However, we saw the biggest spike in inflation in 40 years during the Biden Administration, thanks to massive deficit spending, near-zero interest rates, and the temporary shutdown of the global supply chain.

Yet “time prices” still came down by the end of 2024, extending the long-term trend.

Between 2000 and 2024, the CPI rose 82.2%.

But hourly earnings for blue-collar workers rose 115.1% – outpacing inflation by more than 40%.

That means an hour of work bought 18.1% more goods and services at the end of 2024 than it did at the beginning of 2000.

That’s progress. Just not the kind that the media bothers to cover.

Unlike money, time can’t be counterfeited or inflated.

There is perfect equality here. We all get 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day.

Our time is truly our most precious resource, the only one that cannot be recycled, stored, duplicated, or recovered.

When time prices decrease – as they have for decades now – an hour of time buys more products and services.

While people often compare what they make with someone earning more, they rarely stop to realize how much more they can buy today compared with what they could buy in the past for the same hours worked.

Time prices are the one unimpeachable standard to compare abundance from one era to another.

And their fall is not due to an increase in material resources. It is due to the expansion of knowledge, which enables us to use resources more creatively and effectively.

This is a powerful phenomenon, yet one that is not commonly understood.

Being able to afford more while working less is further evidence that most Americans are living the Dream without realizing it.

Most of us take the long-term improvement in our standard of living for granted.

Indeed, there is a common misconception that increasing progress and prosperity have been the norm for as long as human beings have been around.

Yet history reveals that this is decidedly not the case.

Imagine, for example, that the Roman statesman Cicero was magically able to time travel and visit Thomas Jefferson at Monticello more than 1,800 years later.

Cicero would arrive at the coast of Virginia the same way Jefferson would have made the trip to Italy.

He would ride a horse to the nearest port and trust his fate to a windblown ship.

When Cicero arrived at Monticello months later, things would look quite familiar.

Jefferson’s home was heated by fire in the winter, and the doors and windows were left wide open in the summer, the same as in ancient Rome.

Jefferson read by candlelight, drew his water from a well, ate mostly what he raised, used an outhouse, and owned slaves, just like Romans did 18 centuries earlier.

Cicero would learn that four of Jefferson’s six children did not survive early childhood.

Nothing new there. This was sadly the case for most of human history.

(Jefferson’s wife died at age 33 of complications from giving birth to their sixth child.)

Except for a few notable innovations – like the printing press, gunpowder, and the compass – life in 1800 was hardly distinguishable from life almost 2,000 years earlier.

Since then, however, there has been an explosion in human progress and prosperity.

Economic historian Deirdre McCloskey calls it the Great Enrichment, a period of exponential wealth creation that started more than 200 years ago and is still accelerating.

This is plainly visible in the quality of your transportation, the speed of your communications, your many laborsaving devices, and the huge variety of goods, services, and outright luxuries available to you at the click of a button.

Thomas Jefferson did not have electricity, cars, trains, airplanes, radio, television, cameras and video recorders, smartphones, computers, lasers, batteries, the World Wide Web, antibiotics, vaccines, pacemakers, artificial hearts, MRI scans, gene therapies, and countless other lifesaving and life-enhancing innovations.

What is most responsible for our exponential increase in abundance?

Two things: freedom and people.

Freedom is crucial because it allows people to create and profit from their innovations.

(That’s why goods and services have not become cheaper for the average consumer in Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, and other unfree nations.)

But this phenomenon is not about freedom alone. It’s also about more people. A lot more people.

People generate knowledge. Knowledge multiplies output. And freedom lets people share, trade, and profit from their discoveries.

The freer a society, the greater its time price gains. The more people it empowers, the richer its outcomes.

Scarcity didn’t win. Innovation did.

We have increased food supply, for instance, by increasing yields from existing fields.

We’ve increased our agricultural efficiency so much that less than 2% of the U.S. population farms at all.

After more than a century of intensive fossil fuel use, we have more known deposits of oil and gas than ever before.

(And we’ve surveyed only a tiny portion of the planet.)

Overpopulation is not a threat. On the contrary, limiting population growth limits brainpower.

Yet generations of schoolchildren have been taught that population growth makes resources scarcer.

