Ben Whitaker up at Mabana Financial Services calls me up every 6 months or so to inquire over beers at the watering hole next to his office if I would like to consider a few opportune investments he\u2019s uncovered. I tell him if I\u2019d have put my money on the micro-beer company, the one we usually buy their beer at our usual tavern, I\u2019d be set for an easy retirement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, that right there is what I\u2019m talking about,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d I ask, \u201cyou mean I missed the boat on an early retirement?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNaw,\u201d Ben says, \u201cyou missed another golden opportunity. But give me a few minutes — I\u2019ll even buy the beers — and I\u2019ll set you on a path to fiscal sanity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben talks like this, just can\u2019t help himself, and maybe his clients don\u2019t get the implication that he\u2019s just diagnosed them with fiscal insanity. Or in this case, me. But I like Ben and I like even more that he usually buys the beers, probably writes our tab off as a business expense, no doubt it\u2019s legitimate, and I have noticed he always asks for a receipt. \u201cIs the tip a write-off too?\u201d I asked one time and got his stock answer: \u201ceverything\u2019s a business expense in this line of work.\u201d I can only imagine what the Big Boyz, the corporations and their hired guns the accountants and tax lawyers, what they declare as business write-offs, maybe why I pay more than some of them.<\/p>\n
So after Ben orders our IPA\u2019s, ever the optimist that the alcohol will soften me up for his newest sales pitch, he leans across our corner table and practically whispers, \u201cAI.\u201d He says, \u201cArtificial Intelligence can make you rich. Guaranteed. Stock market is on fire, Nasdaq\u2019s going through the roof, all of it driven by AI. Jump in Skeeter, the sky\u2019s the limit. You\u2019ll hate yourself if you sit on the sidelines.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ben had a couple of hot prospects, so he claimed, said I\u2019d be on Easy Street no time flat, very little risk. \u201cBe a pain to change addresses, Ben. Stationary, business cards, drivers license \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGo ahead and laugh, but you\u2019ll be missing the chance of a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy lifetime is almost run out, Ben. More money isn\u2019t going to give me more years. I\u2019ve got a nice little nest egg, no debts, Social Security, Medicare. I might be on Easy Street already, Ben. Why would I gamble that on the bet I could make it even easier?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben\u2019s heard this every pow-wow for years but it\u2019s hard for him to imagine someone who wouldn\u2019t want More, it\u2019s practically un-American to him. At least un-patriotic. When we finish our 2nd round of beers I offer to pick up the check. <\/p>\n
\u201cNaw,\u201d he says with a laugh, \u201cthis one\u2019s on the IRS.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ben Whitaker up at Mabana Financial Services calls me up every 6 months or so to inquire over beers at the watering hole next to his office if I would like to consider a few opportune investments he\u2019s uncovered. I tell him if I\u2019d have put my money on the micro-beer company, the one we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[7932,7946,7945],"class_list":["post-20641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rantings-and-ravings","tag-ai-bubble","tag-making-money-the-new-fashioned-way","tag-stock-market-gurus"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20641"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20646,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20641\/revisions\/20646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}