 Green Tips for Clean Beaches Week. So, You Think You Want to Be a B&B Owner... Retiring Soon? Start Planning Now. 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. Answers to the 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. 9 Inflation, Budgeting, Debt Reduction and Investing Solutions. China & Russia Double Their Gold Holdings. 2024 Investment of the Year? Bitcoin Sets a New Record High. The Importance of Rebalancing. Uh. Oh. More Bank Trouble. Housing. Unaffordable. What Works? Case studies and creative solutions. The Underperforming DJIA, Full of Fossil Fuels and Forever Chemicals. The Best ROI* (Almost 40%!) & 7 Life Hacks That Save Thousands. 13 Lifestyle Choices to Reduce Waste, Pollution & CO2 & Save a Boatload of Dough. China Bans Apple 11-Point Green Checklist for Schools. 10 Wealth Secrets of Billionaires and Royals. Bank of America has $100 Billion in Bond Losses (on Paper) Fiat. Crypto. Gold. BRICS. Real Estate. Alternative Investments. BRICS Currency. Will the Dollar Become Extinct? Why We Are Underweighting Banks and the Financial Industry. Save Thousands Annually With Smarter Energy Choices Is Your FDIC-Insured Cash Really Safe? Money Market Funds, FDIC, SIPC: Are Any of Them Safe? My 24-Year-Old is Itching to Buy a Condo. Should I Help Him? The Bank Bail-in Plan on Your Dime. Important Disclaimers Please note: Natalie Pace does not act or operate like a broker. She reports on financial news, and is one of the most trusted sources of financial literacy, education and forensic analysis in the world. Natalie Pace educates and informs individual investors to give investors a competitive edge in their personal decision-making. Any publicly-traded companies, funds or projects mentioned by Natalie Pace are not intended to be buy or sell recommendations. ALWAYS do your research and consult an experienced, reputable financial professional before buying or selling any security, and consider your long-term goals and strategies. Investors should NOT be all in on any asset class or individual stocks. Your retirement plan should reflect an age-appropriate, diversified wealth plan, which has been designed strategically, with the assistance of financial professionals who are familiar with your goals, risk tolerance, tax needs and more. The "trading" portion of your portfolio should be a very small part of your investment strategy, and the amount of money you invest into individual companies should never be greater than your experience, wisdom, knowledge, patience and diversified strategy. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. However, NataliePace.com does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Opinions constitute our judgment as of the date of this publication and are subject to change without notice. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument.  Get Safe & Hot with One Easy Plan. I love hosting our Financial Freedom Retreats and meeting with my private coaching clients because it helps me to understand the kind of pressure most of us are under to purchase certain kinds of investment products. Whether it is an advertisement on social media or YouTube, a warning that the dollar is going to be worthless, a call from our broker-salesman, or just peer pressure from friends and relatives, whatever advice is being given makes the investment strategy sound super sexy and smart. We might even be told we’re dumb not to do it. And if we’re told that we must do it within a week or lose out on the opportunity, well that’s just a giant red flag. (Did you know that buyer’s remorse is high among recent home buyers – especially those who felt pressure?) At the same time, when we walk down the street and see all the boarded-up buildings or hear our friends and neighbors complain about the high cost of living, we start feeling a little less assured of everything. Investing is really the only path to financial freedom, as you can see in the Saving vs. Investing chart below. Owning your own home is also something that can create wealth, as homeowners are 10-40 times wealthier than renters (depending upon whether you use the mean or median average).  However, buying high before stocks drop or real estate prices plunge can be a sure path to financial ruin. Rather than betting, hoping or praying that everything keeps going up (getting more expensive), is there a way to protect our wealth, while also enjoying rallies and bull markets? What about investing in AI, robotaxis, cybersecurity, gold or hip replacements? How do you get the formula right? Is it going to be super difficult, time-consuming, or require a lot of expensive education? Yes, we can have it all. There is a time-proven, easy strategy that earned gains in the Dot Com and Great Recessions and outperformed the bull markets in between. We can lean into the companies of tomorrow and underweight debt-laden, slow or no growth last-century companies. We can earn gains in the hottest industries, including the Magnificent 7, AI, crypto (or not), earn income and protect our wealth. The solution is literally as easy as knowing what an age-appropriate properly diversified plan looks like and what is safe at a time when over half of the S&P500 is at or near junk bond status. Here are the topics will cover in this blog. Target Date Retirement Funds AI, Air Taxis, Robotaxis, Quantum Computing and Other Breakthrough Technology Vegas Money Value Funds Paper Losses and Bonds Headlines and Peer Pressure And here is more information on each topic. Target Date Retirement Funds Target date retirement funds are severely underperforming the market and are more at risk of losses than most of us might realize. Look at the chart below where you can see that the S&P 500 has almost doubled over the last five years, whereas this 2025 target date retirement fund performed at about 1.5% annualized. Bonds have been offering above 4% since 2023, so the fund is underperforming the asset classes.  