Indeed, academia and the media repeatedly warn us that we are consuming the planet’s natural resources at an alarming rate… and that they will soon be gone.

Not true. Resource abundance is growing faster than the world population.

Our economy has reached such a level of efficiency and sophistication that we are producing an increasing amount of goods and services while using ever-fewer resources.

For example, from 2014 to 2024 U.S. real gross domestic product grew by 27.6%.

But, over the same period, energy consumption decreased by 1.3%.

Western countries have learned how to get the most energy with the least emission of greenhouse gases.

As we climbed the energy ladder from wood to coal to oil to gas, the ratio of carbon to hydrogen in our energy sources fell steadily.

As a result, fewer American cities are now shrouded in a smoggy haze.

Our distant ancestors spent most of their waking hours hunting and gathering food to live.

Yet the typical American today earns their food in a matter of minutes. And we are spoiled for choice at the average supermarket.

We have more goods and services available – and work fewer hours to afford them – than any previous generation.

The world today is incomparably richer than it was in decades past.

Yet the doomsayers are unable to see it – or don’t want to.

Instead, they continually warn us that the end is nigh.

As a result, many Americans are unable to enjoy the countless advantages of modern life because they believe it is on the verge of ending – and there is nothing they can do about it.

Don’t buy it. Especially the claims about “overpopulation.”

The most important resource in today’s world is not oil or natural gas or some rare earth mineral.

It’s people. By applying their intelligence and creativity, individual men and women make other resources more abundant.

Additional people don’t just create additional demand. (Although that also promotes growth and prosperity.)

They represent an additional supply of ideas, knowledge, and productive work.

We shouldn’t underestimate the power of this. Or what time prices tell us.

When you spend less time laboring to feed and clothe your family, put a roof over your head, keep the lights on, and pay your bills, you are gaining the ultimate wealth: more time to do what you really want.

This is not just prosperity. It’s superabundance.

And another reason to acknowledge that the American Dream is alive and well – for those with eyes to see it.

The post How Americans Have Achieved Unprecedented Prosperity appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

Julia retired in 2023 after more than 30 years as CEO – partially so she could focus more of her time on a cause that’s very near and dear to her heart: the Roberto Clemente Health Clinic in Nicaragua.

She was instrumental in founding the Clinic over 20 years ago, and she’s continued to help it grow and serve people and families in need.

But as she writes below, it’s currently short of its fundraising goal for 2026.

This holiday season, would you consider making a donation to ensure the Clinic’s hardworking staff can continue to provide lifesaving care?

(The Oxford Club’s parent company, The Agora Companies, will match 100% of your donation up to $10,000, so your generosity will have an even bigger impact!)

Click here to donate today.

– James Ogletree, Senior Managing Editor

Dear Friends of the Roberto Clemente Health Clinic,

We’re in the final stretch of the giving season, and I’m reaching out with an urgent request.

The Roberto Clemente Health Clinic is just $35,000 short of our annual fundraising goal – representing 7% of what we need to fully operate in 2026.

Seems like so little, right? After all, this is to operate a 24/7 primary and emergency health care facility, with a 27-person team, including medics and pharmacists and ambulance drivers.

How’s this possible? Of course, one reason is we’re located in Nicaragua, where labor costs are significantly lower. But also – we have one of the most dedicated, most resourceful and efficient non-profit teams you can know.

You might wonder:

How much would my small contribution right now really accomplish? Your impact is huge. Let me show you.

If we reach our goal in these next few weeks, we can:

• Hire another nurse to strengthen our 24/7 rotation. In all of southwestern Nicaragua – a desperately poor agricultural and coastal region – we’re one of the only safe havens for emergency care. That round-the-clock availability saves lives.

• Expand our monthly mobile clinic outreach to more remote communities with little to no healthcare access. We bring checkups and free medicines to families who often haven’t seen a healthcare provider in years. More funding means reaching more villages and bringing more supplies.

• Purchase critical equipment like the portable ultrasound that tops Dr. Hazel Ruiz’s wish list for 2026. Equipment like this transforms what our medical team can diagnose and treat on the spot.

Your donation today doesn’t just help us hit a number – it directly enables our team to do more for struggling families who desperately need access to quality healthcare. And that access? It’s priceless.

