COST is down by 2.5%.....$26 a share....today. I am sure this is the reason. Costco Posts 6.8% Sales Growth in May, Slightly Slower Than April https://www.investopedia.com/costco-posts-may-sales-growth-slightly-slower-than-april-11748708 (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "Key Takeaways Costco reported a 6.8% increase in sales for the month of May compared to May 2024. Comparable store sales rose less than analysts had expected, according to a note from JPMorgan analysts. The analysts said cooler than average weather in May could have slowed sales, while purchases rushed by tariffs likely peaked in March and April. Costco Wholesale (COST) after the bell Wednesday said that its sales in May grew 6.8% year-over-year to $20.97 billion, slightly slower growth than the 7% that it saw in April compared to April 2024.12 The warehouse retailer's comparable store sales rose 4.1% in the U.S., 4.3% for the total company, and online sales grew 11.6% in May. The 5.5% comparable sales increase in the U.S., when excluding the impact of gas prices and foreign exchange rates, came in below the 6.4% analyst consensus, JPMorgan analysts wrote following the sales report.3 The analysts wrote that Costco's sales results are in line with some other retailers that mentioned in recent earnings reports that May sales were weaker than April or March, largely due to weather—including a cooler-than-normal Memorial Day weekend in parts of the country. Costco said it doesn't typically cite weather as a factor unless there is an extreme weather event, per the analysts. JPM Says Tariff-Motivated Purchases Likely Peaked in March, April Any big purchases that consumers made ahead of schedule because of fears that tariffs would raise prices likely peaked in March and April, as executives said in last week's earnings call that they were seeing few tariff-motivated purchases at this point, according to the JPM analysts. The analysts said Costco's comparable sales growth could be pressured in the next few months as Costco laps the popular sales of its gold bars, which frequently sold out quickly when they were available. The retailer narrowly beat estimates in its fiscal third-quarter report, as other analysts have said Costco is well-positioned to navigate the tariff environment. Costco shares were little changed shortly ahead of markets opening, and are up nearly 15% since the start of the year but still just below record levels set in February." MY COMMENT Above is short term focus on a nice long term stock. SO....basically....WHO CARES.
LOVE THIS!!! I won't need to think about doing this for a while, but this is the kind of stuff that makes you awesome! Thank you.
Just for fun I tried the Schwab annuity calculator and put in my age and 1 million dollars with payouts starting now. The payout is just shy of $60k a year. Just kind of a thought experiment, If your spouse dies and leaves you a lump sum life insurance this may not be a bad way to maintain their income contribution...
I broke my little three day win streak today....with a good loss. I had only three stocks GREEN.....MSFT, GOOGL, and AMZN. I also got whacked by the SP500 by.....1.05%. BUMMER.
TireSmoke. I tried the calculator that I posted above. For a 40 year old male starting the income a month after purchase.....and....with a ten year certain time period.....the payout per year for life on a 1,000,000 Income annuity......$59,184. On this sort of annuity I like the "ten year certain" option. That means that it will pay out for TEN YEARS even if the annuitant does not live for ten years. Any unused years of the ten...would go to your beneficiary. The cost of adding the ten year certain option is....peanuts. It makes me feel better about buying a lifetime income annuity to know that regardless of my life span....it will pay for at least ten years and I or my beneficiary are guaranteed to get back more than half of the purchase funds. OK....here is my actual info on my annuities....I spent $1.8MILLION. The start date was deferred for five years....to age 70. The Income covers me and/or my wife....whichever of us lives longer....for life. It has a "ten year certain" option. I have that money spread between six annuities with three companies. To get maximum coverage under the Texas Insurance Guarantee Fund....three are in my name with my wife as secondary annuitant and three are in my wife's name with me as the secondary annuitant. ANNUAL pay-out.....$137,000....for the life of me or my wife.....whichever of us is the last to die. So with Social Security and a few other items....we have an income of approximately $200,000 per year for life. Of course we get the Social Security cost of living raises each year. AND....we have ZERO debt....an important part of our plan. So with the "TEN YEAR CERTAIN" option....we were guaranteed at least ten years of payments.....$1,370,000.....even if we did not live for ten years after the annuities started to pay. These are SIMPLE INCOME ANNUITIES. The nice thing about income annuities is income taxes...of that $137,000....the taxable portion for income taxes is about $44,000 per year.....the rest is considered return of principle and is not subject to income taxes. So our taxable income is less than $67,000 per year after the standard deduction.....even though our actual income is $200,000.
I corrected our "taxable income after the standard deduction" to $67,000 in the post above after looking at our tax return. This is a big feature of what I love about the income annuities.....our income tax bill is about $8000 per year.
