Friday, November 25, 2016

Are you on target for a comfortable retirement?

Are you on target for a comfortable retirement?
Investing in your 401k or IRA is a long-term project. To meet your goal of an adequate retirement income, you need to hit certain milestones along the way. Like a trip to grandma’s on Thanksgiving, you need to know how far you have gone to be able to answer the question, “Are we there yet.” Unless you keep track of your speed or miles traveled you won’t know. Here is how your advisor should figure it out. If you earn $50,000, and you invest 10% or $5,000 a year in a stock fund for 30 years, you will have about $1 million. This will be worth about $½ million in 30 years due to inflation. If you convert your 401k to a low-cost IRA providing 8% return (balanced fund) your income could be $40,000 in today’s purchasing power. So how are you doing? At year 10, you should have about $90,000, at 20, $320,000 and at 30, $950,000. Try the numbers: http://www.moneychimp.com/calculator/compound_interest_calculator.htm
Time you are invested determines your total accumulation if you use low-cost stock mutual funds. If you are using a high cost plan or “guaranteed” funds, you need to put in more money or work longer to reach your goal. Advisors must give you good advice according to the new Fiduciary Rule. However, the industry says it violates their 1st Amendmend right to feed you BS like “this plan is good for you.” Trump may cancel the rule so check all your alternatives before you sign. There are no refunds for the BS plan: https://www.amazon.com/Fiduciary-Rule-BEST-dont-overpay-anymore/dp/1530980275

Pay FEWER taxes: follow President Trump’s example
Using your Hidden Wealth Reserve, you can avoid taxes on the gains in your investment fund. If you are using a 401k at work or an IRA yourself, all your income will be taxed at whatever the rates are in the future to pay off our $19 Trillion debt. The Don’s programs may add another $12 Trillion by 2026. If the wealthy and corporations get tax breaks as per his promises, there is only us left to pay the bills. So right when you are planning on living on your secure retirement income, you may be paying more income tax than you are now—on investments and SS benefits. It is simple math. Along with tax rates, our medical copays and premiums are sure to grow. If you are investing now, congratulations. You need to consider the vehicle you are using. As the Prez said: "I fight very hard to pay as little tax as possible" because "that makes me smart." If I did pay taxes, "it would be squandered, too, believe me." Be smart:

Is an IRS-approved Tax Shelter right for you?
Madoff victims get screwed again by their fellow wealthy class. Turns out the smarter group of Madoff investors, including the infamous Koch Brothers, made-off with their profits and hid them overseas. Kochs may never pay tax on their gains. Now a judge says victims that did not hide their money from US law are out of luck and out of the money. Perhaps the Kochs knew Madoff’s scheme was bogus. Maybe Koch like Mit Romney just had the opportunity to go offshore to hide their questionable money. American workers have a similar opportunity to shelter their funds from government taxes and creditors and legal proceedings. This Tax Shelter is part of the IRS code for working Americans who wish to avoid future taxes on their retirement gains. This IRS §408 Trust provides Tax-free accumulation, Tax-free income and a Tax-free legacy that is protected from bankruptcy and future taxation. Trump is cutting taxes for the rich and corporations so there is only one place to pay off the rising national debt—working Americans. We don’t have lobbyists to protect us from Congress cutting benefits and adding taxes/fees/charges.

What can you do when your employer dumps your pension?
What will you do if you end up like DuPont workers? DuPont will no longer contribute to active employees' pension plans, a move that will affect the retirement of 13,000 workers, including 2,800 in Delaware. Workers will stop accruing benefits sometime in November 2018 or the creation date of the first independent company spawned through the proposed $130 billion merger with Dow. Only employees in the United States and Puerto Rico will be affected by this move. The company also eliminated retirement health benefits, including dental and life insurance for all employees under the age of 50 when the pension contribution ends in about two years. Some US corporations have been sending their cash overseas to avoid taxes and paying under-funded pensions and health insurance promises. Before your employer decides to cut you off, you need to make a plan. President Trump has learned how to divert his income tax money to his own nest egg using tax shelters and Tax Credits. It is time we did the same.

Tax tips for business from IRS
Sole proprietors
 and independent contractors can get helpful information from the IRS Small Business and Self-Employed Tax Center. This resource includes online tools such as the Tax Calendar for Businesses and Self-Employed, which has key tax dates and necessary actions for each month of the year. For those who provide services to consumers, such as rides in personal vehicles for a fee or the use of property, such as apartments or homes for rent, the IRS created the Sharing Economy Resource Center.
The best way to control your taxes is to have a small business. Many expenses are deductible from your income. Real estate is especially helpful in offsetting your other income. President Trump has become the master of the tax universe by claiming a $billion loss from his RE deals. He probably did not pay taxes for 20 years from that one tax item. Most millionaires are business people.