Thank you for considering a gift this season. Visit www.nicaclinic.org to donate. In Nicaragua, the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, every dollar makes a profound difference.

We’re so close to closing the gap so we can fully meet our potential in 2026. Please, whatever extra you can give this month means so much to the team.

Here’s to your health and happiness this holiday season.

With gratitude,

Julia C. Guth
Chair, The Roberto Clemente Health Clinic
jguth@nicaclinic.org

The post An Opportunity to Give Back appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

To read the first one (which came out on Tuesday), click here.

– James Ogletree, Senior Managing Editor

In the 1990s, my wife and I went on a weeklong summer trip to the Canadian Rockies.

We stayed in a small town on a gorgeous lake. One day, strolling by a local real estate office, we looked at the listings in the window and were shocked by how inexpensive the homes were.

The American dollar was very strong against the Canadian dollar at the time. A modest home could be had for around $50,000. We started to dream of escaping the rat race and settling down in this charming Canadian town.

And then I found out it gets down to minus 30 degrees “only a few times a year.”

Dealbreaker.

But ever since then, when we travel, if we really love a location, we’ll look at real estate listings and sometimes go out with a realtor. And we’ve even bought a couple of places.

We recently had another one of those experiences in Costa Rica.

I’d been there before – once for an Oxford Club conference many years ago and then again in 2024 on vacation. It’s simply one of my favorite countries I’ve ever visited.

The natural beauty is stunning, and we love that it is very protected.

While there is development going on, there are strict rules in order to preserve the environment, wildlife, and scenery. That’s also good from an investment perspective, as it won’t ever get overdeveloped.

Costa Rica is also known for its people.

Nearly everyone I met spoke English. They are among the warmest and friendliest in the world. I’m not just talking about the waiter at the luxury hotel. I mean the construction worker in the street and the locals watching soccer at the neighborhood field.

Speaking of waiters, though, the food is outrageously good. You can get gourmet meals at incredibly beautiful restaurants – or very tasty (but cheap) eats at local establishments called “sodas.”

A friend took this picture of my wife and I toasting as we watched the sunset from an amazing restaurant in Las Catalinas…

We like to be outside, so Costa Rica is perfect for us. The hiking, the beaches, the water… it’s all there to enjoy.

This was us after a morning hike where the trail ended on the beach.

You can probably tell that I’ve fallen in love with Costa Rica. But when it comes to money, I use my head, not my heart.

That’s another reason why Costa Rica is so attractive to me.

I’m looking to buy a place in Guanacaste, which is on the Pacific side of the country. I plan on renting it out when I’m not using it.

I also expect prices to rise significantly there.

Costa Rica is a democracy and one of the most stable governments in Latin America.

Luxury hotels and homes are being built, more flights are being added to Liberia airport, and the area is attracting more tourists.

There’s a definite buzz about Costa Rica these days, and while it’s hardly undiscovered, it still feels like I’ll be on the early side of things.

My hope is that in the near future, in addition to my family having more vacations down there, you’ll be reading a column that I wrote while eating fish tacos at the local “soda” – after which I’ll take a stroll on the beach, go for a quick swim, and return home to watch the sunset from my balcony.

Pura vida!

The post My Keys to Real Estate Investing… and Where I’m Buying Next appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

Below, Alex gives us an important and inspiring reminder that the American Dream is still within reach.

For more of this type of content from Alex, check out the Liberty Through Wealth website here.

– James Ogletree, Managing Editor

I recently debated with author and economist Dr. Gregory Clark, who argues that there is no social mobility in this country.

In his view, you are statistically unlikely to rise above the economic quintile that you were born into.

There is a problem with his argument, however. It is demonstrably untrue.

Most readers have experienced economic mobility themselves.

Part of growing older is moving from earning no income, to earning minimum wage, to performing low-skill jobs, to landing better jobs – thanks to education and training – to earning your peak income (due to greater experience), to retiring and earning less.

This is a fundamental part of most workers’ experience. And it results in increasing income mobility right up until retirement.

Workers who, in addition, live within their means, save, and invest generate substantial assets as well.

And higher income and greater wealth make it far easier to live the American Dream.

