Your Unbiased Advisor: bad credit info

Showing posts with label bad credit info. Show all posts

Friday, October 21, 2022

What kind of advisor works best for you?

Can a couple create an equally-pleasing retirement?

Whatever you are dreaming about for your retirement needs to be discussed with your spouse. Let’s assume you have plans; so your spouse must have plans too. Do you discuss the plans? Do you plan when best to retire? If one of you wants to continue working, this may give you both experiences about your time in retirement. Perhaps waiting to collect SS benefits will up your income by 75% over early retirement benefits. If both of you start SS benefits at the same time, your income tax may increase since benefits are taxed as your income increases. Two income households can save more IF there is mutual planning. Divorce can destroy both of your futures. Spousal IRA doubles tax-advantaged savings. Written plans make them real.

Discussion is necessary: https://www.amazon.com/Maximize-Social-Security-Benefits-Retirement/dp/1495439224

Pay yourself or pay credit card industry?

Credit card debt is rising at its fastest clip in more than 20 years, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Overall, we owe $887 billion on credit cards, a 13% increase from a year ago. With inflation pushing rent costs and food prices higher, will we be able to save for the future or be stuck feeding the financial industry? My credit cards charge 27.24% if I don’t pay the balance monthly so I go back to buying the house brand and using coupons. I can’t afford the pay mob loan rates and still keep investing in my tax-FREE account. I want to make sure I don’t carry a balance since at 27.24% it would take me years to pay off $20,000. We had an emergency surgery charge of $20,750 this month (after insurance!). You must pay doctor and hospital in advance now. We found a new credit card that gives us 0% interest for 21 months on purchases. Some cards charge 5% on balance transfers so those aren’t good for us. Luckily we have a good rating so we qualify to put our surgery charges on a couple of these 0% interest cards. We have 21 months to pay the balance so we can continue to buy stock shares in our tax-FREE account.

Avoid interest and taxes on future income: https://www.amazon.com/New-American-Retirement-System-ReserveTM/dp/1461030072/

What kind of advisor works best for you?

Advisors cost money—a lot of money. If you have $500,000, you may be paying $10,000 a year for that quarterly review or quick telephone message. Over a lifetime or long periods of engagement you may be giving up 63% of your potential total nest egg. Fees are guaranteed to the advisor no matter what they do for you. If you need help in making a plan for investing or retirement or whatever, a better deal is to find a professional planner fiduciary that charges one fixed fee. Like a lawyer, this fee usually covers an analysis and a couple of meetings to answer your questions. The analysis can be extensive. Ours was over 50 pages and showed us how our retirement income could last for over 30 years. The fee was $750—reasonable considering no advisor in our area would accept us since we did not have over $1,000,000 for them to “manage.” Most of our money is in stock qualified IRA funds which we don’t want to manipulate or buy products. We were happy with our 9% annual earning.

Look before you sign an advisor: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Robo-Advisor-Ultimate-Automatic-Management/dp/1537111957

As repair costs soar, reliability becomes more important.

Here are the 2022 Consumer Reports Auto Reliability Report rankings of major automotive brands:

1. Lexus

2. Mazda

3. Toyota

4. Infiniti

5. Buick

6. Honda

7. Subaru

8. Acura

9. Nissan

10. Mini

11. Hyundai

12. Chrysler

13. Porsche

14. Chevrolet

15. Audi

16. Cadillac

17. BMW

18. Ford

19. Kia

20. Volvo

21. Ram

22. GMC

23. Mercedes-Benz

24. Volkswagen (31)

25. Genesis (30)

26. Jeep (26)

27. Tesla (25)

28. Lincoln (18)

Cancel coverage you don’t need: https://www.amazon.com/Vehicle-Insurance-Beware-Double-Coverage/dp/1480027634

?**********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

Jan 21 2010 Corporations’ election-spending unlimited

Nov 2020 Wealthy discredit election process

Nov 21 2020 Trump’s Plans for a Coup: criminal

Nov 21 2020: Trump plan: US Marshals seize voting machines

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

Nov 8 2022 Trump’s “national revolution”

Jan 2025 Dictator pardons himself: his Supremes Agree

How Govt wastes our money:

Wealthy avoid paying taxes so they can buy our elections: $20 million buys a lot of juice

There's No Recession In Luxury With Dior, Mercedes Sales Booming

We paid for tech sold to China that helped their advance hypersonic missile program

We give our money to Intel, etc for chip making and they lay off workers: profits balloon

Jan 6 Findings are history: do we prefer our version of reality: 2 versions of ‘democracy’

US sliding into authoritarian government LEGALLY just like other former democracies

Will Steve Bannon ever serve a day in jail for giving the House Committee the ‘finger?

9 million people and families failed to claim their IRS tax credit payments

GOP House leaders threaten cuts in SS and Medicare: But we paid in already

Supremes have another chance to undermine elections: states not voters can decide prez

SCAMS/SPINS:

Thousands lost hundreds of millions in crypto when scamgangs hit Coinbase acconts

Mortgage: mistakenly wire down payment to a hacker.

You may never know why you were denied that apartment: tenant screening scams

Only HALF of us are confident in fair vote counting: Trumpists think OK if win

Gen Flynn now new Billy Graham: Holy War (jihad) Politics is American’s religion

Catholic elites caught ignoring abuse of innocents: cardinal and bishop abuse kids

Giving a 15 year old access to a shotgun: what kind of urban society does that?

Genworth Life caught unfairly raising rates for 13,400 policyholders

Keith Springer caught using “deceptive marketing” push annuities high fees: defrocked

Stephen Romney Swensen, estate of, caught Ponzi after death: promised 5% guaranteed

American Airlines caught taking bogus bag fees: pay back $7.5M lied re credit card perk

ACTIVE Network caught tricking people into enrolling into subscription discount club

Cetera caught misleading clients share class selection/revenue sharing infractions fine

Credit Bureaus caught putting/keeping crap data in our credit reports: junk data abounds

BEWARE: Cash App Scams: learn the tricks and techniques scammers are using

7 cereals called ‘unhealthy’ by gov: too much sugar and salt

Social Security COLA increase may put us in next tax bracket: benefits taxable?

Teachers with emergency certifications, low-income Black neighborhoods get less again.

Twitter: like China's WeChat, a "super app" does video chats, messaging, streaming, payments

Recall baby formula by Abbott who Improperly Sealed Bottles of Similac: profits soar!

Putin takes Ukraine kids to make them Russian just like Trump separated kids for US.

British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigns: her last appearance

Jobs

Good financial jobs expanding

Our vets, generals and admirals work for foreign powers after we pay to train

Remote jobs will get harder to find

Who owns your account now?

Can You Back out of a Real Estate Contract? Maybe—each state is different

Medicare options open for 2023: https://www.medicare.gov/plan-compare/

New Abortion Underground

Texas woman nearly died: infection allowed doctors could not perform legal abortion

Use your home’s equity wisely: big asset you can use before you sell out

Vanguard had rare month of outflows: most fund owners in for long-term

Miracles:

Syria ‘rare’ preserved Roman mosaic in former rebel stronghold

On-site renewable energy: a revolutionary bladeless wind energy: quiet no solar panels

Now we can buy hearing aids over the counter: do your research for $200 value

Cancer vaccines could be ready by 2030: uses mRNA nucleic acid to target intruder

Two bizarre blue blobs of light glimmering in our planet's atmosphere: UFO?

Scotland tries different way to reform women in prison

Student loan forgiveness: https://studentaid.gov/debt-relief/application

2023 tax rates offer break for middle income payers: wealthy already have breaks

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

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/

Friday, October 22, 2021

How much of your credit limit should you use?

Why is this question important to answer? Your credit score, which is used for everything from loans to rental agreements to job offers, is determined in part by your credit utilization—how much of your card limit you are using. Maxing out a credit card—having a balance equal to the card's borrowing limit—has a negative impact on your score. Folks with the highest credit scores often have (and use) multiple credit cards every month. So how much usage is too much? Most of us that pay all of our balance each month tend to have the highest scores. When I shop for a used car, I give the dealer permission to check my score. I know it is over 800 because I have been given a high limit but I don’t use it. When I bought a fridge recently, I paid with my credit card (to protect me if it didn’t work) and earned points. I had saved up before hand so I could pay off the monthly bill when it came due. Most credit bureaus do not cut your score if your ratio is under 30%. For instance, total cards limit $5,000, balance carried $1,500, ratio = 30%. People with the best scores tend to keep utilization under 10% for each card and for total credit card use, according to Experian.

Get the best deals: https://www.amazon.com/Insiders-Guides-Discount-Financial-Services/dp/143480593X

Is a South Dakota tax haven right for you?

South Dakota has become one of the most popular tax havens in the world. South Dakota offers everything a wealthy person setting up a trust could want. There is no state income tax or capital gains tax, so investment gains on assets placed in the trust are tax-free if it's structured correctly. Robust protections provide anonymity and shield assets from creditors and governments. And special provisions allow trusts established there to last forever, which means those assets would never be subject to the federal estate tax (40% for estates worth more than $11.7 million). However, the popular types of trusts used in South Dakota and Nevada have never been tested in a court of law. That means it's unclear if it would last. This trust, known as an incomplete gift non-grantor trust, or ING, could be challenged because the user is actually lying. They say they are hands off but they also claim they still have some control over the assets because the gift to the trust is ‘incomplete’. They claim they aren't tapping the annual $15,000 limit for gifts or the $11.7 million lifetime exemption before the federal gift tax starts to kick in. They claim a special ‘committee’ has to approve any payouts made to the creator of the trust.

Use the IRS approved tax haven: https://www.amazon.com/Your-Tax-Haven-Tax-FREE-working-Americans/dp/1482659441

How much tax will you owe for this year in April 2022?

With all the changes in income this year—unemployment, new job, child tax credit—etc, you may owe taxes that you have not had your employer withhold by December. So this calculator may help you understand where you stand: https://www.cvnb.com/calculator/tax-margin. Usually there is no penalty for under paying by December if you owe less than $1,000. If you will owe more, send in more by changing your W-4 with your employer or using this form: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040es.pdf. You can wait to complete your taxes before April 15 and ask for a waiver of the penalty. There are no guarantees of course.

Consider changes: https://www.kiplinger.com/taxes/tax-law/603037/tax-changes-and-key-amounts-for-the-2021-tax-year

How to remove fake bad credit info from your credit report

Although one credit inquiry is not going to hurt your credit score it can affect your credit scores for up to two years. You may have looked for a new or used car or credit card or house, but that inquiry may also have come from some fake internet site or merchant trying to punish you. If you are not checking your credit report regularly, you will never know why you don’t get the best rate or rental deal. When you find the questionable hit on your report, don’t hire a credit repair firm. That may just add to your unfavorables. Use the online request form at the credit bureau to request bad info removal. Congress gave bureaus the right to ding you but not the responsibility to check data. You have to do it yourself. Thanks for nothing Congress! Around 25% of U.S. consumers found errors that could affect their credit scores in one of their credit reports. My report had data from someone in Long Island with my name and another from Maryland who stiffed a hospital and owed a lot of money. I filed the forms and got them removed after months. Bureaus don’t have a time limit on their failures. If they don’t act, use the sample credit dispute letters from the Federal Trade Commission. Let the FTC know about your dispute.

Show your child: https://www.amazon.com/Give-your-child-leg-manage/dp/1096505355

Is “personalized investing” right for you?

Headline: ‘Personalized Investing Coming Like a 'Freight Train'. If you were a broker/advisor this is sweet music to your ear. But guess what—this is just a marketing slogan for a sales person pushing the firm’s ‘selling list.’ And we get to pay through the nose for their guesswork. A Schwab employee said “investors were seeking an “even higher level” of personalization.” Yes, if your advisor asks enough questions about your situation and goal and objectives, they are bound to be able to find some securities that you personally will like. Yes, over time and through experience, your advisor should be able to assemble securities you feel meet your needs—but at what cost? Some picks will be winners and some losers and advisors don’t know. They can’t predict the future no matter how well they know your data. The reason passive investing has done so well for index users is that no matter how much you pay for ‘personalized investing,’ you may not do well. Warren Buffett who is not a sales person has proven that most folks do better without the ‘personal investing.’ The stats show you do better with an index alone.

https://www.amazon.com/Warren-Buffetts-Vanguard-Funds-Retirement/dp/1496148592

What is your retirement dream?

Some folks working to attain or maintain their middle class status are now questioning the path to their retirement dream. The pandemic and the shift in steady wage growth and asset building have made some folks reevaluate their situation. If they have had to change jobs and start all over again in a new career, can they ever catch up to their dream amount? Traditionally we have planned our retirements around the expectation of combining a pension, Social Security benefits, and personal savings to provide sufficient income for later years. These days we change jobs, our employers don’t pay pensions, and wages have been flat since the 70’s. The median retirement savings of Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 is currently zero. For those with retirement savings, the balance is less than in the past. Many of us have turned to ‘professionals’ with mixed results. It is estimated that retirement savers lose $17 billion to conflicted advice each year. This is a staggering sum that has real world consequences for retirees. Regulators have failed to fix the situation. The middle class has given up assets to the upper class. Here is how: One analysis shows that over a 50-year investing lifetime, that 2% [total annual cost of investment advice and trading] will erode 63% of what you would have had. At $250 a month, that means you will have $660,000 instead of $1.3 million. Some folks have solved this problem by doubling the amount they save/invest. Some have taken John Bogle’s advice and cut out the middle person by using index funds.

Dream and plan: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Robo-Advisor-Ultimate-Automatic-Management/dp/1537111957

**********ACCOUNTABILITY**************

Like 1776, this period is a test of democracy—We rejected an "American fascist" once

Our Jan 6 ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’

Seditionist Bannon snubs Congress: jail?

Capitol police help hide terrorist

Trump sues Jan 6 Committee to hide terrorist ties

Trump’s Big Lie: repeat repeat eventually believe

How Govt wastes our money:

What is wrong with this tax system? Workers pay 33-41%; wealthy pay 0.00001-17%

TX mandates business cannot reopen business if require vax: TX to control biz operation

Coal lobbyists determine Manchin vote on Dem budget: Manchin gets $491,949 a year.