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IN THIS ISSUE: 

Personal Money Planning's Newsletter
August 6, 2016
Welcome to the first August newsletter! This time, we talk a bit about flying cars, fixing your budget and feline financial advisors. Sounds fun. Aren't you glad you opened your email?

Have a great week.

Gary Silverman, CFP�

Soapbox
Gary's Soapbox
Flying Soon to a Garage Near You

Gary Silverman caricatureThe joke among futurists is that flying cars are 20 years in the future and always will be.  But a company called AeroMobil has recently demonstrated an elongated, road-ready flying vehicle with stow-able wings that can navigate both city traffic and the airspace between landings and take-offs from the world's airports.  Meanwhile, a company called South by Southwest is about to launch a flying roadster that will sell at roughly the cost of a high-end Tesla.
 
Other entrants are Terrafudia, Moller International and PAL-V.  Terrafudia has already accepted deposits from 100 customers for delivery of its flying cars sometime next year. 
 
There are hurdles.  One is that all of these vehicles will have to pass numerous tests to prove they're road-ready, fit to fly, and that a normal person would be able to operate them safely.  Another is that most of the models, with the exception of Moller International's Skycar, take off horizontally, which means you can't pull out of your garage and take to the air.  You would need to drive to the airport and take off on the runway.  The Skycar, in contrast, is designed to life off vertically like a drone directly from your driveway.
 
Another hurdle, obviously, is cost.  The South by Southwest vehicle, if it gets regulatory approval, will be the least expensive; the others will come with a starting price of $300,000 to $500,000, which will drop (as the price of electric cars has dropped) when companies get more customers. That allows them to amortize their manufacturing costs. It also forces futurists to retire what may be their oldest joke. 

Articles
Gary's Latest Articles
From the Times Record News
Co-signing. Coo Coo?
Your buddy or your brother can't get a loan, unless you help. Should you do it?  Read more...

The election season and stocks
Whenever there's a major election coming up, folks will try to foresee what the outcome will mean for the stock market. Sometimes their predictions make a little sense. Read more...
Money101
Money 101:
Detox your budget
glasses-lady-stare.jpgWhile drinking lemon water and cayenne pepper for a few days may or may not detox your body, taking a look at what you can strip from your spending habits can detox your budget. Learn more from our Managing Director, Michelle, here.

Final
Final Thought

sleeping_cat.jpg
Let me think about your investments.
Just for fun...
A few years back, the folks at the Guardian website ran a contest to see who could "earn" the most money in the stock market. One team consisted of professional wealth managers, another was a group of students, and the third wasn't a group at all--those picks were made by Orlando the cat. He made his choices by throwing his toy mouse in the air. You guessed it, Orlando won.

Blogger Con Chapman had a little fun with this, imagining his cat in a similar situation. Would Rocco do better than Orlando?
 
Enjoy!

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