How are you fighting inflation?
The Fed may be raising interest rates for The Don. Over time—say 20 years—you may be paying TWICE as much for some things than you do now. Clearly health care costs will go up by more than the current inflation rate of 0.3%, the new Social Security COLA. Medicare Part B went up 4% for instance. TrumpCare will likely include the higher premiums we found with ObamaCare. Providers won’t take a cut. Inflation has shown a 3% rate in history. What is inflation? Let’s go to the videotape. If you are not fighting it with your long-term money, you are going to be in trouble. If you spend $151 a week on food, how will you find $300 a week in 20 years? Unfortunately, Social Security and company pensions will not keep up. The GOP has vowed to cut our so-called “entitlements”—SS benefits, Medicare, etc. Unless you believe things will get cheaper from a global recession, you need to invest in the one thing that has proven it can overcome inflation. If you have all your money in your home, you can’t eat it. However, a blend of stocks and bonds has proven OVER TIME to keep you from hunger and in your home and all the other things you expect to have. A mutual fund with hundreds of different stocks and bonds that have returned over 9% a year since 1970 is the Wellesley Income fund. Only one down year—with 2 good years after.

GOP making new law to devalue some pensions
Representative John Kline (R-MN) wants to allow the trustees of healthy multiemployer pension plans to switch to new inferior plans that don’t provide guaranteed benefits to workers or retirees. His bill would allow plan trustees to divert money from the old plans to the new plans – increasing the chances that well-funded plans could fall into under funded status, threatening the promised benefits of both workers and retirees. The Kline “composite” will be attached to year-end funding legislation that assures passage without workers’ lives being considered. Your pension may be next.


Is health care a requirement for living in US?
Like air and water, we need them for living so they are delivered by companies regulated to NOT gouge us on the price. Except health care. You know that the rich live 14 years longer than the poor. A new study proves that this has not changed since the middle ages. All other civilized countries consider health care a necessity. Our recent scandal over EpiPen $600 emergency shot for the young who suffer through no fault of their own. Do you spend all of your monthly budget for this lifesaver or let your kid go to the hospital so your family can eat? In England the same medicine costs $69. It actually costs $30 to make and we add $6 profit: $36 is what we should pay in US. Someone or other is making a killing. If you are a millionaire Congressman or you earn over $423,345 as a 1%er then $600 for Epipen is no problem. However, for most of us, medicine is like water and air—a necessity that should not be exploited. Can Trump make drugs affordable for the ‘forgotten’ family? He promised to lower costs.

We overpaid for auto insurance coverage by $101 billion
A new study shows how we overpay for auto insurance. Insurers offer better rates to their chosen niche customers. You don’t know if you could be paying $200 or $300 less a year for the same or better coverage because most people don’t think shopping is worth the trouble. $300 a year savings is one way to add thousands to your retirement fund. You can cancel the stuff you don’t need. Policies duplicate coverage. Insurers try different niche segments looking for their best deal just like you do. When you compare three insurers, you may qualify for some of the 20 discounts. But you have to ask for them: https://www.amazon.com/Vehicle-Insurance-Beware-Double-Coverage/dp/1480027634


Is the American future of tax cuts and deficit spending on view in Kansas today?
KS state budget hole is $345 million and threatens the foundation of this state, which was supposed to be the setting for a grand economic expansion but now more closely resembles a battleground, with accusations and lawsuits flying over how to get the state’s finances in order. The yawning deficits were caused by huge tax cuts, championed by Gov Brownback and the Republican-dominated Legislature, that were supposed set the economy roaring. They didn’t. GOP has cut schools, highways, and Medicaid health for the poor. The state would thrive, Gov pledged, because the tax cuts would help keep businesses and smart, young Kansans in the state, not fleeing “to Houston, or Dallas, or Chicago or somewhere else.” “It will pave the way to the creation of tens of thousands of new jobs, bring tens of thousands of people to Kansas, and help make our state the best place in America to start and grow a small business,” Brownback wrote in 2012.
Trickle down econ has never worked. Bush II tax cuts did not help recession.
Is America doomed to repeat history with Trump?