Chart by MSN.com. (c) Microsoft. Used with permission. You might also notice that when stocks plunged in April 2025 and in 2022 (-19.44%), so did the fund. However, one of the other problems with the fund is that it includes everything, including junk bonds (very risky and not really appropriate for someone who is retiring). Diversification into separate funds, rather than having one giant amoeba which is designed to buy and hold, is important so that we can see and capture gains, rather than riding the Wall Street rollercoaster. Diversifying into size/style, hots and safety requires only 10 funds, which is easy to self-manage or to work with a broker-salesman. Archer Aviation is the official air taxi of the 2028 L.A. Olympics. AI, Air Taxis, Robotaxis, Quantum Computing and Other Breakthrough Technology If you’re interested in any of these hot industries, or even cryptocurrency, there is a way to add performance to our portfolio safely. Some of them must be considered Vegas money, which we’ll discuss next. However, electric vehicles and artificial intelligence are things that we’re already using. The companies that are leading the innovation in these hot industries are worth trillions of dollars, and are more commonly referred to as the Magnificent 7. The truth is: if you didn’t have the Magnificent 7 over the last couple of years, your returns were half that of the S&P500. (The Dow Jones Industrial Average performed at half of the S&P500, as just one example.) Many “conservative” investors missed this performance because they didn’t have large cap growth in their wealth plan. If you added a hot slice of breakthrough technology, your portfolio was on fire in 2023 and 2024.  Chart by MSN.com. (c) Microsoft. Used with permission. At the same time, because the Magnificent 7 companies are very popular, they are often overvalued. When Wall Street retreats, they tend to plunge further and faster than other stocks. This occurred in April of this year, when the general market hit a -20% bottom, but did not close there so it wasn’t an official bear market. It also occurred in 2022, when stocks dropped -19.44%. Tesla dropped -67% in 2022 as did bitcoin. Nvidia lost half. Cathie Woods ARK Innovation Fund was another big loser that year, at -67%.  Vegas Money Our wealth plan should be an age-appropriate, properly diversified strategy that we rebalance once twice or three times a year. Designating ETFs of AI, crypto, electric vehicles, medical devices, or another industry that we think is going to perform well, into one of our hot slices helps us to capture gains at the high during our regular rebalancing sessions. I like to put my hot slices in my Roth IRA. Peter Thiel does, too. ProPublica reported that he has $5 billion in his Roth IRA. So, what is the difference between your wealth plan (money while you sleep) and Vegas money? If you are certain that you want to invest in an individual company or a young industry, like quantum computing, or even air taxis, at this point, it must be with your Vegas money. (Click on the blue-highlighted words to learn more about each industry.) There are no funds (provided by creditworthy legacy fund companies) for these emerging disruptive industries. If you just try to pick the one you think will be the next Nvidia, you’ll need to do a tremendous amount of research (not just reading an analyst or guru’s recommendation, which might turn out to be a paid for promotion). Investing in individual stocks is like a 100-piece puzzle. It’s a lot more complicated than most people realize. And when it is early stage in a high cash burn industry, such as air Taxis and quantum computing, not only do you have to be worried about whether that company will win the competition, but also that they will have enough cash to get them through the end zone. (Many companies have already gone belly-up in both industries.) Individual stocks require a great deal of research and babysitting. That is not money while you sleep. So, if you wish to invest in an early-stage industry or an individual company, it’s not really part of your nest egg. It is better thought of as Vegas money – something we might win with or lose. We also need to have a capture gains plan or exit strategy and might consider taking profits early and often. Buy low and sell high is a Wall Street aphorism for a reason, especially with stocks on such a rollercoaster. Investing in individual companies is like playing tennis with Serena Williams. We’re on the court trying to beat whales and hedge funds who have a significant advantage in resources, skills and experience over us. Value Funds Value funds are supposed to include companies that are on sale. However, is anything really a great deal when stocks are at an all-time high? Today, price earnings ratios are almost as high as they were before the Dot Com Recession, when stocks dropped -78% in the NASDAQ Composite Index. Prices are higher than they were in the Great Depression. You know from the history books what happened there.  