Author Archives: David John Marotta

Lottery tickets are also a good deal, if you win – otherwise it is just a tax on people who can’t do math.

Because you can’t change your mind, and you can’t spend your money ahead of time, the best use of an immediate fixed annuity is to protect you from yourself. Call me wild and crazy, but this is not the risk I am worried about.

The returns offered by immediate fixed annuities aren’t as good as they sound. The slight of hand in this case is the immediate loss of 100% of your principal. They are “fixed” for you to lose and the insurance company to win.

Diversify your business and your investments. That way fads and trends won’t determine your financial success.

Adapting and reacting to trends is important in investing and crucial in small business.

At least 40% of the federal gasoline taxes are wasted on non-highway items of dubious general welfare. And 2.86 cents of the revenue is used to subsidize mass transit unused by all but a few large cities.
As an additional inequity, Virginia is a donor state. That means that Virginia, like most southern states, sends the government more in gasoline taxes than it receives in federal pork. We don’t even get to waste our own money! Most of the pork is sent to the Northeast and to states with more influential senators.

If market forces drive up the price of gasoline, any efforts to reduce it aside from supply and demand punishes the exercise of economic freedom and personal responsibility. If you find the moral argument of freedom unconvincing, free markets can still win the pragmatic debate.

Don’t put off the things that truly matter to you until you have more time. You will never have any more time than what you are given each day.

Running a small business requires financial balance. Here are ten rules.

Many businesses can be started in your spare time, from your home. This allows you to test the waters and determine if the market can eventually support you on a full time basis.

We act as if being a business owner is trivial enough to burden them with the responsibility of funding, implementing, and enforcing whatever social programs are in vogue. Then we exempt ourselves from taking the risk.

We find the Heritage study useful, both to refute other presidential candidate’s claims that governmental coercion will make us richer economically, and also to help us find those countries where investment actually would make us richer.

Each year since 1994 the Heritage Foundation has used a systematic, empirical measurement of economic freedom in countries throughout the world.

The amount of money involved in foreign aid is often large enough to politicize the economic life of a small country and lead to massive graft, corruption, and waste.

All systems must have a regulator in order to dampen runaway reactions. Healthcare coverage is no exception.

Here is a rule for building stable economic systems: Who pays for a service and who is empowered to decide if a service should be given and who actually benefits from the service should all be the same person.

When you make a frivolous purchase, tell your spouse that you made it. If you can’t tell your spouse about the purchase, it isn’t worth the trouble. Above all, learn to work together in marriage. Being wealthy requires a husband and wife to both be frugal.

Some types of insurance are a good idea. But LTCI is better handled by preparing early in life.

The real lifestyles of the rich in Charlottesville would get very low television ratings.

I will give you the forecast for the next TEN years in the US Markets: Up, Down, Up, Up, Down, Up, Down, Up, Up, Up. These predictions are not in chronological order.

We can have our benefits and lower taxes if we are willing to admit that socializing retirement benefits was a mistake and we return to trusting once again, the in power of free markets.

Keeping a budget works like a diet. Some diets require you to write down everything you eat and count calories, shares, ranking, or other food units. It makes eating more painful, causing you to eat less.

One of my favorite Christmas movies is the version of “A Christmas Carol” starring George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge. I confess that I understand Scrooge’s character.

Admit your past debt mistakes readily. Like a former alcoholic you must be constantly vigilant against slipping up again.

You bought more things than you can pay for. That is an error in judgment. Given the evil in the world, your small financial troubles aren’t that bad.

Only after you have steeled your resolve not to borrow any more money are you ready to deal with paying off your current debt.

By definition, to get rid of consumer debt, simply stop borrowing money.

We are losing many potential asset management clients because of credit card debt! The difference between those in debt and millionaires is as small as slight changes in financial lifestyle.

Great financial wealth can be built by living a beer and chips lifestyle on a champagne and caviar budget!

No matter what worthy organizations you support, you can give up to 15% more if you give them appreciated stock instead of cash.

Despite your political persuasion, Governor Gray Davis shows how even the golden goose can be cooked. His mistakes rightly deserve the ridicule he has received.

October is a good time to review your portfolio for investments that can be sold for a loss.

You can learn a lot about financial management from snapping turtles.

“Bet on red.” replied my mother, “Now, let’s talk about how much risk you want to take.”

Inflation ultimately has to rise and keep pace with increases in the money supply.

It is usually better to be a seller of options than a buyer of options.

All investors should have a certain measure of foreign investments. That may sound scary, but not as scary as putting all your eggs in one country’s basket!

While everyone agrees that you should be diversified, it is important to know what your manager means by the term “diversified.”

In addition to registering for a blender and picking floral arrangements, make sure that your marriage has the financial accounts and monetary habits necessary to meet your shared financial goals.

The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore.

If you add the costs of complying with government regulations, the cost to society is over 50%. Imagine the economic boom if the other half of workers’ labor were set free to boost productivity!

Today, we have 8,269 mutual funds. About one-third of all common stocks are held in mutual funds.

In the US we allow companies to go bankrupt when they cannot succeed in business.

Recently record amounts of money have been taken out of stocks and put into bonds. These investors assume that at least their money will be safer in cash or bonds. These assumptions are wrong.

If you think estate planning information is hard for you to pull together, imagine how difficult it will be for someone else who is asked to fill your shoes in an emergency!

If you rely on a commission-based financial product salesperson, you will probably be sold the wrong kind of funds.

Congress contributed greatly to the bubble through the distorted incentives created by the tax code.

These are no longer the questions of the idle rich desiring to hoard their inherited wealth.