The Online Investing AI Blog

The National Journal makes the point that the Millennial Generation is the unluckiest generation.

Sorta.

Because it is also the luckiest.

The Millennial Generation is loosely defined as the generation of Americans born in the 80s or 90s. Obviously, a lucky generation wouldn’t have the exact date of their creation, right? Just like every tool becomes a weapon and every weapon becomes a tool, technology has shaped this generation’s limitations and opportunities as no other.

The National Journal’s main point — although they’re a little wishy-washy about it — is that technology has replaced a lot of the jobs that former generations could access. Computers have increased production and automation has totally transformed the job market. That’s all true, too. And this is just beginning. We haven’t seen nothing yet.

However, the article stumbles a bit on just what advantages that technology has introduced. After all, Millennials have more computer power in their pockets than most university computer labs had in their facilities just a few decades ago. The technology has created turmoil, but every period of massive change has a transition period.

Technology is also starting to break the chains of wage slavery for this next generation of workers. More Millennials can create their own businesses online. They have access to apps and tools that give them the power of dozens of corporations at their fingertips. There are also more ways to earn money–blogs, websites, app development, affiliate businesses, etc.. We can’t forget, either, that  more Millennials can arrange their work in ways that just was not possible in previous generations.

The jar is definitely half-filled for Millennials.

Or is it half-empty?

What do you think?

Accelerating Technology, Dreams Come True, Internet, Money, Online Investing AI generation, graduation, millennials

The market is broken and the free market system is not fair — it’s a sham.

I hear that all the time. And it’s absolutely correct.

The free market is not fair. In fact, it can be downright mean.

There’s plenty of evidence that this is correct. You only have to look at the recent economic meltdown to see that the market has failed millions of people in the world. Hard workers have lost jobs. Dishonest investors have screwed honest investors. Businesses and money evaporated overnight.

It’s difficult to tell people who have endured some of the pain of this crash this, but it’s true: the market doesn’t work and that’s why the market works. In other words, systems that can’t fail on their own, never grow on their own. This is adaptation at its finest.

Despite the pain of deep economic corrections, people are struggling back on their feet devising new ways to handle the problem. I don’t know whether Bitcoin will ever be the next currency — but it’s a sign of that innovation process and it’s a process that is happening all over the country.

The ability for the market to readjust is why it continues to be the worst — and best — system we have. Socialism, at best, subsidizes poor economic choices and ideas for as long as possible, then it collapses in a heap. Most countries that are embroiled in socialism rarely see this. It’s just a modern twist on feudalism. There are a group of lords — mainly industrialists and politicians — who provide the bread and circuses; in exchange, the citizenry doesn’t threaten their castles with torches and doesn’t threaten their entrenched businesses with competition.

It can be much worse.

Read more…

Business Strategy, Internet, Investing, Money, Online Investing AI

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Don’t blame the media. Don’t blame the government. Blame Darwin and the occasional saber-toothed tiger.

We are surrounded by bad news because of evolution. Our brains developed to deal with an overwhelming amount of stimuli, mostly in the forms of threats to our safety and acquiring food and shelter. We watched for bears and worried about our next meal. Good news, quite frankly, wasn’t important.

This affects us today. When you’re on the freeway, do you stop and gawk at the motorist who successfully exits the highway? Or, do we slow down and gawk at the car accident at the side of the road? The media promotes the unusual and trends that threaten us before it shows us the common and trends that benefit us, even though, as we’ll see, there are far more opportunities than threats out there.

I believe this gives us a distorted picture of the world — and, in fact, may keep us mired down psychologically. We focus on the bad and ignore the good. (Although, to play my own devil’s advocate, it may also keep us from being complacent.)

Anyway. This week, I’m passing on links to prove my point.

Good things are happening, even if you believe your life, your world, and your reality sucks.

From Reuters, data indicate growing economic momentum.

There’s good news about job growth on Yahoo News.

Global poverty is shrinking — Pro Bono News.

From working in a sweatshop to being a billionaire, on the Good News Network.

Leukemia cure in one study — may just be the beginning, according to story at ABC News.

Quantum computing researchers are making impressive discoveries, according to one of the companies on the forefront of this new industry.

Exoskeletons can increase worker productivity. That’s from Next Big Future.

3D Printing? Yeah, that’s coming to, says the Wall Street Journal.

And lots more…

Business Strategy, Dreams Come True, Internet, Money, Success, US Economy evolution, fear, good news, greed, Success

the Bushido Code

Samurai — those steely eyed, nerved and souled warriors of Japan — often served one master for life.