CAPE ratio is a tool developed by Prof. Robert Shiller (Nobel Prize winning economist) at Yale.edu. We are underweighting U.S. value funds in our sample pie charts and substituting countries that have lower debt and industry diversification that we’re just not getting in our U.S. funds. Our large value replacement country has a higher credit rating, lower debt, and typically pays a higher yield than the US value funds. Paper Losses and Bonds We’re starting to see warnings about private equity and debt from Moody‘s and other rating agencies. In my private coaching, I’m seeing high net worth individuals who are sold into qualified investor products that are far riskier than their conservative appetite, invest in junk, and tie up their money with very little recourse to extricate it. Many times, the minute the product is purchased, there are paper losses. A saying from Will Rogers comes to mind. “I’m more concerned with the return of my money than the return on my money.” What are paper losses? Your investment is worth less than you paid for it. You’ve lost some of your principal investment. When you buy something that nobody else wants, and then decide that maybe you didn’t want it in the first place, you’ll find that those people who didn’t want it will only take it off your hands if you sell it to them at a big discount. The salesman of the big banks who talk their clients into purchasing these products will say, “These are only paper losses. Just hold it to term.” But have you bothered to look at the term? I am seeing high net worth individuals who are sold into junk bonds with an 85-year term. They lost 25% or more of their principal the minute the investment was purchased. Those same clients are then told about the amount of income that they are earning, while the brokerage statement itself will show that if you factor in the paper losses and expenses, the income is almost completely wiped out (or can be negative). If you are hearing any of these things, now is the time to consider receiving an unbiased second opinion from me in my private coaching program. It’s unbiased because I don’t sell financial products and I have no incentive to point you in any direction that benefits me at your loss. There is an easy way to earn 4% without any paper losses. It is a little tricky in today’s world. That is why we spend one full day on this topic at our Financial Freedom Retreat. FYI, we’re in the Free Gift and Early Bird pricing period. When you register for the retreat by June 30, 2025, you receive the lowest price and one complimentary, 50-minute private prosperity coaching session (value $400), which can go toward your unbiased 2nd opinion. Email [email protected] to learn more and register now. Headlines and Peer Pressure When we wait for headlines we’re almost always late. When everyone is telling us we should buy something, quite often we’re just buying high. In stocks that could mean putting ourselves at risk of serious losses, and in real estate that could mean a decade of hell. When no one wants to purchase anything, or can’t because they lost too much in the recession, that’s the area of most opportunity, when in fact, we should consider buying. No one‘s going to be telling us to buy something at the low. Instead, they’ll tell us we’re in an Apocalypse and will never escape it. Added to all that, if we are one of those people who did buy high, and didn’t properly protect ourselves, we have no money to take advantage of the opportunities that abound. Bottom Line When stocks and real estate are near all-time highs, as they are today, the informed investor is going to be making sure they protect and keep their wealth. It’s not jumping all in or all out. Market timing doesn’t work. However, market complacency or a Buy & Hope strategy can be even more deadly. Investors who are new to the game might be having so much fun at the party that they forget that getting home safely is a key part of the positive experience. We want to be sober at the top of the market, and brave enough to invest when opportunities arise. Fortunately, adopting our time-proven, age-appropriate, properly diversified plan that just needs to be rebalanced 1-3 times a year, could mean we earn gains in the next recession (as Nilo did during the Great Recession). This plan, with the hots and the capture gains rebalancing system, outperforms the bull markets in between as well. I encourage you, while stocks and real estate are both near all-time highs, to fix the roof while the sun is still shining. Adopt this plan now. It’s human nature to wait until something is broken to fix it. When it comes to our money, waiting until we lose half or more of our wealth can be a heartbreaking way to learn that there is a better plan that could’ve saved the day before the losses. It took the NASDAQ Composite Index 15 years to crawl back to even after the Dot Com losses. Some investors are still reeling from the 2008 Great Recession. Wisdom and time-proven wealth strategies are the cure. Register now to join us at our online Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 where you'll learn how to protect your wealth, save thousands annually in your budget and how to hedge in a volatile Debt World. If you'd like a life-changing adventure of a lifetime, be our guest at a royal manor house in Cornwall, England, March 12-19, 2027. (With just eight rooms available, this exclusive, private, bucket-list adventure sells out a year in advance!) Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] to learn more. The 2025 Restormel Retreat was a magical and royal experience. Click to learn more. Receive the best price and a complimentary 50-minute private prosperity coaching session (value $400) when you register for the Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 by June 30, 2025. Request testimonials at [email protected]. You can also view some on the flyer page of the retreat. Learn how to: * Invest in hot industries, such as Nvidia, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing, * Hedge against a weaker dollar, * Invest and compound your gains, * Green your retirement plan, * Easy and efficacious nest egg strategies, * Get hot and diversified (including in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and crypto), * Evaluate stocks, * Avoid capital gains and financial predators, * Keep an age-appropriate amount safe, and, * Know what's safe in a Debt World. You'll even discover how to save thousands annually with smarter big-ticket choices. Yes, it's a complete money makeover. Email [email protected] or call 310-430-2397 to learn more and register. Learn the 15+ things you'll master and read testimonials in the flyer on the home page at NataliePace.com. Register with friends and family to receive the best price. "Ten minutes into the first day I was already much smarter about investing than I ever thought I would be in my life and I knew I was in exactly the right place at this retreat. I am amazed at how EASY and FUN it is to make my money work for me and those I love. I think this kind of information should be compulsory in schools. I wish I'd learned this sooner." CM If you’d like an unbiased 2nd opinion on your current wealth plan, email [email protected] for pricing and information.  