NP: What about the younger generation? Should they be investing?

HS: When my kids first started working, I opened up a Roth IRA for them. Unlike me, who has somewhat of a pension, they are responsible for their own retirement and their own healthcare. Investing when you are 22 is so much easier than when you are 35 with a mortgage, or 45 with kids in college or 55 and looking to retire. Time is on your side for compounding.

NP: What about someone who recently graduated from college or lost their job? Do you have any tips on how to help Millennials and Gen Z, who are facing all of the challenges of Gen X and Boomers, with student loan debt lopped in on top?

HS: My son is with me now. He’s 23. He just graduated. He went on vacation. When he came back, he looked for a place. Now he’s back home. In my daughter’s building, there are only about 40 tenants left out of about 400. They all went back to mom and dad. People are thinking, “If I can work from anywhere, why am I paying 40% of my income to rent?”

NP: Thank you, Howard, for sharing your wisdom and experience with such clarity and transparency. We appreciate it!
 
Whether you are thinking about Intergenerational Housing as a solution to help a friend or family member weather the economic storms, or wondering what you own in your retirement accounts to make sure that your exposure to stocks and bonds is in your best interest, wisdom and time-proven solutions are the cure to ease your anxiety, stress and concerns. You can watch my full video interview with Howard at https://www.YouTube.com/NataliePace2. Learn more about easy, time-proven budgeting and investing strategies at https://www.NataliePace.com.


 
If you are interested in learning what's safe in a world where stocks, bonds and money market funds are all vulnerable to capital loss, consider joining me for my next ​​Financial Empowerment Retreat, June 13-15, 2020. Get additional information by clicking on the banner ad below. Call 310-430-2397 or email info@NataliePace.com to learn more and to register. 
​

Other Blogs of Interest
May is a Good Time for Rebalancing.
Is FDIC-Insured Cash at Risk of a Bank Bail-in Plan?
Why Did my Bonds Lose Money?
Cannabis Update. 
Recession Proof Your Life. Free Videocon Monday, May 10, 2020. 
The Recession will be Announced on July 30, 2020. 
Apple Reports Terrible Earnings. 
We Are in a Recession. 
Unemployment, Rising Stocks. What's Going On?
8 Money Myths, Money Pits, Scams and Conspiracy Theories.
21st Century Solutions for Protecting Your Home, Nest Egg & Job.
Wall Street Insiders are Selling Like There is No Tomorrow.
Why Are My Bonds Losing Money?
Tomorrow is Going to be Another Tough Day.
Price Matters. Stock Prices are Still Too High. 
Should You Ride Things Out?
7 Recession Indicators
Corona Virus Update.
The Bank Bail-in Plan on Your Dime.
NASDAQ is Up 6X. 
CoronaVirus: Which Companies and Countries Will be Most Impacted.
Is Tesla Worth GM and Ford Combined.
Artificial Intelligence is on Fire. Is it Time to Buy S'More?
Take the Retirement Challenge.
2020 Investor IQ Test.
Answers to the 2020 Investor IQ Test.
The Cannabis Capital Crunch and Stock Meltdown.
Does Your Commute Pollute More Than Planes? 
Are Health Care Costs Killing Your Budget? 
2020 Crystal Ball.
The Benefits of Living Green. Featuring H.R.H. The Prince of Wales' Twin Eco Communities. 
What Love, Time and Charity Have to do with our Commonwealth. Interview with MacArthur Genius Award Winner Kevin Murphy.
Unicorns Yesterday. Fairy Tales Today. IPO Losses Top $100 Billion. 
Counting Blessings on Thanksgiving.
Real Estate Prices Decline. 
Hong Kong Slides into a Recession. China Slows. 
They Trusted Him. Now He Doesn't Return Phone Calls.
Beyond Meat's Shares Dive 67% in 2 Months.
Price Matters. 
Will There be a Santa Rally? It's Up to Apple. 
Will JP Morgan Implode on Fairy Tales and Unicorns.
Harness Your Emotions for Successful Investing.
What the Ford Downgrade Means for Main Street.
The Dow Dropped Over 1000 Points
Do We Talk Ourselves into Recessions? Interview with Nobel Prize Winning Economist Robert J. Shiller.
Ford is Downgraded to Junk.
From Buried Alive in Bill to Buying Your Own Island.
The Manufacturing Recession. An Interview with Liz Ann Sonders.
Gold Mining ETFs Have Doubled. 
The Gold Bull Market Has Begun. 
The We Work IPO. 
The Highs and Hangovers of Investing in Cannabis. 
Recession Proof Your Life. 
China Takes a Bite Out of Apple Sales.
Will the Dow Hit 30,000? A Check Up on the Economy
Red Flags in the Boeing 2Q 2019 Earnings Report
The Weakening Economy. 
Think Capture Gains, Not Stop Losses. 
Buy and Hold Works. Right?
​Wall Street Secrets Your Broker Isn't Telling You. 
Unaffordability: The Unspoken Housing Crisis in America. 
Are You Being Pressured to Buy a Home or Stocks?
What's Your Exit Strategy? 
It's Time To Do Your Annual Rebalancing.
Cannabis Crashes. Should You Get High Again? 
Are You Suffering From Buy High, Sell Low Mentality?
Financial Engineering is Not Real Growth.
The Zoom IPO. 
10 Rally Killers. Fix the Roof While the Sun is Shining.
Uber vs. Lyft. Which IPO Will Drive Returns?
Boeing Cuts 737 Production by 20%.
Earth Gratitude This Earth Day. 
Real Estate is Back to an All-Time High. 
The Lyft IPO Hits Wall Street. Should you take a ride?
Cannabis Doubles. Did you miss the party?
12 Investing Mistakes
Drowning in Debt? Get Solutions. 
CBD Oil for Sale.
The High Cost of Free Advice. 
Apple's Real Problem in China: Huawei. 
2018 is the Worst December Since the Great Depression. 
Will the Feds Raise Interest Rates? Should They? Learn what you're not being told in the MSM.
Why FANG, Banks and Your Value Funds Are in Trouble.
Russia Dumps Treasuries and Buys Gold
OPEC and Russia Cut Oil Production. 
​
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 or funds 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 a diversified strategy, which has been designed with the assistance of a financial professional who is 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 and patience.  

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. Securities, financial instruments or strategies mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors.

​

The Great News
Since the low on March 23, 2020, when the markets dropped 38.4% from their February 19, 2020 highs, we’ve seen an extraordinary rebound in U.S. equities. If you sold everything, you might be ruing the day. This is an example why market timing doesn’t work. If you trimmed back in February and protected your money, then you might find that some slices have plumped up quite nicely for you. That’s a sign that now might be a great time to do another rebalancing.
 
Market Timing Doesn’t Work
Market timing doesn’t work because you’ll always be too early getting out and too late getting back in. What does work? Proper diversification, keeping enough safe, knowing what is safe in a world where bonds and money markets are vulnerable.
 
Another reason that market timing doesn’t work is that it is a plan that relies too much on your emotions. If you jumped out in March out of fear, you’ll be tempted to jump back in now out of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). A properly diversified plan keeps an appropriate amount at risk, with exposure to different types of funds, so that you can always benefit from rallies, and always protect yourself from routs.
 
Sell in May and Go Away?
Sell in May and go away is an age-old Wall Street aphorism. It came about because summer is typically low volume and can be weak. September is often the worst performing month. Over the 10-year period, May has averaged losses of -1.23%. The losses tend to be more pronounced when there has been a rally in the months leading up to May.
 
April 2020 was one for the history books, with returns of 12.68%! This was the best performance since January of 1987, which posted returns of 13.18% gains. However, the rally doesn’t make up for the losses of February and March.
 
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 24,597 today (May 18, 2020). That is still 17% lower than the high of 29,569 set on February 19, 2020. However, it is a strong enough rally that you might be seeing some of your slices looking nice and plump, and ripe for the taking.
 
Rebalancing is a Buy Low, Sell High Plan on Auto-Pilot
When you are rebalancing 1-3 times a year, each time has a slightly different strategy. Selling now could be an exercise of trimming back and capturing gains. If summer and September post losses, then you might be buying low in the Back to School Stock Sales, in hopes of a Santa Rally.
 
The most important thing to do when rebalancing is to mock up what you have into my pie chart strategy – putting all of your large growth in one slice, all of your large value into another slice, and the same for any mid caps, small caps and hot industries or countries. Doing this makes it very easy to see what you have. When you compare what you have to a sample, personalized pie chart of what a properly diversified plan looks like, all that you have to do is to trim back the plump slices (sell high) and beef up the thin slices (buy low). You can create your own personalized pie chart using my free web app. There is a badge on the home page of NataliePace.com that guides you through the process.

 
Annual (or 1-3 times a year) rebalancing is a buy low, sell high plan on auto-pilot. Using the pie chart system takes the emotions out of it. When you work off of the holdings statement, then you are activating emotions that are going to be harmful to your fiscal health. Red lights signal you to stop or warn you that you have losses, prompting you to want to sell low. Green lights signal, “Go, Go, Go!” spurring you to put your foot on the gas and perhaps buy more (high).
 
Rebalancing in May
Before are 5 tips to preserve your wealth, while keeping the appropriate amount at risk (for potential gain). Most of the time when you are rebalancing in May, it will be after a Spring Rally. That means that it is potentially a great time to take your profits.
 
5 Rebalancing Tips
1. Mock up a pie chart of what you have.
2. Personalize a pie chart of what you should have.
3. Make what you have look like what you should have.
4. Don’t assume that anyone else is doing this for you. Get a 2nd opinion if you don’t know what you own, or if you aren’t sure how to mock up what you have into a pie chart.
5. Learn what’s safe in a world where bonds ​are losing money and are illiquid, and where money market funds have redemption gates and liquidity fees.
 
Receive an Unbiased 2nd Opinion on Your Current Plan
FYI: I’ve been doing 2nd opinions for a few years now. I have yet to find one plan, whether it is self-directed or managed by a professional, that is properly diversified. If you would like an unbiased 2nd opinion (I don’t sell financial products), then call 310-430-2397 or email info@NataliePace.com.
 
Crystal Ball 2020?
What lies ahead? That will be addressed in an upcoming blog and videoconference. Email info@NataliePace.com with VIDEOCON in the subject line to be sure that you receive notice. This Thursday at 4:00 pm ET, I’ll be hosting the senior index analyst of S&P Dow Jones Indices – Howard Silverblatt in a special video conference. Learn what data and history tell us about today, and our best strategy moving forward.
 

