Over the past few days I’ve spent time communicating with other financial writers online and skimming published articles on the topic of tax-free investments. In a world where most topics, especially most investment topics, are covered redundantly, it is surprising to learn that this topic has holes in media coverage and that much of the […]
I’m convinced that most people don’t know about vast array of alternative investment options available to them including through tax-advantaged individual retirement accounts. Consider the broad environment of alternative investments that we face today: We’ve been brainwashed1 to think that alternative investments are not safe while investments in the US securities markets are safer. Financial […]
The two big personal stories for me in 2017: #1 – Stress Handled I became stressed by the lack of respect for fact, truth, science, logic, law and education expressed in our everyday lives. I became stressed by the observation that other people abandoned traditional core values of charity, sharing, open doors, open borders, nondiscrimination, […]
As great as this tax bill is for CPAs who offer tax planning services, it is just as bad for investment advisers. Here’s why: RIAs do not benefit from the 20% deduction of pass-through entity income. RIAs tend to have high state, local and property taxes. Limiting this deduction, along with elimination of the personal […]
Most of us in the financial services or advisory professions are generally aware of the impact of the “Fiduciary Rule”. But few, including myself, has any in-depth understanding of the scope of its impact. This well-written explanation of the fiduciary rule comes from a training material for financial service professionals. I added the emphasis. “In […]
list of cautionary considerations about limited partnership investments
Americans have been clear and consistent in their opinions that corporations and wealthy people do not pay their fair share of the tax burden. We’ve known and accepted this as reality for most of our lives with little or no government action to make the system more fair. This public opinion has been largely unaffected by […]
One hundred trillion dollars. That’s the total net worth of all Americans in 2017*. It’s a staggering number. For practical discussion purposes, we might say that figure is the net worth of rich Americans. The top 160,000 households (one tenth of one percent) control a quarter of this wealth. About half of all this U.S. wealth […]
I used to make a living as a Registered Investment Adviser and worked with Vanguard Group and other investment management firms. Now I provide generic standardized advice on investments when appropriate in the course of other accounting and financial planning services. My work now does not require a separate government registration as an investment adviser. Why […]
“It’s still the economy, stupid” My fundamental forecasting premise is that the current federal administration’s fate and effectiveness in this divided country ultimately lies in the direction of the economy. Given the basic current macroeconomic factors: high stock market low interest rates high level of entitlements, and the low level of unemployment, I conclude that current […]