They fought, bled, killed and died for their masters.

And they never complained.

Maybe that’s why one of my favorite personal financial bloggers — The Financial Samurai — advised his readers to never complain about your employer or old employer if you want to have another job.

This is great advice — if you plan on living in feudal Japan. But I’m going to reveal several reasons why this is horrible advice for the employee, former employees, the employer — and even society.

Silence is Dishonest

If you have endured a bad experience on the job, summarizing your tenure as “it just wasn’t a good fit,” or “the culture was different from my expectations” are completely dishonest. This is a type of lying in abstentia. While FS accurately points out that “nobody likes a complainer,” most assuredly, “everyone hates a liar,” no matter what the stripe.

This type of dishonesty can have horrible ramifications, too. What if your friend seeking a new job overheard your lame summation of a bad boss? Or asks your advice about a job offer from a horrible former employer? Would you really offer a trite, know-nothing empty phrase, and cross your fingers that he or she bombs the interview? Often, when it comes to jobs, it’s “any port in the storm,” but if you advise your friend to get a job at — in FS’s scenario — what sounds like a hostile environment, you won’t have to worry about offering any advise to  this buddy in the future — this person will no longer seek your guidance, or, maybe even your friendship.

Silence is Cowardice

FS advises his client to keep silent and walk away with a severance package and a much better chance at further employment. FS did well for his client. But, if “Bob” in this scenario is being honest, it sounds like there is actual racial and sexual discrimination happening. And who knows what else?

Has he just thrown dozens of people under the bus, or placed female colleagues in jeopardy?

Is this so far-fetched? At Penn State, a serial child rapist, who was a well-respected, well-connected assistant coach, prowled for victims for decades, even after he was caught engaged in sex acts with children by fellow employees. Many of the employees admitted they were afraid of repercussions from their employer, which was and is, by far, the largest employer in the area, the truth of this heinous act.

Maybe they should have at least negotiated a severance package?

Read more…

Internet, Money

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We’ve just witnessed a historic event.

Last Tuesday, the Dow — a benchmark for stock market strength — cruised to 14,285, well passed the former record set in Oct. 2007. As of Friday, the Dow rested at 14,397. And there was a collective shoulder shrug.

That reaction was in contrast to the heady days of stock market gains in the 1980s and 1990s when each Dow and Nasdaq record was reported breathlessly for days. It was a moveable feast.

So, what’s different about this record?

First, people are paranoid because the last record in Oct. 2007 was soon followed by an almost complete economic collapse. Within months of this record the Dow plummeted, losing half of its value and bouncing along those bottoms for years. Investors are wary of the same happening again.

They have statistical reasons to be wary. Raw economic numbers — GDP growth and employment, for instance — are not even close to the strength that led up to the rally in 2007. The housing market? It’s still a basket case. Also, the stock market gains are based a lot on government — especially the Fed — tampering with the numbers. Cheap dollars have fueled the rally.

However, it may be a mistake to hold this view on the economy exclusively. Remember fear can be just as damaging to your portfolio as greed. Also, remember that time has a way of balancing prices. What was up, might come down a little; what was down, may end up higher.

Read more…

Internet, Investing, Money, Online Investing AI crystal ball, Dow, gdp, inflation, Investing, market, stock market, stock trading

It has been quite interesting to watch Bitcoin as it has gone through one bubble, and consistently risen since. Many people thought that Bitcoin was finished after its stratospheric rise in 2011, and it’s subsequent collapse to $3. Can Bitcoin survive such a massive devaluation?

Image courtesy Bitcoin Charts

Recently Bitcoin has achieved quite a bit of attention, because of WordPress.com announcing that they will accept payment in Bitcoin. More recently, Reddit has decided to accept Bitcoin. The more interesting (and perhaps) exciting development is that you can now buy pizza with bitcoins.

Read more…

Accelerating Technology, Dreams Come True, Internet, Investing, Money, Success, US Economy bitcoin, currency, debt, defense, future, gold, government, Medicare, Money, silver, social security, Success, technology, wars

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There’s been a conversation about how people become wealthy on a few blogs the last couple of days..

A guest post on Financial Samurai offers an untraditional roadmap to financial success. This is a response to a previous post on making a six-figure salary.

There is no one true path to building wealth. There are a lot. You can earn it. You can invest it. You can win it. Someone can give it to you.

There seems to be no consensus on who gets rich, either. The rich get richer, they say. But do the poor become richer? Do the smart become richer? Do the religious become richer? Do the well-educated become rich? Do the pretty become rich?

