Quotes – Earlybirds Invest https://earlybirdsinvest.com Latest Crypto News Mon, 05 May 2025 13:04:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.8 https://i0.wp.com/earlybirdsinvest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/cropped-New-Project-2024-12-17T235703.455.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Quotes – Earlybirds Invest https://earlybirdsinvest.com 32 32 240146708 6 Quotes from Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary That All Retirees and Pre-Retirees Should Read https://earlybirdsinvest.com/6-quotes-from-shark-tanks-kevin-oleary-that-all-retirees-and-pre-retirees-should-read/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/6-quotes-from-shark-tanks-kevin-oleary-that-all-retirees-and-pre-retirees-should-read/#respond Mon, 05 May 2025 13:04:34 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/6-quotes-from-shark-tanks-kevin-oleary-that-all-retirees-and-pre-retirees-should-read/

To fans of the television show Shark Tank, Kevin O’Leary is familiar, as he’s a panelist on the program that showcases business ideas. He’s a Canadian entrepreneur, who started the Softkey Software Products company. It saw great success and later bought the Learning Company, before being bought itself by the toy company Mattel.

O’Leary has ideas not only about entrepreneurship, but also retirement — so check out some of his thoughts on that and see whether they might help you in your own retirement planning. They’re chiefly drawn from his 2012 book, Cold Hard Truth on Men, Women and Money: 50 Common Money Mistakes and How to Fix Them.

Smiling person in a blue jacket, outdoors.

Image source: Getty Images.

Debt and retirement

If you’re carrying any debt, especially high-interest-rate debt (such as debt from credit cards), it’s a good idea to pay it off or shrink it considerably before retiring. O’Leary notes: “If you’re heading toward retirement with debt, now’s the time to budget like you’ve never budgeted before. I mean it.”

Paying down debts will free up more income that you can live off in retirement — and it can give you more peace of mind and help you sleep better, too, if you don’t have big mortgage payments or hefty credit card bills hanging over you in your golden years.

Your post-retirement income

O’Leary questions one common rule of thumb — that retirees should plan to need 65% of their pre-retirement income in retirement — saying:

This assumes that you will want to maintain roughly the same standard of living that you enjoyed when you worked a stressful life, working 40 hours a week away from home… Of course, you ate out a lot, bought hardcover books to read on the subway, and got a brand-new coat every winter… But in retirement, you won’t need to finance your lifestyle in the same way. There will be no commuting, fewer lunches out, and lower dry-cleaning bills.

Still, he notes that each of us should be trying to come up with the most realistic estimate of how much we’ll need in retirement instead of relying on any one rule of thumb: “If you don’t think you can go days without spending money on useless crap like magazines, gum, or coffee, then you’re going to be in trouble a few years into retirement…”

For context, know that as of March, the average monthly Social Security retirement benefit was $1,997 — about $24,000 for the year. Of course, if you earned more than average, you’ll collect more than average. (To get a good estimate of how much you can expect from Social Security, set up a my Social Security account at the Social Security Administration (SSA) website.)

So if you end up estimating that you’ll need $80,000 annually in income in retirement, figure out how you’ll get that. Here’s what such a retirement income plan might look like:

  • Social Security: $30,000
  • Dividend income: $25,000
  • Pension income: $15,000
  • Selling off part of your stock portfolio: $10,000

It’s good to have multiple income streams for your retirement, and yours could look different from the example above. You might, for example, have rental income or annuity income, or income from a part-time job.

Save more, spend less

If we want to be able to afford the retirement we hope for, O’Leary offers some good advice: “…[S]pend those last few working years socking away as much money as you can, but also use those years to practice living on a lot less, lowering your expectations, and cultivating disciplined spending habits…”

He also says: “Get a part-time job, too, while you’re at it and while you’re still spry enough to handle it.” It’s smart to save aggressively, and you might be able to do so now by shrinking your spending — and perhaps by getting a side gig for a few or many years.

Also consider coming up with a household spending budget. Using a budget in retirement is a smart move, too, as it can help you not spend more than you should. You may even keep a part-time job for your first few years of retirement. Here’s how your savings might grow over time:

Growing at 8% for

$7,500 invested annually

$15,000 invested annually

5 years

$47,519

$95,039

10 years

$117,341

$234,682

15 years

$219,932

$439,864

20 years

$370,672

$741,344

25 years

$592,158

$1,184,316

30 years

$917,594

$1,835,188

35 years

$1,395,766

$2,791,532

40 years

$2,098,358

$4,196,716

Data source: Calculations by author.

When to retire — and when not to retire

So — when should you retire? O’Leary has a perfect answer: “Don’t retire until you can afford it. Throw out your plan for freedom at 55 or even 65… If you have debt, you need your job, so you have to do everything in your power to keep it.”

Only retire when you can afford it. Make sure you’ve set up a portfolio that you can draw on or collect dividends and/or interest payments from. Make sure you’ve set up sufficient income streams to support you in retirement. Keep inflation in mind and prepare for it. Don’t forget healthcare costs, either, as they can be substantial. Finally, know that there are ways to increase your Social Security benefits.

