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The Retired Investor: Thanksgiving Dinner May Be Slightly Cheaper This Year
By Bill Schmick,
04:49PM / Thursday, November 21, 2024
After several years of price increases, consumers have come to expect that the typical Turkey Day dinner will cost more this year. Depending on how astute a shopper you are, you could get away with paying less this year.   Some items on your dinner agenda may be more expensive than in 2023 but others may have dropped in price. The price may also depend on where you shop and whether you insist on buying only name brands or are willing to buy store brands instead.   Every year since the COVID pandemic, grocery store prices and costs have been going up with the largest contributors to the cost being transportation, labor, and climate change. In 2020 (plus-3.5

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The Retired Investor: Jailhouse Stocks
By Bill Schmick,
04:40PM / Thursday, November 14, 2024
Investors appear to be "dancin' to the Jailhouse Rock" ever since the election of President-elect Donald Trump. Private prison stocks have roared back to life as the deportation of immigrants becomes a reality.   Day One, according to the Trump team, the new administration will launch its promised plan to deport millions of illegal immigrants. Criticisms that the cost of such an endeavor would bankrupt the country have gone largely unheeded. Trump has responded that he has "no choice" and "no price tag" when it comes to what the media terms as the largest deportation in U.S. history.    Wall Street believes that the

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The Retired Investor: The Trump Trades
By Bill Schmick,
04:20PM / Thursday, November 07, 2024
Now that the election is over and a clear winner has emerged, it is time to take a closer look at how investors perceive the winners and losers in the weeks and months ahead. It appears that the economy was the top concern of voters and therefore Trump's future actions within the economy will be important.   In the last month, there was speculation on Wall Street that Donald Trump would win the presidency. Certain areas of the financial markets nicknamed the "Trump trade" started gaining momentum.   Certain sectors saw gains while others experienced losses. Investors base their decisions on the actions of his past presidency and his statements and

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The Retired Investor: Betting on Elections Comes of Age
By Bill Schmick,
03:57PM / Thursday, October 31, 2024
Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. The odds favor Trump right now, but anything can happen in the topsy-turvey world of online betting. That's right, presidents have now entered the list of what Americans can bet on alongside sports games, horse races, and blackjack.   Last month, a federal District Court judge ruled that betting on election outcomes was neither unlawful nor considered gaming. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission had fought against this outcome claiming that this kind of betting could undermine confidence in elections and adversely affect election integrity. The ruling made election markets legal for the first time in 100

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The Retired Investor: Natural Diamonds Take Back Seat to Lab-Grown Stones
By Bill Schmick,
04:31PM / Thursday, October 24, 2024
There was a day when a man's love for his bride was measured by the clarity and size of a diamond ring. That notion is as outdated as believing that "artificial" or lab-grown diamonds are second-class stones.   Chances are that if you purchased a diamond this year, it may have been manufactured in a laboratory. Lab-grown diamonds account for roughly 46 percent of the U.S. diamond jewelry market. What is interesting is that while the quantity of diamonds sold is almost neck and neck with the natural market, as a percentage of revenue, lab-growns only account for 23 percent of sales.   There are two trends at work here. Natural diamonds are getting

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