Ask Doc If you've "checked out" this summer, I don't blame you.
I hope you've spent the summer like I have, traveling and spending time with friends and family.
Even if you've been away, it's hard to miss some of the biggest economic news...
Student-loan debt, credit-card debt, and auto-loan debt are all on the rise. The biggest trade war we've seen since the 1930s has taken effect. And geopolitical tensions between China, the U.S., Russia, and the Middle East are simmering.
Readers are concerned about how the rest of 2018 will go.
That's why next week, for just a couple of hours, I'd like you to take a break from your vacation. These could be some of the most lucrative hours of your summer.
Porter is hosting what could be the biggest webinar we've had here at Stansberry Research... Next Tuesday, August 14, at 8 p.m. Eastern time, you'll hear from Porter, Dr. Richard Smith, myself, and other Stansberry insiders – including our CEO, Mark Arnold.
Here's just a few of the questions we'll answer:
- Is a "Melt Up" really on the horizon? Or a "Melt Down?"
- Should you still be buying stocks?
- Are high-yield bonds a better choice?
- What's up with gold? (Porter will even share his personal gold strategy.)
- Should you be using options to hedge your portfolio?
And we'll share which newsletters and ideas we'd put our money into.
If you want to learn the crucial mistake you're probably making in the market right now, click here to reserve your spot.
Q: How does one go about verifying the NAV of a fund like NUV for themselves? I love this idea and it inspires me to "look" but I don't know how to determine the NAV of various closed-end funds because sites like "finance.google.com" or "finance.yahoo.com" don't list the NAV for these funds. How did you go about calculating the NAV? – J.T.
A: If you don't want to do the calculations yourself, you can use www.cefconnect.com. It's simple to use... Just type the fund's ticker symbol in the search box. From there, you'll be taken to the fund's main page. You'll find the current net asset value, or "NAV," (and whether the stock is trading at a discount or premium to its NAV) near the top of the page, under the fund's name.
The NAV is the total value of a fund's securities (long- and short-term assets) minus the company's liabilities, divided by the number of shares outstanding. I prefer to invest in funds that are trading at a discount to NAV because that gives us a dollar of assets for less than a dollar.
Q: On the side of my cereal box, Total, it indicates that a 3/4 cup provides 100% of the daily vitamin C requirements. So if I have that for breakfast plus what may be in the other two meals, wouldn't that be adequate? It is rare for me to have a cold and I am in my upper 80s. Why buy the Vitamin C supplement if one eats Total a few times each week? – D.B.
A: Technically, you're already buying a vitamin C supplement every time you buy a box of Total cereal. That's because fortified cereals like Total have extra vitamins added to them. In fact, after those little cereal flakes bake, machines spray them with a powder that's essentially crushed up vitamin C supplements.
The good news is that a few studies show humans absorb vitamin C from fortified cereal about as well as from other sources. One important caveat: Getting vitamins through something like fortified cereal still isn't as good as natural sources. That's because you're often missing out on other nutrients and naturally occurring fiber that whole foods provide.
So mix it up a bit – add in some strawberries with your cereal or load up on veggies like green and red peppers, broccoli, leafy greens, and cabbage. And don't forget other fruits like oranges, tangerines, grapefruits, kiwi, melons, and tomatoes.
Q: I have a general question about IRA accounts with a brokerage firm. If I have a brokerage account and I open an IRA account with the same firm, can I transfer a portion of a position I have in my regular brokerage account to the IRA account and count it as part my $5,500/year allowable contribution to the IRA? – J.J.
A: According to IRS rules, IRA contributions can only come in the form of cash. You can't transfer securities from a different account without selling your shares.
Q: I have a question for you. You have said that Dark Chocolate is good for you. I eat some Hershey's Special Dark every day. It tastes good and it's not too expensive. Somebody told me that that one is not really the dark chocolate that is supposed to be good for you. Could you please clear that up for me? – E.G.
A: We're going to have to side with that other person on this one... A Hershey's milk chocolate bar has 24 grams of sugar and 11% cocoa. A bar of Hershey's special dark chocolate has 20 grams. And it only contains 45% cocoa. When you're looking at dark chocolate, the darker the better.
Look for chocolate that lists its cocoa content. Lots of cheap chocolate claims to be "dark chocolate," but it's still packed with sugar. And they don't often provide the cocoa content. You want to look for chocolate that contains at least 70% cocoa. If you don't see dark chocolate bars in the candy section of your grocery store, check out the health food aisle.
We checked a few grocery stores near our office and found dark chocolate bars (the kind with high cocoa content) alongside gluten-free and organic foods.
Got a topic you want us to talk about? Send it to [email protected].
What We're Reading...
- Did you miss it? What Warren Buffett taught me about sleeping well at night.
- Something different: Finally... a scientific answer to the age-old question, "Boxers or briefs?"
Here's to our health, wealth, and a great retirement,
Dr. David Eifrig and the Health & Wealth Bulletin Research Team
August 10, 2018