If you are interested in learning what's safe in a world where stocks, bonds and money market funds are all vulnerable to capital loss, consider joining me for my next ​​Financial Empowerment Retreat, June 13-15, 2020. Get additional information by clicking on the banner ad below. 
​

Other Blogs of Interest
FDIC-Insured Cash at Risk of a Bank Bail-in Plan?
Why Did my Bonds Lose Money?
Cannabis Update. 
Recession Proof Your Life. Free Videocon Monday, May 10, 2020. 
The Recession will be Announced on July 30, 2020. 
Apple Reports Terrible Earnings. 
We Are in a Recession. 
Unemployment, Rising Stocks. What's Going On?
8 Money Myths, Money Pits, Scams and Conspiracy Theories.
21st Century Solutions for Protecting Your Home, Nest Egg & Job.
Wall Street Insiders are Selling Like There is No Tomorrow.
Why Are My Bonds Losing Money?
Tomorrow is Going to be Another Tough Day.
Price Matters. Stock Prices are Still Too High. 
Should You Ride Things Out?
7 Recession Indicators
Corona Virus Update.
The Bank Bail-in Plan on Your Dime.
NASDAQ is Up 6X. 
CoronaVirus: Which Companies and Countries Will be Most Impacted.
Is Tesla Worth GM and Ford Combined.
Artificial Intelligence is on Fire. Is it Time to Buy S'More?
Take the Retirement Challenge.
2020 Investor IQ Test.
Answers to the 2020 Investor IQ Test.
The Cannabis Capital Crunch and Stock Meltdown.
Does Your Commute Pollute More Than Planes? 
Are Health Care Costs Killing Your Budget? 
2020 Crystal Ball.
The Benefits of Living Green. Featuring H.R.H. The Prince of Wales' Twin Eco Communities. 
What Love, Time and Charity Have to do with our Commonwealth. Interview with MacArthur Genius Award Winner Kevin Murphy.
Unicorns Yesterday. Fairy Tales Today. IPO Losses Top $100 Billion. 
Counting Blessings on Thanksgiving.
Real Estate Prices Decline. 
Hong Kong Slides into a Recession. China Slows. 
They Trusted Him. Now He Doesn't Return Phone Calls.
Beyond Meat's Shares Dive 67% in 2 Months.
Price Matters. 
Will There be a Santa Rally? It's Up to Apple. 
Will JP Morgan Implode on Fairy Tales and Unicorns.
Harness Your Emotions for Successful Investing.
What the Ford Downgrade Means for Main Street.
The Dow Dropped Over 1000 Points
Do We Talk Ourselves into Recessions? Interview with Nobel Prize Winning Economist Robert J. Shiller.
Ford is Downgraded to Junk.
From Buried Alive in Bill to Buying Your Own Island.
The Manufacturing Recession. An Interview with Liz Ann Sonders.
Gold Mining ETFs Have Doubled. 
The Gold Bull Market Has Begun. 
The We Work IPO. 
The Highs and Hangovers of Investing in Cannabis. 
Recession Proof Your Life. 
China Takes a Bite Out of Apple Sales.
Will the Dow Hit 30,000? A Check Up on the Economy
Red Flags in the Boeing 2Q 2019 Earnings Report
The Weakening Economy. 
Think Capture Gains, Not Stop Losses. 
Buy and Hold Works. Right?
​Wall Street Secrets Your Broker Isn't Telling You. 
Unaffordability: The Unspoken Housing Crisis in America. 
Are You Being Pressured to Buy a Home or Stocks?
What's Your Exit Strategy? 
It's Time To Do Your Annual Rebalancing.
Cannabis Crashes. Should You Get High Again? 
Are You Suffering From Buy High, Sell Low Mentality?
Financial Engineering is Not Real Growth.
The Zoom IPO. 
10 Rally Killers. Fix the Roof While the Sun is Shining.
Uber vs. Lyft. Which IPO Will Drive Returns?
Boeing Cuts 737 Production by 20%.
Earth Gratitude This Earth Day. 
Real Estate is Back to an All-Time High. 
The Lyft IPO Hits Wall Street. Should you take a ride?
Cannabis Doubles. Did you miss the party?
12 Investing Mistakes
Drowning in Debt? Get Solutions. 
CBD Oil for Sale.
The High Cost of Free Advice. 
Apple's Real Problem in China: Huawei. 
2018 is the Worst December Since the Great Depression. 
Will the Feds Raise Interest Rates? Should They? Learn what you're not being told in the MSM.
Why FANG, Banks and Your Value Funds Are in Trouble.
Russia Dumps Treasuries and Buys Gold
OPEC and Russia Cut Oil Production. 
​
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 or funds 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 a diversified strategy, which has been designed with the assistance of a financial professional who is 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 and patience.  

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. Securities, financial instruments or strategies mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors.

​Dear Natalie. Does the Bank Bail-In Plan put my FDIC-Insured deposits at risk? I recently read a blog that said the IMF has approved a bank bail-in plan that allows them to seize FDIC-insured deposits. Signed: Whom can I trust?


​
​

Dear Trust Results:

I’m starting my answer off with the reminder to trust results. Before you read anything, grade your guru. Does s/he have a background in economics or an impressive track record for more than 15 years? Is s/he endorsed by real people and experts, or is s/he simply a self-proclaimed expert? The reason that I’m starting here is that I saw a number of red flags when I looked at the writer of the blog. The writer uses a pen name, hides his identity, calls himself a Jack-of-all-trades, has no background in economics or finance (but rather in engineering) and doesn’t know even basic financial terms.
 
When I read the blog itself, my suspicions were confirmed. This writer has based his entire premise upon one inaccurate claim. (I’m not naming the blogger or linking to his blog specifically. This could be something claimed by anyone.)
 
Here is what the blog claimed:
“During the recent G20 meeting (mid-November), the member nations decided that your bank deposits will become property of the bank if a crisis takes it down.”
 
He quoted from an IMF document that described that the IMF could “restructure the liabilities of a distressed financial institution by writing down its unsecured debt and/or converting it to equity.” He then claimed that unsecured debt includes deposits. That is a false claim, and it is also refuted by the very document that he quotes from. As one other point, he wrote his blog in 2019, whereas the IMF document he refers to is from 2012 (i.e. not recent).
 
Unsecured debt refers to bonds and loans that are specifically “unsecured.” This is a common financial term. (It appears that the blogger is not aware of the definition of it, however.) In the IMF document it specifically states, “To improve transparency and avoid uncertainty, only subordinated and senior unsecured debt should be subject to bail-in. Insured/guaranteed deposits, secured debt (including covered bonds), and repurchase agreements should be excluded from restructuring… Pre-restructuring shares are completely written off, but deposits, repos, and other short-term funding are not affected by the bail-in power.” (Bold emphasis added.) I’m linking to the IMF document so that you can read it yourself. One of the most important things to understand is that “debt” does not include deposits. Deposits are not loans or bonds.

Real-World Examples of How This Works
Did you know that there have already been two bank failures this year? The First State Bank in West Virginia became MVB Bank on April 3, 2020. Ericson State Bank in Nebraska became part of Farmers and Merchants Bank on February 14, 2020. We can expect more to come, as the current pandemic crisis unfolds.

During and after the Great Recession, between 2008 and 2012, 465 banks failed. Depositors kept their money. Shareholders lost everything. Bondholders were given a “haircut” on their principal investment,  and oftentimes were given new stock in the new bank. That is why it is so important to re-evaluate your stock and bond portfolio, and strategy, now.

​ 
Most depositors don’t even notice because the sign on the door changes, and operations continue under the new name. If you want to see how deposits are treated, check out the First Federal Bank failure from 2009 for details. You can also refer back to my blog on FDIC, SPIC, money market funds and cash under the mattress.

Money Market Funds and Certificates of Deposit
In 2017, there was a new rule applied to money market funds allowing them to apply redemption gates and liquidity fees. Redemption gates and liquidity fees were designed to prevent “runs” on money market funds. If the fund gets into trouble, it can suspend your ability to withdraw your cash and/or charge you a fee to withdraw your money.
 
Since the funds did indeed get into trouble in March 2020, it is very important that you understand what those terms mean, and that money market funds can lose money. They, like all mutual funds and insurance products, are not FDIC-insured. The current Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility ends on September 30, 2020, unless the Federal Reserve Board agrees to extend it.

Certificates of Deposit can be FDIC-insured or not. So, you have to read the fine-print on your CD to determine what the terms are. There can be an opportunity cost for CDs. If you need or want the money before the term ends, your early withdrawal penalty fee can be far above what the return on the investment is.
 
High-yielding CDs are typically not FDIC-insured, and are often subject to capital loss if the underlying index it is tied to loses money. This is also true of annuities and other insurance products.
 
Getting Safe is a 2-Step Process
Getting safe is a two-step process. Hard assets will hold their value better than paper assets in the years to come. However, hard assets are expensive right now, and vulnerable to capital loss, too. If you buy them too high, you’ll lose money. If you’ve borrowed to buy them, you could lose the hard asset to boot. So, the first step to getting safe is to keep your money. FDIC-insured cash is safer than “debt” of all kinds, money market accounts and non-insured CDs. After you keep your money, start looking for safe, income-producing hard assets that you can purchase for a good price (when prices correct). Liquidity affords you the opportunity to buy low.
 
What are some safe, income-producing hard assets that you can purchase for a good price? That is something that we spend one full day discussing in my Investor Educational Retreats. In short, you have to think about Return on Investment differently. You’ll also need to apply 21st Century strategies. What worked just a few months ago, like buying a place and putting it on Airbnb for top dollar, has put a lot of opportunists in financial despair.
 
Wisdom and time-proven strategies are the cure. Avoid reading blogs before you grade your guru.
​
 
If you are interested in learning what's safe in a world where stocks, bonds and money market funds are all subject to capital loss, consider joining me for my next ​​Financial Empowerment Retreat, June 13-15, 2020. Get additional information by clicking on the banner ad below. 

Other Blogs of Interest
Why Did my Bonds Lose Money?
Cannabis Update. 
Recession Proof Your Life. Free Videocon Monday, May 10, 2020. 
The Recession will be Announced on July 30, 2020. 
Apple Reports Terrible Earnings. 
We Are in a Recession. 
Unemployment, Rising Stocks. What's Going On?
8 Money Myths, Money Pits, Scams and Conspiracy Theories.
21st Century Solutions for Protecting Your Home, Nest Egg & Job.
Wall Street Insiders are Selling Like There is No Tomorrow.
Why Are My Bonds Losing Money?
Tomorrow is Going to be Another Tough Day.
Price Matters. Stock Prices are Still Too High. 
Should You Ride Things Out?
7 Recession Indicators
Corona Virus Update.
The Bank Bail-in Plan on Your Dime.
NASDAQ is Up 6X. 
CoronaVirus: Which Companies and Countries Will be Most Impacted.
Is Tesla Worth GM and Ford Combined.
Artificial Intelligence is on Fire. Is it Time to Buy S'More?
Take the Retirement Challenge.
2020 Investor IQ Test.
Answers to the 2020 Investor IQ Test.
The Cannabis Capital Crunch and Stock Meltdown.
Does Your Commute Pollute More Than Planes? 
Are Health Care Costs Killing Your Budget? 
2020 Crystal Ball.
The Benefits of Living Green. Featuring H.R.H. The Prince of Wales' Twin Eco Communities. 
What Love, Time and Charity Have to do with our Commonwealth. Interview with MacArthur Genius Award Winner Kevin Murphy.
Unicorns Yesterday. Fairy Tales Today. IPO Losses Top $100 Billion. 
Counting Blessings on Thanksgiving.
Real Estate Prices Decline. 
Hong Kong Slides into a Recession. China Slows. 
They Trusted Him. Now He Doesn't Return Phone Calls.
Beyond Meat's Shares Dive 67% in 2 Months.
Price Matters. 
Will There be a Santa Rally? It's Up to Apple. 
Will JP Morgan Implode on Fairy Tales and Unicorns.
Harness Your Emotions for Successful Investing.
What the Ford Downgrade Means for Main Street.
The Dow Dropped Over 1000 Points
Do We Talk Ourselves into Recessions? Interview with Nobel Prize Winning Economist Robert J. Shiller.
Ford is Downgraded to Junk.
From Buried Alive in Bill to Buying Your Own Island.
The Manufacturing Recession. An Interview with Liz Ann Sonders.
Gold Mining ETFs Have Doubled. 
The Gold Bull Market Has Begun. 
The We Work IPO. 
The Highs and Hangovers of Investing in Cannabis. 
Recession Proof Your Life. 
China Takes a Bite Out of Apple Sales.
Will the Dow Hit 30,000? A Check Up on the Economy
Red Flags in the Boeing 2Q 2019 Earnings Report
The Weakening Economy. 
Think Capture Gains, Not Stop Losses. 
Buy and Hold Works. Right?
​Wall Street Secrets Your Broker Isn't Telling You. 
Unaffordability: The Unspoken Housing Crisis in America. 
Are You Being Pressured to Buy a Home or Stocks?
What's Your Exit Strategy? 
It's Time To Do Your Annual Rebalancing.
Cannabis Crashes. Should You Get High Again? 
Are You Suffering From Buy High, Sell Low Mentality?
Financial Engineering is Not Real Growth.
The Zoom IPO. 
10 Rally Killers. Fix the Roof While the Sun is Shining.
Uber vs. Lyft. Which IPO Will Drive Returns?
Boeing Cuts 737 Production by 20%.
Earth Gratitude This Earth Day. 
Real Estate is Back to an All-Time High. 
The Lyft IPO Hits Wall Street. Should you take a ride?
Cannabis Doubles. Did you miss the party?
12 Investing Mistakes
Drowning in Debt? Get Solutions. 
CBD Oil for Sale.
The High Cost of Free Advice. 
Apple's Real Problem in China: Huawei. 
2018 is the Worst December Since the Great Depression. 
Will the Feds Raise Interest Rates? Should They? Learn what you're not being told in the MSM.
Why FANG, Banks and Your Value Funds Are in Trouble.
Russia Dumps Treasuries and Buys Gold
OPEC and Russia Cut Oil Production. 
​
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 or funds 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 a diversified strategy, which has been designed with the assistance of a financial professional who is 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 and patience.  

