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Bitcoin Gets Another Boost, Courtesy Of This Mexican Billionaire

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A Mexican billionaire named Ricardo Salinas Pliego has endorsed Bitcoin investing.

Salinas — who founded and manages the conglomerate Grupo Salinas and is worth almost $16 billion — touted the upside possibility of bitcoin recently.

“Bitcoin is the new gold,” tweeted the billionaire this Sunday.

“#Bitcoin is the best way to diversify your portfolio, and I believe that any investor should study cryptocurrencies,” said another of his English tweets. He also mentioned inflation as the “silent killer” and stressed that his bank would seek to give bitcoin services to “keep promoting freedom.”

“The secret of #Bitcoin investing is to buy now and not sell,” reads another one of his tweets. “Only sell with a direct reason or necessity… and if you do things well, the latter won’t be an issue.”

Salinas — along with others like software businessman Michael Saylor and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele — included glowing eyes in their Twitter profile picture, a popular thing among people in the cryptocurrency space. With investors like Mark Cuban and Tim Draper doing the same and who are also bullish on the new asset.

Many view Bitcoin — a cryptocurrency that is virtual and is transmitted through blockchain technology — as an alternative to fiat money, which get their value from official government endorsement.

Commodities like silver and gold have traditionally worked as hedges against inflation. More recently, investors have looked at Bitcoin as a new method to safeguard their eroding government-backed money.

Under President Bukele, El Salvador recently announced it would be the first country to use Bitcoin as tender. The small Central American nation does not have its own own; it uses the U.S. dollar, which has been suffering from inflation as the Fed pushes its quantitative easing.

In April, Bitcoin went past the price of $60,000. In June, however, the price dropped under $30,000 after China’s government announced it would discourage the use of cryptocurrencies. Currently, Bitcoin is trading for around $35,000.

Author: Steven Sinclaire

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2 Stocks That Are More Reliable Than Your Paycheck

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Cathie Wood is an investing sensation. As ARK Invest’s founder, she oversees a group of exchange-traded funds with amazing returns that have given her a great reputation for discovering little-followed companies early on and using them for big long-term profits.

Given her focus on high-growth areas of the market, you might be shocked to know that some of her picks actually have impressive dividend yields too.

Below, we’ll look at two of these high-dividend holdings to see why they are so appealing to both growth investors and income investors.

AbbVie

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) is maybe the most well-known dividend paying stock inside the funds of Cathie Wood. The pharmaceutical firm is a Dividend Titan, as it has continued to increase its annual dividends to shareholders since it spun off from Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) in the 2010s. Abbott itself has a long record stretching back to around half a century.

AbbVie is not a big holding for Wood, but her ARK Genomic Revolution Fund (NYSEMKT:ARKG) has around $60 million in the company. That’s about 0.66% of its total assets.

With a market cap of $200 billion, AbbVie is large enough to do strategic acquisitions of companies in vital areas that Wood sees as having higher growth potential. Those include genomic sequencing, multi-cancer screens, and gene and cell therapies. AbbVie has already completed research and development on new cancer drugs using genomic analysis, and good results suggest they will make even more of a drive to move in that area. Meanwhile, investors get the benefit from a dividend yield reaching 4.5%.

Novartis

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) also looks good to income and growth investors both. The stock has a dividend yield at 3.5%, but like AbbVie, the pharmaceutical firm is researching new therapies that it believes it can use to develop generations of new treatments to keep their sales going up over the long term.

Novartis is also a pick that Wood seems to be more convinced about. You’ll see its shares in both her Genomics ETF and in her flagship Innovation Fund, with overall holdings reaching almost $380 million in the Swiss drugmaker. It’s a top-10 investment in the Genomics ETF, making up over 3% of all assets.

Novartis has done great work in the drug discovery area, by working to create a digital data science platform. That means the company is a broad play for Wood, as products that Novartis creates might end up being useful to the other companies inside her ETFs.

Author: Scott Dowdy

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New Crypto Explodes To Jaw-Dropping Levels — But Is There a Catch?

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There’s a new crypto that is capturing headlines, and it’s named Baby Doge Coin (no really).

Dogecoin, which is a meme coin, had a surge of popularity to turn into one of the biggest cryptocurrencies of the year. Now another cryptocurrency, named Baby Doge Coin, is seeking to follow in its path.

The name sounds silly sure, but this is normal for crypto, where there is also an ElonGate, LamboCoin and even a crypto called Loser Coin. But the possible returns are not a joke, as Baby Doge Coin’s price has exploded by nearly 700% since it went live.

Will that trend keep going? I wouldn’t think so. To explain why, let’s dive in a bit deeper to research Baby Doge Coin.

