Morning Download from Invincible Money 

Personal finance + economics + markets

Finance in 5 minutes a day to help you make better money decisions.

Good morning investors! Tech and crypto are the best performers so far this year. Some say that’s the only thing to invest in going forward, while others think tech is getting over heated. Ethscriptions follows Bitcoin’s Ordinals to huge success and 3 different ways to budget.

📊 Economy 

Tech and Crypto Outperform

The tech-heavy NASDAQ is up 31% YTD, while the S&P 500 is up 15%.

So far, this data supports a forecast made by former hedge fund manager, Raoul Pal, where he said tech stocks and crypto will perform the best over the long-term due to the economics and challenges faced by debt-laded countries, companies and individuals.

How? Innovation & productivity will drive tech stocks, while investors looking to diversify away from a global financial system with a lot of issues, will drive up Bitcoin.

Despite it’s volatility and current bear market, Bitcoin has had an overall average growth rate of 68.89% since its inception and is up 38.25% over the past year and 58% YTD (year to date).

📰 News

Argentina’s inflation is at 114%, fueling a spending spree on restaurants as people need to get rid of their devaluing money quickly.

Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, PIF, launched a new pharmaceutical company called Lifera.

• The company will focus on manufacturing generic and branded drugs in the Kingdom.

• PIF's investment in Lifera is part of its plan to diversify the Kingdom's economy away from oil.

U.S. Sec of State Blinken and Chinese President Xi met yesterday and agreed to “stabilize” deteriorating ties between the 2 countries.

• However, Xi rebuffed Blinken’s request to have better communications between their militaries, blaming the current sanctions against China.

• Sanctions include: 5 Hong Kong companies supporting Russia’s military, the semiconductor industry overall and 2 companies providing materials to make fentanyl to Mexican drug cartels.

📈 Stocks

The U.S. stock market was closed yesterday in observance of Juneteenth.

Dueling world views

Some analysts believe tech stocks, largely driving by the A.I. boom, still have room to grow. They point to the fact that tech sold off in 2022 as investors moved money into higher returning assets, like Treasuries, as rates rose.

Now tech stocks are just gaining back those losses as the Fed nears the end of rate hikes.

Others wonder if this is a repeat of 1999, followed by the dot bomb crash. People in that camp acknowledge the advances of the internet era, but point out that it’s hard to pick which companies will be the big winners

They also warn this run may be getting overheated.

Which one are you? Reply to this email and share your thoughts.

Money flows

The most traded names last Friday were Tesla, Nvidia, AMD, Apple and Meta.

Recently, investors have been pouring money into tech stocks with Tesla leading the pack (by far!).

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🔐 Crypto

Former co-founder of crypto hedge fund, 3 Arrows Capital, Do Kwon is accused of having a forged passport. He denied it and blamed it on a 3rd party agency “with a Chinese name” he couldn’t remember.

Tether denies having Chinese notes

Tether, a stablecoin issuer, responded to reports that its reserves once included Chinese securities.

Tether said the reports were "misleading" and the company no longer holds any Chinese securities and when it did (about 2 years ago), it was Chinese commercial paper issued from some of the world’s largest money managers.

A new project called Ethscriptions allows users to encode text into Ethereum transactions.

• Ethscriptions is similar to the Ordinals project, which allows users to encode text into Bitcoin transactions.

• Ethscriptions is still in its early stages, but it has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with the Ethereum blockchain.

• Ethscriptions could be used to create new applications, such as decentralized voting systems and tamper-proof records.

💵 Personal Finance

3 Ways to Budget Your Way to Big $$$ 

If you are not already budgeting, I highly recommend that you start today. (It’s never too late)

There are many different budgeting methods, so find one that works for you. Consider using a budgeting app that can help you track your income and expenses to make it easier. The easier it is, the more likely you’ll stick to it.

I use Mint.com and it’s great.

Here are a few of the most popular budgeting methods:

• The 50/30/20 rule: This method divides your income into three categories: needs, wants, and savings. 50% of your income should go towards needs, such as housing, food, and transportation. 30% of your income should go towards wants, such as entertainment, dining out, and travel. 20% of your income should go towards savings, such as retirement savings, emergency savings, and debt repayment.
  

• The zero-based budget: This method allocates every dollar of your income to a specific category. This includes all of your income, including your paycheck, tax refunds, and any other sources of income. This method can be helpful for people who want to have a very detailed view of their finances.
  

• The envelope system: This method involves dividing your cash into different envelopes, each representing a different category of spending. For example, you might have an envelope for groceries, an envelope for gas, and an envelope for entertainment. When you spend money, you take it out of the appropriate envelope. This method can be helpful for people who want to have a physical reminder of their spending.

No matter which budgeting method you choose, the important thing is to start budgeting and stick to it. By tracking your income and expenses, you can gain control of your money and reach your financial goals.

💰 Be a Better Investor

This quote emphasizes the importance of emotional discipline in investing. It is easy to get caught up in the excitement of the market and make decisions based on emotion rather than logic.

However, this is a recipe for disaster. Over the long term, the stock market has always trended upward. However, there will be periods of volatility along the way. Investors who can stay calm and disciplined during these periods will be the ones who come out ahead.

🧠 Get Smarter

Here is a more detailed explanation of Wright's Law:

• Theodore Wright first proposed Wright's Law in 1936.

• Wright's Law is based on the idea that as more units of a product are produced, the manufacturer gains experience and efficiency.

• This experience and efficiency leads to lower costs, as the manufacturer can produce the product more quickly and with fewer errors.

• As a result, the cost of manufacturing a product decreases by a constant percentage as the cumulative number of units produced doubles.

Wright's Law has been applied to a wide range of industries, including aerospace, electronics, and software. It has been used to predict the cost of new products and to help manufacturers improve their efficiency.

👩🏽‍⚖️ Legal Stuff
Nothing in this newsletter is financial advice. Always do your own research and think for yourself.