What I’m Most Thankful for This Holiday Season ...

You can almost taste the turkey, can’t you? I know I can!

Our bird is currently brining in the fridge. We’re prepping the sides later today. Then tomorrow, the glorious smell of Thanksgiving food will be wafting through the house.

I hope and trust you will enjoy your holiday with family and friends. This is truly one of my favorite times of year because it gives me time to reflect on all I’m thankful for. My family. My health. My happiness. And of course, readers like you.

I consider it a privilege to have your loyalty as a subscriber. And I will continue to do my best to help you build and preserve your wealth, in both good times and bad.

Over the past several weeks, of course, we’ve had more of the former than the latter. The markets have rallied off their October lows and are trying to mount a year-end charge to or through 3,150 on the S&P 500.

That has benefitted many of the more-conservative, dividend yield-oriented positions in my Safe Money Report even as it has been accompanied by a modest correction in gold and mining shares.

Of course, the obvious question is, “Will this last?” And that’s where I have my doubts, at least in 2020.

You know many of the reasons: The very real risk of recession next year, the bursting of the tech IPO bubble, the modest yet growing turmoil in the corporate debt market and wildly extreme asset market valuations.

Then there is the ongoing inability of this advance to be “confirmed” through broader participation and widespread technical momentum (as captured by our proprietary Weiss Ratings data).

That doesn’t mean you can’t find winning investments. I’m very thankful for the multiple rounds of single-digit and double-digit gains of up to 25% in the Safe Money model portfolio. (Note: To join in on these gains and receive specific recommendations, “Buy” and “Sell” guidance and more, click here.)

But it does mean, at this point in the economic and credit cycles, that you should be more cautious and judicious in allocating your hard-earned capital.

Your best bet is to focus on stocks with solid yields in sectors like health care or utilities ... carry higher levels of cash ... and diversify into assets like precious metals.

You can use the Weiss Ratings “Screeners” at our website to search for stocks and ETFs with higher Ratings, better yields, and/or favorable sector affiliations.

Now, here’s one last piece of advice: Go enjoy your long holiday weekend. After all, it’s almost time to eat!

Until next time,

Mike Larson