Friday, October 5, 2018

Is your portfolio balanced for the future market?


Is your portfolio balanced for the future market?
Every financial planner has in mind a combo of stocks and bonds and some ‘alternative’ assets for average investors at any age. When thinking of the long-term returns—more than 10 years—most use a software program that takes your current portfolio totals for each asset class (stock, bond, other) and estimates how it will grow (inflation-adjusted) over time using a 1000 past stock and bond market scenarios. It adds your other income (pension and SS) and expenses and provides a range of portfolio totals you will have by age. Most programs estimate your income/expenses annually with a probability of making it all the way to age 95. So for most people a 45% stock 55% bond portfolio provides the best chance (97%) of making it through 25-30 years in retirement. Actually, this combo turns out to be fairly good one for most risk-averse investors of any age. More aggressive investors tilt the combo to stocks at an early age, like target date funds. The ratio of stocks, bonds, other is called asset allocation. Over time, stocks beat inflation but bond interest can offset a temporary stock price drop. A balanced fund like Vanguard Balanced Index Fund had only 1 year of negative returns. 


Trump is recouping his tax cuts to the rich with tariffs we pay!
Many retail outlets are now raising prices to make us pay for Trump’s tax cuts to the wealthy. We knew we would have to pay eventually since Trump’s class has already figured out how to avoid taxes themselves. He gave them more help for the next 10 years. We will pay the higher prices and see our middle-class tax break of $4,000 (Trump promised) slip thru our fingers. He planned the tariffs before the tax breaks knowing that his class doesn’t shop at Walmart, Target, Mays, etc and thus won’t have to pay. The corporations were never going to use their breaks to build new factories for jobs. They have given the money to the owners and senior management. Socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor.

IRS cuts audits by 1/4 so Breath easy
The IRS’s criminal division brought 795 cases in which tax fraud was the primary crime last year, a decline of a quarter since 2010. Republicans in Congress have repeatedly cut the agency's budget since 2011, slashing the enforcement staff by a third. “Over time, crimes only tangentially related to taxes, such as drug trafficking and money laundering, have come to account for most of the agency’s cases.” Tax avoiders have a friend in high places so it is unlikely they will be caught. Even if they are found, they pay up. They hardly ever go to jail. Philip Falcone caught avoiding taxes overseas is an example of rich who don’t go to jail. They pay a deductible fine. Good auditors don’t work for the IRS; they work for the avoiders to find tiny exceptions in the code to avoid taxes.

Check your broker/advisor’s charges when rollover used
Regulators are taking a second look at the transactions when you are moving large assets to another type of account. The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking more closely at IRA rollovers. Examiners will not only be sifting through rollovers from retirement plans but from other IRAs, annuities and commissionable products. They want to ensure that your product offerings, fees and commissions are justified. If your salesperson fails to justify the recommendations and fees for rollovers, they may trigger an SEC examination. “This is the most aggressive we’ve seen the SEC in years with respect to enforcement on the fiduciary side” a researcher said. Fees above 1% will have to be justified. Since a 1% total charge may make a sales quota (1% of $250,000) $2,500 is a lot for a simple fill-in form. Consider the new product on-going fees, charges, commissions before you sign. There are alternatives that are better for you!

Another way the wealthy leave us with their tax bills
Wealthy people often accumulate huge value in their assets. For instance, Trump’s father gave him at least $413 million. If The Don had just put that in stocks, he would have $8.2 Billion now. 20% taxes would be due when the stocks are sold. If those assets were contributed to a donor advised fund (DAF), they would yields a huge deduction, which can offset as much as 30 percent of their income (AGI). This deduction can be carried forward five years so they may never pay regular income taxes (as The Don did in 1995 onward). Since the DAF is a public charity, the donor pays no capital gains tax -- and neither does the DAF when it sells the assets.
Of course this strategy is not as complicated as the ones used by the Trump family to avoid paying their fair share. New York State has opened an investigation into the alleged fraud committed so the family estate did not pay $ millions in taxes.

