THE FATHER BLOG

For anyone paying attention, the War in Iran and oil prices has the stock market going in one direction over the past week….Down…Way Down. I wouldn’t call it a crash yet. As a matter of fact, I would take this opportunity to do two things.

1. Buy the dip. I can’t predict when things will recover, or how far they will dip before they do. But I still see this as a buying opportunity, especially for you younger readers who have plenty of time to let it sit and grow.
2. Think about the make-up of your portfolio and where you are in life.

Here’s some more of what I mean regarding that. Think about your financial goals and how close you are to retirement. I am (hopefully) less than 10 years away. I have a healthy balance of growth stocks and dividend stocks. As I get even closer to retirement, I will be shifting even more towards the dividend stocks for supplemental income. Right now, I like the dividend stocks to have a little extra cash on hand when I need it. The negative of dividend income right now is that you get taxed on it. Growth stocks, if you hold them as you should, will likely increase in value. But since the gains are unrealized, you don’t get taxed on them until you sell. And by the time you sell, they will be taxed as long term capital gains obviously.

So evaluate your portfolio and think about when it makes sense for you to make some adjustments.

Happy Friday to all. It’s all downhill next week for me as I was summoned for Jury Duty.

Why do most of us hate it so much? Feel free to share your own stories of jury duty in the comments section, but here is my experience.

I feel like I’m the one in trouble…check in the night before to see if you have to appear in court the next morning. If you do, there is a good chance you could sit there ALL day and do absolutely nothing. Waste a day of your life to be told you can go home and come back tomorrow.

What if you do get picked to enter the courtroom? Last time in there was a large questionnaire to answer. Which the lawyers then reviewed and started the Voir Dire (fancy word for lawyers picking what they believe is the best profiled jurors to get the outcome they want).

If you don’t get picked? Back to the other room like a cattle call or maybe go home and….you guessed it….call back again that night to see if you get to go back the next day.

The two times in the past I was summoned in, I was unfortunately chosen. Once for a criminal trial and the other for a civil trial. Civil is better because you can divide blame, if necessary, on both parties. Makes things quicker and way less painful for the jurors.

The criminal trial I was on years ago was an absolute joke. Most obvious “this guy is guilty and we’ll be out of here in 3 minutes” turned into days because the judge wouldn’t let us leave the juror room as a hung jury and we were told we aren’t leaving until we come to a decision. 10 jurors of the 12 said guilty. 2 jurors (well picked by the defendant’s lawyer) had nothing better to do than get paid their $7.50 a day with their free lunch and hold everyone else up. It got to a point the 10 of us all changed our vote to not guilty and let the guy go because of the 2 jurors we knew just wouldn’t budge and the rest of us had jobs and lives to return to. The system may be considered the best in the world by some, but I’d question that for sure.

I would love to hear your experience if you have served. Please share!

So I’m a day late on this one but Oh Well!

Yesterday was National Son’s Day so it gives me a chance to post a few of my recent favorite pictures of Mikey. There is more to that boy than sports but it is such a huge part of our lives. I know someday as I get much older (hopefully), I’ll look back and remember all the travel tournaments, road trips, rinks, fields, tee times and golf courses, and all the places we got to see and experience together.

I know those are many of the same memories I have that I shared with my Dad in the past as well. Someday Mikey will hopefully look back on these days and have the same smile on his face that I do when I think of them.