Receive the best price and a 50-minute private coaching session with Natalie Pace when you register by June 30, 2025. Visit NataliePace.com to learn more. Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] for pricing, additional information and to register.  Join us for our Restormel Royal Immersive Adventure Retreat. March 2027. Email [email protected] to learn more. Click for testimonials, pricing, hours & details. Register now to receive the best price, the best room and eight private, prosperity coaching sessions. There are only 8 rooms available. This retreat includes an all-access pass to all of our online training for a full year for two. Considering the perks, you're receiving a 65% discount to learn the life math that we all should have received in high school, and the room is free! Email [email protected] to learn more. The best rooms at the 2025 retreat were sold out in 2024! Yes, it's a great idea to register and start transforming our lives now!  Natalie Wynne Pace is an Advocate for Sustainability, Financial Literacy & Women's Empowerment. Natalie is the bestselling author of The ABCs of Money (6th edition) and The Power of 8 Billion: It's Up to Us, and is the co-creator of the Earth Gratitude Project. She has been ranked as a No. 1 stock picker, above over 835 A-list pundits, by an independent tracking agency (TipsTraders). Her book The ABCs of Money remained at or near the #1 Investing Basics e-book on Amazon for over 3 years (in its vertical), with over 120,000 downloads and a mean 5-star ranking. The 6th edition of The ABCs of Money and the 2nd edition of Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is (2nd edition) are the most recent releases of these books. Follow her on Instagram. Natalie Pace's easy as a pie chart nest egg strategies earned gains in the last two recessions and have outperformed the bull markets in between. That is why her Investor Educational Retreats, books and private coaching are enthusiastically recommended by Nobel Prize winning economist Gary S. Becker, TD AMERITRADE chairman Joe Moglia, Kay Koplovitz and many Main Street investors who have transformed their lives using her Thrive Budget and investing strategies. Click to view a video testimonial from Nilo Bolden. Check out Natalie Pace's Substack podcast on Apple and Spotify. Watch videoconferences and webinars on Youtube. Other Blogs of Interest Home Prices Soften. Is Your City Next? Tesla Vision vs. Waymo LiDAR and Air Taxis. Are Any of Them Safe? Archer Aviation is Chosen to be the Exclusive Air Taxi Service for the 2028 L.A. Olympics. Company of the Year? USA Downgraded. Is U.S. Reserve Currency Status Threatened? Utilities: In the Eye of the Natural Disaster Storms. Aging Mom Doesn't Want to Discuss Dilapidated House. Investors Ask Natalie. Sell in May? Tesla, Tariffs, Chinese Competition and Price Wars. Fun Ways to Celebrate Earth Day April 22nd. Will the Correction Become a Bear Market? 21st Century Recessions Look More Like Depressions. Will Oil Prices Sink or Soar? Executives are Uncertain. Health Savings Accounts. Save Thousands. Get a Tax Credit. Provide for Tomorrow's Healthcare Needs. Restormel Manor House 2025. A Truly Royal and Magical Adventure. 9 Ways to Cut Your Tax Bill in Half and Save Thousands Annually. Berkshire Hathaway. Should I Just Invest in Warren Buffett? Should I Have a Money Manager? The Cleanest Cities in the World. Can Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Gaza Become Edens? Rebuilding Gaza. American Companies Will Benefit. Top Dividend/Income Strategies for 2025. 2025 Crystal Ball: Who Will be the Superstars of Wall Street? Gold & Crypto IRAs and the Risk of Fraud and Losses. 10 Rules of Successful Investing. Quantum Computing. Paper Losses. Another Warning About Long-Term Bonds! 2025 Investor IQ Test. 2025 Investor IQ Test Answers. Apple iPhone Sales Plunge in China. Indonesia: Rich in Nickel with Ambitions of Becoming an EV Battery Hub. RoboTaxis. AI. The Magnificent 7. Charitable Giving. Nonprofits that are Worthy of Supporting. Why Are So Many Safe Investments Losing Money? A Bargain-Priced AI Company. Canadian, Australian and U.S. Banks. Are Any of Them Safe? Ireland. Rich in Technology, Biotechnology and Agribusiness. Robo Investing and AI. No, They are Not Foolproof. Stocks Soar as Nvidia Joins the DJIA. Copper. Peru ETF Outperforms the S&P500. Will Insurance Companies & Homeowners Weather the Hurricanes? 9 Money Secrets of the Ultra Wealthy. Housing & Budgeting Solutions. Arkansas Sues Temu for Data Theft. We Must Be the Boss of Our Money. Why? Fast Fashion. Fossil Fuels. Plastic Clothing. Atacama Desert Waste Dumps. Can Crowdstrike Recover from its Colossal Catastrophe? Featuring a Cybersecurity Overview. Fintechs and Brokerages that Fail are Not FDIC-Insured. 5 Green Tips for Clean Beaches Week. So, You Think You Want to Be a B&B Owner... Retiring Soon? Start Planning Now. 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. Answers to the 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. 