Your Unbiased Advisor: Where is your old pension and 401k?

Do you know where your former company pension or 401k landed?

I found mine; no thanks to those who were making money from my money. Many people forget they have a pension or life insurance from an old firm. The company may have been purchased or merged or gone bankrupt. If your old firm does not have your current address you will not know where your money lands. Deborah kept looking despite the bad information she was given. Whatever circumstances, there are no standard practices or central registry for your money’s location. Some companies are just not interested in helping you. Pension rights advocates claim employers have an incentive NOT to find missing participants like Deborah. Like MetLife, they may be caught holding the money for life insurance beneficiaries because they make millions from holding our money. I had to fight to obtain my pension from Thomson McKinnon which did a chapter 11 in 1990. Since there is no national registry yet (and may never be), I started at the https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa and the https://www.pbgc.gov/ and went to the bankruptcy filings and lawyers. Finally, online records turned up the fact that John Hancock had it all this time without telling me. And I had not moved. They just didn’t let me know they held my money. You know why.

https://www.amazon.com/Your-Retirement-Spending-Plan-enough/dp/1461084016

When should you NOT convert a regular IRA to Roth IRA?

Ed Slott is the expert on IRA and Roth IRA. He is a fan of Roths because distributions are tax-FREE from fed and state income taxes and there are no mandatory withdrawals like regular IRAs. You can convert an IRA to a Roth, pay the tax and then smile in retirement when there is NO tax to pay. Slott says there times when this conversion makes little sense. For instance, if you can’t pay the tax from other funds or your rate is lower later. His full advice is here https://www.fa-mag.com/news/when-roths-may-not-be-right-39880.html. If you can’t convert, build your Roth IRA while you are working.

Know your IRA required minimum distributions in advance: https://www.amazon.com/What-your-RMD-much-spend/dp/1718946716

Is your advisor/broker working for you or for the perks?

Under current rules, your advisor can sell you products that are NOT the ‘best’ for you—your money would be taken and you won’t even know it until later. There is no ethical pledge like lawyers or doctors take to do no harm. Trump’s regulator at the SEC makes the rules. He doesn’t ban sales quotas, fee hidding or lavish trips for sales of poor in-house products. Formal disclosures protect the seller and industry; not educate the buyer. When you get taken, you don’t have the right to sue. Unfortunately, you must ask the industry-run arbitrator to decide your case and if you win your odds of collecting are lower than with a court order. Sellers who cheat people are not barred—they just move to a new firm. After the industry killed the Labor Department’s Fiduciary Rule last year, advisors have the green light to take you since they hold all the cards. Even the ‘top broker’ at well-known firms have cheated clients and just moved on to a new firm.

Protect your money BEFORE you act: https://www.amazon.com/Fiduciary-Rule-BEST-dont-anymore/dp/1530980275

New ways the wealthy avoid taxes that we have to pay for them

The Trump tax breaks did not reduce the amount the well off can deduct from their taxes. The rich get richer. We have to pay for the courts, police, military, roads, airports, etc. the rich use but don’t pay for. We taxpayers help pay for the vacation and rental properties of the rich. Instead of paying their gains tax on the sale of these non-principal residences, Trump and the GOP have made the gains tax-FREE. Any properties they don’t use themselves can even offset any taxable regular income so they may pay less than we would with the same income. So you probably could rent their homes at high rent but they may avoid taxes on that income and the sale of that home when they sell it. Nice!

You can have a Trump tax shelter too: https://www.amazon.com/Trump-Tax-Shelter-Avoid-taxes/dp/1985448300

Are actively-managed funds right for you?

Mutual fund manager costs usually sink their long-term investment returns. Studies of performance over time show that out of the thousands of funds, there will always be some that beat the index fund in the short term. However, over time it is clear that costs kill the returns because of fee compounding. In fact, with expenses of 2% over our working lives of 40-50 years, we will give up 63% of our total potential nest egg. That is a big price to pay for a quick thrill of beating the index in one year. However, for the advertising department of an actively-managed fund group, one year of good returns is worth $ millions of new money for profits over the next 10 years. For those looking for the best-performing actively managed mutual funds, here is the list. But by next year, they will be dogs according to studies on longevity. Low cost beat high cost over time.

For most of your money, go long: https://www.amazon.com/Go-Long-Reach-Wealth-Starting/dp/1519376189

America

a wealthy-person socialist state already?

Trump’s socialist gift of $12 billion to the lucky few was done without consulting Congress or taxpayers. Farmers are not poor. Most are very wealthy—farmland costs a bundle and many have become tax-FREE corporations. Farmers already have a socialist’s bonanza from us taxpayers. Do you receive a Price Loss Coverage payment when you can’t sell your business products profitably? Farm corps do. Trump shows another way socialism works for the rich. Trump voters don’t mind a short-term tariff war as long as they have their government socialist state payments. Same with his friends in oil, gas, sugar etc who have multiple war chests of subsidies, loans and grants to tide them over from tariffs. Just ask the Congress people who double dip—salary, expenses plus grants, subsidies and kickbacks. It is us poor taxpayers that need the subsidy for tariffs since we are the ones that pay for them. When we shop at Walmart etc we usually buy Chinese. Most of Trump’s new tax breaks go to the already rich. I have documented some of them in this blog. Our lower payroll tax was offset by higher health care costs with the end of ObamaCare. Ranchers no longer pay public land rental fees. Did you receive government money in the 2007-8 recession Your bank got your future money. Your car company got government help when you lost your house. You didn’t. Trump decided to give his friends a cut in their capital-gains tax.

Use your tax shelter: https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Socialism-for-Rich-only-little-people-pay/dp/1535218584

Is a dependable vehicle right for you?
Most people say they need a reliable mode of transport—the average family spends over $9,000 a year. I’m guessing it is so high because they are paying off a new vehicle—popular trucks and SUVs begin at $35,000. Buying a low mileage version of your favorite may just save you $ thousands for other things. If you drive a lot, maybe a Prius at $16,000 is a good bargain. Oil is not going down. A 2015 Highlander can be had for $23,000 or a Sante Fe for $17,000. My favorite is the 2015 Accord for $17,000.

Don’t forget discounts on insurance: https://www.amazon.com/Vehicle-Insurance-Beware-Double-Coverage/dp/1480027634

Opioid epidemic was created by drug companies and Washington lets it go on

Doctors are rewarded with trips for getting people hooked. Particularly grotesque is the enthusiasm with which Purdue Pharma peddled its pills, a 10 year veteran reporter writes. “In the first five years OxyContin was on the market, total bonuses for the company’s sales staff grew from $1 million to $40 million. Zealous reps could earn quarterly bonuses as high as $100,000, one former salesperson told reporter Macy, adding, ‘It behooved them to have the pill mills writing high doses.’” To fight withdrawal pain, Oxy users switched to heroin and later fentanyl. Parents of the victims gain support with national networks like this one. 16 states have filed suit against the pharma industry. Drug makers spend more than any lobby so Congress does nothing. Money talks.

https://www.amazon.com/Dopesick-Dealers-Doctors-Company-Addicted-ebook/dp/B078D67JCF

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Make

America

, “The Don”, Great Again

Two

Americas

: A Banana Republic? Do we really want an infant king? Daddy Putin!

Conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to receive Emoluments from foreign states, false statements, subverting constitutional tax power, obstructing justice, failure to secure voting systems from attacks, and Foundation self-dealing.

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How Govt wastes our money: Congress spends $1.3 Trillion we don’t have!

Trump mob running Veterans Admin from his golf club