After 40 years, Vanguard’s assets grew from $11 mil to $3.5 trillion
John Bogle, the founder, receives letters from investors in one of his index funds. His new idea is now the idea of the century: You can beat the market by investing in it but at cost. DON’T PAY FEES. One of the nicest was from an airline pilot who had retired. My advice to all investors is just to throw their 401(k) statements into the wastebasket. Don’t peek. Open the envelope when you retire and have a cardiologist standing by, because you’re going to be totally amazed. “Dear Mr. Bogle,” this pilot wrote me. “I peeked. And all I want to do is thank you.” Fidelity did a study that showed that Bogle’s advice works: The Fidelity accounts that were most successful were those of the dead and the forgotten.
Low-cost funds beat high-cost funds every period: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Predictor-Investment-Success-Cost/dp/1502524082


GOP rigs elections for years ahead
Federal judges in Wisconsin ruled the state’s Republican leaders had unconstitutionally drawn electoral districts to “entrench” their control over the state Assembly. If you are a Dem voter, your vote is marginalized so Dems will never be represented by state lawmakers. Like George III, your rulers will not hear you because you have no representation. WI will follow other states like KS, NC in banning voter access, cutting taxes for schools, roads, and Medicaid. WI has already decimated the public employees union. Trump found WI the perfect state to show his strength. It had not gone red since 1984. When this ruling is reversed by the new Trump Supreme, WI will like NC be able to exclude voters from reversing this anti-democratic path. Voters have to pay for all these GOP rigging costs. NC has already spent $ millions to exclude minorities.  

What is wrong with this statement?
Already, foreign diplomats have been flocking to his recently opened hotel in downtown Washington — and Trump noted to the Times that his brand is suddenly “hotter.” The Foreign Emoluments Clause in the U.S. Constitution bars officials from influence by foreign govt. The Don may use his status to further his interests since his kids are running things now. The Don expects his mere verbal interest in a project to yield favorable results. His partners from India assume he will pressure India to solidify his projects there. Could he deal with Putin if his Russian investments could suffer? The Don does not like to be seen as humiliated. Can we be sure Don will put US first in any dealings around the world? His illegal use of his foundation and fake “philanthropist” image shows we can NOT trust him. I fear his lust for power.
But Watergate was illegal and he was impeached by Committee then resigned before the vote.

Fake IRS letter or email
The IRS says many people have gotten the bogus notices, which usually claim you owe money for the previous tax year under the Affordable Care Act.
  • It’s one of many IRS imposter scams that have popped up. As tax season nears, we’ll see more. The good news? There are red-flag warnings that can help you avoid becoming a victim. For example, the IRS will never:
  • Initiate contact with you by email or through social media.
  • Ask you to pay using a gift card, pre-paid debit card, or wire transfer.
  • Request personal or financial information by email, texts, or social media.
  • Threaten to immediately have you arrested or deported for not paying.
If you get a scam IRS notice, forward it to phishing@irs.gov and then delete it from your email account. https://www.irs.gov/uac/report-phishing. Real CP2000 letters ask taxpayers to make their checks out to “United States Treasury” if they agree they owe taxes. If you get a letter, return it to the address inside and ask for a “statement of your account.” If it is legit, you will receive an answer. We never ask taxpayers for personal information via e-mail or social media. You can try to call IRS to verify you owe: 1-800-829-1040.



We are entering the Twilight Zone:
"There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone." 
Rod Serling


  
            THE TRUMP PROMISES

The Don’s 1st test: Replace job paying $23/hr Carrier move to Mexico—he promised.
                        CarrierMexico will pay $25/DAY. Automation, computers, math.
                        He made Carrier the poster child and “we’re going to hold him to it.”
            We want change: “It could have been Captain Kangaroo and he might have won.”

Actual outcomes: Dems won by 2 million votes but GOP rigged it just like in 2000.



Deportations: “get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably 2 million, it could be even 3 million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate.”


NATO EU UN defunding: Weakening NATO, EU and UN ties is Putin’s goal in regaining Russia’s superpower status. The Don has been flattered by KGB: no friend.

Trump kids become national security advisors—get top-secret clearance. Giuliani claims “they can’t work in the government because of the government rule against nepotism.” But they can use the information in Trump’s companies and insider trading.

Ford will still build $2 billion factory in Mexico but does not send KY jobs there yet.
Fiat building new factory for Jeep Compass in Toluca Mexico. Labor is ½ price.

The Don will NOT show his tax returns or his birth certificate. He does not pay taxes.