9 Inflation, Budgeting, Debt Reduction and Investing Solutions. China & Russia Double Their Gold Holdings. 2024 Investment of the Year? Bitcoin Sets a New Record High. The Importance of Rebalancing. Uh. Oh. More Bank Trouble. Housing. Unaffordable. What Works? Case studies and creative solutions. The Underperforming DJIA, Full of Fossil Fuels and Forever Chemicals. The Best ROI* (Almost 40%!) & 7 Life Hacks That Save Thousands. 13 Lifestyle Choices to Reduce Waste, Pollution & CO2 & Save a Boatload of Dough. China Bans Apple 11-Point Green Checklist for Schools. 10 Wealth Secrets of Billionaires and Royals. Bank of America has $100 Billion in Bond Losses (on Paper) Fiat. Crypto. Gold. BRICS. Real Estate. Alternative Investments. BRICS Currency. Will the Dollar Become Extinct? Why We Are Underweighting Banks and the Financial Industry. Save Thousands Annually With Smarter Energy Choices Is Your FDIC-Insured Cash Really Safe? Money Market Funds, FDIC, SIPC: Are Any of Them Safe? My 24-Year-Old is Itching to Buy a Condo. Should I Help Him? The Bank Bail-in Plan on Your Dime. Important Disclaimers Please note: Natalie Pace does not act or operate like a broker. She reports on financial news, and is one of the most trusted sources of financial literacy, education and forensic analysis in the world. Natalie Pace educates and informs individual investors to give investors a competitive edge in their personal decision-making. Any publicly-traded companies, funds or projects mentioned by Natalie Pace are not intended to be buy or sell recommendations. ALWAYS do your research and consult an experienced, reputable financial professional before buying or selling any security, and consider your long-term goals and strategies. Investors should NOT be all in on any asset class or individual stocks. Your retirement plan should reflect an age-appropriate, diversified wealth plan, which has been designed strategically, with the assistance of financial professionals who are familiar with your goals, risk tolerance, tax needs and more. The "trading" portion of your portfolio should be a very small part of your investment strategy, and the amount of money you invest into individual companies should never be greater than your experience, wisdom, knowledge, patience and diversified strategy. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. However, NataliePace.com does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Opinions constitute our judgment as of the date of this publication and are subject to change without notice. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument.  Get housing solutions now in our Real Estate Master Class on June 14, 2025 (online). Email [email protected]. Home Prices Soften in Florida, Texas, Utah and Colorado. Is Your City Next? Vero Beach and Punta Gorda, Florida, Duluth, Minnesota, Boulder, Colorado, Logan and St. George, UT, and Sherman and Abilene, TX saw home prices weaken by -4.6-8.2% in the 1st quarter of 2025. What is causing home prices to fall in these regions? Is it contagious? It should be noted that the weakening in prices is not making these homes affordable. Unaffordability is still a crisis. However, what it is doing is freaking out anybody who purchased a home recently, especially in these areas, and particularly if they only put 5% down and don’t have any equity built-up. Rather than worry, let’s dive into the details to see if the downturns are harbingers of things to come, or if there are other factors that will keep prices rising. Here are the topics we will cover in this blog. Areas Where Housing Prices Are Starting to Retreat Why Are Some Markets Falling While Others Are Popping? The Affordability Crisis Will Prices Ever Correct? Housing REITs Malls and Office Buildings Mortgage Lenders And here is more information on each topic. Areas Where Housing Prices Are Starting to Retreat Here are the top 10 areas where we are starting to see prices soften (source: National Association of Realtors Q1 2025 Metro Home Prices Report).  Even though there has been a slight downturn in the cities listed above, the general trend is still upward for most regions and cities. See the top cities that are increasing in sales price below.  Source: National Association of Realtors Q1 2025 Metro Home Prices Report. Despite the price gains listed above, Attomdata’s report of June 12, 2025, identified California and New Jersey as states that were most at risk of price declines. According to their report, “The data shows that 23 of the 50 most at-risk markets were in California (14) and New Jersey (9). Risk was determined by affordability, proportion of seriously underwater mortgages, foreclosures, and unemployment rates.” Why Are Some Markets Falling While Others Are Popping? According to Nadia Evangelou, the senior economist and director of real estate research of the National Association of Realtors, “Most of the metro areas seeing home-price softening are in states that experienced a strong increase in housing supply – like Florida, Texas and Utah. In these states, housing inventory is now higher than pre-pandemic levels. The additional housing supply has helped moderate price gains.” The demand for housing remains strong, not just from Millennials and Gen Z, but also from interstate and international migration. According to Ms. Evangelou’s blog, Texas led the trend of Americans moving to another state, with 85,267 net domestic movers, while Utah saw almost a seven-fold increase in 2024 from 2023. (That Census Data report doesn’t include 2025 data.) However, the most notable trend was international migration, which accounted for 2.8 million additional people in the U.S. in 2024 – 84% of the population growth (3.3 million). One of the reasons that home prices are increasing has a lot to do with the low supply of available homes for sale. Normally, there