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. Securities, financial instruments or strategies mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors.

Dear Natalie: After learning more about the risk in bonds, I decided to trim back on a few. I was showing a gain for my bonds when I initiated the sell order. However, when the sell went through, it was for a loss. What happened?
 
Signed: How Does a Gain Become a Loss in the Same Trading Day?


Dear Gains:
 
There was a liquidity squeeze behind the scenes in March. As the Federal Reserve Board explained in their Financial Stability Report of today, “The ability of creditworthy households, businesses, and state and local governments to borrow, even at elevated rates, was threatened.” With economic activity closing down due to the pandemic, and so much leverage in the bond market, investors feared that corporations, states and local governments would all need to borrow in order to shore up budgetary gaps. When a new bond is issued in a crisis, typically the rate will have to be higher. That means that existing bonds can become illiquid, or worse, require a haircut, where you receive only a portion of your original investment back.  
 

​The Federal Reserve Board noted in today’s report that: “Asset prices remain vulnerable to significant price declines should the pandemic take an unexpected course, the economic fallout prove more adverse, or financial system strains reemerge.” In other words, the economic challenges are probably not over. In fact, many economists believe that the worst of the financial fallout of the crisis is still on the horizon. If the worst is still to come, then, even though getting liquid might have cost you a little, waiting could cost you much more. Below is a more detailed explanation of what is happening in the bond market in particular, and in the economy at large.  
 
Bond Risk
Illinois was just downgraded to the lowest rung of speculative, just above default. When you hear Congressmen talk about letting states go bankrupt, Illinois could be the state they are referring to. However, Illinois is not the only state that is facing budgetary challenges. Five states, 10%, were just one or two rungs above junk status before the coronavirus recession hit. (Email info@NataliePace.com for details.) With the loss of tax revenue nationwide, all states face a liquidity challenge. Even states with  AAA status (32%) will need to borrow money to meet current demands, after months of very low tax revenue, which is now exacerbated by 18% unemployment.
 
In the corporate bond market, 11.4% of the S&P500 are currently at speculative status, including some recent downgrades, such as the Ford Motor Company. 227 companies (45.4%) are at the lowest rung of investment grade – just above junk bond status. That leaves only 216 companies (43.2%) that are rated A and above, or unrated. Again, with the stresses in the financial system, most companies are going to need to borrow money to make it through the hard times. For many existing bondholders, that creates credit risk and potential illiquidity. We’ve seen Berkshire Hathaway and Apple issue more debt. Disney has suspended its dividend and share buybacks, as have the airlines and auto manufacturers.
 
In short, for bonds, keep the terms short and the creditworthiness high. Underweight bond funds and money market funds. (Click for additional blogs and details.)

Credit and Term Risk
Most municipalities, and many corporations, like to borrow long-term – for 30 and even 40 years. So, if you have bonds on the “safe” side of your portfolio, you may have long-term bonds in there. Or you may have a bond fund. These are vulnerable to both capital loss and liquidity. As I mentioned, if the state or company has to borrow more money, which they will, new investors will want to be paid for taking on the additional risk. That means the new bond will have to offer a higher interest rate, and potentially a shorter term, as well. This is true even when the Fed Fund rate is at zero. They have to do this due to the heightened credit risk.
 
The bond covenants may put the new issuance in front of you, in the case of a restructuring. In this scenario, existing bondholders find that their bonds are worth a lot less on the secondary market if they want or need to sell (you experienced this), and may become illiquid (you can’t sell, even at fire sale prices).
 
In the case of Greece, when the country was bailed out by the European Union, the existing bondholders received only about a third of their principal back. Those were the terms of the bailout. That put MF Global out of business. (Google MF Global to read up more on this.)
 
Liquidity Risk
This is what happened to you. You wanted to sell your bonds, but there weren’t any interested buyers in the room. Eventually, your broker was able to execute the trade, but at a lower price. The alternative would have been holding onto these bonds. If the crisis deepens, then the liquidity could dry up further, and you would have had to lower your rates even more to bait a buyer.
 
Ford bondholders recently experienced this first hand. Investors were willing to loan money to Ford for 30-year or even 40-year terms for a yield of 5-6%. When Ford was downgraded to speculative status, junk, on September 9, 2019, existing bondholders were put into a perilous position. They could sell at a steep loss, or hold until term and pray that Ford doesn’t have to restructure in the meantime. The pandemic heightens the risk, and lowers the price that they can exit their positions for.

What Lies Ahead?
Economists warn that the current recession will not be a V-shaped rebound. The U.S. economy shrank by -4.8% in the first quarter of 2020, and that was with only 15 days in lockdown. The current (2nd) quarter includes at least two months of Stay at Home or Safer at Home Orders. The 2nd quarter is predicted to contract another -12% sequentially, which could be as high as -40% year over year. Sadly, that is a contraction for the history books that rivals the Great Depression.
 
The Financial Stability Report does a good job of presenting the Framework of the current pickle we’re in, writing:
 
Elevated valuation pressures tend to be associated with excessive borrowing by businesses and households because both borrowers and lenders are more willing to accept higher degrees of risk and leverage when asset prices are appreciating rapidly. The associated debt and leverage, in turn, make the risk of outsized declines in asset prices more likely and more damaging. Similarly, the risk of a run on a financial institution and the consequent fire sales of assets are greatly amplified when significant leverage is involved.
 
 
There was too much debt and borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, in every corner of the developed world, before this pandemic hit. Corporations, nations, states, cities and citizens were all borrowing to make ends meet. (Corporations were also borrowing to pay dividends and buy back their own stock. Click to read more on Financial Engineering.) Good husbandry advocates that you fix the roof while the sun is still shining, and save for a rainy day. No one did that. Here we are. Liquidity will be your friend if “outsized declines in asset prices” materialize.

​If you are interested in learning what's safe in a world where stocks, bonds and money market funds are all subject to capital loss, consider joining me for my next ​​Financial Empowerment Retreat, June 13-15, 2020. Get additional information by clicking on the banner ad below. 

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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 or funds 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 a diversified strategy, which has been designed with the assistance of a financial professional who is 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 and patience.  

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. Securities, financial instruments or strategies mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors.

Tomorrow, New Age Beverages, Tilray and GW Pharmaceuticals announce earnings. What should investors expect? (Innovative Industrial Properties announced 1Q 2020 earnings on Wednesday, May 6, 2020.)
 
The last earnings reports of Tilray, New Age Beverages and GW Pharmaceuticals were astonishing, with GW Pharma reporting an eye-popping increase in sales to $109.1 million for the 4th quarter, compared to just $6.7 million in the same quarter of 2019. Tilray’s year-over-year revenue increase was 202%, with 323% revenue growth at New Age Beverages.
 
Everyone is waiting for the FDA to allow CBD use in the U.S., and some guidance is forthcoming “soon.” However, currently CBD is illegal on a nationwide basis, despite what states choose to do. That means that most CBD products in the U.S. are not coming from the publicly traded cannabis companies, largely because they want to remain in compliance with their listing standards. The flood gates will open when (if?) CBD is legalized. (Currently only GW Pharmaceuticals’ epilepsy RX is legal.)

Forward Outlook
While many industries are under lockdown, the cannabis industry, including the supply chain, has been deemed an essential business. Still there are stresses within the system. It has always been more difficult for cannabis companies to raise money and open a bank account – and even more so today, when so many corporations need a handout. Having an experienced executive team, with an ability to raise money in a young (recently legal) industry, while tightening the budgetary belt and focusing R&D and expansion on the most scalable products, is key. Aphria is in the hands of Irwin Simon, the founder and former CEO of Hain Celestial, with Walter Robb (the former co-CEO of Whole Foods) on the board. Tilray has an exemplary international advisory board and executive team. New Age Beverages has a license to use the Bob Marley brand for many beverage products, including a line of CBD beverages.

On the revenue side, the question is how much will COVID-19 impact earnings?
 
Aphria: Aphria suspended their forward guidance. For the quarter ended February 29, 2020, Aphria’s sales growth almost doubled from $73.6 million to $144.4 million, year over year. Net income was $5.7 million. Based upon the previously issued guidance, the company was expecting an impressive increase in revenue for 2020 in the range of $575 to $625 million, from $237 million in 2019.  For the nine months of the 2020 fiscal year, revenue was already up to $391 million. If the company is able to hit the high end, despite suspending guidance, then the revenue growth in the next quarter should be 89% year over year. Expect the fiscal 4Q and full year 2020 earnings report around August 1, 2020.
 
GW Pharmaceuticals: Most of GW Pharmaceuticals current revenue comes from one epilepsy drug. The real questions for tomorrow’s earnings call are: “How big is the market place for Epidiolex? Now that the DEA has descheduled the drug as a controlled substance, will more patients suffering from epilepsy receive the CBD-based drug?”
 
GW Pharmaceuticals had $536.9 million in cash and cash equivalents, at the end of 2019, with a net loss of $24.9 million. If sales in the 1st quarter of 2020 are similar to the 4th quarter of 2019, then the year-over-year increase will be impressive, at 278%.
 
The company’s sights are now set on bringing nabiximols, a treatment for multiple sclerosis, to the U.S. Their distribution partner in the U.K. is Bayer. Novartis is another partner. GW Pharmaceuticals has been successful in navigating the regulatory road map of the DEA and the FDA with Epidiolex. Will it have similar success with Savitex (the brand name of their nabiximols)?
 
Innovative Industrial Properties: While cannabis has been allowed to operate as an essential business, as of May 2, 2020, IIP was forced to work with 3 of their 21 tenants to provide temporary rent deferrals. The company advises that this amounts to just 3% of their revenue. As long as the stress is limited, then the revenue growth can still be impressive. Last year, in the 2nd quarter, Innovative earned $8.6 million in revenue.
 
