An Obamanomics Lesson For Everyone
If the American family hopes to emerge from this debt crisis, the American people must recover the productive zeal that fueled our country’s growth in the past.
If the American family hopes to emerge from this debt crisis, the American people must recover the productive zeal that fueled our country’s growth in the past.
Many people believe a dollar saved on their taxes is not worth the same as a dollar of their salary or a dollar of gain in the stock market. They are correct. A dollar saved on your taxes is actually worth more.
Most Americans fail to plan adequately for retirement and consequently miss out on opportunities to enjoy the last third of life. The best and most rewarding financial planning is not just about the numbers but rather takes place in the context of personal goals.
The greatest engine to generate real wealth is saving and investing. And the best way to ensure that your default is saving and investing is to automate the process. Pay yourself first, and your savings will grow exponentially.
The law allows taxpayers age 70 1/2 or older to donate up to $100,000 from their IRA directly to a charity. The amount of the charitable contribution is excluded from taxable income.
Computing your net worth annually is like taking a sextant reading to chart your course toward financial security. Net worth gives you a snapshot of how much money would be left if you converted everything you owned into cash and paid off all your debts.
Politicians are giving us no incentive to take care of ourselves. They are ensuring that government will need to save us.
Your investments should be working for you, appreciating more than inflation to become an engine of growth that pays you money and provides some measure of financial freedom.
Everyone in our risk pool will order filet mignon. First the costs will skyrocket. And then the meat will be rotten.
Retirement planning is even more crucial for women than for men.
Half of the country are political Vikings who pay their taxes by raiding and pillaging the productive.
Identity theft is becoming distressingly common as personal information becomes easier to swipe.
There isn’t a better time to invest than today. Getting started can be intimidating, but these simple steps will help you through your first few years of investing.
Free markets are under assault in America. We have seen much hyperbole and slander in these past two years of political polarization. But the idea of capitalism and free markets has received more negative campaigning and vicious attack than both candidates combined.
Our first reaction to a complicated situation, usually instinctive, often does not serve our best interests. One heuristic that the brain uses to solve complex evaluations is to make an initial guess and then adjust from that point. This mental process is called “anchoring.”
You can hedge your assets against underreported inflation and protect your retirement goals.
Inflation at this rate causes serious harm to our nation’s economy and its citizens.
Officially, inflation today is calculated about 4%. Unofficially, it is over 7%.
Eight exceptions to the age 59.5 rule allow for penalty-free withdrawals.
You can’t spend money apart from your lifestyle because that’s the definition of lifestyle.
Tax rebate stimulus checks are a cheap and inefficient gimmick.
It used to be that becoming a millionaire was regarded as a huge achievement. In today’s dollars, however, it is fairly trivial. The new rich is over $5 million.
The correct rate for the capital gains tax is zero, zip, nada. Perhaps it is even negative!
If you think hiding money under your mattress is a risk-free way of building wealth, think again.
You can either pay now or pay more later.
Although the lender almost always wins, a reverse mortgage does offer a Band-Aid solution to pending cash flow problems.
Due to our progressive tax system, your taxes increase even if your buying power does not.
Although the French gave us the word ‘entrepreneur,’ it’s a wonder the term isn’t obsolete in French.
Between 40 and 60 you should increase your net worth by half your annual take home pay every year.
Credit bureaus charge to see your credit score. Save your money.
Beware of bogus credit companies claiming to offer free credit reports in order to gather your personal information.
Every six years you delay saving and investing you cut in half the lifestyle you will have in retirement.
Probably the most important question you can ask of anyone offering you financial advice is, “Do you have a legal obligation to act in my best interests?”
Hayek wrote, “More harm and misery have been caused by men determined to use coercion to stamp out a moral evil than by men intent on doing evil.”
Many people are afraid of having their retirement progress assessed.
Two hours and twenty minutes of every eight hour day go to pay taxes. Three minutes go toward personal savings.
Our children and grandchildren deserve better!
If a Democrat proposed a flat tax, they would take away the Republican’s major platform and be easily elected.
Some types of insurance are a good idea. But LTCI is better handled by preparing early in life.
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!
The current distorted tax system has resulted in a steady decline of dividend payouts over the past two decades and was a major contributing factor in the stock market bubble of 1999 and recent three-year bust.
Let’s not change those things that made us successful in the first place: Maximum freedom for the individual.
Despite the small decrease, the size of the federal government is still at an unprecedented level.
Filing federal taxes accounts for 82 percent of the federal government’s entire paperwork burden.
These are no longer the questions of the idle rich desiring to hoard their inherited wealth.
The Stock Market will Drop Further.
Let’s have a tax code that looks like it was developed on purpose!
When (not if) the Federal Reserve Board increases interest rates, this will bring the stock-market party to an end as higher interest will cause both stocks and bonds to fall in value.
Periodically, investors should review their portfolios with a view toward rebalancing the assets.
In 1996, President Clinton said that “the era of big government is over?”