I can now look back a half-century to my high school days and recognize dozens of men and women who followed this path. And I’ve met many hundreds more along the way.

This is merely anecdotal evidence, of course. (Although I’ll bet your experience is similar.)

A scholar like Dr. Clark would insist on reliable and convincing statistical evidence instead.

And there is plenty of it.

A few years ago, Senator Phil Gramm, Dr. Robert Ekelund, and Dr. John Early – three men with different political views – co-authored an excellent book entitled, “The Myth of American Inequality: How Government Biases Policy Debate.”

The authors note that there are essentially two ways to assess income mobility.

The first one measures changes in income over an individual’s lifetime (as I described above).

The other – Dr. Clark’s particular interest – measures the change in children’s income compared to the parents. (Intergenerational social mobility, in other words.)

Combining data from the Census Bureau, the Treasury Department, and the Pew Charitable Trusts, the authors demonstrate the following…

• The vast majority of Americans have experienced rising real incomes over all extended periods in the nation’s history.
• No matter what step of the economic escalator individuals begin on, rising productivity tends to increase inflation-adjusted earnings over time.
• Those who exert more effort – through education or persistence – earn even more.
• Multiple studies reveal a high level of mobility no matter what income level a child was born into.
• Almost 90% of adult children’s economic success comes from factors not related to the income ranks of parents.
• For children reared by parents in the bottom income quintile, 93% grew up to have more income than their parents.
• They conclude by saying, “Economic mobility is alive, powerful, and widespread in America today.”

Ours is a story of extraordinary upward mobility driven by the efforts of American workers and the most prosperous economy in the history of the world.

They also point out that most American fortunes – even the very largest – disappear within a few generations, thanks to charitable gifts and spendthrift heirs.

In the book, the authors cite Dr. Clark for doing a bang-up job of depicting wage stagnation from 1200 until 1800.

How he could remain impervious to the evidence that things are dramatically different today is a mystery.

It’s true that some countries have higher levels of social mobility than others.

What accounts for this difference?

1. Family structure: Communities with a higher proportion of two-parent households tend to have ever greater upward mobility, even for children of single parents.
2. Early childhood environment: Parent interaction and quality-of-life experiences give kids a head’s start. (Many inner-city toddlers grow up in a culture of silence. They come to kindergarten lacking basic knowledge, such as the fact that peas are “small, round, and green.”)
3. Education: Lower drop-out rates mean more kids have the skills they need to hold higher-paying jobs.
4. Social capital: Neighborhoods with strong social networks and community involvement have higher rates of mobility.
5. Migration: People who find it easy to move from rural areas to the city – or from one city to another – are better able to pursue better job opportunities.

Many U.S. communities do a good job of nurturing these values. Others, less so.

As a parent, I would try to foster these conditions to make it as easy as possible for my children to rise.

Looking at the list, I’m reminded of a story about Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman.

A Swedish economist once told him, “In Scandinavia, we have no poverty.” Friedman replied, “In America, among Scandinavians, we have no poverty either.”

Other nations do not struggle with the same racial history that we have here.

However, if Sweden’s robust welfare state is superior to the American system, it’s also worth pondering why Swedes here earn far more than Swedes over there.

Perhaps what individuals who believe the dream is dead really need is a change of perspective.

They may still have a long way to go to achieve their most important financial goals. But opportunities exist.

All they need is a plan to get there, the desire to get started, and a determination to carry through.

The American Dream is an aspiration and, ultimately, an achievement. Those who see it as an entitlement are bound to be disappointed.

The first step in achieving it is realizing that it exists – and then moving toward it in a systematic way.

The post The Case for American Social Mobility appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

These days, millions of Americans would tell you the American Dream no longer exists… but as you’ll see below, Chief Investment Strategist Alexander Green believes it’s alive and well.

– James Ogletree, Managing Editor

I once debated Dr. Gregory Clark, an author and economics professor who claims that the American Dream “is a complete myth.”

Yet it was his arguments that sounded like the tale of Hercules.

The American Dream is not just real. It’s part of our national identity; one all Americans should recognize and respect.

This country was built on three pillars: the Declaration of Independence (which proclaims that we are a free people with natural rights), the U.S. constitution (which is how we protect those rights), and the American Dream (which is how we exercise our right to pursue happiness).