New Age Beverages:
New Age is projecting revenue growth of 6-10%. This is a screeching halt from last quarter’s revenue growth of 323%. The company is exiting some of its brands, including Coco Libre. Last year, they announced that the Marley brand of CBD beverages wasn’t going to be launched in the U.S. due to regulatory walls. Though they had shelf space in Walmart and 7-Eleven, they discovered that their “new age” products, including the Marley brand, were not top sellers there. (I must have been in the minority for the organic Marley coffee.)
 
Will the Noni products – an immune builder that decreases inflammation in the body – gain a greater audience? Will Nestea become popular again? Will the U.S. magically legalize CBD products and beverages? While tomorrow’s earnings report will not be as stellar, investors will be focused on the projected growth of their Noni +CBD products, the direct sales campaign and any other exciting news that New Age can conjure up.
 
New Age’s modest earnings report may already be priced into their stock. The company’s share price is trading near the 52-week low. The market cap, at $147 million, is lower than their annual sales, of $254 million. Their cash and cash equivalents were at $60.8 million at the end of 2019.
 
Tilray: Revenue increased 278% year over year in 2019, and 202% in the 4th quarter for Tilray. At the current pace, Tilray’s revenue will double in the 1st quarter of 2020 – providing there wasn’t a severe impact from COVID-19.
 
Tilray has a partnership with Anheuser-Busch and LaBatt for CBD beverages. Their leadership team is strong, with experience from Revlon and Molson Coors. They recently partnered with Columbia University on an Rx treatment for women suffering from breast cancer.
 
Tilray raised $90.4 million on March 13, 2020, through an equity offering priced at $4.76. The share price has since recovered quite well. The current price is $7.78. They are projecting positive EBITDA by the 4th quarter of 2020, and cash flow positive in 2021.
 
Buy? Sell? Hold?
So, should you buy, sell, hold or mix it up between a few of these strategies? Start by asking the following 3 questions.
 
Questions:
What can the company do?
What can the industry do?
What is the general marketplace doing?
 
Many of these companies are absolutely on fire, with executive teams who can innovate, deliver the products and raise capital until the companies are cash flow positive.
 
The industry is growing leaps and bounds, too. However, there is still a lot of illegal trade going on, as well.
 
It’s not all coming up roses for publicly traded cannabis companies, despite the popularity of their products and the robust increases of their sales. When the stock market dropped like a knife between February 19 and mid-March of this year, Tilray lost 85% of its value. Aphria sank by 63%. New Age Beverage imploded by 61%, and GW Pharma lost 42%. Most of the companies are still trading near their 52-week lows. However, if investors get wind of the recession and sell their stocks, cannabis stocks could take another hit. 
 
Bottom Line
These cannabis companies are doing great in an explosive industry. However, their share price is on the Wall Street rollercoaster. In that environment, a buy low, sell high plan works well, as does using a limit-order capture gains strategy. The right answer might not be all or nothing. And it never hurts to have a Stock Shopping List in case investors are disappointed with the earnings reports, or the general marketplace just drags everything south.
 

if you are interested in learning stock picking, or taking this information deeper, consider joining me for my next Financial Empowerment Retreat, June 13-15, 2020. Get additional information by clicking on the banner ad below. 

Join me for a  Free Videoconference this Monday, May 10, 2020, to learn 4 essential strategies to recession proof your life. Whether you wish to protect your job, home, wealth or future, these strategies will position you best now and in the years to come. Email info@NataliePace.com to for login instructions. 
​
See below for additional blogs you should be reading. 

With over 21.8 million Americans filling for unemployment, and millions more who are underemployed, chances are that you or someone you love is experiencing financial hardship.
 
Every industry from General Electric, to the airlines, to the automakers, to retailers and beyond, have already laid off workers or will be trimming back as soon as their bailout package covenants allow them to. (There will likely be hundreds of thousands of individuals laid off in the airline industry on September 30, 2020, when the Direct Payroll Assistance funds of the Cares Act expire.) We’re hearing a lot about corporations having to “right-size” (i.e. lay off) their labor force for a post-pandemic world, in order to keep operating. This is necessary for households, too. The sooner we right-size our lives for the recession, the better off we will be. Below are six areas to address immediately.

6 Ways to Recession Proof Your Life
Protect Your Wealth
Preserve Your Nest Egg
Safeguard Your Home
Right-size Your Budget
Negotiate Your Debt
Learn a New Skill
 
And here is a little more color on each point.
 
Protect Your Wealth
Unemployment has soared to unprecedented levels (15% as of April 25, 2020). Asset prices, which were in a bubble before the current crisis, will have to adjust themselves. That means that the stock market and the real estate market are both going to be under downward pressure. Are you sure your nest egg is recession proof? Are you over-leveraged on your home? Did you recently purchase income property that isn’t paying for itself at a lofty price?

It’s time to protect the wealth you have. Examine your assets with a forensic eye, like a CFO would. Be the boss of your money. Do not assume that someone else is doing this for you. Nobody cares about your money as much as you do. If you need help with this analysis, call 310-430-2397 or email info@nataliepace.com.
 
Preserve Your Nest Egg
In recessions, it is imperative to preserve your nest egg by 1) having enough safe, 2) knowing what is safe in a world where bonds are losing money and money market funds have redemption gates and liquidity fees, and, 3) being properly diversified in your at-risk portion. If you’ve just checked off boxes in your 401(k) and you don’t know what you own, or if you have allowed someone else to manage it for you, it is unlikely that you are properly protected and diversified. Now is the time to know exactly what you own and why you own it, rather than relying upon blind faith that you are in good hands.
 
The other part of preserving your nest egg is to protect it from financial predators. This is not just from scammers, phishers, salesmen, opportunists and from bad investments. You must also protect your retirement accounts from the debt collector, the credit card company, the banks and any other corporations and individuals that you owe money to.
 
Your first obligation is to protect your family’s future, not to making everybody else rich. It is important to understand the laws of the land, and to protect and preserve your nest egg as if it were your life boat to a better land. It very well could be.
 
Do not drain your nest egg to keep your business alive, to make credit card companies happy or to stay in a home you can’t afford. Seek out solutions that will sustain you over the long-term, rather than adopting a disastrous near-term Band-aid fix. That solution will include your future, in addition to the obligations and debts that you have.
 
Safeguard Your Home
If you were having trouble paying the mortgage or rent before the current crisis, then now is the time to face reality, even if you still have your job. It is a far better idea to embrace intergenerational housing, take on a roommate, or downsize, than it is to keep paying above what you are capable of, taking on more debt and digging yourself into a desperate hole.
 
Right-sizing your life at the core can actually be very freeing. Most of the time thinking bigger and adding in family members or friends will yield better results. When I was a young single mother struggling to make ends meet, I got a bigger house in a better neighborhood that I shared with another single mother. My costs were reduced by at least a third. I had someone to look after my child when I ran to the grocery store. We shared cooking duties, so I only had to cook every other week. There can be blessings, when life shakes up our status quo.
 
Right-Size Your Budget
Below is a link to a free web app, so that you can see what a Thrive Budget® looks like. Basically 50% of your income should be used to survive and 50% to thrive. If you are spending 75% or 80% of your income to survive, then you’re going to feel very vulnerable and constantly fear shattering the screen of your smart phone, or any other unexpected expense that you just don’t have the money to cover.
 
Forget about café lattes and avocado toast. That isn’t the problem. Most of us are not shopaholics. Cutting out café lattes might save you hundreds, if you are truly splurging every single day. However, the real problem is the thousands that get siphoned away for big-ticket expenses, like housing, transportation, healthcare, health insurance, insurance of all kinds and even food. Wages have stagnated over the last decades, while the cost of essentials has skyrocketed. Budgeting solutions will not be found in the mainstream self-empowerment books and TV shows. (If they were, why are you in the fix you are in?) Continuing as you are in an unsustainable lifestyle, and borrowing on credit cards to try and make ends meet, is a disastrous scheme that doesn’t end well.
 
It’s important to take a sober look at your big-ticket bills, and adopt innovative solutions. There are some easy ways to do this, and others that will require brave choices. It all starts with knowing what is possible. You can learn more time-proven budgeting solutions in the Thrive Budget® section of The ABCs of Money.
 
Negotiate Your Debt
Most of the debt solutions being offered by credit card companies, mortgage providers, and utilities are temporary. Often, they just tack the payments you miss onto the back end, and then charge you interest on that – making things worse down the road.
 
Is it possible that your debt is in need of restructuring? Is it possible that you can negotiate hard to get the bank or credit card company to accept a much lower closeout deal? (If you do, be careful of the fine print. Sometimes they will sell your debt to a debt collector, in addition to taking your offer.) Should you be selling your too expensive overpriced home and downsizing?
 
If you are drowning in debt, you need to know the laws of the land and also the rules of FICO scores. Debt to assets ratio accounts for 1/3 of your FICO score. You could continue to make payments on time, and still have a score that plummets.
 
There is a debt section in The ABCs of Money that can help you to navigate out of the bind you are currently in, and into a better tomorrow.
 
Learn a New Skill
Whether you are out of work, or lucky enough to still be working, learn a new skill. Become adept at using tools that are going to be useful in the days ahead. Obvious things to master include: getting familiar with video conferencing, learning to code, polishing up on your Excel skills or becoming more tech or social media savvy.
 
The jobs of tomorrow include clean energy, medicine and climate change. Should you learn how to install solar panels or become a wind turbine technician? Are you interested in being a physician assistant? Should you focus your engineering degree toward fire safety or a clean energy grid? Below is a graph of the jobs of tomorrow.
 

Waiting for politicians to solve problems is often frustrating and futile. It is always a short-term fix. The sooner that you right-size your life, the better able you will be to survive the recession and to soar during the recovery.
 
Liquidity (protecting your wealth) will allow you to purchase assets at a much lower price in the years ahead.
 
Refusing to believe that we are in a recession will be a costly assumption. So be careful of getting your news from the headline news and politicians. If you wait for the headlines that we’re in a recession it will be too late. The experts already know that we are in a contracting economy. Main Street won’t get the headline that we are in a recession (which we are already in) until July 30, 2020.
 
I will be hosting a fireside at five on Monday, May 11, 2020 to discuss these strategies in greater details. If you would like to join us, please call 310-430-2397 or email info@nataliepace.com for log-on and pricing information.


I am also hosting an online Financial Empowerment Retreat June 13-15, 2020. Click on the flyer below for additional information, including testimonials and the 15+ things you'll learn and start to master. 

See below for additional blogs you should be reading. 
 