What is it?

Baby Doge Coin is a crypto that was unveiled on June 1st this year, by people inside the Dogecoin community. According to their white paper, the coin is about 10 times faster than Dogecoin and features cheaper transaction fees.

Baby Doge Coin has fees of 10%. Half of this fee is given to existing holders. The other half is put into a pool with Baby Doge Coin and other coins.

The transaction fee is to encourage investors to hold on to their Baby Doge Coin, and it is not a new idea. Another popular crypto Safemoon charges a 10% fee with half of that being sent to holders and half being sent to a pool. Since then, a group of imitators have popped up doing this same thing.

Baby Doge Coin’s numbers

Baby Doge Coin has an overall supply of 420 quadrillion tokens. The coin developers have already manually destroyed (burned) more than 125 quadrillion, leaving around 295 quadrillion left.

That’s a huge amount, and it means that the coin has a very low price. Here is a glance at its earliest price and where it has gone from there:

  • Earliest price (June 9): $0.000000000175
  • Price now (June 25): $0.000000001360 — a 677% increase

Since reaching its all-time high yesterday, the coin has lowered in price by more than 30%.

Should you invest in Baby Doge Coin?

If you’re looking for a long term crypto investment, Baby Doge Coin is not it. It’s like getting into the lottery. You might get lucky, but the very likely result is you will lose money.

As a normal rule, I stay away from cryptos that have hundreds of trillions of tokens and that are ultra-low priced. Baby Doge Coin goes even further by having hundreds of quadrillions. This type of crypto is pretty much never a big long-term winner. They get unveiled, and sometimes the price goes up early on, and then they plummet. So I would recommend staying out of this one, unless you are feeling lucky.

Author: Scott Dowdy

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IRS Shocks With New “Tax Correction” Announcement

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The Internal Revenue Service recently said it will begin to automatically correct 2020 tax returns for people who got unemployment in 2020 and also can get the $10,200 tax break, Forbes said.

The tax break is a part of the Democrats’ American Rescue Plan stimulus bill which President Biden passed as of March 11th.

Usually, the IRS taxes this type of unemployment benefits and they are meant to be reported on Americans’ tax return. As a consequence of the relief program, these benefits are now not going to be taxed.

If you got unemployment benefits in 2020, you will get a 1099-G form from your state showing how much you got in 2020 and how much taxes you paid.

This form must be filed along with your taxes. Some states might do it for you, but you must confirm that it is done.

This could save you thousands. If you qualify for the tax break of $10,200, and are in the 22% bracket and single, you might qualify for a savings of up to $2,244. And if you are married and both you and your spouse qualify for this break, you could save up to $4,488.

Since the bill was passed into law, millions of people have filed their taxes without the knowledge of the tax break.

The IRS has also found 10 million people who filed before the relief bill was enacted and revealed that they will automatically change their returns for them. This is about half of the 23 million people who filed for unemployment during the pandemic.

The IRS also said that there is no need for Americans to send in an amended return unless new numbers make them now eligible for more federal credits and “deductions that are not already within their original tax return.”

Author: Steven Sinclaire

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Your Social Security Benefits Might Be Getting a Boost

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Your Social Security income might get a pretty big boost in 2022 if inflation keeps going up. Every year, Social Security considers the changing price of services and goods to decide if Social Security receivers need a raise.

Based on the changes this year so far, an increase could be 4% in 2022. If this is the case, then the increase might be the biggest since 2008, when enrollees got a 5.8% boost in their retirement income.

How annual increases work

Social Security does not analyze the spending of retirees. Instead, they decide to increase payouts in relation to the annual price changes of certain goods and services by watching the CPI (Consumer Price Index) for Urban And Clerical Workers (which is called CPI-W).

The monthly CPI-W for Q3 of the current year are measured against the Q3 numbers from the previous year in which Social Security increased its payout.

For example, if there was not a boost given in the previous year, but there was one given two years back, then the current year would be measured against the numbers from the numbers of two years ago.

How’s it looking for 2022?

It’s too soon to say to a certainty, but CPI-W is obviously higher in 2021 than it was during 2020. If that trend keeps going in the third quarter, then S.S. recipients might be in store for their largest pay raise in over ten years in 2022.

CPI-W data was available through the month of May of 2021. The CPI-W was measured at 4.4% higher in the three-month time period from March through May compared to the same time period in 2020. If this was Q3 data, then the 4.4% boost in Social Security payments could be significantly greater than any increase recipients have gotten in years due to the average S.S. increase over the previous five years only being 1.6%.