Remove any of these three and the United States is not the same country.

It may surprise Dr. Clark to learn that Americans today enjoy a quality of life that is not only enviable but unmatched by most of the world’s population.

We stand out in several measures of economic wellbeing.

For starters, the U.S. has the highest living standard in the world, at four times the global average. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, median household income hit a record $80,610 in 2023.

According to the World Bank, you only need an annual income of approximately $60,000 to make it into the top 1% of the world’s income-earners.

(We are a nation of global one-percenters who regularly grouse about the richest 1% here rather than comparing ourselves to most of the world’s population, which envies the American middle class.)

Let’s set the poorer nations of the world aside for a moment, however.

Americans also have more purchasing power than most citizens in the West.

According to the OECD Better Life Index, the average household net-adjusted disposable income per capita in the U.S. is 68% higher than the OECD average.

It’s great to have more spending money in your pocket. But real security comes not from income – which tends to come and go – but from assets.

The median wealth per adult in the U.S. is $107,739. This is more than 12 times higher than the global median wealth per adult of $8,654.

These figures indicate that the American Dream is not only alive, but that millions of Americans have been busy achieving it.

There are several reasons why the U.S. has some of the highest living standards, household incomes and net wealth in the world.

We rank among the top countries in the world in personal and economic freedoms.

We have abundant natural resources, including plenty of minerals, arable land, and long coastlines.

We are a diverse nation that accepts people from all backgrounds and offers them equal opportunities.

We are a meritocracy. Most advancement is based on skills, persistence, and hard work – not connections, patronage, or luck.

We have a risk-taking culture that prizes innovation and success. Failure is viewed as a temporary stumbling block, not a stigma that prevents future efforts.

And, of course, we have the world’s largest economy and a growth rate that is superior to most nations, with low unemployment and rising wages.

It’s hard to look at all this and conclude that the American Dream doesn’t exist.

However, Dr. Clark claims there is no social mobility here.

In his view, if you’re born to poor parents, you are likely to end up poor yourself. If you are born to middle-class parents, you are likely to rise no higher than the middle class. And if you are born into an affluent family, you are likely to end up wealthy yourself.

The idea that Americans can rise as far as their talents and persistence will take them, he insists, is fanciful.

Do the facts bear him out? They do not.

They refute him entirely.

The post The American Dream Is Alive and Well appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

These charities are sometimes found in our own backyard… but at other times, they’re in faraway lands. Sadly, there’s never scarcity when it comes to places and people in dire need. And yes, I think everyone can agree that giving feels good – for ourselves personally and for our businesses. (Plus, we can get a good tax deduction to boot!)

But we want to be careful and confident that our donations are going to programs that are run effectively – serving the people we want to support. I’m sure you feel the same way.

Well, look no further…

I urge you to consider supporting the highly professional and dedicated team of The Roberto Clemente Health Clinic.

This small nonprofit health center is located in a rural area of Nicaragua, the second-poorest country in the Americas.

The Clinic was founded by The Oxford Club’s longtime CEO, Julia Guth, in 2004. I’ve personally visited the Clinic and have seen firsthand the incredible value it provides the community.

Without this team of 26 doctors, nurses, and program staff, tens of thousands of people would go without medicines, clean water, and nutritional support.

The Clinic is open 24/7. It has the only off-road ambulance in the region, providing emergency stabilization and transportation to hospitals. The team’s outreach program reaches remote villages on flooded roads, delivering medicines and providing examinations. The Clinic’s team even teaches families how to grow their own organic food.

And it does so on a very small budget.

This team has to be highly resourceful with what little support it receives. There are no large grants. Instead, the Clinic is supported mostly by individual donations. So your dollars will go tremendously far here. And the Clinic is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so your donation is tax-deductible.

Julia recently wrote a white paper that outlines everything you need to know about charitable giving, and she asked that we give it to our readers. It’s titled “Top 10 Charitable Giving Strategies for Modern Times,” and you can access it HERE.

The Clinic team operates its budget with professionalism and accountability, led by several highly experienced and talented individuals, who you can learn more about by going here.