Looks like TSLA had a rough day. The commentary (if you can call it that) between Elon and the president is literally going off the rails. They are getting really nasty with each other. Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago these two were praising each other?? Remember, wasn’t there a teaser at one time about Elon and Zuckerberg having a UFC style fight…..I think we have a better ticket brewing. Funny stuff, but also kind of a bad look at the same time.
Ok, moving on from the two children throwing a tantrum above. Back to the adults….the annuities posts are some good info. I personally am not considering it due to my pension, but they are an item that can be beneficial. As has been suggested, research, research, research and then check the fine print again. As with most stuff nowadays, there are some real questionable ones out there as well. So, do your homework as you would with any financial planning for sure.
I see from a good number of obscure sources that it has been announced that we now have a trade deal with China. Although all the sources that I see say that the details need to be put in writing and confirmed. The earliest sources are reporting this about 8-11 hours ago. The only larger media source that I see reporting this is NEWSMAX. Trump: 'We Have a Deal' in Agreement With China on Trade https://www.newsmax.com/politics/china-trade-deal-call/2025/06/05/id/1213769/ "Repeating his read-out of his call with President Xi Jinping, President Donald Trump reiterated "we have a deal" with China on trade, albeit with the caveat the deal is an agreement in principle and there remains some t's to cross. "I think we're in very good shape with China and the trade deal: We have a deal with China, as you know, but we were straightening out some of the points having to do mostly with rare-earth magnets and some other things," Trump said in an Oval Office press gaggle Thursday after releasing his Truth Social readout." MY COMMENT We will see if this stands....I think it will since both countries want to move on. I also see reading between the lines of a few sources that we are very close with INDIA and also Vietnam. We will see if what I am seeing is actually TRUTH.....or just......whatever.
I also heard that the winner of the Elon and Trump octagon-cage-match is contracted to take on ZUCK. In both matches there will be no rules and no referee. A Federal building will be constructed for the matches....a scale version of the Flavian Amphitheatre in Rome. Numerous House and Senate fights will be on the under card.
I don't even know which thread to post this drama: From 'disgusting abomination' to 'crazy:' Trump and Musk in social media brawl https://www.reuters.com/business/au...azy-trump-musk-social-media-brawl-2025-06-05/ Why do the absolute nutcases rise to the top? RIP: Macho Man. I'd rather you be in charge.
I am off to Houston in about 20 minutes. So I will miss the whole day. GET ME A GOOD CLOSE TO THE WEEK.
Way to go....you got me a very good day today to close out the week. I had a nice BIG gain.....earning back what I lost yesterday and some extra on top of it. I only had two stocks in the RED....WMT ( a small trial position) and HD. PLTR was up big and NVDA had a good gain. I also beat the SP500 by ....0.60% today. I will try to put up the averages tomorrow....but I ended the week with my entire portfolio at.....+4.15%...year to date. Last week at this time I was at a year to date for my entire portfolio of.......+2.16%. So a very good week for me with a gain for my entire portfolio of just about.......2%.
Here is the week that was. DOW year to date +0.87% DOW five days +1.33% SP500 year to date +2.25% SP500 five days +1.76% NASDAQ 100 year to date +3.86% NASDAQ 100 five days +2.43% NASDAQ year to date +1.29% NASDAQ five days +2.45% RUSSELL year to date (-4.46%) RUSSELL five days +3.18% I ended the week with my entire portfolio at.....+4.15%...year to date. Last week at this time I was at a year to date for my entire portfolio of.......+2.16%.
