How can we feel sorry for crypto speculators?
The financial industry is a for-profit one. It does not exist to help people invest. It can’t be trusted because each seller is promising to Make Americans Richer the easy way. Like Madoff, Sam Bankman-Fried learned a new con: get rich by “mining” a computer chip or betting on non-existant things—cryptocurrencies like Solana, which went from being several dollars a token in early 2021 to over $200. Some were convinced when a country decided to use pseudo money as their national currency. But a million FTX users have lost enormous sums. FTX will use any cash to pay the bankruptcy lawyers now. Few buyers recognized a con when they saw it. Few saw red flags as some accounts were hacked by people who can code well. Few appreciated how easily a byte or two could be stolen or misused. Some were lone gamblers: One lost his life savings, hadn’t told his wife yet, and was unsure how he was going to meet his mortgage payments. Some thought the FTX CEO was too rich to need to steal customer funds. Our most famous con man will now show us how to LOOK rich while using bankruptcy to cheat thousands of vendors, investors and banks. As one commentator reminded us years ago: ”There’s a sucker born every minute”.
We have the tools: https://www.amazon.com/Warren-Buffetts-Investment-Strategy-Forget/dp/1484822900
How much is your advisor costing you?
Everyone who has an advisor; loves them. They must or they would have fired them. But each quarter, advisors may be deducting 1-2% plus trading costs plus hidden fees like 12b-1 marketing fees. Most financial statements do not itemize costs or even list all the costs. Most are deducted from your gross earnings and thus only show the NET after costs have been deducted. To find your total costs, you will need an accountant or a lawyer to decipher the fee table located in a fund's prospectus, under “Shareholder Fees.” Next you will need to ask your advisor for a copy of the firm’s Pricing charts and the updates. You are charged for no activity, odd lots, statements, checks, transfers, research, etc etc. Depending on the size and activity of your account or accounts, your total costs may be close to 2%. If you are moving in and out of stocks, you could be losing money on sales (not every thing you buy makes money). Depending on the status of your account, your advisor could be trading without you agreeing to each transaction. Your advisor could be buying very speculative firm offerings without you knowing. Depending on what you said your goals and strategy were at your account opening, you could be paying 2% a year. You could be losing $thousands without knowing it. These costs can easily take up to “63% of what you would have had” during your retirement investing lifetime. That’s $250,000 instead of $500,000 nest egg.
Costs are important: https://www.amazon.com/Buffett-Strategy-854-000-not/dp/1978481020
Save more tax-deferred or tax-FREE in 2023
The
2023 401(k) contribution limit is $22,500, those 50 and older can
make special catch-up contributions of $7,500. That means those 50 and older
can contribute a total of $30,000 to their 401(k). The limit
for IRA contributions in 2023 was $6,500. The catch-up contribution
total remains $1,000. For traditional IRAs, the phaseout range for 2023 starts
at $73,000 and ends at $83,000 for single taxpayers covered by a workplace
retirement plan. For married couples filing jointly in 2023, the IRA phaseout
range is $116,000 to $136,000 if the spouse making the contribution is covered
by a workplace plan. For tax-FREE Roth plans, for singles and heads of
household, the 2023 phaseout range is $138,000 to $153,000. For married couples
filing jointly, the 2023 range is $218,000 to $228,000. The cost of living
adjustment (COLA) for Social Security payments in 2023 is 8.7%. On average,
Social Security payments will go up by $140 starting in January.
https://www.amazon.com/New-American-Retirement-System-ReserveTM/dp/1461030072
Is gold a good investment?
Many advisors are recommending gold as a hedge against a recession. It is true that gold and other commodities may be a great asset to own now but you had to have an epiphany to buy before. Since 2000, this popular gold stock lost 16% compared with the S&P 500 index ETF gain of 168%. Gold hit a high in April 2011 and has been down since.
iShares
Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) 397.78 USD+168.88%
Barrick
Gold Corp(GOLD) 15.62 USD-16.43%
It is better to hold the 10 best low-cost mutual funds that cover the whole market than to speculate on one asset. These 10 Vanguard funds have averaged over 11% for years.
https://www.amazon.com/Vanguards-Top-Ten-mutual-funds/dp/150073909X
Liberté Insurance: ‘Buy Only What You Need’
As they say, “buy only what you need.” So let’s check what you are over -paying for. Increasing your deductible from $200 to $500 could reduce your collision and comprehensive coverage cost by 15 to 30 percent. Going to a $1,000 deductible can save you 40 percent or more. In 2.5 years, you have saved the $1,000 deductible in case you need it. Consider dropping collision and/or comprehensive coverages on older cars. If your car is worth less than 10 times the premium, purchasing the coverage may not be cost effective. See what your car is worth by checking the retail price online then deduct 20% for wholesale. Shop around—use agents and direct sellers—ask about ‘bundled’ cover. Carriers change their marketing preferences every couple of years. You may save more by separating coverages. We had such a good deal on home and auto from different firms that we could never find a better deal by bundling. We switched car cover 5 times. High credit rating and low mileage saves you premium increases. Your employer, group or association may have a discount. There are 13 discounts available from some insurers. If you have health and accident insurance, you don’t need this one. If your credit card has concierge service, you don’t need roadside. Unless you rent often, rental car cover is not needed. Same for living expenses after an accident. Use your emergency fund.
Buy only needs: https://www.amazon.com/Vehicle-Insurance-Beware-Double-Coverage/dp/1480027634/
Has your advisor raised your portfolio value by 51% in the last 5 years?
Many readers have left their retirement money in index funds
for many years. They believe Warren Buffett’s advice is sound. Here is the
score: iShares Core S&P 500 ETF
396.26 USD+134.30 (51.24%) past 5 years. Warren
Buffett gives credit to his buy and hold compounding strategy for reaching his $100 Billion net worth
from his early paper route savings: “My wealth has come from a combination
of living in
https://www.amazon.com/Buffett-Bogle-Holy-Bible-Investment/dp/1523693045
Is a new car right for you right now?
The average monthly payment for us buying new cars climbed to $748 in October, an all-time high. The Transaction price was $48,301 in August—new car prices are $1,775 higher than they were a year ago. More than 14% of those who financed a new vehicle in the third quarter of 2022 committed to monthly payments of $1,000 or more, an increase from just above 8% a year earlier, according to Edmunds. On average, new luxury cars lose around 40-50% of their original value in the first five years of ownership. So you may save a lot by buying a used luxury vehicle. The value of your $748 a month payments may be $58,400 in 5 years when invested. If you took half of that for a 3 year old BMW, you may have $30,000 cash in 5 years and a luxury car too. A 2019 BMW X1 sDrive281 for $26,000 could be had for $435 per month. You could have your “new” car and $30,000 to your advantage. In 2-3 years you might have less inflated prices and lower interest charges. Actually, you could buy a more recent ‘used’ luxury car for the money you saved by waiting.
https://www.amazon.com/Money-Ball-Investing-Winning-unfair/dp/1548831409
?**********ACCOUNTABILITY**************?
Like 1776, this
period is a test
of democracy—We
rejected an "American
fascist" once
The
Path to Dictatorship: 2010-2030
Parallels of this era in the past
may hint at our future: democracy breaks apart legally
Billionaires
paid $881 million for votes in 2022
midterm elections
Nov 2020 Wealthy
discredit election process
Jan
6 2021 Direct
assault failed: guns
& bombs ready
Trump
engaged in a "criminal
conspiracy" to stop Biden
“I
don’t f—ing care that they have weapons”
Trump was “detached
from reality”
Trump
used mafia-style intimidation on the defenseless
Parscale: “a
sitting president asking for civil war.”
Trump:
“Just
say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me”
GOP fascism: “RINO
hunt armed; no bagging limit” J6
comm threat
Trump’s Supremes END
personal rights & state
laws except for weapons
WMDs
Fascism: GOP
to stop women leaving state for abortion
It’s
not a court. It’s a junta: Two Americas
Trump: President
Biden is 'enemy of the state'
Christian
Nationalist Party (CNP) replaces
GOP
Jan 2025 Dictator
pardons himself: his Supremes agree
How Govt wastes our money:
Too Hot: Attorney
General Garland announces special
counsel to indict Trump
Can
Trump get a fair trial in US? Are Con Men responsible? Or mentally ill?
NASA could have
helped save Earth with $93B: joyride
around moon is wasteful
Congress
tells regulator to stop questioning crypto industry BEFORE it blew up
New IRS auditors to
collect $1Trillion
from tax evaders: lawyers can delay court orders
Trump
paid only $750 in taxes each year. Paid $ZERO 10 of 15 years due to biz
failures.
Disney
lost tax-favored subsidy: state-supported capitalist must agree to deSantis’
beliefs
SCAMS/SPINS:
2020: ‘the “hand of God” would work for Trump’: evangelicals
nowhere to be seen 2022
Jesse Benton caught
giving Russian officer money to Trump’s Republican event
Hawley: the
GOP is dead: illusions are not policy: dummies
don’t win
Christian Nationalist Flynn ordered testify on plan
to overthrow US government Jan 6
Biden
gives Saudi bin Salmon free pass to kill: no court has jurisdiction like
Putin
GOP limits voting for GA runoff: ACLU
sued GOP over the shortened voting times
Legal
help for advisor bad advice has almost disappeared: arbitration is not fair
Ford
recalling ½ million F-150 vehicles due to wiper motor failure in the rain
General Motors newest business is fixing
your Teslas
Airlines are Keeping Flight Delay Data Hidden: we
won’t know which to avoid
NY judge scheduled October
2023 trial for Trump and his kids, but will they attend?
Supremes spring a leak: no
code of ethics to keep them honest: Alito
gets paid to talk
Alex
moved his money so court decision for Sandyhook blocked: only lawyers get
paid
RD Legal Funding caught
fraud offering advances from payouts from victim-comp funds
Teva AbbVie caught
pushing opioids to kill millions: no jail, fine $6.6 billion $6,600
per
Tom Brady Steph Curry caught
paid promoting of failed crypto exchange FTX
22-yr with war
weapon killed five people; injured 25: Point is 5 dead; not a motive
VA Walmart employee
kills 6; injured 5 in seconds: guns kill 600 dead YTD
Putin
kills newborn maternity hospital bombing: Russian
Orthodox bishop blesses kill
Avoid
homebuyers’ mistakes: preparation is more important than anything
Should
You Make an Insurance Claim?: half of all property claims result in a rate
hike
GEICO
dropped our Umbrella policy bec/ my car dented façade of a business: shoe
slip
Jobs
Pension funds avoided losses from the collapse of crypto: young speculators OK loss
Teachers in every state: certification optional in some: $65K - $85K avg salary
Who owns your account now?
Despite losing your money, advisors like Raymond James generated record results 13%
Miracles:
Single
silicon chip (a fingernail) hold 50 billion transistors each about five
atoms wide
Miracle in MD: 600
victims of sex abuse by 158 priests: no
arrests guaranteed by state!
Save your letters: Dylan’s
high school love
letters sell for $670,000: hey, you never know
Rich
Fierro veteran took down gunman machine gunning down patrons at CO club
Twins are born from embryos
that were frozen 30 years ago
Germany's
oldest Christmas market opens for 588th year: 1434 German Christmas bread
Our Universe is Mind-Blowing
Light is both
a particle and a wave depending on how we look at the light.
I
don’t think that there is any such thing as a position or a velocity of a
particle.
Everything (galaxies
to stones) in universe made of subatomic
energy ‘vibrations’
A subatomic ‘particle’
is the smallest possible vibration (quantum) of a quantum field.
Mass–energy
equivalence: E=mc^2. At the smallest
level; Everything is moving a little
Physics Nobel Prize:
“entanglement” 2
particles share info instantly at a distance
“It may be that gravity and quantum mechanics are
exactly the same thing,” Leonard Susskind
Gravity
might induce the collapse of quantum vibrations into 1 quantum state—our
world
There is no TIME at this
level because of force fields come and go in all directions.
Universe expanding: events
may not come together like they did before.
Inside protons,
neutrons, it
is the fields of the virtual particles that creates its mass.
“Empty space is a
boiling, bubbling brew of virtual
particles that pop in and out of existence in a time scale so short that you
can’t even measure them.” Space expanding.
The electricity we use comes
from the field around the wire not from election itself.
@
We can apply for
Medicare online: https://blog.ssa.gov/apply-for-medicare-online
We can apply for Social
Security online: https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/
We can apply for
health care online: https://www.healthcare.gov/
IAN
973.746.2014
www.InsuranceAdvisorsNetwork.com
Alerts available
at http://dankeppel.blogspot.com/
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