Right now, the communities around the Clinic are facing unprecedented flooding.

Families are unable to access schools, healthcare, or even clean water for days and weeks at a time. Even more concerning, the makeshift houses in some of the most rural areas are at risk of being swept away.

The Clinic needs our help now more than ever.

I hope you’ll consider looking into the wonderful services the Clinic provides to the community and helping to support it.

Every little bit helps.

Good health is our most precious asset… and with your help, the welcoming citizens of Nicaragua can have a better life.

The post Giving Thanks and Giving Back appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

My daughter is home from college for a few weeks in between finishing the spring semester at school and starting her summer job. She asked if we could take a road trip while she’s around.

After various discussions on where to go, we took an impromptu trip to Costa Rica.

If you’ve never been, I highly recommend it.

The people are wonderful, the food is fresh and delicious, and the scenery is gorgeous.

Highlights of the trip included whitewater rafting… making our own chocolate on a cacao farm… a guided night hike, where we saw vipers, tarantulas and other critters… and several other hikes, where we stumbled upon howler monkeys and spotted a female quetzal (a beautiful blue bird that is endangered).

But of course, the best part was spending lots of quality time with our daughter. Since she’s a college student and a soon-to-be full-fledged adult, those opportunities are growing scarce. So being able to take the time to have an adventure together was priceless.

It reminded me of how grateful I am to have the ability to go on those kinds of trips and make memories with my family – and how much I want that for each of my readers too.

With that in mind, I wanted to share this episode of State of the Market about my three steps to achieving financial freedom, featuring cameos from Jerry Seinfeld, Matthew McConaughey, Thomas Jefferson… and Warren Buffett as Batman.

To watch the episode, simply click the image above.

The post Financial Freedom Is Within Your Reach appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

Julia is now working closely with a cause that’s been near and dear to her heart for many years: The Roberto Clemente Health Clinic.

She’d like to let you know about the life-saving work the Clinic is doing… and give you an opportunity to become a part of it yourself.

Please consider making a donation to the Clinic here. Thank you in advance for your generosity.

– Rachel Gearhart, Publisher

Springtime is renewal time, and we can’t put it off any longer…

Our dedicated medical and operations teams need more donations this year to renew and refurbish our small medical facility in Nicaragua.

It’s been 20 years since we opened our doors, so we’re due for some much-needed upgrades – especially to the electrical system, HVAC and roofing.

It doesn’t take a lot to repair and modernize a building in Nicaragua. But thanks to inflation and supply shortages, it certainly takes more than it used to – hundreds of thousands of dollars. That means we have to do a focused spring campaign to get the needed funds to revive the facility.

The local communities deserve our attention. Many impoverished Nicaraguan families and workers have come to depend on us for urgent and primary care.

They deserve a modernized, safe, clean and decently equipped health clinic. And by giving today toward this special Spring Renewal Campaign for our Roberto Clemente Health Clinic, your donation will be doubled, thanks to generous matching funds provided by The Oxford Club, a longtime supporter of our Clinic.

Here are some grim statistics…

An astounding 2.2 billion people still live without safely managed drinking water, including 115 million people who drink surface water, according to the WHO/UNICEF 2023 report. And roughly half the world’s population experiences severe water scarcity for at least part of the year.

The Roberto Clemente Health Clinic team sees the effects of poor water firsthand.

There is no public water well system for these poor communities. The well water there is very calcified and usually contaminated by nearby septic leaks and storms.

So we had to step in, knowing that consuming clean water reduces the risk of sickness and promotes better hygiene. It was simply a matter of public health.

We started the Clinic’s Aqua Azul clean water program over a decade ago with help from generous donors like you. We established our own water well and filtered purification system to distribute clean water to local schools, libraries, families and other public health facilities. Now families can more easily access safe drinking water.

Our dedicated team of doctors, nurses and outreach staff meet the local health challenges daily with patience, perseverance, warmth and skill.

They tend to patients suffering from kidney stones, dengue, respiratory infections, diarrhea and other illnesses, all of which are exacerbated by the lack of clean water.

And they respond to emergencies of all kinds, from families losing their homes in natural disasters to the diabetes crisis to moto accidents.