Tax law changes require you to prepare now
Tax changes mean you may actually owe tax this year. Check your 2017 return. First, the new standard deduction is $12,000 single; $18,000 head household; $24,000 joint returns. But you can’t claim a personal exemption deduction for yourself, your spouse, or your dependents. So if you claimed 3 or more exemptions, you lose at least the $12,150 deduction on line 42. If your family is large this can hurt (3 kids means $20,250 added to your taxable income line 43. This may increase your tax by $4,000. Also you are limited in the deductions for property and state income taxes to $10,000 as well as other items. To avoid any penalty, increase the amount of federal withholding at work using form W-4 to DECREASE your ‘allowances’ on line 5: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf. Or pay the full amount of shortage by Jan 15, 2019. Page 9: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040es.pdf/. On the other hand, if you can bunch 2-3 years of charity gifts, you can lessen the damage. Some states will let you pay state taxes to a charity to work around this tax increase. If you are head a small business, your tax bill will probably fall but see your accountant for details.

How much to withdrawal from your nest egg?
Stanford Center on Longevity evaluated 292 strategies on generating retirement income, and the “Spend Safely In Retirement” strategy is one that it believes can work well for most clients. Retirement paychecks are SS and RMD from IRAs. These are guaranteed to last the rest of your life, no matter how long you live, and they don’t go down in stock market crashes. Use these to cover your basic living expenses, food, a roof over your head, medical premiums, utilities. Retirement bonuses. These typically come from invested assets or salaries from working. Use these to cover your discretionary living expenses, like travel, hobbies and gifts for grandchildren. Cash stash. This money covers emergencies so you don’t have to dip into your savings.

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Make America, “The Don”, Great Again

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

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Opioid addiction treatment money and drug firms push millions of pills into addicts.
Trump to fight CA on open internet: he wants us to pay more for faster service.


SCAMS/SPINS:
Tariffs are the NEW tax and employment would fall by 459,816.
Roca Labs diet supplement lies exposed are protected from suit
AmerisourceBergen, drug middleman, caught fraud, doctor kickbacks, no jail time.

Philip Falcone caught avoiding taxes overseas—rich don’t go to jail; pay deductible fine.
Lending Club and CEO caught cooking the books to make it look better.
Top scams and frauds complaints: $2 billion recovered but be on your guard with these.

Charles Rettig, Trump’s new IRS chief may ignore tax cheating by Trump family.

Shopper’s loan—high-cost loans for those who can’t get credit. Too easy default.


Suicide by cop: Everyday people with guns kill co-workers and get cops to kill them.

CA gun buy now requires age 21—will it cut mass shootings?

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You’d be a billionaire too with $413 million and 1,032 apartments to start your career.

Why do women attacked by rich men NOT report? Living proof with CongressMen!
So when you are being attacked, you must bring a lawyer with you to observe & testify.
Trump said #MeToo Movement women are a threat to his class of rich men who prey on women because of their power. Trump claims he can’t stop himself from sexually attacking women. Trump has no morals or self-control. Hedonist!
Trump tape: “I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Whatever you want. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Trump knows from his experience: He defends himself using the media to attack the victim’s credibility and honor. And sometimes punish them with legal force.  

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Jobs:
Trump ends entrepreneur visas so jobs go to Estonia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, etc.
Scammers posing as potential employers who send fake check; you buy real cash cards.

Get college degree FREE so jobs become available in future.
TX to get FIRST robot sex dolls at Galleria Houston.
Jobs galore: Unemployment rate at lowest level in 50 years

Who owns your account now?
Merrill restrictions on penny-stock trading, adding to new rules for the higher-risk items.
NJ brokers will have fiduciary duty similar to Obama’s rule that Trump reversed.

50 million Facebook accounts security breach: hackers take over users’ account data.
Earn 5% on Amazon purchases: Must be Prime member $119; covered with $200/month.


Miracle:

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