Other Blogs of Interest
The Recession will be Announced on July 30, 2020. 
Apple Reports Terrible Earnings. 
We Are in a Recession. 
Unemployment, Rising Stocks. What's Going On?
8 Money Myths, Money Pits, Scams and Conspiracy Theories.
21st Century Solutions for Protecting Your Home, Nest Egg & Job.
Wall Street Insiders are Selling Like There is No Tomorrow.
Why Are My Bonds Losing Money?
Tomorrow is Going to be Another Tough Day.
Price Matters. Stock Prices are Still Too High. 
Should You Ride Things Out?
7 Recession Indicators
Corona Virus Update.
The Bank Bail-in Plan on Your Dime.
NASDAQ is Up 6X. 
CoronaVirus: Which Companies and Countries Will be Most Impacted.
Is Tesla Worth GM and Ford Combined.
Artificial Intelligence is on Fire. Is it Time to Buy S'More?
Take the Retirement Challenge.
2020 Investor IQ Test.
Answers to the 2020 Investor IQ Test.
The Cannabis Capital Crunch and Stock Meltdown.
Does Your Commute Pollute More Than Planes? 
Are Health Care Costs Killing Your Budget? 
2020 Crystal Ball.
The Benefits of Living Green. Featuring H.R.H. The Prince of Wales' Twin Eco Communities. 
What Love, Time and Charity Have to do with our Commonwealth. Interview with MacArthur Genius Award Winner Kevin Murphy.
Unicorns Yesterday. Fairy Tales Today. IPO Losses Top $100 Billion. 
Counting Blessings on Thanksgiving.
Real Estate Prices Decline. 
Hong Kong Slides into a Recession. China Slows. 
They Trusted Him. Now He Doesn't Return Phone Calls.
Beyond Meat's Shares Dive 67% in 2 Months.
Price Matters. 
Will There be a Santa Rally? It's Up to Apple. 
Will JP Morgan Implode on Fairy Tales and Unicorns.
Harness Your Emotions for Successful Investing.
What the Ford Downgrade Means for Main Street.
The Dow Dropped Over 1000 Points
Do We Talk Ourselves into Recessions? Interview with Nobel Prize Winning Economist Robert J. Shiller.
Ford is Downgraded to Junk.
From Buried Alive in Bill to Buying Your Own Island.
The Manufacturing Recession. An Interview with Liz Ann Sonders.
Gold Mining ETFs Have Doubled. 
The Gold Bull Market Has Begun. 
The We Work IPO. 
The Highs and Hangovers of Investing in Cannabis. 
Recession Proof Your Life. 
China Takes a Bite Out of Apple Sales.
Will the Dow Hit 30,000? A Check Up on the Economy
Red Flags in the Boeing 2Q 2019 Earnings Report
The Weakening Economy. 
Think Capture Gains, Not Stop Losses. 
Buy and Hold Works. Right?
​Wall Street Secrets Your Broker Isn't Telling You. 
Unaffordability: The Unspoken Housing Crisis in America. 
Are You Being Pressured to Buy a Home or Stocks?
What's Your Exit Strategy? 
It's Time To Do Your Annual Rebalancing.
Cannabis Crashes. Should You Get High Again? 
Are You Suffering From Buy High, Sell Low Mentality?
Financial Engineering is Not Real Growth.
The Zoom IPO. 
10 Rally Killers. Fix the Roof While the Sun is Shining.
Uber vs. Lyft. Which IPO Will Drive Returns?
Boeing Cuts 737 Production by 20%.
Earth Gratitude This Earth Day. 
Real Estate is Back to an All-Time High. 
The Lyft IPO Hits Wall Street. Should you take a ride?
Cannabis Doubles. Did you miss the party?
12 Investing Mistakes
Drowning in Debt? Get Solutions. 
CBD Oil for Sale.
The High Cost of Free Advice. 
Apple's Real Problem in China: Huawei. 
2018 is the Worst December Since the Great Depression. 
Will the Feds Raise Interest Rates? Should They? Learn what you're not being told in the MSM.
Why FANG, Banks and Your Value Funds Are in Trouble.
Russia Dumps Treasuries and Buys Gold
OPEC and Russia Cut Oil Production. 
​
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 or funds 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 a diversified strategy, which has been designed with the assistance of a financial professional who is 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 and patience.  

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. Securities, financial instruments or strategies mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors.

The economy shrank by -4.8% in the first quarter of 2020, according to the advance numbers released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis on April 29, 2020.

On Fox News, the major headline was a stock market surge on a potential coronavirus vaccine from Gilead. CNN had nothing about the economy on the homepage, when the report was first released. The New York Times led with the story.
 
Over the next few months, despite stark warnings from economists about the harsh economic times ahead, insurance, annuity, stock and real estate broker-salesmen will continue to assure their clients that their product will rise above and hold value. There will be talk that home prices never go down in this or that area, that the stimulus bill will keep stock and bond prices high or that annuities and insurance products are safe (even when they are highly vulnerable). That’s the way it always goes in recessions. It is never an overnight crash.
 
It took two and a half years from the top to the bottom in the Dot Com Recession. 15 years later, the NASDAQ Composite Index finally crawled back to its March 2000 highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped from highs above 14,700 to a low of 6547 between October of 2007 and March 9, 2009.
 
Over 10 million homes changed hands in the wake of the Great Recession. As you can see in the chart below, stock and home prices are higher than ever. Debt is astronomical.

​

​In fact, the only two times that stock prices have been higher on a 10-year average CAPE ratio was in 1929 and in 2000. Nobel Prize winning economist Robert Shiller has been warning of this for a couple of years now.

The Recession will be Announced on July 30, 2020.
Today, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned, “Economic activity will likely drop at an unprecedented rate in the second quarter.”

​​Over the next several months, there will be a series of unfortunate events where asset prices (stocks, bonds and home values) will topple and then settle. People will become complacent again, thinking the worst is over, and then something else terrible will happen to sink prices further. (Asset prices are not included in core inflation figures.) At the point when the losses become unbearable, you’ll be tempted to sell low. Many people did this at the Great Recession low in 2009, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed out at 6547.
 
This is why Buy & Hope and market timing both don’t work. Our easy as a pie chart nest egg strategy with annual rebalancing: 1) earned gains in the last two recessions; 2) outperformed the bull markets in between, and; 3) is a buy low, sell high plan on auto-pilot. A time-proven plan protects your wealth, earns money while you sleep and allows you to sleep at night. In today’s world, you also need to know what is safe in a world where bonds are highly leveraged, losing money, are in danger of being illiquid, and where money market funds had to be bailed out in March 2020 and have redemption gates and liquidity fees.
 
The second quarter GDP is predicted to contract another 12% quarter over quarter and as much as 40% year over year.
You will not hear this news, nor that the economy is in a recession, until July 30, 2020. So, in short, be careful getting your economic information from the mainstream media and your wealth strategy from a broker-salesman. Any broker-salesman, who is reliant upon their job to pay their own mortgage, is going to be tempted to keep you invested. At the bottom, you’ll be told, “Who knew that it would be this bad?” and “If you sell now, you’ll be selling low.”
 
You must be the boss of your money. It’s time to step off the Wall Street rollercoaster and into a time-proven plan.
 
What Are Some of the Forthcoming Headlines?
High unemployment means consumer credit, which was higher than ever before the coronavirus recession, will become a substantial problem to households and creditors. Banks will have significantly reduced earnings. Homeowners and renters will be at risk of losing their homes. Consumer spending, which has driven the economy and was 69% of GDP, will be limp. Any business dependent upon consumer sales will be impacted. Apple reports earnings tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. PT. That report is predicted to be terrible.
 
Real Estate
Real estate losses were severe in the Great Recession. The median sales price of existing homes in the U.S. fell from $221,900 in 2006 to $166,100 in 2011. The losses were nationwide, although there was variance regionally. The implosion in Detroit, Florida, Arizona, New Mexico and Las Vegas was unprecedented in my lifetime.
 
Today real estate prices are higher than ever, at $271,900. Prices are unaffordable in 67% of U.S. cities. 3.5 million homeowners are still severely underwater on their mortgages.
 

Have You Been Told That Real Estate Never Goes Down in Your Area?
What factors can reduce prices in your area? Prices are quite often simply a case of supply and demand. If there are too many sellers and not enough buyers, then prices have to come down. When there is high unemployment, the buying pool shrinks. When there is unaffordability, the buying pool shrinks. When mortgages are difficult to obtain due to bad credit or increased tightening of credit standards, demand dries up. When people lose their homes to foreclosure, the supply pool expands. We are likely to see all of those things happen over the next few months, even in areas where people believe they are exempt from the laws of supply and demand.
 
I will discuss this further in my online retreat this weekend, including solutions for homeowners who feel that they are overextended, and would-be home buyers who are worried that home prices are too high. We also discuss nest egg strategies, what’s hot, and how to save thousands of dollars annually in your budget with smarter big-ticket choices. Cutting out café lattes and avocado toast is not going to fix the challenges that lie ahead.
 
Asset Bubbles
So, what about stocks and bonds? Stocks are far too expensive, even with a 17% downturn since the highs of February 19, 2019. The bond market had to be bailed out on March 2, 2020. The bailout does not give a blank check to every single company and entity that needs to be rescued. As Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell noted in his press conference today, “We can’t lend to insolvent companies.”
 
We have seen a vigorous debate in Congress about whether or not states should be allowed to declare bankruptcy. That should give you some concern about your municipal bonds. Credit risk and term risk are at issue, as is liquidity. No one is going to want to take a 20-year bond (or longer) off your hands. There is no reward for that risk, particularly as the risk of insolvency increases.
 
Over 50% of corporate bonds have been just above junk-bond status for over a year. Ford was downgraded to junk in September 2019. You can expect further downgrades to start. Many corporations have slashed their dividends. Those people who were relying upon dividends for income are in trouble – not just of having no income, but also of capital loss of their investment and potential illiquidity. As I’ve been saying for years, the higher the dividend the higher the risk. Private placement REITs are particularly toxic. Read D&T’s story of caution in their own words.
 
In short, wisdom is the solution. The time to get that wisdom is now, while everything is still trading nice and high. That is why I am hosting an online emergency retreat this weekend, May 2-4, 2020. We will focus on nest egg strategies to protect your wealth, real estate strategies to protect your wealth, and bond strategies to protect your wealth. We will also talk about the Thrive Budget® and how you can position yourself best to survive one of the worst economic recessions that any of us have seen in our lifetime. If you wait for the headlines, it will be too late to protect yourself.
 
Free Video Conferences
I host a free video conference twice a month. If you'd like the log-on information, email info@NataliePace.com with VIDEOCON in the subject line. The next videoconference will be April 30, 2020 at 5 pm PT, after Apple announces earnings. Watch the conferences back on my YouTube channel at YouTube.com/NataliePace2. 