The Don’s slogan “lock her up” was just B.S.—a slogan to get audience fired up.

Obama’s rule giving overtime pay to 4.2 million US workers blocked. Trumpers lose

Propaganda wins: 82% middle-school students could not distinguish between an ad labeled “sponsored content” and a real news story.


Teas have finally gotten their wish! Congress
President and Congress are anti-govt but paid by that government (US).
The Don’s “cabinet” are scary group

Jeff Sessions top law officer, was rejected for judgeships by GOP because racist remarks:
Sessions had referred to the N.A.A.C.P., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and other civil rights groups as “un-American” and “Communist-inspired.” An African-American federal prosecutor then, Thomas H. Figures, said Mr. Sessions had referred to him as “boy” and testified that Sessions said the Ku Klux Klan was fine “until I found out they smoked pot.” He does not like the Voting Rights Act and the stringent oversight it placed on Southern states. He was rejected for a judgeship by the Senate in

Mike Flynn, national security adviser, thinks that Shariah, or Islamic law, is spreading in the United States (it is not). His dubious assertions are so common that when he ran the Defense Intelligence Agency, subordinates came up with a name for the phenomenon: They called them “Flynn facts.” Flynn thinks Putin is an ally in fight against ISL. He worked for Russia Today, a Kremlin TV network. He was leading chants of “lock her up” against Hillary Clinton at rallies for The Don.

Mike Pompeo, CIA director, House Intelligence Committee, gained prominence for his role in the congressional investigation into the 2012 attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. He was a sharp critic of Hillary Clinton and thinks there was a cover-up. When the committee found no new evidence of wrongdoing by the Obama administration or Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Jordan filed a 48-page addendum that included far harsher criticism. Regarding the Iran anti-nuclear agreement, Pompeo thinks we should “walk away from this deal.” He has ties to the Kochs, the billionaire conservatives whose Koch Industries has provided his funding.

Myron Ebell, EPA, is a climate-change denier who directs the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The group's website, SafeChemicalPolicy.org, exists to downplay the health and ecological impacts of chemicals. “Pesticides aren’t bad for you.” “Honeybees decline not linked to pesticides.”

Betsy DeVos, education, a billionaire philanthropist with deep ties to the Christian Reformed community in Michigan. She is known for reforming public schools by funding private schools (vouchers) with tax money. Heir to Amway and Clinton Foundation donors, the DeVos said Trump “does not represent the Republican Party.” 

 I am the only one who knows who the finalists are!”
Like mafia family, The Don has never had a boss, no corporate board to question his acts!
            The Don Way: Making money from the Secret Service and Top Secret info for                                 biz, foreign diplomats

Do-Nothing Congress will decide US future by doing nothing for more 4 years.

Axmen: Kushner, Giuliani, Sessions, Carson, Russian Manafort, cabinet

Enemies List: Clintons, Ryan, Graham, Cruz, Rubio, Bloomberg, DeBlazio, Gold star Kahns, NYTimes, NYPost, WashPost, Univision, Megyn Kelly, judge and claimants in Trump U. case, women accusers, Trump canceled brother’s insurance, Christie (for humiliating Kushner dad in 2005), Christie sued over shutting Fed property.





Regulators are the only protection we have since we can’t sue anymore
               Supremes stop us from suing—State courts no longer available to sue corporations!

Access Funding caught deceiving lead poisoning victims out of settlement payments.
8 brokerage firms caught selling L-share variable annuities with expensive minimum-            income and withdrawal riders with do not provide good value to seniors.
Sienna 2011-2016 sliding door could open while driving if door operation is impeded.

We need regulation—GOP wrong—companies/cities wouldn’t fix bad products on own
GM killed 124 because ignition switch pin not replaced after knew it killed first in 2006.


Police want gun control.
When everyone has guns; your chance of being killed goes up. Police don’t know who to shoot. They assume everyone has a gun hidden. You and real criminals both have guns.
Oregon jury: “having guns is no threat but statement of culture like wearing cowboy hat.”?
Protect police with your gun: Passerby shoots suspect who’s beating sheriff in traffic stop




Ignoramus Award: Global warming is hoax, says Prez so why is Miami garage flooding

Catholic Church in Rwanda apologized for the church's role in the 1994 genocide: “Church members planned, aided and executed the genocide, in which over 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists.”

How our government wastes our money
Each round for Navy ship costs $800,000 so Navy can’t afford more ships or ammo.

Where have all the jobs gone?

Who owns your account now?

IAN
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