comes a point when elders will downsize, or those with starter homes will buy something bigger. However, most people who have owned their home for more than five years have a very low fixed mortgage interest rate. They know that if they sell, they will pay more in price and in interest for less than what they already have. So, people are hanging on, even when they might really need to make a move. For instance, have you noticed a lot of unkept lawns in a particular neighborhood where there are not any for sale signs? A lot of the homeowners that are really strapped are hanging on and trying to cut corners in other ways. The Affordability Crisis According to AttomData, in pretty much all of the United States, it would require 32% or more of the average income in the area to be able to purchase a home. That is above what most people would qualify for even if they did have a pretty good FICO score. It’s also unsustainable, particularly given the cost of transportation, health insurance, healthcare food, and other basic needs. Unaffordability has a lot to do with another statistic – buyer’s remorse. According to a survey by Clever Real Estate, 73% of first-time buyers had regrets about their recent purchase, 30% felt “in over their heads financially since purchasing their home,” while almost a quarter of those surveyed (23%) said their overall financial situation had gotten worse since the purchase. What could fix the affordability crisis? Will Prices Ever Correct? A recession typically causes prices to fall (both stocks and real estate). If homeowners got out over their skis and are burning through money to keep a place, that becomes nearly impossible when they lose a job or if their wealth plunges in a Bear Market. Will student loan debt take Millennials out of the market, now that defaults are being reported? The percentage of Millennials buying a new home has dropped from 38% to 29%. (Gen Z is still a much slower percentage of buyers.) Today, demand is still outpacing supply. However, we want to be forward-thinking, particularly with real estate, which is a long-term commitment. Recently, many distressed homeowners were able to hang onto their home through loan mods – another factor keeping supply constrained. During the process, whatever was unpaid, along with fees, was tacked onto the total, leaving many homeowners severely underwater on their loan (25% or more owed than the value). 2.8% of homeowners (2.38 million) fall into this category – up from 2.5% in the 4th quarter of 2024. Delinquencies on mortgage debt are near historic lows, at just 1.22%. Foreclosures have started to increase, particularly in New York City, Chicago, IL, Houston, TX, Los Angeles, CA and Miami, FL, but are still very low (source: Attomdata). With so many hanging on for dear life and so many ways to do it, it’s hard to know what’s going to fix the affordability crisis. (Banks and policymakers learned a lesson from the Great Recession in that you don’t want everyone to lose their homes back at the same time.) That is why we need to come together as a family (chosen family counts, too) to solve this crisis for ourselves, while the politicians delay delay delay, kicking the can down the road with ever more financial engineering instruments that are designed to keep prices from plunging. Join us this Saturday for our annual Real Estate Masterclass. There are solutions for unaffordable housing. However, they are not found in the mainstream media or in the financial noise that we hear all day long about how terrible things are. Check out the flyer on the homepage at NataliePace.com. Email [email protected] to learn more and register now.  Housing REITs While apartment building REITs are doing well, home builders are getting hit with a contraction in their revenue. In addition to high prices and fewer buyers, builders have a large amount of debt that they have been carrying since the Great Recession, when many of them were hanging on by a thread. Email [email protected] if you would like our updated housing REITs stock report cards, including builders such as KB Home and Toll Brothers. Malls and Office Buildings Malls and office buildings continue to experience very high vacancy rates which exacerbates their low margins or net losses and exorbitant debt loads. Macerich had to give Santa Monica Place (a mall) back to the lender in 2024. Community banks that loan to commercial real estate REITs in areas of high vacancies, including New York Community Bank (now called Flagstar Financial), are experiencing challenges. This is one of the reasons why we are underweighting financials in our small and mid cap funds in our sample pie charts. If you would like to learn more about our time-proven diversified strategy for managing your wealth plan, including your company-sponsored 401(k), join us at our next Financial Freedom Retreat online. If you register by June 30, you’ll get the best price and a complimentary 50-minute private prosperity coaching session (value $400). Mortgage Lenders Mortgage lenders are suffering from the same fate as builders. Fewer people are qualifying for mortgages, so their year-over-year revenue is contracting. Many mortgage lenders went belly-up or were bailed out in the Great Recession. The survivors are carrying very high debt loads. This is another reason to underweight financials. Large lenders, including banks, insurance companies and pension providers, are also exposed to commercial real estate and illiquid long-term loans, increasing the risk of holding bank or insurance investments or products that are not FDIC-insured. Although structurally significant banks and insurance companies are likely to be bailed it if they get into distress (ala 2008), Main Street investors typically lose all of their stock investment and a big portion of their bond principal. For this reason, we are also underweighting US financials in large cap value funds. There are some interesting options in other countries for these value fund replacements. Some of the funds even offer better credit quality, along with a better income and yield. Bottom Line Housing is a crisis in the United States right now, particularly for anybody under the age of 45. However, there are always solutions. Many of them are just not found in the mainstream media. That is why I am encouraging you to join us this Saturday for our Real Estate Masterclass. Whether you:
wisdom is the cure. Ensuring that we do not join the millions of homeowners who have buyer’s remorse, an underwater mortgage, are property rich but cash poor, or buy a money pit that breaks us, requires more than just hiring a realtor or following a guru and shopping on the MLS. Getting the equation right is tricky today. However, a solid plan that incorporates innovative options and resources could bring home ownership, and all of the positive things that building equity brings to us. Email [email protected] or call 310-430-2397 to register now. This Saturday on June 14, 2025, attend our online Real Estate Master Class. You'll discover the 10-point checklist for home buyers and sellers, as well as some overlooked areas of opportunity. Register now to join us at our online Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 where you'll learn how to protect your wealth, save thousands annually in your budget and how to hedge in a volatile Debt World. If you'd like a life-changing adventure of a lifetime, be our guest at a royal manor house in Cornwall, England, March 12-19, 2027. (With just eight rooms available, this exclusive, private, bucket-list adventure sells out a year in advance!) Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] to learn more. The 2025 Restormel Retreat was a magical and royal experience. Click to learn more. Receive the best price and a complimentary 50-minute private prosperity coaching session (value $400) when you register for the Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 by June 30, 2025. Request testimonials at [email protected]. You can also view some on the flyer page of the retreat. Learn how to: * Invest in hot industries, such as Nvidia, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing, * Hedge against a weaker dollar, * Invest and compound your gains, * Green your retirement plan, * Easy and efficacious nest egg strategies, * Get hot and diversified (including in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and crypto), * Evaluate stocks, * Avoid capital gains and financial predators, * Keep an age-appropriate amount safe, and, * Know what's safe in a Debt World. You'll even discover how to save thousands annually with smarter big-ticket choices. Yes, it's a complete money makeover. Email [email protected] or call 310-430-2397 to learn more and register. Learn the 15+ things you'll master and read testimonials in the flyer on the home page at NataliePace.com. Register with friends and family to receive the best price. "Ten minutes into the first day I was already much smarter about investing than I ever thought I would be in my life and I knew I was in exactly the right place at this retreat. I am amazed at how EASY and FUN it is to make my money work for me and those I love. I think this kind of information should be compulsory in schools. I wish I'd learned this sooner." CM If you’d like an unbiased 2nd opinion on your current wealth plan, email [email protected] for pricing and information.  Visit NataliePace.com to learn more. Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] for pricing, additional information and to register.  Join us for our Restormel Royal Immersive Adventure Retreat. March 2027. Email [email protected] to learn more. Click for testimonials, pricing, hours & details. Register now to receive the best price, the best room and eight private, prosperity coaching sessions. There are only 8 rooms available. This retreat includes an all-access pass to all of our online training for a full year for two. Considering the perks, you're receiving a 70% discount to learn the life math that we all should have received in high school, and the room is free! Email [email protected] to learn more. The best rooms at the 2025 retreat were sold out in 2024! Yes, it's a great idea to register and start transforming our lives now!  Photo: Natalie Pace with her son on Good Morning America discussing housing solutions. Natalie Wynne Pace is an Advocate for Sustainability, Financial Literacy & Women's Empowerment. Natalie is the bestselling author of The ABCs of Money (6th edition) and The Power of 8 Billion: It's Up to Us, and is the co-creator of the Earth Gratitude Project. She has been ranked as a No. 1 stock picker, above over 835 A-list pundits, by an independent tracking agency (TipsTraders). Her book The ABCs of Money remained at or near the #1 Investing Basics e-book on Amazon for over 3 years (in its vertical), with over 120,000 downloads and a mean 5-star ranking. The 6th edition of The ABCs of Money and the 2nd edition of Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is (2nd edition) are the most recent releases of these books. Follow her on Instagram. Natalie Pace's easy as a pie chart nest egg strategies earned gains in the last two recessions and have outperformed the bull markets in between. That is why her Investor Educational Retreats, books and private coaching are enthusiastically recommended by Nobel Prize winning economist Gary S. Becker, TD AMERITRADE chairman Joe Moglia, Kay Koplovitz and many Main Street investors who have transformed their lives using her Thrive Budget and investing strategies. Click to view a video testimonial from Nilo Bolden. Check out Natalie Pace's Substack podcast on Apple and Spotify. Watch videoconferences and webinars on Youtube. Other Blogs of Interest Tesla Vision vs. Waymo LiDAR and Air Taxis. Are Any of Them Safe? Archer Aviation is Chosen to be the Exclusive Air Taxi Service for the 2028 L.A. Olympics. Company of the Year? USA Downgraded. Is U.S. Reserve Currency Status Threatened? Utilities: In the Eye of the Natural Disaster Storms. Aging Mom Doesn't Want to Discuss Dilapidated House. Investors Ask Natalie. Sell in May? Tesla, Tariffs, Chinese Competition and Price Wars. Fun Ways to Celebrate Earth Day April 22nd. Will the Correction Become a Bear Market? 