It’s not a trivial question, not by any stretch. In an age of “instant anything” where we can buy anything our heart desires (and get free shipping with Prime) the question is intense.

The real answers, however, are quite elusive and, to a large extent, age-dependent and situational.

So this morning some “hybrid-thinking” where we look at a range of futures and begin on a path of  “goods acquisitions” to best use our meager funds for a semi-chaotic future.

After a few headlines, our Aggregate view of markets and assorted snide remarks about that which passes as “news” these days, we’ll jump in.

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With a hernia surgery this week, inquiring minds wanted to know: “Can we cheat a bit on the recovery end?”  So off into research.

None of what is offered here is medical advice.  It is, however, a worthwhile line of inquiry.  So the next time you face a major health issue, rather than signing into the “victim role” the alternative is to ask a lot of  questions and build a research plan.  Just like you’d do with any other business problem, Keeping your doc in the loop, of course.

A few brief headlines, and an update on our chart series and then into the post-op world we go…where we’ll try, for a change,  NOT to keep you in stitches.

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Ouch!  Day one after hernia surgery and a new idea hits:  We’re looking at a “Trump Policy” for our websites. Don’t panic.  I’m exploring aa proposed policy and putting out some ideas for subscriber-only for comment because they are really who we serve.  There are only a few hundred of them.

Point is, I want a policy to govern site comments so they don’t degenerate into ad hominem attacks.  Call me lazy, but name calling and unrelated Trump bashing has to go.  The last straw has been trying to blame Trump for the recent shootings.

Before we get into the “clean up the web” discussion of whether this is self-censorship or simply cutting down the “noise floor” of our future-scanning receivers and markets Replaying 1929 scenario, we will update our Aggregate Index approach to market charting refine the downside a bit more.  Headlines, coffee, and more.  All as I pencil out a post-surgery summary for Saturday’s report on “Wound Super-Healing?”

Click and learn…

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Yeah, I know:  Why not focus on Hong Kong? Can you do anything about it?  On the other hand… The risk of a pandemic global people-killer is not something we like to think about.

The good news, however, is that there is definitely a lot we can do about them.

Which we’ll get to after we eye some “blood on the charts” and wolf-down a few headlines and coffee as a warm-up.  Like we need it in mid-summer…

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You can’t take it with you, but you don’t want to squander it, either.    So this morning, driven in part by my getting a 12-lead EKG prior to an upcoming hernia operation, we will look at how to win playing the “Old People” Money Game when age creeps into the upper double-digits.

There are a ton of choices possible when building a retirement program, but unfortunately, the playing field keeps getting “tipped.”  As a result, what looked like a good deal a few years back may not be so hot now or in the future.

This morning we go tip-toeing through them tulips.

After the requisite headlines and the charts, of course.

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The revolution we forecast in 2005 with the appearance of desktop 3D printers is now here.  Open source 3D has gone very mainstream. We just waiting for the killer app (print files) that will make it all a must-have.

Today, a look back at some of our work from the period and review how that forecast (and our back-when website on topic, www.nationaldesignlibrary.org, worked out and who’s in that space today.

All because we have hit the “watershed price point” so yeah, a lot of “Manufacturing Must Die.”

Funeral plans after some headlines and charts. The world of custom mass manufacturing (done at home) beckons.

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Many people have “special interest’ workspaces.  But what if you have lots of interests?  Why, in no time at all, you will find all of your space – home, garage, all of it – eaten-up by a plethora of tools.

Late summer is a good time of year to spend some quality “shop time” on organizing, Here are some ideas that might increase your productivity as well as your enjoyment of project-making and being a “maker.”.

But first, we roll through the headlines and charts since shops not only take time, and some organizing, but also a fair bit of money, done right.  (May noad slowly due to large number of graphics…)

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We’re not big on conspiracy theories, except when we find one supported by the data!  It’s not simple to explain how we got there, but you may see, as I certainly did, the clear shadow of a “hidden hand” behind society-wide market moves.

The problem – even more complex than the data sets – is now that we have the data, what is it trying to tell us?  How do we change it?

Just the kind of thing some cream cheese Danish and  coffee is designed to sort out.  After our usual few headlines to turn-over the crank between the ears…

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Political distractions aside, the real news is under the surface this week. As the market claws its way higher, we are looking at much of the same data the Fed uses and coming to some interesting conclusions. 

As a result, our normal “focus” piece will be an expanded ChartPack today with all eyes on where this market may go later this year and into next.

Right after some headlines and more coffee…

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No hype and no BS:  If the lights went out today, How long would you live?  I know, summer weekend and it’s not so bad, provided you don’t live down by the Gulf with Barry rolling in.

If there’s one semi-regular pattern to highly successful people, it is this:  They do the most difficult things first Around here, thinking the unthinkable is top of the list.  After you get through those items, the rest of life is easy-peasy.

So, let’s be very serious today and talk about some actuarial realities.  If the crap really hit the fan, how long would you last?  I mean stop everything, drop your pencil.  Look up right now.  What you see is all you have to work with and the power is off and the water no longer runs.

Have you got a 5-year plan for recovery that doesn’t depend on someone else getting the power back on, or your computer back online?  How do you slake that thirst?  Got even a one-week plan that doesn’t involving moving more than 1,000 feet?

Those are the kind of “toughies” we will be getting into after a few headlines and the ChartPack which shows how the markets now seem intent on either reprising The Fifth Dimension song or events from May to September 3 of 1929.

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Who owns the environment?  A strange mental disease began creeping into Western thinking.  Today, as we go looking for Quality – long lost in action – we focus not only on the major environmental issues that are here, but also on the underlying mindset that enables ‘others’ to claim primacy over things like clouds, rainwater, the oceans, and sure…the weather.

But, before we get to that, some comments on the morning’s news plus a ;look at our charts.  Two cups worth, by the look of it…

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So this morning we put on our “project engineering hat” and begin thinking and planning a migration path from a good experience with basic gardening to something which could become a ‘daily activity planner’  resulting in a never-ending garden.  Meaning you might never having to worry about food again – ever.

We won’t be using wildly complex design theory.  This will be more of a “roll your own” although we will probably build-up a simple spreadsheet in the future to help us with the mechanics of timing of how such a garden would operate in most climates.  There’s much to the process.  Who said eating was ‘simple?’

We will ‘hop to it’ just as soon as we get through a few headlines about the LA quakeand, of course, a look at the charts…

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Follow-up today (with some pictures) from this year’s hydroponic build.  We are running a race, of sorts, between the hydroponic tomatoes and their cousins grown in the dirt and in more controlled conditions in large pots in the greenhouse.  Junior high school science project?  Not quite…

If you plan to eat when the crap hits the fan (TSHTF), and you have some solar panels, which growing method is ‘best’ given where you live?

Fun stuff- and since tomorrow is a holiday and the markets close early today, why not get down with our hoes and party a bit?

After some headlines with the latest jobs data just hitting and our Aggregate Index view of markets…

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