10 worst money mistakes

Are your …
Investments earning less than the market average of 10%? 
Advisors taking fees without meeting your goals? 

(There are NO refunds if they fail.)
Trading costs and taxes eating up your profits?
Emotions freezing you out of the stock market?
         You can correct these mistakes by using the time-tested strategy proven successful by Warren Buffett. 

http://www.amazon.com/10-Worst-Money-Mistakes-them/dp/1494401223

Know your score before you buy

Recently, a reader tried to buy a $2500 bed using a retail stores’ credit facility—GE. They were only allowed $1000 to buy a bed. This reader had never applied for credit before which accounts for the lower amount. Know your score before you shop for a big ticket item and avoid the waste of time trying out what they won’t finance. Payment history is the single most important factor, making up 35% of the FICO formula. There are websites that provide a credit score or an estimate. The sites—Credit.com Inc., Credit Karma Inc.'s CreditKarma.com and Quizzle.com—also offer products for sale. You can check your credit reports for errors FREE atAnnualCreditReport.com once every 12 months from each of the three bureaus. Audits have found about 20% have errors.  http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748704252004574459011384380556

You knew all along—insurers gauge poor credit holders

New research shows that, holding all other factors constant, the two largest auto insurers, State Farm and Allstate, charge moderate-income drivers with poor credit scores much higher prices than drivers with excellent scores. Insurers fear poor payers are poor driving risks: reckless behavior is reckless behavior. Insurers only want drivers who don’t make mistakes. Shop the insurers who want more insureds. http://www.amazon.com/Vehicle-Insurance-Beware-Double-Coverage/dp/1480027634

Saving money online made easy

You can save a bunch by buying almost all your needs online. Use the tips here to save on regular stuff:http://www.moneytalksnews.com/2013/12/05/10-secret-strategies-to-save-big-bucks-at-amazon/ You can even save when your friends use Amazon. For financial products like insurance and mutual funds, you can save $3,000 or more every year by avoiding the middleperson and shopping online. Most products are standardized commodities. The Internet helps you learn exactly what you need and how to avoid fees and commissions that can take up to 63% of your nest egg over time. You can even use an IRS-approved account that let’s you avoid all income tax. Yes, it is tax-FREE: http://www.amazon.com/Internet-Money-Smarts-More-Less/dp/1493643223/

Do you regret taking SS benefits early?

You have 12 months from the date of your initial claim to change your mind. If you do, you must repay all the benefits you have received, plus those of anyone else who has received benefits on your earnings record, such as a spouse or dependent child. In return, you get to increase your benefits by about 8% per year until you reach age 70 when benefits can’t be increased. However, benefits are taxable depending on your income so it might be wise to consider building a tax-FREE account instead.http://www.amazon.com/Forget-Social-Security-Medicare-Lifestyle/dp/1466394285

End of work unions—back to middle ages when agreements were broken at will

A U.S. bankruptcy judge’s ruling that pensions can be cut to reduce the city of Detroit’s $18 billion long-term liabilities is a “watershed” event in the history of municipal bankruptcies, according to a credit analyst. U.S. law allows for contract cuts in bankruptcy, and supersedes Michigan law protecting pensions. “Some places like Chicago and Philly with low pension levels and high unfunded levels will have to be addressed,” she said. How is your state-funded pension? http://www.governing.com/gov-data/state-pension-funds-retirement-systems-unfunded-liabilities-obligations-data.html

More talk of changing our SS benefits—benefits we paid for already!

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said he also wants to find ways to encourage people to save more. "We have to make sure people have a backstop," he said. "Social Security was never meant to be a backstop."

But that is exactly what it was intended to be. The act was an attempt to “limit what were seen as dangers in the modern American life, including old age, poverty, unemployment, and the burdens of widows and fatherless children.”

Portman spoke to financial advisors and encouraged the SEC to allow them to give “common sense” advice instead of following the fiduciary rule (use the best product for the client not yourself).        

