A Hump Day Labor Day!
Happy Labor Day!
Labor Day symbolizes the unofficial end of summer, and also honors the American worker & labor movement.
I helped a friend with their finances this past weekend. He is 25, making a decent income, but had no idea on what to do with his money. He had it all sitting in a Checking account. His income is variable, and when I asked him how much he would make this month, he wasnât sure.
I gave him an exercise that I think could benefit any reader here: write down your balances in all your accounts at the beginning of every month. Banks, Investing Accounts, Business Accounts, Venmo, PayPal, Crypto, whatever. Just keep track of it on the 1st of every month. I would keep the investment portion of those accounts separate from the rest, since investment balances can fluctuate over time.
What this gives you is a baseline for your financial life moving forward. If you keep track of these for a year, two, or five years - youâll get to see how those balances change over time, and youâll naturally start to think about how you should be allocating your incoming $.
Try it! And let me know how it goes. You can even start from 9/6/2021 (today) and track it in a month from now, and so on. With 4 months left of 2021, youâll easily establish a baseline for 2022 and beyond.
Hope your weekend is great!
â Humphrey & Rickie
In the Markets
Upcoming Earnings
Not many this week. GameStop and Oracle are the notable Earnings Calls being held on 9/8 and 9/9 respectively.
Weekly News Roundup
Many teens are reluctant to invest in the stock market after the GameStop frenzy (CNBC)
Following GameStopâs rises and falls, 39% of teens see the stock market as an opportunity to âmake money quickly,â while 20% believe itâs âtoo risky.â However, 40% still think stocks are a âgood long-term investment,â the survey revealed.Â
HY: If I were a teen with little knowledge I would be hesitant to invest as well after the GameStop events this January. The article also states that 35% of 18-35 year olds get their investment ideas from Social Media - which is larger than I expected.
South Korea passes bill limiting Apple and Google control over payments (CNBC)
The South Korean parliament approved a bill that will ban major app store operators, like Apple and Google, from requiring developers to only use their payment system. Apple and Google were taking as much as 30% commission on every transaction.
RH: Could be a major win for consumers if this trend continues around the world!
HY: This is a huge issue here in the US that many companies regularly complain about, the âAppleâ tax for having your app on the platform - but as a result itâs been a boon for Apple, and also Google. If this were to change in western countries, look for Apple/Google to slide in terms of their valuations/share prices.
Car giants fear the ongoing global chip shortage could persist for some time
CEO of VW, Herbert Diess said he believes the chip shortage issues will start to dissipate as countries reduce Covid-19 transmission, but he expects there to be a general shortage of semiconductors for some time.
HY: This highly impacts the auto-industry. Weâre already seeing used cars go for higher prices than new cars, and thatâs due to the demand of cars combined with the constrained supply of new cars. If you want a new car today, youâll likely be put on a waiting list for 1-3 months due to the chip shortage. Iâm not sure how this impacts negotiations at a car dealership, where the buyer used to have more leverage - I assume the seller (the dealer) in this case has more leverage now and youâll be less likely to negotiate a car down in price.
In Case You Missed It
This video is pretty entertaining and educational toward the end. Let me know your feedback in the comments of this video!