Category: Financial Planning
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Turmoil in cyber currency and beyond
Bitcoin has lost 80% of its value since I wrote this pessimistic prediction “Turned Sour on Bitcoin” a year ago. Last week the cyber currency market dropped $700 Billion. Of course this does not happen in a bubble. The overall stock market appears to have peaked and may be entering an extended bear market. Real estate…
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Why are so many paying higher income taxes this year?
65% of taxpayers will pay less federal income tax in 2018. Only 6.5% will pay more (1). This isn’t news. We’ve known for months and had reliable sources of data to back this up. The problem is that many of the people in this 6.5% don’t seem to know. That means that they did they…
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A fresh look at RMDs
Background Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) are a common topic of focus in personal financial planning. This is nothing new. I first published this blog post titled “IRAs and the Retirement Income Myth” based on 2005 and 2006 data. The underlying big picture issue is the split in needs between the “haves” and “have-nots”: Relatively few…
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Invest Like a Venture Capitalist
One of the most overlooked tax savings strategies is to avoid federal income taxes on large capital gains. Allowing investments to grow tax free over decades can result in tremendous growth in wealth and is one of the most reliable paths to a tax-free retirement. This tax-free capital gain tax strategy is employed by almost…
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The Other 95%
comments on the future of financial services for middle income Americans based on experiences through OnlineAdviser
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Sample small matters, financial planning and tax services engagement agreement
This is a sample high-value agreement for ‘piecemeal’ or small matter individual and small business financial, accounting and tax services performed outside of an agreement for comprehensive or ongoing services. The agreement incorporates cost-saving technologies and procedures to save time and money while maintaining a high level of professional service (revised April 4, 2019). Contents:…
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Fast Facts about the US economy
A few rich politicians are touting the “miracle economy” and unfortunately this propaganda is effective in fooling some people. Here is the real story for average Americans: REAL EARNINGS ARE GOING DOWN FOR MOST PEOPLE. We earn less than we used to when measured as purchasing power. We’ve had the greatest drop in real wages…
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20 Simple and Inexpensive Things You Can Do to Improve Your Firm’s Employee Benefit Plan
There are likely plenty of easy ways to make your employee benefit plan dollars go further: Host an occasional, informal and voluntary on-site meeting where employees can ask an independent adviser questions about their benefits. Host occasional, informal and voluntary on-site educational programs so employees understand the link between benefit plans, taxes and their overall…
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Biggest tax news of the year: 30 million will owe IRS this spring
The biggest tax news of the year came out buried inside the pages of a report issued last month by the General Accounting Office. I call this the ‘biggest news’ because it adversely affects almost 30 million people. The people most likely to be affected are upper middle income taxpayers – in other words, my…
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Legal impact of residency and domicile
Taxes and a wide range of other legal and business issues are affected by the legal concepts of residency and domicile. Individuals who have physical connections to more than one state should carefully consider the implications of the laws in each state that may claim jurisdiction of any legal or business issue. In some cases it…