    Last week of shopping before Christmas! Have you finished your shopping tet? Not me… But I have taken advantage of eBay to find some stuff I couldn’t find at the store.  To read some of the financial news, you would think we’re headed into a deep recession or depression soon. But you sure can’t tell that from the brisk business taking place at the stores and malls. Reminds me of when I lived in Japan in the ’90’s… the media portrayed the Japanese economy as the worst in decades, with all kinds of problems and little hope. But when you went out shopping or touring the cities, all you saw was hustle and bustle, consumer spending and tons of production and consumption.  Yet small statistical changes in economic analysis can have great meaning down the road- so there are always lots of analysts trying to put a face to what they’re seeing.
   It’s that time of year for mutual fund distributions- normally a very good thing. Of course, if you’ve got large holdings in taxable mutual funds, the distributions may not be so great. Inside that Roth IRA it’s pretty nice however.  Even with all the market’s gyrations these past few months Michael Sivy writes about how it’s a great opportunity to “construct a safe, diversified retirement portfolio of blue-chip stocks” paying a healthy dividend. No argument here, and there are lots of ways to get there using low-cost mutual funds… like going to the mall, it pays to shop around and compare prices- namely in terms of expense ratios. That’s not all of course, but it’s a biggie over time.
    Now the only shopping problems we’re having this week is a car in the garage that won’t start. Go figure… have to get a tow truck to the house, and take it to the shop. I tried everything I knew, but cars these days are not quite as simple to tinker with. Time to catch up on a few other things… have a great week!
Sphere: Related ContentNo comment - Post a comment
« 10 Steps to Prepare for Filing an Insurance Claim | Mike Huckabee Explains Christmas on CNN »
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