The Clinic also has a nutrition program that provides healthy meals and education to undernourished families. Our mobile medical team traverses rugged terrain to bring care to isolated communities. In the past year, we’ve served over 10,000 patients who required emergency care – and reached 17,000 more patients through outreach wellness checks and medicines. Our pharmacy has served over 9,000 locals and foreigners in need of urgent care.

We also run holistic programs focused on education, nutrition and sustainable food sources with our community garden. The Healthy Eating Initiative trains over 60 families in organic gardening, providing tools, seeds and land to cultivate nutritious crops. And through sponsorships, we’ve supported over 47 families, enabling children to pursue university degrees.

But as I mentioned above, we need to repair and restore the facility that houses not only our water purification system, but our medical offices and patient rooms.

So I’m writing you today for your help, especially as we enter the spring, a time of renewal for our team and facility. Please help us make this happen.

We need continued support for the processing facility, the distribution vehicles and repairs to the main clinic building.

I’m happy to say that we’ll receive matching funds of up to $20,000 from The Oxford Club for this spring campaign, so your tax-deductible donation today will have double the impact!

The need in challenged regions of the Americas like Nicaragua is immense. But you can directly impact lives there in a very positive way for relatively little.

Here’s a breakdown of how contributions of any size can help.

Please join us in continued support for this life-saving work. Your tax-deductible gift to the Roberto Clemente Health Clinic, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, will help deliver clean water, health services and urgent care, and greater empowerment to the most vulnerable in Nicaragua.

Together, we can help strengthen these deserving communities with greater health and hope.

Thank you for your continuous attention to this impoverished region of the Americas!

With warmest regards,

Julia Cooke Guth
Chair, The Oxford Advisory Council
Founder & Board Chair, The Roberto Clemente Health Clinic
jguth@nicaclinic.org

P.S. The Oxford Club has generously pledged to match the funds for this campaign – up to $20K! Go here to contribute now and potentially double your impact!

The post Investing in a Worthy Cause appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

You gave us a ton of positive feedback the last time we shared Matt’s thoughts in Wealthy Retirement, so today, I’m doing so again. I think you’ll enjoy this column just as much as the last one.

To read more from Matt and Chief Investment Strategist Alexander Green, check out the Liberty Through Wealth website.

– James Ogletree, Managing Editor

Liberty Through Wealth is the name of our column because we firmly believe that successful investing can lead to wealth – and give you the freedom to live the life you want.

Yet it has become particularly obvious that investing IN freedom and liberty can also boost your portfolio’s performance.

We can see that by considering nations that are economically unfree.

They lack many of the fundamental human and economic freedoms that we in the West take for granted: property rights, rule of law, and the ability to trade and make contracts, plus the basic freedoms of speech, association, religion and assembly.

To be sure, there is no simple “free or unfree” dichotomy.

The Fraser Institute produces an annual report on economic freedom around the world, and the 2023 edition is now out.

According to Fraser’s metrics, Singapore is the economically freest nation, followed by Switzerland, New Zealand, the United States, Ireland, Denmark, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada.

The 10 least free nations are the Republic of Congo, Algeria, Argentina, Libya, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Syria, Zimbabwe and Venezuela.

So, what does all this matter to investors?

It turns out that avoiding unfree countries is a good idea. They tend to have rulers who are capricious and unpredictable – and investors tend to misprice the risk that comes along with that.

There’s an exchange-traded fund (ETF) I wrote about almost two years ago, the Freedom 100 Emerging Markets ETF (CBOE: FRDM), that uses economic freedom indexes – like the one above from the Fraser Institute – along with other metrics to create an emerging markets investing strategy that embraces personal and economic freedom.

Recently, I compared the Freedom 100’s performance over the past five years with that of the broader iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSE: EEM). It’s up 29% over that time, while the broader emerging markets index is down about 7%.

International Diversification

Here at The Oxford Club, we encourage our Members to diversify their portfolios by including a healthy share – about 30% – of foreign or international stocks. That could include emerging market stocks, too. As Chief Investment Strategist Alexander Green often says, these stocks tend to zig when U.S. stocks zag, so they provide a nice balance.

And there are many places to invest your money on the planet. Many of them are the unfree autocracies that score so poorly in the Fraser index.