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/6-quotes-from-shark-tanks-kevin-oleary-that-all-retirees-and-pre-retirees-should-read/feed/ 0 34522 8 Charlie Munger Quotes for Investors Through This Bitcoin Price Retreat https://earlybirdsinvest.com/8-charlie-munger-quotes-for-investors-through-this-bitcoin-price-retreat/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/8-charlie-munger-quotes-for-investors-through-this-bitcoin-price-retreat/#respond Sun, 13 Apr 2025 00:58:07 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/8-charlie-munger-quotes-for-investors-through-this-bitcoin-price-retreat/

Even though he has given no new interviews or made any major new investments from beyond the grave, Munger made the news again this week for his amazing work ethic and sound investment advice.

An article that appeared on CNBC reprised an old Munger quote that investors who can’t handle bear markets “deserve the mediocre result” they are likely to get.

Bitcoin Investors See Opportunity Ahead

The article related another bit of sage wisdom from Warren Buffett’s long-time business partner:

“Real opportunities that come to you are few… Most people just get a few times when they can make a huge difference by seizing a huge activity.”

Many individual investors today believe that for them that opportunity is Bitcoin.

Although Munger himself was very skeptical of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, BTC investors can apply his principled and disciplined thinking to crypto markets.

With Bitcoin’s price down by 27% in April since its Jan. 20 all-time high above $109,000, these selected quotes from Mr. Munger may be as timely as ever.

1. Sorting Out Market ‘FOMO’ and ‘FUD’

During times of rapid adjustments to market prices, social media can fill investors with FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt).

While Crypto X is a source of timely information and sentiment about market prices for Bitcoin and other volume currencies, it can be an environment with a high noise-to-signal ratio.

Charlie Munger said:

“I try to get rid of people who always confidently answer questions about which they don’t have any real knowledge.”

Crypto market posts that make extreme claims without evidence, arguments that contradict common sense, and that stoke feelings without providing additional information add to the noise.

What set Berkshire Hathaway’s profits so far ahead of the stock market’s average gains was Buffett and Munger viewed Wall Street as a social media platform full of noise.

Instead of setting up shop in Manhattan to bask in the echo chamber, these two spent their time far away from that noise reading the news and financial reports:

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people… who didn’t read all the time… You’d be amazed at how much Warren reads, at how much I read.”

Rather than let their emotions bounce up and down with the crowd, these two extraordinary investors worked to stay informed and make investing decisions scientifically based on the correct math over the relevant factors in their investments.

2. Bitcoin’s Price in This Bear Market

Some market participants panicked as Bitcoin’s price fell by a third from its historic record high price level in January.

“The market sentiment is full of uncertainty at the moment,” wrote Australian crypto exchange GroveX in a note on Apr. 8.

Individual investors using Internet cryptocurrency exchanges and Wall Street investors using ETF funds dumped Bitcoin as well as stocks in a selling frenzy as Trump got to work measuring out tariffs on foreign imports.

But Munger contends that following the crowd can lead to average results instead of outstanding performance:

“Mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean (merely average performance)… Bull markets go to people’s heads. If you’re a duck on a pond, and it’s rising due to a downpour, you start going up in the world. But you think it’s you, not the pond.”

Instead of following the crowd, Munger recommends investors do their own research, run the math, and follow the graph:

“Mankind invented a system to cope with the fact that we are so intrinsically lousy at manipulating numbers. It’s called the graph.”

3. Bitcoin Macro Hedge Fundamentals

In addition to Bitcoin’s current and recent price data, as well as its overall trend, there is the fundamental analysis of its network activity in relation to its price to consider.

Charlie Munger and his partner, Warren Buffett, both liked to say:

“I didn’t get to where I am by going after mediocre opportunities.”

For over a decade now, in the world of currency investing, Bitcoin has been the most outstanding opportunity in terms of its novel design and function and its market returns.

Bitcoin continues to signal its growing fundamental value with the ongoing massive expansion of the BTC mining network that secures all of its accounts and transactions.

Because of the rapid pace of Bitcoin’s mass global adoption, MicroStrategy’s founder, Michael Saylor, has found outsized success in buying and holding BTC without selling during peaks or bear markets.

Even if he never messed around with cryptocurrency, that investing strategy itself is right out of Charlie Munger’s playbook:

“The big money is not in the buying and the selling but in the waiting.”

Munger’s two largest positions that he bought and sat on patiently to build magnificent wealth were both in finance businesses like Bitcoin: Wells Fargo and Bank of America.

4. Altseason and Picking Altcoin ‘Gems’

During bear markets is when some of the altcoins with the most potential really shine. But it’s not necessary for the beginning crypto investor to bite off more than they can chew.

Bitcoin is simple enough that Saylor built a market-leading strategy around aggressively buying and holding it. That’s in line with how Munger thought about his investments in stocks:

“It never ceases to amaze me to see how much territory can be grasped if one merely masters and consistently uses all the obvious and easily learned principles.”

But for those intermediate and advanced Bitcoin investors seeking opportunities with a higher risk-reward profile, long-term valuations for the top ten or so cryptocurrencies by market capitalization have plenty of factors worth investigating.

Munger says:

“Our job is to find a few intelligent things to do, not to keep up with every damn thing in the world.”

PS: These 8 Warren Buffett quotes are rocket fuel for Bitcoin’s price today.

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