The Private Equity for Families Blog

In the US we rarely think about currency because ours is the reserve currency of the world. Oil is priced in US Dollars. Many loans to emerging countries are denominated in dollars to hedge against currency devaluations. For a long time the Chinese Yuan was pegged to the dollar.

The moon tides in Maine this summer reminded me about risk in investing. Normal tides can be 8-9 feet but a few days every several months the tides change by 12-13 feet. Your complacency spikes when almost every dangerous shoal and rocky point has 25% more water than during

In a recent article in Barrons “What To Do With Excess Cash” Abby Schultz points out there is an interesting trend among high net worth investors to hold a high percentage of their investable assets in cash or cash equivalents: “According to Federal Reserve figures, retail investors had about

You don’t hear much about the financial status of the retiring baby boomers. Maybe that is because the news is pretty scary. I picked up on this by reading Ballmer’s USA Facts.  More recently the Wall Street Journal in an article by Heather Gillers, Anne  Tergesen and Leslie Scism

USA FACTS is a not for profit organization created by Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft. As I have written in a prior blog, this is like Joe Friday “just the facts, Maam.” Here is how Mr. Ballmer describes his efforts: “If you’re interested in gaining insight on government

I have a friend who has been a teacher for more than 20 years in Cuyahoga County. She is counting on her pension to navigate post retirement living for her and her husband who has also recently retired. Given all I have read and learned about the national problem

I have always been intrigued with the idea of a portfolio of assets you can sleep on for twenty years. In fact, it is probably a pretty good way to think about how you should invest. To refresh memories, recall that Rip Van Winkle was the creation of Washington

Since the end of last year, the three-month London interbank offered rate, known as LIBOR, has increased to 2.32% from 1.69%. LIBOR measures the cost for banks to lend to one another and is used to set interest rates on roughly $200 trillion in dollar-based financial contracts globally, including

I have written several blogs over the last six months about the national debt and how it may challenge many assumptions about the American economy as well as the American way of life. I am writing again because those challenges just became more imminent. To refresh the facts this

I am surprised  so few of the millennial generation are preparing for retirement by participating in tax deferred retirement plans. My generation was introduced to the miracle of compounding returns when the retirement system was revamped in 1976. Over 40 years later $1000 invested per year compounding at 8%

A lightning rod in the political world is immigration but less so in the business world.  In the lower middle market every one of our portfolio companies is looking for qualified workers who can pass a drug test, and perform entry level work.  I am not sure why Americans

Anyone who owned Bitcoin for long enough to have experienced its wild appreciation was excited to learn in December that the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE) was authorized to permit trading in Bitcoin futures (CBOE,XBT). Somehow I knew this would not be what I expected and the game

For those of us who are challenged by the pace of news and information or the great majority of us who simply do not have the time to dig into anything, The Wall Street Journal has an answer. Over the last six months subscribers to The WSJ have been