Author: Blake Ambrose

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Economist Warns Of Approaching Crash, If These Conditions Are Met

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Increasing inflation is giving lots of problems to the Fed, economist Nouriel Roubini warned, saying that spikes in prices will continue and potentially limit the central bank’s actions.

With demand going through the roof, and with all the labor and supply problems, there is a boom going on for prices. Although the Fed claims these problems are “transitory,” Roubini — also named “Dr. Doom” for his scary negative predictions — warned that the Fed won’t be able stop the out of control growth using monetary policy.

“I think this rise in inflation will not be a temporary thing, it will be more longterm., Roubini said this week. “We have a huge fiscal and monetary stimulus, much larger and more longterm than we had after our global financial crisis.”

The NYU professor of economics stressed that a host of issues including supply chain problems, built-up demand from savings said to be around $2 trillion and companies raising wages to claim new workers.

Corporate America has also warned on earnings calls that input costs are going up, along with increases in commodities, food prices and home prices.

“Inflation expectation is going up, the dollar is getting weaker, and that means imported inflation and higher dollar priced commodities. And the Fed wishes to go past 2% with the risk of continuing inflation expectations., Roubini said.

The famed economist also stressed that policies “are turning pro-worker and pro-union due to there being such a large increase in wealth inequality” he said.

The huge stimulus is adding to the issue of booming prices, he said.

“So we will end up with higher inflation and a wage spiral., Roubini said.

“And the Fed cannot pull this back because of all the debt in the economy, if they are going to attempt to tighten this too soon, the system will collapse. So they are trapped by debt. They are in a fiscal dominance trap., he said.

Author: Blake Ambrose

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Tesla Surges As Its New Global Partnership Leaks

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Shares of Tesla boomed this week, going up by more than 10% as of this writing. At one time during the week, the EV maker’s shares were higher by a total of 11.9%.

The stock’s move up has been caused by an assortment of factors, including volatile Bitcoin price changes, news that the company might open its network of charging stations to other automakers in 2022, and a good week for tech stocks such as Tesla.

The latest breaking news to help Tesla came this Thursday, when the EV news outlet Electrek reported that Tesla is discussing with Norwegian leaders the possibility of allowing other EV makers in the country to use its network. This comes after a rumor that the company was considering the same thing in Germany. Not only would sharing its large network of charging stations lead to more revenue for the company, but it could also get more public attention to electric vehicles, speeding up their use among drivers.

A return in Bitcoin after a sharp downfall might have also had a role in Tesla stock rising this week. The company bought $1.5 billion worth of the crypto and it intends to keep its stake for the longterm. This stake in Bitcoin sometimes leads to volatility in Tesla’s price when Bitcoin goes higher or lower.

Finally, many growth stocks increased several points or higher as Wall Street warmed up to these companies’ shares after they dipped sharply earlier this year. This market trend is possibly helping Tesla gain more momentum.

What’s next

Meanwhile, Tesla is ending its second quarter. Investors are wanting the company to deliver more cars than ever before in this quarter as Tesla works to reach its guidance to increase total 2021 deliveries to over 50% y/y.

Investors will get an update on this period at some point in the second part of July, when Tesla normally gives its second-quarter numbers.

Author: Scott Dowdy

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Never-Wrong Predictor Warns Of Incoming “Historical Crash”

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Famous trader and founder of the private investment group Scion Asset Management, Michael Burry, gave his view recently about where he thinks markets are going.

Burry is best known as being the first financial expert to predict and make money from the U.S. subprime mortgage crash that happened through 2007 and 2010. He is shown in the “The Big Short,” a book written Michael Lewis about the mortgage crash, which was then turned into a movie with Christian Bale playing the role of Michael Burry.

Burry tweeted recently:

“All this hype is doing is attracting in retail investors right before the mother of all crashes. After crypto drops from trillions, or meme stocks collapse from billions, normal people will lose the money that amounts to the size of nation states. History is not changing.”

He also spoke about cryptocurrency, saying that “The issue with crypto, as in most assets, is the leverage.” The famed investor continued, “If you don’t understand how much leverage is inside crypto, you don’t know a thing about it, no matter what else you believe you know.”

Burry then stated that he does not hate bitcoin but is worried about the government cracking down on the digital currency. He warned back in February that “In inflationary crisis times, governments will always move to destroy competitors in the currency sector.”

While saying, “I don’t hate Bitcoin., Burry also said in his opinion, “the long term is tenuous for crypto in a world of heartless and violent centralized governments with lifeblood monopolies on currencies.” Nonetheless, he said he was not shorting bitcoin because “In the short term anything is possible.”

Burry is not the only person predicting a crash. Last week, famous financial author Robert Kiyosaki said that the “Largest bubble in our history is getting bigger., warning that the “Largest crash ever” is coming soon. The Rich Dad, Poor Dad author says he expects the price of bitcoin to go down to the $24K area where he will invest in some more of the cryptocurrency.