While you may never consider investing in Congo, Yemen or Zimbabwe, you might have had investments in other, larger unfree nations. For example, in Fraser’s freedom index of 165 countries, Russia ranks 104 and China 111.

So, how have stock markets done there?

Well, as measured by the iShares MSCI China ETF (Nasdaq: MCHI), the Chinese stock market peaked in February 2021 and is down 60% since then (in turn, the S&P 500 is up 27% since February 2021).

Part of that dramatic drop in Chinese stocks was due to the fact that in 2021 China’s government unexpectedly – and with little warning – cracked down on internet, education and video game companies in the name of “common prosperity.”

And how about Russia?

The country is widely known as one of the world’s largest oil exporters.

Russia’s stock market floated along quite nicely for several years until late 2021 when the winds of war began to blow. After Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine two years ago, freedom (of speech, association, press, etc.) went out the window.

The iShares MSCI Russia ETF (NYSE: ERUS) was once a proxy for Russia’s stock market…

And now, it has to be seen to be believed.

BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) ran the ETF and has since shuttered it.

So, avoiding such unfree nations when you invest is very likely a good way to boost your portfolio’s returns.

Freedom isn’t free, as they say. But it may be profitable.

The post Freedom Has the Power to Lift Your Portfolio appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

Long before any of us arrived, we knew this pivotal event would test our resolve – and that we could trust no one.

One by one, we filed into the room and took our seats around the long mahogany table. And when everyone was accounted for… we began.

After more than an hour of contentious negotiations, someone abruptly slapped a slip of paper onto the table. Immediately, I sprang up out of my chair, banged my fist on the table and exclaimed…

“A 7 of spades! I’ve got a full house! I win!”

A Somber Reminder

Unfortunately, I did not go on to win our highly anticipated Oxford Club poker game. (I went all-in and lost all my chips a few hands later.)

But that poker game is still the highlight of one of my favorite weeks of 2023.

You see, unlike most of my colleagues here at the Club, I don’t reside in the Baltimore area. I live in Virginia Beach, Virginia, which means I’m over four hours and 240 miles away from the people I work and talk with every day.

Sure, working from home has its perks. But we all know sending off a quick email just isn’t the same as walking down the hall, popping into your co-worker’s office and striking up a conversation.

Nowadays, it feels like it’s harder than ever to make genuine connections with people.

I saw this chart the other day on “The Platform Formerly Known as Twitter,” and it stopped me dead in my tracks. It’s a somber reminder of the lonely reality many Americans face as we age…

According to that data, the average person my age spends around 4 1/2 hours alone every day. But for me as a remote worker, it’s normally close to twice that number.

That’s why I’ve learned to cherish the few weeks I spend in Baltimore every year – especially the week of our annual holiday party, which is one of the only times that all of us are able to be together.

While I was in town at the start of last month, I shared a meal with Marc and Rachel, I caught up with Jenna (the all-star copy editor behind Wealthy Retirement) and met her fiancé for the first time, and I enjoyed s’mores and doughnuts with Kailyn, the video-editing mastermind behind Marc’s State of the Market YouTube series.

As the week drew to a close, I was full of gratitude to be a part of this Club and to be able to work with so many amazing people.

My Challenge to You

Here’s my lasting takeaway from this holiday season: The memories we create with the people around us can make up for all the other junk that goes on in our lives.

And with that in mind, I have a simple challenge for you as we turn the page to a new year.

Take the leap.

Whatever “the leap” means to you… whether it’s joining a gym, picking up a new hobby or finding an excuse to get out of the house… I encourage you to dive headfirst into making memories with the people you care about.

Of course, I’d love it if you’d allow The Oxford Club to be a part of that leap. Our No. 1 priority in 2024 is fostering a deeper sense of community among our Members, and I think you’ll really appreciate some of the things we have in the works.

But no matter whether you’re a brand-new Wealthy Retirement reader or a longtime Oxford Club Member, I want you to know that we’re in your corner cheering you on.

We’re truly grateful that you’ve allowed us to play a role in your wealth-building journey. Whatever may come in 2024 and beyond, here’s to playing our cards right… together.

The post How to Fight America’s Loneliness Epidemic appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.