More for those planing for retirement.....attention Baby Boomers. 3 Tricky Decisions for Every Retirement Plan Not even experts agree about the ‘right’ withdrawal rate, long-term-care insurance, and annuities. https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance/3-tricky-decisions-every-retirement-plan (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "Retirement planning is complicated. A shrinking share of retirees will be able to rely on pensions, so more and more people have to find retirement income elsewhere and navigate issues like managing taxes while withdrawing from different kinds of accounts, when to take required minimum distributions, and determining the appropriate asset allocation for their retirement portfolios. Many aspects of retirement planning are the subject of hot debate, even among the experts. Here are three tricky decisions that confront people planning retirement today, as well as how to get your arms around what to do. How much to withdraw each year in retirement. Whether to buy long-term-care insurance. Whether to buy an annuity. Decision 1: How Much to Withdraw Each Year in Retirement It’s no wonder there’s disagreement over withdrawal rates. How much you can safely take out of your retirement portfolio per year without running out of money over your retirement time horizon isn’t just debatable: It’s unknowable. You don’t know what the major asset classes will return or how high (or low) inflation will run during your retirement. Nor do you know how long you’ll live; your spending horizon could be 15 years, or it could be 40. For all of these reasons, it’s impossible to say at the outset of retirement what the “right” withdrawal rate is. It’s a known unknown. But you have to use something, and this is where the disagreements come in. A 4% starting withdrawal rate, with annual inflation adjustments to that initial dollar amount thereafter, is often cited as a “safe” withdrawal system for new retirees. Research we conducted at the end of 2021 suggested that a 3.3% withdrawal rate was a safe starting point for new retirees with balanced portfolios over a 30-year horizon. When we revisited the same research in late 2022, our safe starting withdrawal percentage was 3.8%. By late 2023, that number had popped up to the classic 4%, thanks to rising fixed-income yields and moderating inflation. At the end of 2024, it was 3.7%. Further complicating matters is that retirees don’t spend the same amount, adjusted for inflation, year after year. What to Do: While retirement experts disagree on a safe starting withdrawal rate, there’s a comforting consensus in a few key areas. Vary your withdrawal rate based on your time horizon. Older retirees with shorter time horizons (life expectancies) can reasonably take higher withdrawals than should younger retirees with expected spending horizons of 25 or 30 years. Be flexible. Much of the research on withdrawal rates points to the value of being flexible with withdrawals, especially taking less when the portfolio is down. Doing so leaves more of the portfolio in place to recover when the market eventually does. We explored four variable withdrawal-rate strategies, and the pros, cons, and logistics of each, in our recent retirement income research. Maximize nonportfolio income. Most retirees will have some income coming in the door from nonportfolio income sources: Social Security, a pension, an annuity, rental income, and so on. Enlarging nonportfolio income with strategies like delaying Social Security can help enhance lifetime spending and alleviate demands on the portfolio. Decision 2: Whether to Buy Long-Term-Care Insurance Long-term care is a topic that’s uncomfortable from every angle. The prospect of needing such care is unappealing, of course, in that it implies a loss of independence. And paying for long-term care can be financially devastating. In its most recent Cost of Care Survey, Genworth pegged a year’s worth of care in a long-term-care setting at $111,325—a 7% increase from the previous year. Most such care isn’t covered by Medicare, except for “rehab” following a qualifying hospital stay. What’s up for debate is whether and how to protect yourself against those costs if they should arise. For one thing, the likelihood of needing long-term care is basically a coin flip: According to a 2019 study, about half of people turning 65 will need some type of paid long-term care in their lifetimes; the other half won’t. Of course, if I told you the odds were 50/50 that you’d total your car during retirement, there’s almost no chance you’d decide to go without insurance. And 20 years ago, the standard prescription for covering long-term-care costs for middle-income and upper-middle-income adults was to purchase long-term-care insurance. (Wealthier people could afford to self-fund long-term-care expenses if they arose, and lower-income adults would have to rely on long-term-care coverage via Medicaid.) But the long-term-care insurance market is deeply troubled today. While recent interest rate hikes have improved the economics of the long-term-care insurance industry, premiums have increased and several insurers have gotten out of the business altogether. Consumers who thought they were doing the right thing in purchasing insurance have had to choose between abandoning the policies they’ve paid into, settling for cuts in their benefits, or paying the higher premiums. That troubled environment means that purchasing pure long-term-care insurance is by no means a no-brainer. Hybrid products have come on strong, offering a long-term-care rider bolted onto a life insurance policy or annuity. But the products are complicated, and because they’re often purchased with a lump sum, buyers face an opportunity cost. What to Do: While there’s no universal prescription for covering long-term-care costs, long-term-care expenses are a big wild card for many retirees’ spending plans. Only fairly wealthy retirees have the financial wherewithal to cover a big spending shock later in life. Take a hard look at your retirement portfolio to decide whether your assets are sufficient to self-fund, you’re likely to qualify for Medicaid, or you fall somewhere in between the two poles. From there, you can create what I call a long-term-care action plan. Decision 3: Whether to Buy an Annuity Academic researchers have long championed the idea of purchasing simple income annuities for retirement, arguing that doing so provides longevity risk protection and a higher payout than would be available from fixed-rate investment products like bond funds. Annuities have been getting even more attention recently as a component of retiree toolkits, as payouts tend to get better during a period of rising interest rates. But annuity types vary widely, from ultra-utilitarian single-premium immediate annuities to more complicated products that provide equity exposure, guaranteed minimum living benefits, and death benefits. In an interview on The Long View podcast, annuity expert Kerry Pechter noted, “There’s no such thing as annuities generally,” because the products are so incredibly varied. Research has demonstrated that the peace of mind that accompanies the purchase of a basic annuity is greater than would be associated with holding the same amount in investment assets. Yet the annuity products that retirement researchers generally like best—the plain-vanilla immediate and deferred-income annuities—have struggled in the sales department. That likely owes to a combination of factors: Investors may be reticent to part with the capital to purchase such an annuity, and advisors may not have a strong motive to recommend such products. What to Do: While there’s no consensus on whether annuities are a must-have in retirement or which types of annuities to buy, there’s little doubt that the lifetime income they offer is in short supply. That’s especially true given that only about a fourth of baby boomers retiring today have pensions, and that number trends down for the generations behind them. The starting point when thinking about lifetime income isn’t an annuity, however. Instead, it’s maximizing your payout from Social Security, which is basically an annuity backed by the US government. As Social Security expert Mike Piper points out, delaying filing until age 70 often makes sense for moderately healthy single people. For married couples, it often makes sense for the higher-earning partner to delay filing in an effort to elevate the couple’s lifetime payout. Only after maximizing lifetime income through Social Security should an annuity come into play, if a retiree needs an additional baseline income above and beyond what Social Security delivers. In a similar vein, annuities will be less useful for retirees who are deriving a healthy share of their income needs from pensions." MY COMMENT Retirement allocation and use of assets is a HUGE issue that everyone will ultimately face. Plan carefully...it is a critical decision. As to Long Term Care insurance. I dont have any and do NOT like it as a product. Premiums are high and from the statistics....I believe that most people will not need it......when you look at the average length of time in a Nursing Home. You also have to consider the availability of Medicare facilities in your area and if you will qualify. I am a big fan of....Income Annuities....as to all the other sorts of annuities.....do youw own research knowing that the sales fees and terms are high and very complicated.