Author: Steven Sinclaire

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3 Facts That Bitcoin Enthusiasts Refuse To Admit

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The Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) bubble might finally be coming to an end.

The price of the top cryptocurrency went under $30,000 for the first time since earlier this year in response to China’s crackdown on Bitcoin.

It was the most recent bad news to hurt Bitcoin, coming after Elon Musk said his company, Tesla, would stop accepting Bitcoin as a means of payment.

Nonetheless, the biggest Bitcoin fans and bulls are still supporting the digital currency, but their predictions of a crypto-takeover conveniently avoid some important facts.

1. Bitcoin is not solving a real-world problem

While there are certain real use cases for Bitcoin, like in economically defunct countries such as Venezuela, and for ransom when criminals need to go untracked, the idea that Bitcoin will replace fiat currency is almost completely ridiculous.

Fiat currency like the dollar does what it should do, works as a medium of exchange. While inflation is always a concern when you hold cash, the volatility of Bitcoin shows that it is much less reliable as a means of storing value.

2. Its value is almost totally speculative

Most Bitcoin bulls say its value is connected to its ability to work as a hedge against inflation. But really, Bitcoin’s value comes mostly from it being an investment for speculation. In many ways, it is the best speculative asset. It trades non-stop around the world, giving investors a huge pool of people to buy and sell with.

There are no fundamentals to its value, making its price almost completely a factor of charts and social media chatter, along with news articles. Bitcoin might work as a currency, but its top use case is in speculative profit making.

3. Scarcity does not equal value

One of the top arguments for Bitcoin is that its scarcity means it is valuable. The number of bitcoins will be topped out at 21 million, which people say is the reason for its value.

It’s true that scarcity adds value to things such as gold or artwork. But scarcity does not always mean value. Every piece of art is unique, but only some get millions of dollars at auction. So scarcity does not mean it is valuable.

After its recent increase and broader adoption by large institutions, Bitcoin seems like it’s not going anywhere, but the largest risk to the currency might be a falling price and a lack of interest from the public. Another drop could form a negative loop and end with huge losses, and a disenchanted fan base that loses all hope in the currency.

Author: Blake Ambrose

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How To Earn $5k Per Month In Passive Income

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When Cody Berman was in college, he had the idea that he could avoid having to work for someone else if he could build passive income. His golden road to passive income came by using real estate for rental income. Berman, who is 25 now, makes $4,700 per month in income from his four homes he rents out. He took six steps to get this outcome.

1. He learned

When he was 19, he found out about to real estate investing. He had an internship at a private equity firm that focused on commercial property investing. Then he interned at a bank which was doing large real estate loans.

This helped build his foundation of knowledge about investing basics. It was not until his last year at university that Berman went deep into learning about getting financially independent. After this, the idea that he could invest in real estate seemed possible. He read and learned everything he could about passive income and rental properties came up over and over again.

2. He researched

When Berman started researching rental properties, he worked with his real estate agent to get Instant alerts. To focus his research, he used certain criteria. For example, the properties needed two units at least, and be less than $300,00, and located inside particular counties. Berman would receive notifications every time a new home went up for sale that met this criteria.

3. He saved

Berman saved like a mad man to get a down payment for his properties. After three years went by, he had most of the cash he needed — a total of $170,000. He invested this into a Vanguard index fund, and put around $10,000 into an online savings account.

During this time, he worked in the real estate lending sector, which made him around $80,000 per year. Seven months into this job, he quit to go full-time at real estate investing. His first year he brought in $70,000, and got his yearly incoming to $130,000.

4. He hustled

Besides saving, Berman did a lot to make extra money. He started freelancing during school and continued a year after finishing his degree. He got around $1,200 per month with his side-hustle income.

He created websites, did freelance writing, video editing, and tried out affiliate marketing. During the summer, he took odd jobs, like sampling alcohol, buffing boats and doing yard work.

5. He cut down on expenses

To save money for his properties, he forced the gap between his expenses and income as wide as he could. “This gap is everything., he says. “It allows you to invest in assets that give you money without having to give up your time.”

To get the money for his four properties, which include 11 rental units total, he had a modest lifestyle and did not care for owning a new car. He cooked his meals at home, and very careful about his spending.

This allowed him to get more cash toward savings. In turn, he got all four multi-unit properties within one year.

If you want to achieve this same thing for yourself, Berman says you should save aggressively so that you can get your “income-expenses gap” wide.

The bigger this gap, the more you have to invest, the sooner you can “retire” on your passive income.

Author: Scott Dowdy

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