Other Blogs of Interest
Apple Reports Terrible Earnings. 
We Are in a Recession. 
Unemployment, Rising Stocks. What's Going On?
8 Money Myths, Money Pits, Scams and Conspiracy Theories.
21st Century Solutions for Protecting Your Home, Nest Egg & Job.
Wall Street Insiders are Selling Like There is No Tomorrow.
Why Are My Bonds Losing Money?
Tomorrow is Going to be Another Tough Day.
Price Matters. Stock Prices are Still Too High. 
Should You Ride Things Out?
7 Recession Indicators
Corona Virus Update.
The Bank Bail-in Plan on Your Dime.
NASDAQ is Up 6X. 
CoronaVirus: Which Companies and Countries Will be Most Impacted.
Is Tesla Worth GM and Ford Combined.
Artificial Intelligence is on Fire. Is it Time to Buy S'More?
Take the Retirement Challenge.
2020 Investor IQ Test.
Answers to the 2020 Investor IQ Test.
The Cannabis Capital Crunch and Stock Meltdown.
Does Your Commute Pollute More Than Planes? 
Are Health Care Costs Killing Your Budget? 
2020 Crystal Ball.
The Benefits of Living Green. Featuring H.R.H. The Prince of Wales' Twin Eco Communities. 
What Love, Time and Charity Have to do with our Commonwealth. Interview with MacArthur Genius Award Winner Kevin Murphy.
Unicorns Yesterday. Fairy Tales Today. IPO Losses Top $100 Billion. 
Counting Blessings on Thanksgiving.
Real Estate Prices Decline. 
Hong Kong Slides into a Recession. China Slows. 
They Trusted Him. Now He Doesn't Return Phone Calls.
Beyond Meat's Shares Dive 67% in 2 Months.
Price Matters. 
Will There be a Santa Rally? It's Up to Apple. 
Will JP Morgan Implode on Fairy Tales and Unicorns.
Harness Your Emotions for Successful Investing.
What the Ford Downgrade Means for Main Street.
The Dow Dropped Over 1000 Points
Do We Talk Ourselves into Recessions? Interview with Nobel Prize Winning Economist Robert J. Shiller.
Ford is Downgraded to Junk.
From Buried Alive in Bill to Buying Your Own Island.
The Manufacturing Recession. An Interview with Liz Ann Sonders.
Gold Mining ETFs Have Doubled. 
The Gold Bull Market Has Begun. 
The We Work IPO. 
The Highs and Hangovers of Investing in Cannabis. 
Recession Proof Your Life. 
China Takes a Bite Out of Apple Sales.
Will the Dow Hit 30,000? A Check Up on the Economy
Red Flags in the Boeing 2Q 2019 Earnings Report
The Weakening Economy. 
Think Capture Gains, Not Stop Losses. 
Buy and Hold Works. Right?
​Wall Street Secrets Your Broker Isn't Telling You. 
Unaffordability: The Unspoken Housing Crisis in America. 
Are You Being Pressured to Buy a Home or Stocks?
What's Your Exit Strategy? 
It's Time To Do Your Annual Rebalancing.
Cannabis Crashes. Should You Get High Again? 
Are You Suffering From Buy High, Sell Low Mentality?
Financial Engineering is Not Real Growth.
The Zoom IPO. 
10 Rally Killers. Fix the Roof While the Sun is Shining.
Uber vs. Lyft. Which IPO Will Drive Returns?
Boeing Cuts 737 Production by 20%.
Earth Gratitude This Earth Day. 
Real Estate is Back to an All-Time High. 
The Lyft IPO Hits Wall Street. Should you take a ride?
Cannabis Doubles. Did you miss the party?
12 Investing Mistakes
Drowning in Debt? Get Solutions. 
CBD Oil for Sale.
The High Cost of Free Advice. 
Apple's Real Problem in China: Huawei. 
2018 is the Worst December Since the Great Depression. 
Will the Feds Raise Interest Rates? Should They? Learn what you're not being told in the MSM.
Why FANG, Banks and Your Value Funds Are in Trouble.
Russia Dumps Treasuries and Buys Gold
OPEC and Russia Cut Oil Production. 
​
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 or funds 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 a diversified strategy, which has been designed with the assistance of a financial professional who is 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 and patience.  

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. Securities, financial instruments or strategies mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors.

Apple reports earnings this Thursday, April 30, 2020 at 2 PM Pacific. It’s expected to be a pretty dismal earnings report. Apple was one of the first retail stores to close down in the U.S. (on March 13, 2020). Since their phones and products are made in China, they were also one of the first to be affected with supply chain disruptions at the Foxconn factory closures. We first reported on this on February 14, 2020, when the Apple share price was still trading at $325/share. On February 17, 2020, Apple warned that they would miss their previous revenue guidance for the quarter ending March 31, 2020.

As early as February 27, 2020, there were signs that the worldwide economy was entering a recession. The only question was how deep, long and pronounced it would be… We offered four warnings about the bad advice that was circulating, alongside 6 ways to protect your wealth and income, and realign your budget. I’m highlighting this because if you wait for the headlines, it’s too late to protect your wealth. Since the February 19, 2020 stock market highs, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost as much as 35%. There are typically a series of unfortunate events, over a 12-24 month period, during a correction. Plateaus and mini-rallies in between the knife-like drops are common, even when the general trend is down.  

So, Wall Street is expecting a pretty bad earnings report from Apple on Thursday, after the markets close. On Wednesday morning at 5:30 am PT, there will be bad news as well, when the 1st quarter 2020 earnings report – a contraction – will be announced. Not surprisingly, the Dow Futures today (Sunday) are slightly down. The informed insiders typically start their move before the general announcement.
 
Everyone’s eyes will be on the Apple buyback and dividend announcements. Many companies have announced suspensions of one or both in their earnings calls this quarter. Since Apple has had the most aggressive share repurchase plan on Wall Street by far – at $81.7 billion in 2019 – a cutback or suspension of their buyback plan will not be welcome news. Over the past few years, Apple’s share repurchase plan has helped the entire stock market rise. As Liz Ann Sonders, the chief investment strategies at Charles Schwab Inc., advised us in an interview last August 2019, “How have we had a 10-year bull market? It’s not been hedge funds, pension funds, foundations and endowments or individual investors. Corporations have bought back stock.” Apple has topped the list of corporate buybacks, with the nearest competitors (lots of banks) repurchasing about one-quarter of Apple’s.

What Does All of This Mean for You?
The world has changed. Once the Stay at Home orders are phased out, there will not be a return to the way things were a few months ago. There is far too much unemployment. Consumer spending can’t return to normal. Many industries, including airlines, oil and gas, hospitality, retail and travel, are also in a crisis. Both sides of the aisle are going to try to politicize the situation. But it’s important for you to know the facts.
 
The economy was very overleveraged before this crisis. There were liquidity issues well before the pandemic, as well. The first behind-the-scenes banking rescue happened last September 2019. Ford bonds were downgraded to junk by Moody’s on September 9, 2019. Nobel Prize winning economist Robert Shiller has been warning that stocks were in a bubble since 2018, as has Alan Greenspan. Warren Buffett said that bonds should come with a warning label in 2018. Over half of corporate bonds have been at the lowest rung, just above junk bond status, for well over a year. Muni bonds were even more leveraged.
 
Prior to the current crisis, insiders knew we were at the late stage of the business cycle, which is Wall Street jargon for, “We are close to a recession.” But that’s not the entire story. As you can see in the chart below, real estate and stock asset bubbles had formed and were more bubblicious than they were before the Great Recession. Consumer debt was also higher than before the Great Recession. Debt was astronomical.

Stocks lost more than half in the Great Recession. The real estate contraction was nationwide, with over 10 million homes in distress. There are still 3.5 million homes that are underwater, even now, with home prices near all-time highs.
 
Low Interest Rates Create Asset Bubbles.
Leverage has been an area of concern for the past few years. Legacy corporations were borrowing from the bond market to buy back their own stock and pay dividends (benefitting the insiders), while allowing their credit rating to fall to the lowest rung of investment grade. There was really no incentive to keep a higher credit score when even the lowest investment rating was still borrowing at 5%. Unicorns like Uber, Lyft, Snap Inc. and The We Co. swam in easy capital from the venture capital pool to fund their growth, even with massive losses.
 
These two groups were flying dangerously close to the trees. The bond market continued to fund high leverage because their investors wanted some yield. (Never reach for yield.) The venture capital market began asking for a “clear path to profitability.” Unicorns were congregated in small-cap growth, while the debt-laden legacy companies took up shop in the large-cap value funds.
 
We Are in a Recession
We are in a recession. That will not be officially declared until July 29, 2020, when the advance report of 2nd quarter 2020 GDP is announced. It will be a severe contraction – up to 40% year over year and -12% lower than the 1st quarter 2020, according to Fitch Ratings and the Congressional Budget Office. The economy is predicted to contract -5.6% for the full year 2020.

​What is Your Best Strategy?
It’s never market timing. Selling everything you’ve got is not a good strategy, particularly in today’s world when bonds and money market funds are vulnerable to capital loss. However, overweighting safe and acting your age is. If you have wealth to protect, then you must know what you own now. Do not rely upon your financial advisor to do this for you, particularly if s/he has advised you to ride it out, or buy on the bounce, or if you lost more than 25% in the Great Recession. Call our offices at 310-430-2397 for an unbiased 2nd opinion. Once you know what you own, and how much at risk or how safe your assets are, you can determine how best to proceed – with an easy to follow action plan.
 
There is a simple time-proven strategy that can protect your wealth and position you best in a post-pandemic world. Beware of trusting politicians, bankers, and even the chief economist of your particular trade association. Everyone has an agenda, and even more so these days. If you would like to join us at our Financial Empowerment Retreat this weekend, where you will learn how to protect your wealth, position yourself best going forward and even learn how to save thousands annually with smarter big-ticket choices, call 310-430-2397 or email info@NataliePace.com. You can get additional information on the flyer at the homepage at nataliepace.com.
 

Join our free Natalie Pace Live Video Conference this Thursday at 5 pm PT. Email info @ NataliePace.com with VIDEOCON in the subject line to receive the log-in instructions. Watch the video back at Natalie Pace’s YouTube channel.
 

Stay safe. Be well. I look forward to seeing you this weekend.
 
 
What’s my agenda? It is simply to add a splash of green to Wall Street and to transform lives on main street. It’s something I’ve been doing since 1999. I love my job. If you’d like to read testimonials from some of the hundreds of thousands of people who transform their lives using the strategies please email info@nataliepace.com or call 310-430-2397.


Other Blogs of Interest
We Are in a Recession. 
Unemployment, Rising Stocks. What's Going On?
8 Money Myths, Money Pits, Scams and Conspiracy Theories.
21st Century Solutions for Protecting Your Home, Nest Egg & Job.
Wall Street Insiders are Selling Like There is No Tomorrow.
Why Are My Bonds Losing Money?
Tomorrow is Going to be Another Tough Day.
Price Matters. Stock Prices are Still Too High. 
Should You Ride Things Out?
7 Recession Indicators
Corona Virus Update.
The Bank Bail-in Plan on Your Dime.
NASDAQ is Up 6X. 
CoronaVirus: Which Companies and Countries Will be Most Impacted.
Is Tesla Worth GM and Ford Combined.
Artificial Intelligence is on Fire. Is it Time to Buy S'More?
Take the Retirement Challenge.
2020 Investor IQ Test.
Answers to the 2020 Investor IQ Test.
The Cannabis Capital Crunch and Stock Meltdown.
Does Your Commute Pollute More Than Planes? 
Are Health Care Costs Killing Your Budget? 
2020 Crystal Ball.
The Benefits of Living Green. Featuring H.R.H. The Prince of Wales' Twin Eco Communities. 
What Love, Time and Charity Have to do with our Commonwealth. Interview with MacArthur Genius Award Winner Kevin Murphy.
Unicorns Yesterday. Fairy Tales Today. IPO Losses Top $100 Billion. 
Counting Blessings on Thanksgiving.
Real Estate Prices Decline. 
Hong Kong Slides into a Recession. China Slows. 
They Trusted Him. Now He Doesn't Return Phone Calls.
Beyond Meat's Shares Dive 67% in 2 Months.
Price Matters. 
Will There be a Santa Rally? It's Up to Apple. 
Will JP Morgan Implode on Fairy Tales and Unicorns.
Harness Your Emotions for Successful Investing.
What the Ford Downgrade Means for Main Street.
The Dow Dropped Over 1000 Points
Do We Talk Ourselves into Recessions? Interview with Nobel Prize Winning Economist Robert J. Shiller.
Ford is Downgraded to Junk.
From Buried Alive in Bill to Buying Your Own Island.
The Manufacturing Recession. An Interview with Liz Ann Sonders.
Gold Mining ETFs Have Doubled. 
The Gold Bull Market Has Begun. 
The We Work IPO. 
The Highs and Hangovers of Investing in Cannabis. 
Recession Proof Your Life. 
China Takes a Bite Out of Apple Sales.
Will the Dow Hit 30,000? A Check Up on the Economy
Red Flags in the Boeing 2Q 2019 Earnings Report
The Weakening Economy. 
Think Capture Gains, Not Stop Losses. 
Buy and Hold Works. Right?
​Wall Street Secrets Your Broker Isn't Telling You. 
Unaffordability: The Unspoken Housing Crisis in America. 
Are You Being Pressured to Buy a Home or Stocks?
What's Your Exit Strategy? 
It's Time To Do Your Annual Rebalancing.
Cannabis Crashes. Should You Get High Again? 
Are You Suffering From Buy High, Sell Low Mentality?
Financial Engineering is Not Real Growth.
The Zoom IPO. 
10 Rally Killers. Fix the Roof While the Sun is Shining.
Uber vs. Lyft. Which IPO Will Drive Returns?
Boeing Cuts 737 Production by 20%.
Earth Gratitude This Earth Day. 
Real Estate is Back to an All-Time High. 
The Lyft IPO Hits Wall Street. Should you take a ride?
Cannabis Doubles. Did you miss the party?
12 Investing Mistakes
Drowning in Debt? Get Solutions. 
CBD Oil for Sale.
The High Cost of Free Advice. 
Apple's Real Problem in China: Huawei. 
2018 is the Worst December Since the Great Depression. 
Will the Feds Raise Interest Rates? Should They? Learn what you're not being told in the MSM.
Why FANG, Banks and Your Value Funds Are in Trouble.
Russia Dumps Treasuries and Buys Gold
OPEC and Russia Cut Oil Production. 
​
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 or funds 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 a diversified strategy, which has been designed with the assistance of a financial professional who is 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 and patience.  

