Posted by For the fifth month of 2024, the DOW added 783 points, which was a 2.07% gain. Interest and dividend income was $2228 for the month. Withdrawals for living expenses came to $1189. Overall, my account balance increased by 2.06% from the prior month. In the past month I purchased 100 shares of Skyworks (SWKS). Skyworks is a semiconductor company headquartered in Irvine, California. They design connectivity chips used in cell phones and other devices. In the past month their share price has gone from the low 100’s to the low 90’s. Although they have been beating EPS estimates, their revenue numbers have been slightly below expectations. They pay a 2.93% dividend, and my hope is that the stock price will move back into the 100’s by the end of the year. I have owned Skyworks in the past, but I don’t expect to see large gains, unless they get an unexpected takeover offer.
With little change in the inflation situation, interest rates will likely remain where they are. I watched an interesting YouTube video this past week that showed how high inflation is actually good for loans. Assuming your income goes up and the value of the dollar goes down over time, you end up with more dollars to pay off your loans over time. That’s assuming the loan is at a fixed rate. Essentially, the federal deficit is a giant loan, so higher inflation helps devalue borrowed money over time. It is still a good idea to not be spending more than you are generating each year. But as long as the Democrats are running the show, the overspending will likely continue. With Trump’s legal troubles mounting, it is looking more like Biden will win a second term.
There have been instances in which an incumbent president is reelected with a new vice president-elect as their running mate. I don’t know if this tactic would help or hurt Biden. Kamala Harris born in 1964 is much younger than Biden, who was born in 1942. Biden is the oldest president to take the oath of office. Should he win the 2024 presidential election, he would be 86 by the end of a second term, nearly a decade older than the second-oldest president ever, Ronald Reagan. This makes the vice-presidential position even more critical as we are already in uncharted waters as far as the age of our current president. Of the 15 vice presidents who went on to become president, eight succeeded to the office on the death of a president, and four of these were later elected president.