Small Time Blog

Dow 30 Closes at New High, What Does it Mean to You?

by Bradley Voight on 03/07/13

The Dow Jones Industrial average of 30 stocks crested 14,200 for the first time ever but what does it mean to regular people? If you have skin in the game it is a good thing be it an IRA, 401k, or online brokerage account. If you were spooked into money market accounts with the '08 crash then you missed some good returns over the last four years.

I have a link to the list of companies that make up the Dow here http://money.cnn.com/data/dow30/?iid=MKT_Sub

The companies have changed over the years, so much so that the word industrials hardly applies, when you see names like McDonalds,Travelers Insurance and Home Depot. The changing companies have really been part of the shift of America from producer to consumer. The trade deficit can attest to that shift over the last 40 some odd years as companies have relocated our factories to cheaper labor markets.

The DJIA is the number that you see on the nightly news and it has shock value when a big drop occurs. When new highs are reached it does not grab people like a 200 point single day drop does. The new high is great but it is a number that the Dow has visited three times in the past 12 years and with the '08-'09 crash still visible in the rear view mirror it is easy to see why some people are not convinced that the market can go any higher.

Here at Smalltime we want people to educate themselves about the markets or seek the advice of competent professional investment companies such as Vanguard, Fidelity or any of a number of other firms. We think everyone should be participating in the market at some level because it is a market of stocks, not the stock market. There are over 15,000 companies currently trading on US markets and there are many mutual funds (mutual funds are just groups of stocks together under a given criteria) If you know nothing about stocks or markets do not be afraid be informed. We as humans are usually afraid of the unknown so information is king in the investment realm. Since none of us know the future of this stock market rally it is a little scary. We hope you are in on it and that you are diversified to spread out your risk. Smalltime is just glad that after 5 years of bad news that there is finally something to feel upbeat about.

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Let's De-politicize Sustainability Issues

by Bradley Voight on 03/04/13

As the author of all of the posts that have ever appeared on the Smalltime Blog. I figure it is high time I tell you what I think about the major issues that we discuss here. I am not a tree hugger or an enviro-nut, but I am concerned about the environment. I love the creature comforts of life and in order to have them some harm is going to be done to the planet. Instead of saying technology and progress are bad though, I side with innovation and creativity. I am a capitalist and I truly believe that the invisible hand in the marketplace works as advertised by Adam Smith. I just happen to think that the invisible hand does not work properly when the consumer is not informed.

I am all for making a profit but I think it can be done in a more thoughtful way than business as usual.

I don't like factory farms and fast food, but rather than attack these industries, I say try to educate people on a more balanced diet that makes them feel better. The alcohol industry makes 80% of their sales to 20% of the drinkers. I'd bet that those figures mirror obese people and fast food. So I am not a PETA person but I am concerned about animal treatment and our food. That includes GMO's. I understand that modern agricultural practices have made food production more efficient, but splicing weed killer genes into the seeds is something that the long term affects of cannot be known at this time meaning we are all part of the experiment! That worries me.

Other than that I am a regular guy with some college and a crappy job that just doesn't want to be poisoned and likes to make a little extra money by picking up crap that everyone just throws away. I have probably recycled over 1 million cans in my lifetime just because I can't bare to see a usable metal on the ground or in the trash. Like a famous local gun salesman says, "I don't want to make any money, I just love to recycle cans" but you can make a little extra cash and every little bit helps these days.

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E-Waste: It's Not Just for Landfills Anymore

by Bradley Voight on 02/28/13

Check out this article from Mining.com. http://www.mining.com/urban-mining-the-electronic-waste-gold-mine-34760/

Any given day on craigslist there are at least 3 TV's for free. The average 19" TV has about 8-10 bucks in material in it if you count the leaded glass and all the plastic. There is a lot of e-waste in central Indiana that is trashed because I pick it up off the side of the road and scrap it often. What do you do with your e-waste?

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Education for Free

by Bradley Voight on 02/25/13

You have never had to pay for an education in America. Yours truly found that out a little late to the enrichment of Sallie Mae. Public libraries have been full of valuable information for years and a great many of us misused or did not use at all such a wellspring of knowledge. Now the internet age is in full swing and you can educate yourself about anything you want to learn for free.

Smalltime believes that the internet is the greatest human invention by far due to it's ability to spread information over the entire planet in the click of a mouse. We encourage everyone who is online to shut down Youtube, Pinterest and Facebook just for a couple of minutes each day and find out about something new to enrich your mind.

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Focus on Creativity

by Bradley Voight on 01/29/13

I believe that problems are ultimately solved by people who are free to be creative. In today's America there are hundreds of thousands of people with college degrees that can not find a job in their field. There are just as many people like me with some college, a lot of debt and no degree. It is these people who have to be creative and piece together a living and fund their futures in unconventional ways. I call this the post pension era because an employer sponsored pension is quickly becoming history and some state and federal pensions including the postal service pension is sorely underfunded.

I hate to sound like a broken record but I am facing off against the normalcy bias. In case you are not familiar with the normalcy bias it works like this; people who have accepted things as normal will not take heed to warnings that threaten the normal world they are used to. In other words people get stuck in habitual ways of living and when change comes they clamor and say, "Oh everything is fine."

All I am trying to say is that the US debt situation is not normal and in fact it is totally unprecedented, so my normalcy biased friends along with everyone else does not know how this is going to play out so be creative and place yourself in a position where you do not have to financially depend on anyone.

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