I hear a lot of ads advising investors to put gold in their IRAs or 401ks. Seems like a terrible idea. The big benefit if retirement accounts is to defer income. Gold generates no income, and actually incurs storage and transaction fees. Gold can also be very volatile. In the 1970s and 1980s we saw gold go from $35 to $800 and back down to $300. Gold did not have a net inflation adjusted gain for 25 years. Gold may or may not be good investment but a retirement account is not the place to own it. If it does go down and it is in a taxable account at least you can offset other gains with it. If it goes up you may be able to get a capitals gains treatment.
Tax deferred accounts are the best place to put secure income producing investments. It is even somewhat of a waste to put stocks with the intention of producing long term gains as along as those gains are taxed at a reduced number. High yield stocks are a different consideration.
Self reliance used to be a cherished American virtue. Many today consider it synonymous to being anti-social.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz seems to be a liability for the Democrats. Claims that the Republicans are anti-women and anti-immigrant are just old school demonizing. Only the sycophants drinking the party’s bathwater from a distant past do not see such statements as either silly or offensive. The independents seek solutions, sometimes poorly, and are likely to be put off by such caustic stereotypes. At a time when the party should be steering center she is turning left.
Republicans seem to struggle to control the narrative. Part of this is the inability to stick to a cohesive message stated clearly. It does them no good to attack their own party members who are actually proposing adult solutions to long term problems. The perfect is the enemy of the good. Perhaps this primary process will coalesce into a winning strategy.
Democrats win more by solidarity than by popularity. However much they may speak against an incumbent they will rally to their party when the final election comes. Republicans are divided by an assortment of litmus tests that has destroyed their effectiveness and unity. Whoever their candidate is they must be able to unite a very diverse party to be effective.
This early in the game polls are pretty worthless.