21st Century Recessions Look More Like Depressions. Will Oil Prices Sink or Soar? Executives are Uncertain. Health Savings Accounts. Save Thousands. Get a Tax Credit. Provide for Tomorrow's Healthcare Needs. Restormel Manor House 2025. A Truly Royal and Magical Adventure. 9 Ways to Cut Your Tax Bill in Half and Save Thousands Annually. Berkshire Hathaway. Should I Just Invest in Warren Buffett? Should I Have a Money Manager? The Cleanest Cities in the World. Can Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Gaza Become Edens? Rebuilding Gaza. American Companies Will Benefit. Top Dividend/Income Strategies for 2025. 2025 Crystal Ball: Who Will be the Superstars of Wall Street? Gold & Crypto IRAs and the Risk of Fraud and Losses. 10 Rules of Successful Investing. Quantum Computing. Paper Losses. Another Warning About Long-Term Bonds! 2025 Investor IQ Test. 2025 Investor IQ Test Answers. Apple iPhone Sales Plunge in China. Indonesia: Rich in Nickel with Ambitions of Becoming an EV Battery Hub. RoboTaxis. AI. The Magnificent 7. Charitable Giving. Nonprofits that are Worthy of Supporting. Why Are So Many Safe Investments Losing Money? A Bargain-Priced AI Company. Canadian, Australian and U.S. Banks. Are Any of Them Safe? Ireland. Rich in Technology, Biotechnology and Agribusiness. Robo Investing and AI. No, They are Not Foolproof. Stocks Soar as Nvidia Joins the DJIA. Copper. Peru ETF Outperforms the S&P500. Will Insurance Companies & Homeowners Weather the Hurricanes? 9 Money Secrets of the Ultra Wealthy. Housing & Budgeting Solutions. Arkansas Sues Temu for Data Theft. We Must Be the Boss of Our Money. Why? Fast Fashion. Fossil Fuels. Plastic Clothing. Atacama Desert Waste Dumps. Can Crowdstrike Recover from its Colossal Catastrophe? Featuring a Cybersecurity Overview. Fintechs and Brokerages that Fail are Not FDIC-Insured. 5 Green Tips for Clean Beaches Week. So, You Think You Want to Be a B&B Owner... Retiring Soon? Start Planning Now. 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. Answers to the 2024 Rebalancing IQ Test. 9 Inflation, Budgeting, Debt Reduction and Investing Solutions. China & Russia Double Their Gold Holdings. 2024 Investment of the Year? Bitcoin Sets a New Record High. The Importance of Rebalancing. Uh. Oh. More Bank Trouble. Housing. Unaffordable. What Works? Case studies and creative solutions. The Underperforming DJIA, Full of Fossil Fuels and Forever Chemicals. The Best ROI* (Almost 40%!) & 7 Life Hacks That Save Thousands. 13 Lifestyle Choices to Reduce Waste, Pollution & CO2 & Save a Boatload of Dough. China Bans Apple 11-Point Green Checklist for Schools. 10 Wealth Secrets of Billionaires and Royals. Bank of America has $100 Billion in Bond Losses (on Paper) Fiat. Crypto. Gold. BRICS. Real Estate. Alternative Investments. BRICS Currency. Will the Dollar Become Extinct? Why We Are Underweighting Banks and the Financial Industry. Save Thousands Annually With Smarter Energy Choices Is Your FDIC-Insured Cash Really Safe? Money Market Funds, FDIC, SIPC: Are Any of Them Safe? My 24-Year-Old is Itching to Buy a Condo. Should I Help Him? The Bank Bail-in Plan on Your Dime. Important Disclaimers Please note: Natalie Pace does not act or operate like a broker. She reports on financial news, and is one of the most trusted sources of financial literacy, education and forensic analysis in the world. Natalie Pace educates and informs individual investors to give investors a competitive edge in their personal decision-making. Any publicly-traded companies, funds or projects mentioned by Natalie Pace are not intended to be buy or sell recommendations. ALWAYS do your research and consult an experienced, reputable financial professional before buying or selling any security, and consider your long-term goals and strategies. Investors should NOT be all in on any asset class or individual stocks. Your retirement plan should reflect an age-appropriate, diversified wealth plan, which has been designed strategically, with the assistance of financial professionals who are familiar with your goals, risk tolerance, tax needs and more. The "trading" portion of your portfolio should be a very small part of your investment strategy, and the amount of money you invest into individual companies should never be greater than your experience, wisdom, knowledge, patience and diversified strategy. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. However, NataliePace.com does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Opinions constitute our judgment as of the date of this publication and are subject to change without notice. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument. |
AuthorNatalie Pace is the co-creator of the Earth Gratitude Project and the author of The Power of 8 Billion: It's Up to Us, The ABCs of Money, The ABCs of Money for College, The Gratitude Game and Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is. She is a repeat guest & speaker on national news shows and stages. She has been ranked the No. 1 stock picker, above over 830 A-list pundits, by an independent tracking agency, and has been saving homes and nest eggs since 1999. Archives
March 2026
Categories |
RSS Feed