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The EarthAbout us. Our purpose is to publish free newsletters, and to feature automatic “mirror trading” accounts, so as to assist any investor cautiously to maximize gains, while hoping to minimize losses in the event of a severe recession. Optionally, we encourage successful investors to donate to environmental conservation charities. Here is our investment philosophy.

  • Consider not-spending as much as possible. Ideally, most people should live on 1/2 of their total salary and investment income. This is often not possible, but we should try as much as possible. The true measure of wealth is not how much you earn, but how little is your proportion of spending to earnings. All children should be taught to place half their allowance in a piggy bank and grownups should do similarly with their paychecks.
  • Consider placing about 3/10 portfolio in long-short mutual funds, hedge funds or mirrored accounts that are keeping up with the S&P. Quite simply, long-short investment systems are likely to lose less than the S&P during major downturns–but also likely to gain less during normal times. If you can simply find several long-short systems that can keep up with the S&P during normal times, then you may have a superior strategy. Specific suggestions will be included in our free investing email.
  • Consider some do-it-yourself investing with ETFs at low-cost brokers. Keep the trading fee below 0.05% or $1 per $2,000. Easily done at Interactive Brokers, Merrill Edge, Vanguard or Schwab. Etrade and TD Ameritrade also offer free ETF trading if held 30 days.
  • Consider placing 1/10 portfolio in a buy-and-hold strategy with aggressive index ETFs. If you make sensible picks, such as S&P-600 index ETFs, the values will go up and down but eventually you can expect to come out ahead. Specific ETF suggestions will be posted here and in our free investing email.
  • Consider placing 2/10 portfolio in a do-it-yourself long-short strategy with the same ETFs. According to our 40-year analysis, temporarily selling when the S&P falls below its 300-day SMA may slightly reduce total gains while substantially reducing potential losses. Also, everyone agrees that a portfolio should be rebalanced about once a year. Therefore you might as well “rebalance” by temporarily selling most, but not all, of your equities in a downtrend. Thus we suggest allocating 2/10 of portfolio for trend-trading and 1/10 of portfolio for buy-and-hold. To maintain long-term capital gains tax rates, you can either adjust FIFO/LIFO settings or rebuy within 30 days. (If you do not understand this, discuss with your broker and tax preparer.) More precise trend-trading signals will also be posted in our free investing email.
  • Consider placing about 2/10 portfolio in physical monetary metals. Physical gold, silver and platinum should not be bought with the expectation of profiting. Contrary to popular belief, their trading values are likely to fall sharply during a major recession. However for their uniquely indestructible values as an heirloom and emergency fund, perhaps everyone should consider holding 1/5 of net worth divided among several monetary metals and several safety deposit boxes, in small increments, inspected annually.
  • Consider placing about 1/10 portfolio in local investments. We encourage everyone to consider some small local investments in solar farms, health care and food production–for the sake of regional, global and personal financial stability.
  • Consider placing about 3/10 portofolio in TIPS bought directly. Long-term TIPS (US Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities) are the most sure-fire hedge against inflation and stock market losses. The value of TIPS goes up when the S&P goes down. However, avoid TIPS ETFs which do not have the same level of security as TIPS bought directly. Strategy suggestions for trading individual TIPS will later be posted in our free investing email.
  • Consider ¢entsible home ownership. The right home can make you, the wrong home can break you. The right home is easily affordable on a 15-year mortgage, close to work, has low tax and insurance rates, and has a well-separated apartment for long-term guests, renters, retired relatives or working offspring. Do not be trapped into paying for ever-increasing utility and maintenance costs when someone else can be paying them for you–and both of you getting a bargain. That done, home ownership is better than gold. Both assets have similarly indestructible base values, but you cannot live in a bar of gold.

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