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. Securities, financial instruments or strategies mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors.

We are in a recession. Those are not my words. On April 7, 2020, Kristalina Georgieva, IMF Managing Director, made the declaration: “It is already clear that global growth will turn sharply negative in 2020, as you will see in our World Economic Outlook next week. In fact, we anticipate the worst economic fallout since the Great Depression.” Yesterday, the Federal Reserve Board released their Beige Book, writing, “Economic activity contracted sharply and abruptly across all regions in the United States as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.” The Feds say that the hardest hit industries were leisure, hospitality and retail, other than essential goods. Unemployment is astronomical. Prices are falling. (I offer more color on this and more below.)
 
The Beige Book neglects to remind everyone that banking and financial services had to be bailed out behind the scenes on March 3, 2020 and again on March 15, 2020. The rescue in the overnight bank lending market began in September of 2019. Keep reading for additional information on that. However, if you’ve wondered why your bonds have lost value, when you were told bonds are safe and can actually increase in value during recessions, the financial industry bailout information is required reading. It’s also a good idea to re-visit the bond blog I wrote on March 25, 2020.  
 
The Official Reports of the Recession
The 1st Quarter 2020 economic contraction will be reported in the GDP report that will be released on April 29, 2020 at 8:30 am ET. The official declaration of the recession will happen when the advance 2nd Quarter 2020 GDP report is released, on July 30, 2020. If you wait for the headlines on this, you will be late. The informed money has known that the economy was likely in a recession since at least March 8, 2020, when I issued my blog. The fact that the Federal Reserve Board pulled their Summary of Economic Projections from the March 15, 2020 Emergency Meeting was a huge red flag…

So, why have stocks recovered a little bit? That’s actually quite normal. The smart money moves first. It catches Main Street off guard. Then everything settles down. Your broker/salesman starts calling and telling you now is a great time to buy. Main Street buys in. Wall Street insiders breathe a sigh of relief, and hit the sell button again. The journey from the top of the market to the bottom is a series of unfortunate events with multiple plunges, plateaus and mini-recoveries.
 
The bottom of the Great Recession (with up to 55% losses) happened on March 9, 2009. The top was October of 2007. The bottom of the Dot Com Recession (with up to 78% losses) was in October of 2002. The top was March of 2000.
 
If you are being told that March 2020 was an all-time low, you are not receiving the truth. You are being pitched and primed for a sale.
 
V-Shaped Recovery?
A lot of people are hoping for a V-shaped recovery, that as soon as we get back to work things will return to normal. However, we are neglecting that life before the pandemic was not normal. Real estate was unaffordable. Stocks and bonds were in a bubble. Financial leverage was astronomical. It seemed like everyone, including nations, corporations and individuals, were all borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.
 
Alan Greenspan warned of this as early as January of 2018. Robert Shiller has been warning that stocks were overpriced for years. Warren Buffett claimed that bonds should come with warning labels as early as 2012. (Our team has been warning of bonds since 2009.)
 

If Americans couldn’t afford to make ends meet without taking on debt before the crisis, when they had a job and could still borrow money, then there is little hope that we can return to the inflated asset values of early February 2020, after so many have lost their jobs and access to capital. Even stellar consumer credit is having trouble accessing loans this month. (This has a lot to do with the liquidity crisis in the financial services industry.) Consumer debt was higher than ever before the Coronavirus Recession, as was corporate and public debt.
 
What happens when people can no longer afford things? Prices have to fall. What happens when companies take on too much debt and can no longer keep borrowing money at rock-bottom rates? They have to restructure their debt. Stockholders are typically wiped out. Bondholders take a haircut. Pensioners and employees typically have even more at stake.  
 
Bailouts have been promised to businesses big and small. However, there will still be winners and losers, just as there was in the Great Recession. The Federal Reserve is not going to make a loan to a business that can’t pay it back. Some businesses will have to restructure their debt (as the airline and auto industry did in the Great Recession). Some will be forced to liquidate (Lehman Bros.) or sell themselves on the cheap (Countrywide, Bear Stearns). So, if you’re tempted to “buy low” in hopes of a bail-out and recovery, buyer beware. Your stock might become toilet paper.
 
Ramifications of the Financial Industry Bailout on March 15, 2020
On Sunday, March 15, 2020, the Federal Reserve Board had their 2nd emergency meeting of the month. The FOMC slashed interest rates to zero, and infused liquidity into many financial markets that were freezing up. According to the transcript from the press conference of March 15, 2020, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell noted, “In the past week, several important financial markets, including the market for U.S. Treasury securities, have at times shown signs of stress and impaired liquidity… The cost of credit has risen for all but the strongest borrowers.”
 
With over half of the corporate bonds at the lowest credit rating, just above junk bond status (and munis in just as bad of shape), there were a lot of CEOs with their hands out, hoping for a bail-out and having to sell whatever they had on hand to keep operating. (Even Berkshire Hathaway has been on a selling spree this month…)
 
Dividends Suspended and Share Repurchases Canceled
Many companies, including most banks, have suspended their share repurchase plans. This is a huge issue because the entire bull market post Great Recession was built upon corporations borrowing money very cheaply and buying back their own stock. A lot of dividend paying companies are going to be under pressure to cancel their dividends, too. Without corporate buybacks, there is a massive reduction in demand for stocks, putting downward pressure on the markets.
 
The airlines have agreed to cancel buybacks and dividends for the life of their loans, as part of their bailout package. Ford suspended their dividend on April 13, 2020. Ford has $30 billion in cash, and is looking for more funding options. According to their press release, they have enough liquidity to get through the 3rd quarter of 2020. That’s flying quite close to the trees. The official 1st quarter 2020 earnings report is due at the end of the month.

​The suspension of dividends and buybacks is a hard pill for fixed-income investors to swallow. However, it is better than bankruptcy. In previous bailouts, many companies continued to pay dividends until the moment they declared bankruptcy.
 
Unemployment
Initial jobless claims are higher than they have ever been in our recorded history of the data. Over 21 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the last four weeks.
 
Real Estate
Real estate had been unaffordable in up to 74% of the U.S. markets prior to the current crisis. Prices have been dropping since the highs set in June of 2019. Currently, 66% of the U.S. markets remain unaffordable to renters and buyers. There are 3.5 million mortgages that are severely underwater (source: AttomData). This statistic was in play before the current new wave of mortgage relief.
 

Over Leverage Was a Problem Well Before the Current Pandemic
Any good business owner knows that you want to have excess reserves on hand to prepare for hard times. However, many corporations were willing to borrow very cheaply, allow their credit to go to the lowest rung of investment grade, just above junk-bond status, buy back their own stock to keep the share price high, pay high dividends, and then have limited reserves and very high debt when bad times hit. Half of the corporate bond market is in this boat.
 
Economists have been warning for years now that stocks and bonds were in a bubble. This is not a problem that crept on us like a thief in the night.
 
What Is Your Best Move Now?
Turn off the news and educate yourself. If you didn’t hear that stocks and bonds were in a bubble in 2018, then you are not getting the news you need to make informed choices. The time-proven solutions are easy-as-a-pie-chart. You just need to learn and implement them, and to stop trusting salesmen to do this for you.
 
Our team has free web apps. We just published the 3rd edition of The ABCs of Money. If you want to do it yourself start there. If you have wealth to protect, call our offices now to get an unbiased 2nd opinion on your current risk exposure and what you can do to protect your wealth. We can be reached at info@nataliepace.com or 310-430-2397. If you would like to learn time-proven, 21st century strategies that will work going forward and have worked fantastically in the last 2 recessions, when most people lost half of their wealth, then join us this weekend for our Online Zoom Retreat.
 
Wisdom and time-proven budgeting and investing strategies are the cure. The time to learn and implement them is now.
 
 

Other Blogs of Interest
Unemployment, Rising Stocks. What's Going On?
8 Money Myths, Money Pits, Scams and Conspiracy Theories.
21st Century Solutions for Protecting Your Home, Nest Egg & Job.
Wall Street Insiders are Selling Like There is No Tomorrow.
Why Are My Bonds Losing Money?
Tomorrow is Going to be Another Tough Day.
Price Matters. Stock Prices are Still Too High. 
Should You Ride Things Out?
7 Recession Indicators
Corona Virus Update.
The Bank Bail-in Plan on Your Dime.
NASDAQ is Up 6X. 
CoronaVirus: Which Companies and Countries Will be Most Impacted.
Is Tesla Worth GM and Ford Combined.
Artificial Intelligence is on Fire. Is it Time to Buy S'More?
Take the Retirement Challenge.
2020 Investor IQ Test.
Answers to the 2020 Investor IQ Test.
The Cannabis Capital Crunch and Stock Meltdown.
Does Your Commute Pollute More Than Planes? 
Are Health Care Costs Killing Your Budget? 
2020 Crystal Ball.
The Benefits of Living Green. Featuring H.R.H. The Prince of Wales' Twin Eco Communities. 
What Love, Time and Charity Have to do with our Commonwealth. Interview with MacArthur Genius Award Winner Kevin Murphy.
Unicorns Yesterday. Fairy Tales Today. IPO Losses Top $100 Billion. 
Counting Blessings on Thanksgiving.
Real Estate Prices Decline. 
Hong Kong Slides into a Recession. China Slows. 
They Trusted Him. Now He Doesn't Return Phone Calls.
Beyond Meat's Shares Dive 67% in 2 Months.
Price Matters. 
Will There be a Santa Rally? It's Up to Apple. 
Will JP Morgan Implode on Fairy Tales and Unicorns.
Harness Your Emotions for Successful Investing.
What the Ford Downgrade Means for Main Street.
The Dow Dropped Over 1000 Points
Do We Talk Ourselves into Recessions? Interview with Nobel Prize Winning Economist Robert J. Shiller.
Ford is Downgraded to Junk.
From Buried Alive in Bill to Buying Your Own Island.
The Manufacturing Recession. An Interview with Liz Ann Sonders.
Gold Mining ETFs Have Doubled. 
The Gold Bull Market Has Begun. 
The We Work IPO. 
The Highs and Hangovers of Investing in Cannabis. 
Recession Proof Your Life. 
China Takes a Bite Out of Apple Sales.
Will the Dow Hit 30,000? A Check Up on the Economy
Red Flags in the Boeing 2Q 2019 Earnings Report
The Weakening Economy. 
Think Capture Gains, Not Stop Losses. 
Buy and Hold Works. Right?
​Wall Street Secrets Your Broker Isn't Telling You. 
Unaffordability: The Unspoken Housing Crisis in America. 
Are You Being Pressured to Buy a Home or Stocks?
What's Your Exit Strategy? 
It's Time To Do Your Annual Rebalancing.
Cannabis Crashes. Should You Get High Again? 
Are You Suffering From Buy High, Sell Low Mentality?
Financial Engineering is Not Real Growth.
The Zoom IPO. 
10 Rally Killers. Fix the Roof While the Sun is Shining.
Uber vs. Lyft. Which IPO Will Drive Returns?
Boeing Cuts 737 Production by 20%.
Earth Gratitude This Earth Day. 
Real Estate is Back to an All-Time High. 
The Lyft IPO Hits Wall Street. Should you take a ride?
Cannabis Doubles. Did you miss the party?
12 Investing Mistakes
Drowning in Debt? Get Solutions. 
CBD Oil for Sale.
The High Cost of Free Advice. 
Apple's Real Problem in China: Huawei. 
2018 is the Worst December Since the Great Depression. 
Will the Feds Raise Interest Rates? Should They? Learn what you're not being told in the MSM.
Why FANG, Banks and Your Value Funds Are in Trouble.
Russia Dumps Treasuries and Buys Gold
OPEC and Russia Cut Oil Production. 
​
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 or funds 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 a diversified strategy, which has been designed with the assistance of a financial professional who is 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 and patience.  