So we can’t count on our SS benefits or our pensions anymore. They can be cut by our “representatives” and the judges they appoint. 

Lower fees boost retirement earnings

A new survey released by Aon Hewitt finds that employers are boosting returns on retirement savings at very little extra cost through lower fees, and by offering non-mutual fund alternatives and adding passive management strategies to the investment mix. Switch to tax-FREE retirement funds and gain 30% more: http://www.amazon.com/Reboot-investing-Law-Steeple-MBA/dp/1484988035

New 401k fee disclosure documents fail to disclose fees

Nearly 40% of working consumers currently contributing to a retirement plan believe they don't pay any expenses in their 401(k). Limra found that only one in three participants spends more than five minutes reading the disclosures, and only 12% were able to estimate just how much they pay in fees. Fees can take up to 63% of our nest egg over time. Yet the industry continues to hide the fees with legal language to confuse inside 20-page documents. See your fees! Use low-cost funds, earn more: http://www.amazon.com/Robbing-You-Blind-401k-fees/dp/1493588966

Vanguard founder pleads for standard: “best interest of client” for all

A longtime financial markets leader called on federal regulators Tuesday to stiffen their spines and propose rules that would require everyone providing investment advice to act in the best interests of their clients. There is widespread opposition to fiduciary duty rules being considered by the Labor Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, John Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group, said. Bogle has long said that regulators must “Apply fiduciary duty to anyone 'touching other people's money'.”  Meanwhile major brokerage firms are increasing their brokers pay to incentivize them to court wealthy clients only. You are the best judge of your needs: http://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Without-Wall-Street-Commissions/dp/1442168137

Long-term care insurance rates to rise--guaranteed

“It is impossible to be in this business long-term, if you have to set all of your assumptions based on the date the policy is issued and you can never change or re-rate the policies,” Genworth CEO McInerney said. The insurer is requesting premium increases of 6 percent to 13 percent on some contracts sold from 2003 through last year. Some of the rate increases requested on the older policies were greater than 50 percent, Genworth said last year. Consider the alternatives to constant rate increases: http://www.amazon.com/Long-term-Care-Insurance-Updated-Edition/dp/148274001X

Regulators rule to try to protect taxpayers from banks’ gambling

U.S. regulators Tuesday voted to adopt the so-called Volcker rule meant to limit the ability of banks to use their own money to make risky investment bets. The core intention of the Volcker rule is to prevent banks from making market bets with federally insured money, such as depositor money that is insured by the FDIC. Banks would have until mid-2015 to comply with the new rule but many large banks may have already made adjustments. Bank examiners will learn how to test the banks about the rule. Insurer and bank gambling losses were covered by taxpayers in 2008. Most have been paid back. All GM stock was finally sold December 2013. America socializes the risks of bankers and privatizes the benefits for bankers. 

American’s health better—smoking down but diabetes up

An annual measure of the nation's health status finds evidence that Americans made "a notable shift" toward better health in 2013. The prevalence of diabetes ranges from 7% of adults in Alaska to 13% in West Virginia. Hawaii scored well on most measures.Mississippi is ranked last this year.  It looks at 27 measures of health, including tobacco and alcohol abuse, exercise, infectious diseases, crime rates, public health funding, access to immunizations, premature birth rates and cancer and heart disease rates. Last year, Vermont was No. 1.

SCAMS           “Deficits don’t matter” Republican Godfather, Dick Cheney, 2002

Bush wars increased the debt by $4-6 trillion to $16 trillion. 1985 debt $3 T, same as 1945.

Bernie Madoff Says Prison Is Like Camp—having a great time on the taxpayer dime this time.

What the ????

Newlyweds just three weeks removed from their wedding day lured a Pennsylvania man to his death with a Craigslist ad because they wanted to kill someone together, police said. Elytte Barbour told officers before his arrest Friday night that he and his wife, Miranda, had planned to kill before but their plans never worked out until last month when Troy LaFerrara responded to an online posting that promised companionship in return for money.

IAN

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