NO....there will not be a recession any time soon. Sorry fear-mongers. Good news for investors as the BULL MARKET continues. US labor market adds 139,000 jobs in May, unemployment holds steady at 4.2% https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-l...nemployment-holds-steady-at-42-182231148.html "The May jobs report showed the US labor market remained largely resilient amid President Trump's new tariff policy. The US economy added 139,000 nonfarm payrolls in May, more than the 126,000 expected by economists. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.2%. In April, the US economy added 177,000 jobs while the unemployment rate held flat at 4.2%. Those figures were revised lower on Friday to reflect that the economy added 147,000 jobs that month." MY COMMENT So far NONE of the Tariff fear-mongering has happened. Confirmation that the best course of action for long term investors.....is.....no action. it is ALL noise. Sometimes LOUD noise....but still simply NOISE.
Some simple data for long term investors. SP500 on April 2, 2025 just before the April Tariff announcements......5670. SP500 Tariff dip low on April 8, 2025.....4982. SP500 now June 6 2025......6000. The SP500 is pushing toward a new ALL TIME HIGH. As to the April 8 dip....long term investors that sit and hold and ignore all the NOISE and TURMOIL of the short term....are asking........what dip? Those that panicked and sold and are now wondering when or how to get back in....screwed themselves. Plus they will now get the fun of paying Capital Gains tax on their next income tax return.....assuming....they even had a capital gain.
PLTR had a very good day yesterday although it lost money over the past five days. Why Is Palantir (PLTR) Stock Rocketing Higher Today https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-palantir-pltr-stock-rocketing-203005038.html "Shares of data-mining and analytics company Palantir jumped 6.8% in the afternoon session after the major indices rebounded, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics report revealed a resilient labor market with non-farm payrolls rising by 139,000 in May 2025, significantly above the consensus forecast of 125,000."........ "Palantir is up 69.9% since the beginning of the year, and at $127.72 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $133.17 from June 2025..." MY COMMENT An epic run-up in this stock over the past few years. BUT before you run out and buy it.....do some analysis and research. This is a very aggressive stock and there are still many that doubt the fundamentals in terms of the HUGE PE and other issues. Of course I own it as a FULL position.......I like the refreshing, patriotic, GREAT MANAGEMENT at this company.....but here are some concerns....to research if you are considering this company. High Valuation Excessive P/E and P/S Ratios Minimal Margin of Safety Need for Continued High Growth: International Growth Challenges Weak Results in Europe Concerns about Shrinking Global Sales Alignment with U.S. Government Dependence on Government Contracts Concentration Risk Ethical and Reputational Concerns ICE Contract and Surveillance Defense Contracts Stock Volatility Wide Price Target Range Susceptible to Macroeconomic Factors
Will Palantir Stock Trounce Nvidia in the Second Half of 2025? https://www.fool.com/investing/2025/06/07/will-palantir-stock-trounce-nvidia-in-the-second-h/ MY COMMENT No one knows....and DO I CARE.....NO. I own them both.....so I am good to go either way. I dont try to pick winners in this way. I simply try to be positioned in my entire portfolio in the GREATEST most ICONIC companies in the world....as a whole and as a group. PLTR is probably the youngest company that I happen to own. It is also probably the riskiest company that I own....although rick is a relative term. For me portfolio construction is all about....BIG CAP GROWTH POTENTIAL......and the long term.
