Idle Meandering On A Saturday Night -- July 14, 2017

This was posted July 14, 2017; why it is showing up here, I have no idea why. 

Disclaimer: I could not possibly be in a better mood. I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken. It's Friday night. I'm listening to Conway Twitty. I'm looking forward to spending the rest of my life on Flathead Lake, Montana. I'm off my meds. Folks should probably skip this post.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any financial, investment, travel, job, or relationship decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here.

I cannot believe this. What a great time to be an investor in energy.

The French minister of energy says the country will close a significant number of nuclear reactors (taking a page from Angela Merkel). Unless France switches to coal, there's only one alternative to nuclear fuel for dependable, uninterruptible energy: natural gas.

China is stealthily increasing its crude oil consumption.

Goldman Sachs says oil might fall to $20; Citi says otherwise.

All I know is this: energy is inexpensive. If I end up "averaging down" that's fine.

With regard to my equity portfolio, I continue to add energy. It's incredible. The oil sector has been beaten down so badly, there are opportunities galore. I prefer equities with dividends but I'm sure there are other alternatives. I just keep filling my market basket with shares in energy. I have a 20-year investment horizon. Overall, energy is a very tiny part of my total portfolio (pension, social security, trad IRAs, Roths, a 401k) but the most fun I have is watching developments in energy.

That's not exactly correct. The most fun I have is with Sophia when we go swimming.

The "thing" that has me most jazzed tonight is all the infrastructure that's being laid in across the US, but mostly in Texas. Specifically the stories at this post concerning Sempra and Enterprise Products are just one example.

For an investor, in her thirties just beginning to invest, this is one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to build a portfolio with some inexpensive energy stocks, many of them paying nice dividends (and very safe dividends).

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Vanguard

This is why "no one" worries about the US debt. Whether they should worry about the US deficit is another question, a separate question. All I'm suggesting is one reason why folks don't worry about the US debt.

Today in the print edition The Wall Street Journal reports that "Vanguard Taps New Chief." But this is what caught my attention: Vanguard now has $4.4 trillion in assets under management, trailing only BlackRock Inc. in total size....during the first six months of this year, Vanguard pulled in roughly $214 billion in net new money. Industry-wide, US mutual funds and exchange-traded funds attracted a net $387.3 billion in the first half of the year.

$4.4 trillion and it's in second place. Okay. I first started investing in one of the Vanguard funds back in the late 1980s.

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Chicago

Our older daughter is in Chicago for nursing school reasons. She is having a blast.

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Swimming

Sophia and I just spent 90 minutes in the pool. Her favorite activity is jumping off the diving board at the deep end of the pool. It's over 14 feet deep. I'm 65 years old and an "okay" swimmer. She has just turned three years old and is learning to swim. The first few times she jumped off the diving board was very scary for me, but now I have her figured out and we make a great team. Instead of being right under the board and catching her, I stay back about 10 feet and let her jump in as far out as she can and then she swims towards me. By the time she reaches me, we are fairly close to the shallow end and I don't really have to swim that far to get her to where she can swim to the steps. We've done a lot of things together over the years -- all three years. LOL.

She's watching "Princess Sophia" on YouTube now on the MacBook Air. She can navigate YouTube as well as anyone. I almost never have to help her. Meanwhile, I'm on the old MacBook Pro.

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Munchies

I cut up a big apple for Sophia. She's not really interested but I also give her a small bowl with about six M&Ms and about five sour cream and onion potato chips. She finishes the candy and chips first, of course, but now will end up eating the whole apple. Just put out healthy snacks for Sophia and it's amazing how much she will eat on her own. I don't have to cajole her a bit. Her favorite snack: broccoli.

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Music Trivia

How is this song related to Lost In The Fifties Tonight which was featured just the other day?

Seven Spanish Angels, Willie Nelson and Ray Charles