Friday, November 28, 2014

Will you get the same tax breaks this year?

Will you get the same tax breaks as GE, Intel, Boeing, Merck, etc etc etc?
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew called a potential agreement to revive and extend lapsed tax breaks “fiscally irresponsible,” casting uncertainty over year-end negotiations in Congress. Lawmakers are discussing a package that could increase the U.S. budget deficit by more than $400 billion over a decade. The precise contours of a deal haven’t been set, and staff members from both parties are negotiating the deal. Companies including General Electric and Intel have huge tax breaks at stake in the talks.
You can eliminate your taxes on future income too: http://www.amazon.com/Tax-FREE-Wealth-How-laws-free/dp/1475089236

The BIG Wall Street Lie
We pay approximately $600 billion in fees each year to active fund managers who claim the ability to "beat the markets." To put that number into perspective, it's a little less than the gross domestic product of Switzerland. The "best of the best" fund managers are supposedly those who run hedge funds. In the aggregate, these funds have underperformed the Standard & Poor's 500 index by 97 percentage points since the end of 2008. Yet, we continue to pay high fees of 1-3%--Such madness!
The future is not bright for active managers, even with more degrees and faster computers, because it is mathematically impossible for all of them to be above average.
Avoid the fees; go with Vanguard’s Top Ten: http://www.amazon.com/Vanguards-Top-Ten-mutual-funds/dp/150073909X

Cost is everything
You can buy the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF for no cost beyond annual expenses of 0.05 percent of your assets in the fund. At Schwab, you can buy the Schwab U.S. Broad Market ETF for an annual expense of 0.04 percent. That 0.01 percentage point difference is negligible.
But, compare that low-cost index fund with an actively managed fund carrying 1.3 percent in expenses, like many 401k funds. Invest $50,000 at the long-term stock market average return of 10 percent and you'll end up with $859,477 after 30 years of having that 0.05 percent deducted annually. Pay 1.3 percent a year in expenses instead (not unusual for a high-profile actively managed mutual fund) and you'll end up with $589,203
Low-cost beat high-cost funds in unbiased Morningstar study: http://www.amazon.com/The-Best-Predictor-Investment-Success/dp/1502524082


GOP crazies are costing US real money!
John Boehner announced his plan to sue the president back in June. A month later, the Speaker’s office formally unveiled the legislation to authorize the litigation. A month after that, House Republicans agreed to pay a D.C. law firm $500 an hour, in taxpayer money, to handle the case. Republicans hired a law firm to oversee the litigation, but the firm changed its mind in September and dropped the case. GOP leaders then hired a second firm, only to learn a month later that it dropped the case, too. This week, Republicans hired a new lawyer, George Washington University legal scholar Jonathan Turley, who filed today at $500/hour. It will take 3 years to get a court decision and will cost $500 million total.
To get into court, the House would have to prove that it was damaged by the way the administration carried out the ACA, and courts have consistently rejected that idea. Constitution gives the Congress ultimate legal authority, not the courts. This makes America a democracy not a 3rd world country ruled by Junta—bunch of old white guys.

AIG launches annuity for 401k accounts despite lack of answers
The first deferred-income annuity that meets the Treasury's guidelines for a qualified-longevity-annuity contract is out, and broker-dealer execs have plenty of questions.
AIG launched the so-called QLAC version of its American Pathway deferred-income annuity at the start of November, a response to the the guidance released in July by the Treasury Department that made it easier to use qualified plan dollars to buy a DIA. The 401k money that goes into the QLAC isn't subject to required minimum distribution rules that would require them to take money from their qualified retirement plans at age 70½. 401k participants up to 83 can buy the contract and defer receipt of their income for anywhere between 12 months to 40 years. Should the participant die before the stream of income begins, the QLAC has an optional return-of-premium death benefit for an extra fee. They can choose not to make a death benefit payable if they use the lifetime-income-only annuity payment option. In that case the annuity value is zero for heirs. Costs have not been disclosed yet but annuities are expensive products that have simpler/cheaper alternatives: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Annuity-Strategy-Income-Growth/dp/1497532019

Rockefellers moving—rent too high at Rocky Plaza—sign of the times
Descendants of John D. Rockefeller Jr. will vacate office space at 30 Rockefeller Plaza that the family has occupied for more than 80 years. The Rockefeller family will leave Room 5600, the full-floor space on the tower’s 56th Floor. The Rockefellers have been occupants of Room 5600 since 1933, spokesman said. “They got a good, reasonable deal,” Seitel said.


SCAMS           Why are we still paying $700 Billion a year for WWII deployments?
We are paying for 164,253 of our active-duty armed personnel to be in 150 countries around the world. We have about 50,000 in Japan and 50,000 in Germany.
Are we preparing for WWII again? There are 1,208,083[1] armed personnel in the United States. Our taxes pay for about HALF of the WORLD’s military expenditures every year. We have wasted $398.6 billion so far on the F-35 program—they can’t fly safely.
We just can’t afford to pay for everyone else’s defenses anymore. Japan, Germany and S. Korea can pay for their own defenses.
The War on Terror requires SEALS’ attacks on top terrorists at their homes. Iraq proved converting a nation to Western-style republic doesn’t work.

Keeping 10,000 in Afghanistan for what?
The United States is preparing to increase the number of troops it keeps in Afghanistan in 2015 to fill a gap left in the NATO mission by other contributing nations, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

GM chose profits over our lives
General Motors pressured a supplier to continue producing a substandard ignition switch a decade ago, a newly disclosed email shows. The switch is linked to at least 33 deaths and dozens of injuries. In the email, part of internal Delphi correspondence in 2005, a Delphi official said the company was pressured by G.M. to make the faulty switch work even though it did not meet G.M.’s own standard and continued to fail in testing. GM has said that in 2005, company engineers proposed solutions to the switch problem, but the automaker concluded that none represented "an acceptable business case."
The part would have cost $0.57 but the dealer labor would be about $100 million, according to Barra.  "I think we in the past had more of a cost culture," she said.
GM has repaired about 1.3 million vehicles (out of 2.6 million) in the recall.
Kim Atkins, a 24-year-old media specialist in Austin, Texas, ignored calls and letters for months urging her to bring in her 2007 Chevy Cobalt. When she finally brought it to the dealership last month, she learned there were four other recalls on it.

Job opportunity scams


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