{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Ep. 109 Investments, Flings, Home Improvement is boring, Movie Candy and Standup Comedy","description":"Welcome to another episode of TMM\u2026 In this episode we finish my chat with my friend and comedian Christine Lederman, but as usual I want to cover a couple of things first. One is from an article in the Wall Street Journal from Sunday June 12th.  I have to recommend the Wall Street Journal.  You should at least get the online version plus the Sunday\/weekend edition and here\u2019s why: 1) it\u2019s a very credible conservative news source, so if you\u2019re a conservative I don\u2019t need to convince you.  If you\u2019re a liberal and your bias against this paper then you\u2019re being exactly what you complain about.  People need to be more open minded and accepting of others lifestyles and opinions.  I agree.  Start by reading something that may take you outside your comfort zone.  2)  Senior Moron discount!  I\u2019m currently getting the digital version of the Journal app plus I get the paper on Sunday morning which is very nice to nostalgically read an actual newspaper and since it\u2019s the Wall Street Journal it leads me to 3)  I feel like a grown up reading the paper on Sunday morning. Back to the article - this is moron curmudgeon stuff too\u2026 the title is: \u201cThe Age of Emotional Overstatement - From social media to job applications, the pressure to declare our feelings in public is turning us into gushing adolescents.\u201d  If you remember the beginning of last episode, Christine mentioned how hard it is to get kids to hire and actually show up for work because they are in constant need of mental health days.  In a sense we parents are responsible for that mentality.  When they were kids playing soccer or whatever sport, everyone had to get a trophy\u2026 and every kid had to have a speech made about what a gift they were to the team and with 95% of the kids, they forgot the goddamn plastic trophy when we left the pizza place.  Seriously.  It\u2019s ridiculous and with all the value that team sports provides, we ruin it by giving everyone a trophy.  Please knock that shit off with our grandchildren.  That\u2019s not how life works. Back to the article, she recounts a birthday wish from one of her fellow 21st century parents that posted on social media\u2026 \u201cHappy 17th Birthday, Miles!\u201d reads the typical parent-to-offspring entry. A previous generation might have stopped there, deeming the well-wishing sufficient acknowledgment of the day. But today\u2019s parent has only just begun her tribute to the sunshine golden star-child who grew into the brilliant, gorgeous, side-splittingly funny, preternaturally gifted athlete (\u2018Go, Big Blue!\u2019), not to mention the kindest person upon this earth as well as the head of the yearbook committee, who is loved \u201cto the moon and infinity and back and to infinity again and to whatever lies beyond infinity\u2026\u201d  We can\u2019t just say happy birthday anymore, it\u2019s got to be this ridiculously syrupy emotional outpouring and it  has GOT to be made public so everyone can see how grateful I am.  This Sunday\u2019s Journal\u2026 as in June 19th 2022, has a couple of articles that caught my eye\u2026 one from the \u201cintelligent investor\u201d, Jason Zweig, titled \u201cTo Stand Up  to a Bear Market, Act Cool- and Act Your Age\u201d meaning, if you\u2019re young don\u2019t sweat this depression- recession- stagflation or whatever the hell you want to call it.  Still invest slowly and regularly.  In fact \u2018Ol Warren Buffet says this is the best time to buy, when prices are going down.  Quote, \u201cif you like hamburgers, you want the price of hamburgers to go down not up.\u201d So have your kids and grandkids look at this as a great time to start investing when prices are low or going to be lower.  It\u2019s us old farts that need to worry because we are about to make those investments part of our annual income.   I\u2019m sure If  you\u2019re thinking of retiring in the next couple of years, you have been giving it second thoughts.  Another interesting tip from this article is: If you\u2019re going to retire anyway, think about retiring without drawing your social security.  Can you do that?  I think so.  They advise delaying Social Security until 70\u2026 if you can pull that off.  The reason is that the fed will increase your benefits based on inflation and your eventual SS check once you start.  The more you can put it off the better your payout will be once you need it, \u201cneed\u201d being the operative word.   Another tip to note is that with the prime interest rate going up, the yields on income-producing assets are going up as well.  What the hell is an income-producing asset?  Hell if I know\u2026 some to learn more about might be rental properties, which could be a pain in  the ass unless you employ a property management company or you could invest in Property management companies themselves\u2026OnlineMarketplaces.com suggests \u201cRightmove\u201d and \u201conthemarket\u201d which are both on the London exchange, there\u2019s another in Germany called Scout24.  Obviously I\u2019m talking outta my ass and if you have any kind of a stock portfolio you would never take advice from a Moron, but you could check with your professional investor and see what they think.  This would be a perfect topic for the Senator, and I\u2019ll get him on eventually. Also, safer and therefore lower yield investments might be something like Certificates of Deposit which should have higher yields than the last five years as interest rates have gone up and will probably continue to go up.  The problem with CD\u2019s for a moron like me is that CD\u2019s are usually sold in blocks of $10,000 which I would never have but if you\u2019re the Senator you\u2019d have that much just to buy a puppy. Okay\u2026 I can\u2019t believe I talked that much about finance.  And i wonder if you thought for a half second, \u201cwow, sounds like he might know what he\u2019s talking about.\u201d  I do not.  Can you imagine the level of bullsh*t you get from so called experts in the field whose main goal is to make you think that?  That they\u2019re an expert and you should hang on their every word.  Remember Jim Cramer?  That investor guy who used to be on CNBC\u2026 he had a show called \u201cThe Street\u201d and he would hit buzzers and bells over stock buys and he always had his sleeves rolled up to make you think he was a hard working joe like the rest of us.  Remember him?  There was the housing bubble of 2007 and then the Fanny Mae Freddy Mac business and then in 2008 Cramer said that Bear Stearns, one of the biggest investment banks in the world, was doing fine\u2026 \u2026 and then the following week they collapsed.  Hell I can do that.  The Modern Moron Investment Firm.  We make money the old fashioned way, we burn it.   Man I can talk can\u2019t I?  There\u2019s no one to shut me up, which is why I need guests.  Like my guest Christine Lederman.   We pick up where I ask her about a nice little romance she had during quarantine in her condo complex which leads us to a conversation about the house she recently purchased, home improvement projects and how they are never finished and she painted the interior and then\u2026 she catches us in the midst of a boring conversation and she puts the brakes on home improvement talk.  Thank God\u2026 Where was she when we needed her in the middle of this intro.  So\u2026 Pandemic fling, home improvement, movies we\u2019ve seen recently and a discussion about movie candies\u2026 what\u2019s your favorite and do you buy them at the movie theater or do you stop at the drug store and get candy like this Moron? Investments, flings, movie candies and other things on The Modern Moron\u2026 and thank you for listening. CLOSE - I forgot to tell you we talked about Johnny Depp and Top Gun for about a minute, sorry about that.   We are going to keep tabs on Christine\u2019s standup schedule this fall and if you\u2019re in the Denver\/ Boulder area you can probably catch her workshopping parts of her upcoming show.   Wouldn\u2019t it be great if she just exploded on the comedy scene and we can all say I remember when she did that podcast.  It could happen you gus.  As always thank you for listening, please forward this to someone you think would enjoy it or to someone who would hate it but tell them you think they\u2019d love it.  It\u2019ll be fun, try it\u2026 see you next time. ","author_name":"TheModernMoron podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/themodernmoron.libsyn.com\/website","html":"