Young's World Money Forecast

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Archives for December 2025

Richard C. Young Explains: How to Invest Like Einstein

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Originally posted October 23, 2018.

When asked to name the greatest invention in history, Albert Einstein responded, compound interest.

Over three decades ago I started our family investment counsel firm focusing on the miracle of compound interest to help retired and soon to be retired investors just like you.

My short and quick goal was, as it remains today, safety of principal and a consistent flow of income through investors’ long and peaceful retirements.

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, when the wizard Gandalf asked Bilbo Baggins to take part in an adventure, the Hobbit told Gandalf that he viewed adventures as “… nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner.”

To meet our mission for family-centric clients, we wrap the Hobbit’s security blanket around Einstein’s concept of compound interest. This duo forms the foundation of our prudent investor platform. And no, we do not advise investing adventures for our clients.

Consistent Cash Flow and Security of Principal

To a one, when clients join us, they know that we, on their behalf, are focused on a consistent flow of cash, security of principal, and the miracle of compound interest. We neither speculate nor market time. We base our sound investments on the Prudent Man Rule, first initiated by Justice Samuel Putnam back in 1830.

The discretely managed portfolios at our investment counsel firm are crafted selecting individual securities for clients one at a time, like rare postage stamps.  As you know from reading my reports, we have moved away from the mutual fund model, especially as regards index funds, products whose time has past.

We craft portfolios by combining dividend-paying blue-chip stocks, each with a long record of increasing dividends annually. Our portfolios also include a substantial mix of blue-chip fixed income, whether corporate or government securities. The majority of portfolios are weighted 60/40 (stocks/bonds) or the inverse.

Our most defensive portfolios are aimed at investors looking to draw 4% (our base target) annually from retirement portfolios with (1) minimum volatility and (2) a high degree of comfort.

If you prefer a personalized approach, give my family-focused investment counsel firm a call (888-456-5444) to discuss today how we might make your investment life a little bit easier, and more productive for you.

At Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. we all look forward to sharing our retirement (current or future) strategies with you.

Warm regards,

Dick Young

The Singularity Is Nearer: Ray Kurzweil

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Originally posted May 28, 2025.

Ray Kurzweil has been a leading developer of artificial intelligence for 61 years, longer than any other living human. I am reading his most recent book, The Singularity is Nearer: When We Merge with AI. The implications of artificial intelligence are immense, and Kurzweil is viewing the technology from the forefront in his position as Principal Researcher and AI Visionary at Google. The book’s website explains:

The world’s most renowned oracle of technological change shows how human minds will merge with AI within the next two decades and what this momentous transformation will mean for us all.

One of the greatest inventors of our time, futurist Ray Kurzweil published his landmark book The Singularity Is Near in 2005 and dozens of his predictions about technological advancements have come true—with concepts like AI, intelligent machines, and biotechnology now widely familiar to the public.

In this visionary and fundamentally optimistic new book, Kurzweil brings a fresh perspective to advances toward the Singularity. Kurzweil predicts that by the end of this decade, AI will exceed human levels of intelligence and by 2045, we’ll be able to enhance our intelligence a millionfold, expanding our consciousness in ways we can barely imagine by connecting our brains directly to the cloud. Human life will be changed forever once we live free from the limits of biology—and this eventuality is drawing ever nearer.

Topics touched on by Kurzweil in the book are:

  • Rebuilding the world, atom by atom with devices like nanobots
  • Radical life extension beyond the current age limit of 120
  • Reinventing intelligence by connecting our brains to the cloud
  • How exponential technologies are propelling innovation and improving all aspects of our well-being
  • The growth of renewable energy and 3D printing, which can be applied to everything from clothes to building materials to growing human organs
  • Addressing potential perils of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence
  • AI’s impact employment and human safety
  • “After Life” technology to reanimate those who have passed away through a combination of data and DNA
  • How this next stage of humanity’s evolution can and will transform life on earth profoundly for the better

Kurzweil discusses his vision of AI in the video below:

Concentrate on Dividend Record and Compounding

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Originally posted March 11, 2020.  There are few histories as crucial to the course of my life as my awakening to the power of compound interest and the importance of dividends. Since my decision to climb on the dividend bandwagon, I have been an evangelist to hundreds of thousands of paid subscribers, and many more investors beyond. My message has been consistent and clear, and I don’t regret focusing on dividends a bit. Here’s how it all started.

Back to Monterey and Woodstock I’ve been developing investment strategies for investors like you before The Association kicked off the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival with “Along Comes Mary” or Richie Havens opened Woodstock in August 1969. I started soon after John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas in November 1963, and even before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis in April 1968. That’s a long time ago. The ‘60s was of course a seminal decade in American history. Key events, including the difficult investment environment of the ‘60s, seem like yesterday. My 1964 Beginning I’ve put together a display that tracks the Dow Jones Industrial Average through the decades. When I entered the securities business in the summer of 1964 (with Ed Rosenberg, Clayton Securities), I had no way of knowing that during my complete career in the Boston investment community, which ended in 1981, the Dow would end lower than when I began. How would you have liked to have retired in 1964 and faced a 16-year Dow downer? Talk about retirement financial hell. As my display indicates, the decade of the ‘60s provided a sad annual average return (ex-dividends) of only 1.65%. Moreover, the 1970s were set to be even worse. When the curtain came down on this miserable decade, investors had scored an average return of only 0.5% (before dividends). Thankfully for conservative investors today, as has been the case well before the ‘60s and ‘70s, dividends remain the name of the game. Ben Graham’s Powerful Investment Advice After my first reading of Security Analysis by Ben Graham in 1963, it’s still my most powerful investment influence. Ben was Mr. Dividends. I became attached to the concept before I landed at Clayton Securities at 147 Milk St. in Boston’s financial district. As early as 1964, I knew I would concentrate on dividends throughout my investment career.

Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd.

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Disclaimer:

The information contained here is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended nor should it be considered investment advice or a recommendation of securities. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. It is possible to lose money by investing. You should carefully consider your investment objectives and risk tolerance before investing.