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. Securities, financial instruments or strategies mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors.

​By the Numbers and In Their Words. A Crisis Check-Up.
 
Today is Good Friday. I know we all carry humility and prayers in our hearts today. So, I’m going to keep this as brief and to the point as I can. Below are numbers and quotes that are important to keep in mind. It’s hard to sift through all of the noise and find the nuggets of truth. May this information guide you to the decisions that will protect your fiscal health, home and job, as you protect your physical health and family during these unprecedented times.  
 
Unprecedented Unemployment
There have been 16.1 million claims for unemployment in the last three weeks. This is the highest since the Department of Labor began keeping records. The previous high was in May of 2009, during the Great Recession (source: DOL.gov). As you can see in the chart below, the previous high barely looks like a blip compared to this month. That thin, tall blue line in the far left corner is the new reality we are living in. A picture is worth a thousand words. 
 

Recession 2020. The Worst Since the Great Depression.
“It is already clear that global growth will turn sharply negative in 2020, as you will see in our World Economic Outlook next week. In fact, we anticipate the worst economic fallout since the Great Depression,” Kristalina Georgieva, IMF Managing Director.

Recovery in the 2nd Half of the Year?
The IMF is hoping for a partial recovery in 2021 – if the pandemic fades in the second half of the year.
 
Will The Federal Reserve and the IMF Bail Out All of The Businesses (and Your Bonds)?
There will be winners and losers. According to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell in a speech on April 9, 2020, “I would stress that these are lending powers, not spending powers. The Fed can only make secured loans to solvent entities with the expectation that the loans will be fully repaid… There will be entities of various kinds that need direct fiscal support rather than a loan they would struggle to repay.”

During the Great Recession, some companies were bailed out (most banks and insurance companies, including AIG), some were forced to liquidate (mortgage brokers, Lehman Bros.), some were swallowed up on the cheap (Bear Stearns, Countrywide, Merrill Lynch and more) and some were allowed to go bankrupt to restructure their debt while they continued to operated (airlines and auto manufacturers). That process began in early 2007. Stocks continued to rise until October of 2007. In early 2008, Bear Stearns’ real estate hedge funds collapsed. By March 15, 2008, the company was sold for pennies on the dollar to JP Morgan. On Sept. 15, 2008, Lehman Bros. declared bankruptcy. On June 1, 2009, General Motors filed Chapter 11.
 
Wall Street attempted many mini-rallies in between this series of unfortunate events. However, the overall trend was down. The low was sounded on March 9, 2009, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average crashed to 6547. (So, if you’re hearing that stocks hit an all-time low in mid-March, it’s time to seek out new, more reliable sources of information.)
 
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
October 2007 through March 2009

​Stocks Have Lost More Than Half in the Last 2 Recessions
If you’re hoping for a recovery in stocks back to all-time highs, history teaches us a different lesson. In the Great Recession, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 55% of its value. In the Dot Com Recession, the NASDAQ Composite Index lost 78% of its value and took 15 years to crawl back to the highs set in March of 2000.
 
Real Estate
Home prices dropped severely in the Great Recession. The median existing-home price for all housing types in February 2020 was $270,100 (source: National Association of Realtors). This is lower than the 2019 high of $271,900, and a lot lower than the high set in June of 2019 of $285,300. If real estate sinks as low as it did in the Great Recession, existing home owners have almost 40% of their home equity at risk. Now is the time to make sure that you can afford your home, and that you are not at risk of an underwater mortgage. (There are 21st Century housing solutions that might help with this analysis.)
 
How Low Can Home Prices Go?
Between the high of $221,900 in 2006 and the low of $166,100 in 2011, real estate prices dropped by 25% on a nationwide average. Some areas – like Detroit, Las Vegas, Stockton, Florida and Arizona – and places where the bubble prices went much higher, or unemployment was rampant, dropped far worse.
 
Can home prices go that low this time? What about office buildings and mega shopping malls? Well, the fundamentals are actually worse this time around. Even before the current pandemic, unaffordability was a crisis, consumer debt was at an all-time high, and there were still 3.5 million homes that were severely underwater on their mortgage. See the asset bubble chart below for additional information. Massive unemployment makes the bubblicious, unaffordable crisis that predated COVID19 a potential catastrophe.
 

As Kristalina Georgieva said in her International Monetary Fund briefing yesterday, “There is no question that 2020 will be exceptionally difficult.” Those who 1) protect their wealth now, 2) preserve their health now, and, 3) turn off the noise and turn up the truth will position themselves best to come out on the other side of this unprecedented pandemic that we find ourselves in. There are 21st solutions that will help you to weather this crisis. Clinging to last-century strategies, or the short-term solutions that were mere band-aids for an unsustainable lifestyle, which so many of us were living just a few months ago, will cost us all dearly.
​
May we all be blessed with family and health this sacred weekend.
 
 
Our team will be on call to help you this weekend. Should you choose to register for the April 18-20, 2020 Retreat or would like to get an unbiased 2nd opinion on your current wealth (budgeting and investing) strategy, simply email info@NataliePace.com or call 310-430-2397 for assistance. As Benjamin Franklin says, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” If you’re getting your information from the bank, from your broker, or from a debt collector, now is the time to learn The ABCs of Money that we all should have received in high school. It’s your money. You must be the boss of your wealth and life. Don’t have blind faith that someone else is doing this for you. Our time-proven strategies will give you the valuable data, information and 21st Century systems that are essential for a post-pandemic world. Email info@NataliePace.com or call 310-430-2397 to learn more.
 

Other Blogs of Interest
8 Money Myths, Money Pits, Scams and Conspiracy Theories.
21st Century Solutions for Protecting Your Home, Nest Egg & Job.
Wall Street Insiders are Selling Like There is No Tomorrow.
Why Are My Bonds Losing Money?
Tomorrow is Going to be Another Tough Day.
Price Matters. Stock Prices are Still Too High. 
Should You Ride Things Out?
7 Recession Indicators
Corona Virus Update.
The Bank Bail-in Plan on Your Dime.
NASDAQ is Up 6X. 
CoronaVirus: Which Companies and Countries Will be Most Impacted.
Is Tesla Worth GM and Ford Combined.
Artificial Intelligence is on Fire. Is it Time to Buy S'More?
Take the Retirement Challenge.
2020 Investor IQ Test.
Answers to the 2020 Investor IQ Test.
The Cannabis Capital Crunch and Stock Meltdown.
Does Your Commute Pollute More Than Planes? 
Are Health Care Costs Killing Your Budget? 
2020 Crystal Ball.
The Benefits of Living Green. Featuring H.R.H. The Prince of Wales' Twin Eco Communities. 
What Love, Time and Charity Have to do with our Commonwealth. Interview with MacArthur Genius Award Winner Kevin Murphy.
Unicorns Yesterday. Fairy Tales Today. IPO Losses Top $100 Billion. 
Counting Blessings on Thanksgiving.
Real Estate Prices Decline. 
Hong Kong Slides into a Recession. China Slows. 
They Trusted Him. Now He Doesn't Return Phone Calls.
Beyond Meat's Shares Dive 67% in 2 Months.
Price Matters. 
Will There be a Santa Rally? It's Up to Apple. 
Will JP Morgan Implode on Fairy Tales and Unicorns.
Harness Your Emotions for Successful Investing.
What the Ford Downgrade Means for Main Street.
The Dow Dropped Over 1000 Points
Do We Talk Ourselves into Recessions? Interview with Nobel Prize Winning Economist Robert J. Shiller.
Ford is Downgraded to Junk.
From Buried Alive in Bill to Buying Your Own Island.
The Manufacturing Recession. An Interview with Liz Ann Sonders.
Gold Mining ETFs Have Doubled. 
The Gold Bull Market Has Begun. 
The We Work IPO. 
The Highs and Hangovers of Investing in Cannabis. 
Recession Proof Your Life. 
China Takes a Bite Out of Apple Sales.
Will the Dow Hit 30,000? A Check Up on the Economy
Red Flags in the Boeing 2Q 2019 Earnings Report
The Weakening Economy. 
Think Capture Gains, Not Stop Losses. 
Buy and Hold Works. Right?
​Wall Street Secrets Your Broker Isn't Telling You. 
Unaffordability: The Unspoken Housing Crisis in America. 
Are You Being Pressured to Buy a Home or Stocks?
What's Your Exit Strategy? 
It's Time To Do Your Annual Rebalancing.
Cannabis Crashes. Should You Get High Again? 
Are You Suffering From Buy High, Sell Low Mentality?
Financial Engineering is Not Real Growth.
The Zoom IPO. 
10 Rally Killers. Fix the Roof While the Sun is Shining.
Uber vs. Lyft. Which IPO Will Drive Returns?
Boeing Cuts 737 Production by 20%.
Earth Gratitude This Earth Day. 
Real Estate is Back to an All-Time High. 
The Lyft IPO Hits Wall Street. Should you take a ride?
Cannabis Doubles. Did you miss the party?
12 Investing Mistakes
Drowning in Debt? Get Solutions. 
CBD Oil for Sale.
The High Cost of Free Advice. 
Apple's Real Problem in China: Huawei. 
2018 is the Worst December Since the Great Depression. 
Will the Feds Raise Interest Rates? Should They? Learn what you're not being told in the MSM.
Why FANG, Banks and Your Value Funds Are in Trouble.
Russia Dumps Treasuries and Buys Gold
OPEC and Russia Cut Oil Production. 
​
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 or funds 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 a diversified strategy, which has been designed with the assistance of a financial professional who is 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 and patience.  

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. Securities, financial instruments or strategies mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors.