Don and Hill will need more revenue

Don and Hill will need to raise taxes to pay for walls or wars

Don’s wall and Hill’s return to Iraq and Afghan will cost us more taxes. Both want to spend more on guns and war and that ain’t cheap. Her plan will cost $1.1 trillion. His tax cuts will cost $9.5 trillion and he will cut “waste”—Medicare and SS benefits—to limit borrowing. Both will need to raise revenue one way or other since more 1%ers and corporations are using loopholes to avoid paying any tax. Don can avoid taxes for years with his $50 million loan write off.

Start your tax-FREE account now so you don’t get stuck with taxes later: https://www.amazon.com/Tax-Shelter-Young-Americans/dp/1500426520

Put your advisor on a diet—Market returns will remain low—hedge funds close

Economic gains will be slower with Don or Hill so stocks will be pressed to break 7% return. It is time to put your advisor on a diet and cut their share of your gains. If their fees, trading charges and taxes continue to take 2%, you could end up with only 63% of your potential nest egg. Taking more risk for greater yield is not the answer you want from them. Fees will continue even if no gain. Better to go with par, the average return. Try an ETF or index at 0.05%. You may clear 7% not 5%.

Get back to basics:  https://www.amazon.com/basic-facts-about-learned-before/dp/1534665544

ETF or index fund?

Advisors are all excited about the ETFs they have to offer you. Why? Index funds have been out there since 1976. Perhaps it is because index funds are packaged in a commission product. Yes, the sales person who once hated index funds can now praise them. Excitement over exchange-traded funds continues among financial advisors, according to Journal of Financial Planning. ETFs are the preferred investment vehicle for 83% of advisors up from 40%. Advisors are selling them to clients using ‘lower cost’ as the sizzle. What advisors don’t disclose is that the fund version is much cheaper than the ETF commission/fees. Don’t be fooled.

Save $100,000: https://www.amazon.com/Money-Scams-2014-financial/dp/1505437962

Is a homeowner policy Virtual inspection right for you?

Esurance offers a do-it-yourself Home Inspection app, which allows policyholders to self-inspect their homes and receive policy discounts. For instance, the insurer needs you to fix broken sidewalk. Now you can prove it yourself. No need to wait for inspector to show when you have a claim. Just record what the insurer asks for to prove you lost your siding or roof. Insurer promises quicker service. They don’t need to send a drone or adjuster. But sometimes you do better with private expert on your side.  

Save with 15 discounts: https://www.amazon.com/Homeowners-Insurance-Beware-Coverage-Policy/dp/1480100870

What is the most important predictor of your investing success?

According to an unbiased Morningstar study, low-cost funds beat high-cost funds PERIOD. It is a myth of Wall Street that you must pay more for good performance. You are just paying for the Wolf of Wall Street's toys. Other Wall Street myths: Buy low, sell high; manager tenure; proven performer; get in on ground floor; concentrate portfolio.
Warren Buffett, the master of investing, disagrees:
            "A very low-cost index is going to beat a majority of the amateur-managed                                money or professionally-managed money."

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Predictor-Investment-Success-Cost/dp/1502524082

Income inequality, rising since 1970s, link to frozen wages?

New study, which measures income inequality by state, metro area and county, shows that inequality has risen in every state since the 1970s. Most of the income change has gone to the more senior corporate chiefs and not in salary. Corporations are escaping taxes and shareholder limits on excesses. Your Apple gear costs a lot to buy but little to make. Your shoes don’t cost $150 to make. Verizon service doesn’t cost Verizon $200 a month to provide. Corporations have digitized and outsourced for the last 40 years and haven’t shared the increased profits with workers or shareholders. Is David M. Zaslav’s labor really worth $156 million a year? Yahoo’s CEO got a 69% raise for ..? Chipotle’s head found $29 million despite sickening patrons. His 1^st boy got $28 mil. Chase gave its CEO a 134% raise. Another study shows higher CEO pay; worse performance.

If you are NOT the boss, do this: https://www.amazon.com/Working-Millionaire-Tax-FREE-Self-insure-Self-fund/dp/1460945484

Is a Goldman Sachs CD right for you?

The commercial bank famous for creating the mortgage meltdown by packaging bad mortgages with pretty ribbon is now in need of money. They offer savings CDs for the non-1%ers. You only need $500 to obtain 2% for a 5 year CD. So if rates go up you will have the privilege to be stuck with $52 profit over 5 years. If you need it back, you lose part of your $52. If you want most of your money to grow above the inflation rate, you will need to keep it in stocks and bonds at the lowest cost you can find. Your money is actually safer in stocks than with Goldman because you lose half your purchasing power over time: 47 cent stamp used to cost 33 cents just 15 years ago.  

Go long for SAFETY: https://www.amazon.com/Go-Long-Reach-Wealth-Starting/dp/1519376189

Auto insurer’s satisfaction falls 7 points

Overall satisfaction declines by a significant 7 points. The 17 largest insurers are the primary drivers of the overall decline. Satisfaction among the smaller insurers increases 1 point from 2015. JD Power survey found the top insurers for each region were NOT all large insurers even though they had best digital scores. Winners:

California: Ameriprise (846)

Central: Shelter Insurance (819)

Florida: The Hartford (834)

Mid-Atlantic: Erie Insurance (829)

New England: Amica Mutual (855)

New York: GEICO (828)

North Central: Auto-Owners Insurance (842)

Northwest: PEMCO Insurance (847)

Southeast: Farm Bureau Insurance – Tennessee (870)

Southwest: The Hartford (829)

Texas: Texas Farm Bureau Insurance (836)

New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company (NJM) and USAA also achieve high levels of customer satisfaction in the study, although they are not included in the rankings due to the closed nature of their respective memberships. 

Buy the best and save: https://www.amazon.com/Industry-Insiders-Guides-Buying-Insurance/dp/1466435712

Does our President need to be smart and truthful? Do they even care about truth?

            (a summary of the GOP Presidential debates) (history: GOP has the final candidate by Feb 17)

                        What does Trump’s National Socialism stand for?

Increase subsidies to oil gas, corp farmers, Boeing, big business tax cuts

Don will cut Medicare and SS benefits “if tax cuts don’t make big surpluses”

Cut funding for un-wealthy, poor, schools. seniors, underemployed, kids, etc.

Reinstate older white male value system: Make ‘WASP” America Great Again

Reinstate Christianity as the state religion—bar all others from public office

Reinstate Christmas and Christian observance in schools, home, court, stores, etc

Put successionist’s flag back in public spaces - cemeteriess, courts, state houses.

Put up a wall, end trade, bring back repetitive “robotic” jobs back from low wage areas.

Cut regulation of all business activity, lower wages for women, pregnancy

Climate change is a hoax. Let oil companies drill anywhere. XL pipeline approved

Replace ObamaCare: no mandate (tax credit so you can try to find your own like before)

Cut federal spending on health especially when control women clinics

Cancel immigration for all from non-EU countries. Deport them

Voter suppression of DEMs (even in Brooklyn) Latins, blacks, poor, students.

Replace judges whose parents came from a non-EU country or any non-Christians.

Limit rights of non-Christians, Muslims, gays, Indians, Asians, protesters, press

Increase debt and devalue debt. Let Mexico pay for the Wall by taxing imports we buy

Create tariffs on imports so we pay $6,000 more for stuff we buy. Middle class tax.

Trade pacts are no good for us and no good for our workers.

Abolish IRS, EPA, Education, Dodd-Frank financial protections, consumer protections

National right to buy and carry any firearms anywhere anytime by anyone age 2 and up.

Install voter ID restrictions designed to lower Dem voter participation – proved in court

Install state gov that cuts Medicaid, education, federal payments, infrastructure like KS.

“Lust for executive power”—GOP House leader thinks Don wants to just snap fingers.

“I could stand in Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” 

Don’s rallies begin with crazies denouncing supporters--thrown out as “protestors.” 

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” E Burke

Don: I found my running mate: Ken Lewis. He doesn’t like Orlando’s non-whites.

            I just took $1million from campaign. I’m not a charity. I need to be reimbursed.

            I’ll help Christians dominate American social life: remove church/state barriers.

            It’s “my greatest contribution to Christianity” advisors Michele Bachmann, Ralph Reed.

            ‘I’m really rich, I don’t need donors. Fundraising for to make wealthy feel good.     

            I’m in Scotland to open golf biz since I still have a job (Scots love me I’m sure!)

            I don’t care if Reagan gave 2.9 million illegals amnesty “legalization” in 1986.

Hill:  Looks like 1964 all over again. Goldwater had similar message for racists and lost.  

Paul: ‘This is one of my big concerns:’ Don’s “lust for executive power.” He’s OK now?

           

Bern: “It looks like I will not be the nominee.” More energy than Hill! 2020?

            Millennials, wanting to remain, did not turn out like older BRexit voters

Regulators are the only protection we have since we can’t sue anymore

            “It is nearly impossible for one individual to take on a corporation with vast resources.” (GOP bill requires impossible: every person in class action suffer “same type and scope of injury”)

               Supremes stop us from suing—State courts no longer available to sue corporations!

.Congress votes for more killings: terrorists on watch list CAN buy assault weapons.

.GM wants judge to dismiss claims that your car lost value when recalled 

.Judge: KS can’t bar DEMS from voting because non-KS form to register, yet KS does.

.NJ says NO to more open carry guns—Christie embarrassed—NJ is NOT wild west!

.Nissan recalls 60000 Q50 for steering problems with software.

.Another child dies handling gun with no safety. Guns kill people. Fear not crime drives.

.Fiat/Jeep with trans problem kills Star Trekker Yelchin—Grand C rolls in ‘Park’. 

.Hyundai Kia recalls 400,000 cars and minivans many things wrong.

.NYC rescinded Don’s property tax rebate meant for middle class homeowners. What?!

. Merrill Lynch fined $415 million for using customer cash to generate own profits 

.VW pays $10.3 billion to settle claims from diesel emissions cheating scandal

We need regulation—GOP wrong—companies/cities wouldn’t fix bad products on own

SCAMS

Worst offender in 2007-8 mortgage crisis, Angelo Mozilo will NOT face Justice lawsuit

Why do star athletes have to prey on unconscious women? Too obnoxious or too mental?

Salesmen forgot to tell you: Is your car one of the most regretted cars sold?

Orlando killing was gay revenge?—self-hate crime—Muslims can’t be gay so terrorist

Muslim got FBI to start file on Omar—he was not radicalized enough maybe never.

Guns kill people many at a time. Congress fails to stop even highjacker terrorists.

Tombstone had gun control for good reason—it reduced deaths. Congress helps terrorists  

Ignoramus Award: Congress represents the American people. Right. Except on the topic of guns. This is the 3^rd rail that can kill politically. When assault rifle kills 26 kids and now 49 gays, is that enough to pass just a background check? Does your rep fear your vote more than NRA? Even in 1686, NJ recognized that people get afraid and into quarrels when they carry guns. 2^nd Amend was for militia not average Joe.

How our government wastes our money

Crazy Dems Go on Strike in Congress—Work stoppage to get a vote on guns

            Civil rights leader John Lewis and Katherine Clark conspire to force GOP action

            First time in US history House members sit-down strike their own jobs.

Zika protection used as tool to defund ObamaCare so not passed. FL hurting for $.

55 percent of Democrats say the Republican Party makes them feel afraid and

49 percent of Republicans said the same about the Democratic Party. Try socialism?

We are loaning Iran money to obtain Boeing jets ImEx bank and ex credits.

General Electric decided to move some production overseas to use foreign export credit.

Who owns your account now?

IAN

41 Watchung Plaza, B242

Montclair, NJ 07042

973.746.2014

www.InsuranceAdvisorsNetwork.com

Alerts 

Pay less tax

Teach your child how to pay less tax

Show your child how to invest like Warren Buffett. Use a tax-FREE account. Earn over 11% a year just like Mr Buffett. Use a special IRS account and grow $20,000 into $1 million tax FREE. A picture is worth a thousand words.   

The Picture Book of Wealth: How to save and invest in pictures and stories

http://www.amazon.com/Picture-Book-Wealth-pictures-stories/dp/150030025X

Warren Buffett’s secret to wealth:

Compound high earnings over time. Some clients’ use these low-cost Vanguard funds and receive over 12% a year. So far 2014 is on track.

2014 Total Return       Fund                Long-term Return*  

  7.1%                          500 Index                    11.1%*            since 1976

14.1%                          Energy                         12.8%              since 1984

  6.1%                          Extended Market Idx   11.3%              since 1987

14.5%                          Health                          17.3%              since 1984

  2.3%                          International Growth   11.1%              since 1981

  9.9%                          PRIMECAP                 13.8%              since 1984

  6.5%                          Small Cap Index          10.9%              since 1960

  5.9%                          Wellesley Income        10.2%              since 1970

  8.9%                          Windsor                      11.6%              since 1958

  7.6%                          Windsor II                   11.2%              since 1985

  8.3%                          Average                       12.1%

*Average Annual Returns as of 6/30/14.

Learn more: http://www.amazon.com/Warren-Buffetts-Investment-Secret-Steeple/dp/1484189809

Could your IRA beneficiaries lose their inheritance?

Yes, they can and did for one man who named his legal will instead of his kids as beneficiary. His kids fought in court to recover the money, but the court awarded the $400,000 in the IRA to their father’s wife (married just 2 months). Check your will and retirement plan NOW: http://www.amazon.com/Your-Retirement-Spending-Plan-enough/dp/1461084016

More tax evaders and cheats

Illinois gave Walgreen $46 million in tax credits in exchange for a pledge to create 500 jobs and invest in upgrading its offices. The state also provided $625,000 in training money and $875,000 in other tax incentives. Now CEO Wasson says Walgreen is denouncing US citizenship. The same chief executive who said he was so “proud of our Illinois heritage” is now moving the company’s headquarters to Switzerland as part of a merger with Alliance Boots, a European drugstore chain. WAL also reaps $ billions directly from the government; it received $16.7 billion from Medicare and Medicaid last year. Go tax-FREE before you have to pay for Walgreen’s share: http://www.amazon.com/Go-Tax-FREE-Investing-Income-Forever/dp/1482633280

“So sue me” Obama tells critics of his “do something” strategy

“Middle-class families cannot wait for Republicans in Congress to do stuff," Obama said.  "So sue me.  As long as they are doing nothing, I am not going to apologize for trying to do something.”

Gun-totters not welcome by businesspeople: Why?

Guns on humans are deadly
Starbucks, Chipotle and now Target all quietly ignored their armed patrons at first, but eventually asked customers to leave their guns at home. Many restaurants, bars and theaters are quietly Tombstoning their places. Even the OK Corral gunfight site bans the real things. Wyatt and Doc were initially charged with murder unlike Zimmerman. Actually, Tombstone has a higher crime rate NOW with all the packers than in Wyatt’s 1880. Lead kills.

GOP Crazies

Conservatives are learning the lesson of the 20s again—when you cut taxes for the rich, revenue and jobs go DOWN, not up. Kansas is in their 2^nd year of learning that giving the wealthy more does NOT produce jobs—it produces more wealth. The wealthy don’t hire people when the have more money—they hire when there is demand. And then they use “other people’s money”—banks—to expand. They don’t risk their own money on a not-sure-thing—the economy. Only venture capitalists do that. And they are not in Kansas anymore. Cutting taxes leaves the state roads and schools worse off and no capitalist wants to live in such a community. How many times do they have to learn this?

Presidential Candidate cut taxes to rich and now steals state worker money

His record as fiscal steward has been dismal. Time and again, he has used dubious strategies to avoid raising taxes (sparing him from inevitable criticism by party conservatives), even when increasing taxes would be the right thing to do. Such tactics have not helped the state. New Jersey’s bond rating took another hit when Mr. Christie, facing a big budget shortfall, rejected the usual remedies — cutting costs, borrowing money or raising taxes — and instead cut state contributions to the public employees’ pension fund. Christie won office on promise to STOP doing what Dems do—AND blew $ millions on Bridgegate cover-ups and his son’s game helicopter.

Supremes reverse Constitution on religious freedom!

5 Old White Men support religious bias—to control certain women and births—just like in the Nazi period and in the Muslim world today.

The decision means employees of those companies will have to obtain certain forms of birth control from other sources.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, ...".  GOP “small” government decides our birth control choices. Next—color and sex of children we can have?

Constitution reversed—employees must live according to corporation’s religion.

Two Americas: one for employees of your favorite religious views and one for employees having freedom of religion. The majority of Americans oppose letting employers, based on their religious views, exclude certain contraceptives from workers’ insurance coverage. Before Scalia & Co, the court specifically held before that “[W]hen followers of a particular sect enter into commercial activity as a matter of choice," they cannot superimpose their “conscience and faith” onto laws that everyone else must follow. Now they can and every corporation will use this loophole!

Our Constitution formerly guaranteed religious freedom for ALL not just GOP. The women Supremes dissented: “decision of startling breadth.” Changes America.

Supremes help GOP “small” government break the unions

Supreme Court said personal home-care employees cannot be forced to pay dues to a union. In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court said personal home-care employees cannot be forced to pay dues to a union. Unions will soon be out of business and employees will have to take whatever employers offer.

Supremes halt suit against terrorists’ supporters

Thousands of victims of the 9/11 terror attacks have lost their bid to revive a class-action lawsuit for allegedly providing material support to al Qaeda. Among the defendants are al-Qaida, its members and associates, along with charities, banks, front organizations, terrorist organizations and financiers. Among those dismissed were four bin Laden relatives who purportedly managed the Saudi Binladin Group, one of the largest companies in the Arab world. Gee, could oil be involved?

Insurers flock to FL to sell ObamaCare 2015

About a dozen health insurers filed documents by Friday's federal deadline indicating they intend to sell marketplace plans in Florida next year. The list includes returning big players like Florida Blue, Aetna, Cigna and Humana, as well as United Healthcare, which did not participate in the marketplace this year. Each insurer can sell multiple types of plans, and rates can vary across the state. Buy only what you need: http://www.amazon.com/Health-Insurance-ONLY-right-policy/dp/1480125083

Hospitals now paid to keep people OUT of ER

Hospitals now get penalized if you come back to the emergency room too frequently and if a hospital isn’t meeting certain patient quality and health outcomes and insurers are following the same mold too. Insurers no longer want to pay for hospitals that are just doing more and more test and procedures over and over again and they want to be paying for quality so hospitals are going to be held accountable if patients are too sick if patients are coming to the emergency room too frequently.

1.5 million worker’s retirement plans at risk—check yours

Retirement plans covering roughly 1.5 million workers are severely underfunded, threatening benefit cuts for current and future retirees, a federal watchdog agency warned. The Pension Benefit Guaranty said multi-employer plans, which are collectively bargained retirement plans maintained by more than one employer, are most at risk. "Plan insolvencies ... are now both more likely and more imminent than in our last report," the report said. At the same time, the agency said single-employer pension plans — covering just over 30 million participants — are on firmer financial footing and are likely to remain so at least over the next 10 years. Check your plan: http://www.amazon.com/Your-Retirement-Spending-Plan-enough/dp/1461084016

Surprises in 2014 initial quality ratings for new cars

Korea has more contenders this year. http://autos.jdpower.com/ratings/quality.htm

Buy American-made—Camry, Honda, Toyota, F-150. Fewer and fewer even qualify as partly “made in America.”  Jobs went overseas.

SCAMS           Why are we still paying $700 Billion a year for WWII deployments?

We are paying for 164,253 of our active-duty armed personnel to be in 150 countries around the world. We have about 50,000 in Japan and 50,000 in Germany.

Are we preparing for WWII again? There are 1,208,083^[1] armed personnel in the United States. Our taxes pay for about HALF of the WORLD’s military expenditures every year.

We just can’t afford to pay for everyone else’s defenses anymore.

Japan, Germany and S. Korea can pay for their own defense.

$70 Billion wasted ammo—Arms dealers benefit

The Government Accountability Office found that the military's poor tracking of its $70 billion worth of conventional ammunition had left it with an extensive stockpile destined for destruction, including some munitions that could still be used by troops. For instance, the GAO found instances in which troops retrieved workable missiles from its scrap heap to meet their needs. Another problem: the services' inventory systems cannot share data directly despite working for decades to develop a single database.

Big Brother testing its power

Facebook manipulated the emotions of hundreds of thousands of its users, and found that they would pass on happy or sad emotions, it has said. The experiment, for which researchers did not gain specific consent, has provoked criticism from users with privacy and ethical concerns. For one week in 2012, Facebook skewed nearly 700,000 users’ news feeds to either be happier or sadder than normal. The experiment found that after the experiment was over users’ tended to post positive or negative comments according to the skew that was given to their newsfeed. What Zuckerberg does for fun?

GM recalling rest of products

½ million more cars and trucks back to dealer. Service your own car now. Dealer full.

CEOs $ millions in pay enabled by his/her friend-directors

New study shows when corporation board consists of CEO friends, they cut future development to give boss an unearned raise. And it makes no difference if the shareholders know it--Directors paid by CEO. Even the Supremes have sided with the CEOs against shareholders’ ability to sue as a class.  

Both sides of his mouth

Senator Rand Paul has warned Republicans of being too close to rich people, but he is also hoping to pick up some of Mitt Romney's Wall Street donors. “We cannot be the party of fat cats, rich people, and Wall Street,” the Kentucky Republican told the audience at the Freedom Summit in New Hampshire in April. “Corporate welfare should once and for all be ended” [“--Except for me.”]

At the same time, the founders and employees of Mason Capital Management, a $13.6 billion New York hedge fund, have become leading contributors to Paul’s political aims. Company co-founder Kenneth Garschina has also given $250,000 to America’s Liberty PAC, a so-called super political action committee run by longtime supporters of Paul. In all, 17 of the company’s 33 employees have given at least $75,000 to Paul and funds he controls since he started his first U.S. Senate campaign in 2010.

Who owns your account now?

Conseco Life to Wilton Reassurance

IAN

41 Watchung Plaza, B242

Montclair, NJ 07042

973.746.2014

www.InsuranceAdvisorsNetwork.com

Alerts 

THE FACTS OF FINANCIAL LIFE

Keep YOUR kids out of debt! Explain the FACTS OF LIFE now!

You can help your kids stay out of debt and reach all their goals in life by explaining the FACTS OF FINANCIAL LIFE. You can do this only if you know the answers to these two questions asked of 12th graders. These questions were asked of participants in the JumpStart Coalition on Personal Financial Literacy.

Which of the following tends to have the highest growth over long periods, say 18 years?
a) A checking account.
b) Stocks.
c) A U.S. savings bond.
d) A savings account.

At age 25, Mary began investing $5.56 per day, $2,000 a year. At age 50, Rob started saving $4,000 a year. They now are both age 75. Who has more money saved for retirement?
a) They each have the same amount.
b) Rob, because he saved a bigger amount each year.
c) Mary, because her money grew for a longer time at compound interest.

If you correctly answered "b" and "c," you did better than most of the nation's high school seniors. Most got them wrong. A Schwab survey found that while 70 percent of parents had taught their kids how to do laundry, only 19 percent had explained how to invest money to make it grow.

It is not difficult to learn these lessons. In fact, our members have found the pictures and charts in our FREE Guide make it easy to explain the FACTS OF FINANCIAL LIFE. Try it yourself for FREE at www.theinsidersguides.com/freeguide.html

It is a curious thing that our representatives in Washington have not found on a financial literacy course for our schools after 220 years. According to John Adams:

"All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution ... not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation."

By the way, Mary will have about $6.5 million and Rob will have about $630,000 using a tax-free low-cost broad market index account.

Every $100 you invest becomes $10,000 to spend later

Yes, it's true.

Children need to know early that there are ways to grow savings to be able to afford what they want. If they knew $100 invested will grow to $10,000 later, they will see why it is worth investing. Right now, saving $100 in a bank account paying 1.2% does NOT offer much attraction.

Here is how $100 becomes $10,000. In year 1, your investment of $100 in a tax-FREE account like a stock mutual fund Roth IRA may not grow to $113. Don't sell the shares. They will go up. In the year 5—$182, year 10—$330, year 20—$1,089, year 30—$3,595, year 39—$10,529.

Children know someone owns their favorite store--ToysRUs, Sports Authority, or Walmart. Now they own part of the store. They make money when other people buy from their store. This is how they can understand how they earn money. At night, there are children all over the world buying at their store. It works during the day too. Every time someone buys, they earn a penny.

“We continue to make more money when snoring than when active.”

Warren Buffett, one of the world’s best investors berkshirehathaway.com

The growth of the $100 to $10,000 over time by itself is a “miracle” that can inspire even adults. In fact, if we updated this phenomenon at every age, teens might want to calculate how fast they could save enough for a car or game console. Teens could figure out in math class with an Internet future value calculator that by investing $100 a month from their jobs, they could have $1,200 in 1 year or $4,000 in 3 years. As they start their first job, young adults could have $25,000 in 5 years to buy whatever they need and pay off their student loans. Most don’t.

Of course their parents have to cooperate by not short-circuiting this lesson by buying the items for the kids. Teens need to understand where parents got the money to buy things. We aren’t teaching them where the money comes from. We aren’t teaching them about investing since Many of Us don’t wait till we have the money to buy things. We just use the “magic” of borrowing. They never learn how to problem-solve with money and they've never learned how to defer what they want.

How did we get here? There is now $915 billion in U.S. credit card debt. It all started when Bank of America launched the nation's first general-purpose credit card in 1958. It simply dropped 60,000 of them in a mass mailing to residents in Fresno, California. The bank hoped to attract customers with a new type of "revolving" credit line, which could be used for purchases everywhere and paid off over time. Every vet wanted a house, car, and fridge immediately to make up for the lost time of WW2.

Revolving credit accounts allow us to buy without thinking. Now, we don’t even think about whether we really need the item. We don’t consider the total cost either. Credit finance charges can KILL you slowly--like smoking. We are giving away our futures when we use credit. It works just like the “miracle” of compounding—only in reverse. We pay off our credit cards over 30 or 40 years because we can’t stop using them. Some will pay 5 times the price of the item over time.

For example: You will have to pay $161 per month for 10+ years to pay off your debt of $10,050 at 15%. You will spend at least $19,360 to pay off that $10,050. (If your rate is 25%, you will pay $25,080 for $10,050.) You pay almost double for that $10,050!

That’s not all—THE REAL COST IS MORE!

Think of it. If you did not have to use that $161 each month to pay the $10,050 in debts, you would be able to use the $161 per month to make money. You could have made about $37,036 in the 10 years using a stock mutual fund. So the REAL cost of that $10,050 debt is actually $56,396!! The lender gets the $19,360 (to pay the debt over time) and you gave up earning $37,036 from the $161 payment per month for 10 years. That is enough for a down payment on a house!

Most people buy things they don’t need on credit and pay the minimum at rates that hit 29% for some. So we give up our future: house down payment, education funding, business start up, or retirement funding. Unfortunately, many people never pay off the whole debt. It is $915 billion—most on the shoulders of debt addicts.

Mississippi proposes to do something to break the cycle of debt. Following the success of Child Trust in England, MS will create a $500 investment account for all children born in the state. The initial endowment of $500 would be provided by the state to each newborn, and total additional state-tax-deductible contributions of up to $2,000 per year could be made by family members, friends, churches, charities, and others. Child account holders could use the accounts for any purpose at age 18 - including a college education, home ownership, or investing in a small business.

Our members do the same using existing accounts. See our FREE Guide: theinsidersguides.com/freeguide.html