What I would like to do is pull in the scientists and see what they have to say about the rich — how they became rich and, maybe, how you can become wealthy, too.

You don’t have to be smart to be rich. According to a study in the journal of Intelligence, there’s no correlation between IQ and how much money you have.

But, you should have a high SAT score, according to this study.

But, you should still have been popular in high school. Popular kids tend to earn more later. *My two cents: Now, they just need to have a study on how to be popular AND be a nerdy, high-SAT student.

Owners of electric vehicles are richer (and smarter), according to this US News story. *My two cents: It may mean that the rich can withstand the economic impact of what are currently inefficient vehicles.

Read more…

Dreams Come True, Internet, Investing, Money college, early retirement, education, income, intelligence, iq, job, Links, Money, sat, science, studies, Success, wealth

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The notion that robots are sweeping in and stealing jobs is become an increasingly more virulent meme.

You can check out some of the angst at the Boston Globe and here, at Boing Boing.

It follows a long list of such occupational fears. The Irish, Italians, Japanese, Mexicans, and, more recently, Chinese were all identified as job thieves at one time or another. Robots are just the latest immigrant class who are threatening upheaval in the workplace, although they’re not arriving in boats or on planes, but in labs and in factories.

These robots aren’t quite yet the Jetson type or Lost in Space models. It’s mainly automation that people are worried about. But the anthropomorphic types of robots are right around the temporal corner, as well.

Factory robots are being used to perform precise tasks that humans used to do. This is even a threat to cheap factory labor in places like China.

But the extent of the robots reach doesn’t just stop at the edges of the factory floor. Desk jobs and professional occupations — once thought immune to automation — are drifting into the cross hairs.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning make jobs like writing — Yikes! — and security susceptible to automation.

So what can we carbon-based lifeforms do, but prepare to welcome our new robotic overlords?

Read more…

Accelerating Technology, Automated Trading, Business Strategy, Internet, Investing, Money, Online Investing AI, Success AI, machine learning, robotics, robots

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Resolutions are the worst way to start off the New Year, especially in personal finance.

Although there are exceptions, most people don’t work on the “one-and-done” plan. We don’t wake up one day — whether it’s Jan. 1, or any other day — and simply and easily change a habit we’ve cultivated for years. In fact, those habits have not appeared overnight.

The difficulty in establishing New Year’s resolution is coupled with a tendency to become depressed when we don’t achieve a goal immediately.

Here’s the scenario: you make a resolution to change something — let’s say you want to start saving money by not eating out — a few weeks later, you realize you’ve gone out to a restaurant a few days in a row. Instead of laughing off the behavior and righting yourself, you become depressed. Then apathetic. Then, you figure, what the hell, you haven’t achieved your goals, so you might as well quit trying.

That’s why you might want to consider automatic. An automatic resolution is something that you can set up to help you achieve your personal financial goals. Here are a few examples:

Financial eNewsletters

Setting up the automatic delivery of personal financial email newsletters is an easy way to make sure you are continually learning about managing your money and these are awesome ways to remind you to pay attention to your financial decisions. Here are a few I like:

Personal Dividends

Money Crashers

Nerd Wallet

You can also use RSS feeds to automate your lessons in personal finance.

Read more…

Internet, Investing, Money, Online Investing AI, Success

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The Holiday season is a time for reflection and also a time to recognize the blessings of prosperity and opportunities that we have.

Those two factors easily combine to lead us to give back some of this abundance to those in need. Most charities make a big chunk of their budget during the few weeks leading up to Christmas. And charity scams make most of their money at this time.

A lot od people use donations to just feel good about themselves. They want to do something good, so donating — to whatever, or whoever — is a good thing.

But it’s not.

Donating money to bad people and lousy organizations are bad ideas. (I mean, you already do that every time you pay taxes.) Donating money to a scam charity gives money to people who will probably use it for unproductive activities, meanwhile you will take that money from your family, or from an investment that could doing good with that money.

Am I telling you to not donate?

No. Just telling you to be as careful with donating your money to a charity as you are investing your money in a business. In fact — it’s something I want to discuss more — we need to start moving from a country that gives and takes to a country with an investment mindset. Every financial transaction — from your charitable donations to your income tax payments — have impact far beyond the ledger sheet. We need to think about efficiency and productivity.

It starts with the most simple transactions, like donating a few dollars to your favorite charity.

I’ve found a few tips to help you take this step and avoid charity scams.

Read more…

Accelerating Technology, Internet, Investing, Money