Your Unbiased Advisor: new fascism

Showing posts with label new fascism. Show all posts

Friday, November 18, 2022

How the Miracle of Compounding can help you

Unfortunately, most young people don’t understand or have even heard about this Miracle. It is so important to your financial life that one of the smartest investors, Warren Buffett, gives credit to this Miracle for his reaching $100 Billion net worth from his early paper route savings: “My wealth has come from a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest.” For most working people, the Miracle is the surest way to accumulate enough during their working lives to live comfortably in retirement of 20-30 years. Compounding is simply making money on the money you already earned. You save and invest $250 per month ($102,000 total) over 34 years and you end up with $1,111,555, or $2 million in 40 years. $250 a month is $9 a day. I am using the average gains from the stock market index over time without a salesperson taking a 1-2% cut. You can turn $102,000 into $1.1 million (TEN TIMES) without doing a thing—you must do NOTHING. Warren Buffett proved you can beat most Wall Street “professionals.” The Miracle works if you are consistent and you don’t give up 63% of your gains to your advisor. You can’t raid your fund or quit investing when markets fall.

https://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Compounding-Turn-day-into/dp/1470176513

Here is why timing the market can’t work for you

The 14 Best Days in the Stock Market Since 1950: The S&P 500’s 5.5% surge on Thursday was its largest one-day percentage gain since April 2020 and the 15th highest since 1950. Since 1950, in fact, the market has been up a year later after 22 of the 24 biggest gains. For those trying to trade out of the market at the top and into the market at the bottom, you will miss many big swings. The ‘professionals’ who claim they can do this are lying or got lucky on one call of the markets. Timing is not the strategy of the great investors: Buffett, Bogle, Ellis, Schwab, Lynch, Neff, Templeton, Graham, etc. Timing the markets requires that you buy and sell often. This requires you have an advisor/broker and that they provide a good story. It means you are paying them out of your pocket. Buy and hold low-cost indexes have been shown over and over to provide the returns that beat traders. Looking back over the 20-year period from Jan. 1, 1999, to Dec. 31, 2018, if you missed the top 10 best days in the stock market, your overall return was cut in half. That's a significant difference for only 10 days over two decades!

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

Art as an alternative or counter balance to stocks

Some investors think art (pictures) is a fantastic alternative asset class that has outperformed the S&P 500. The average annualized growth rate on the 11 Paul Allen lots with public entry prices was just 6.2%. On average, Allen held them for 18 years before selling them. By contrast, even after its fall this year, the S&P 500 still boasts a compound growth rate of 8.9% over the past 18 years. Allen would have made more money just buying a low-cost S&P 500 index fund. This index is down 17% this year but in 2009 it was up 27.11% after being down in 2008 -37.22%; it was up in 2003 28.72% after down in 2002 -22.27%; it was up in 1991 30.95% after down in 1990 -3.42% and up in 1989 by 32%. This index provides over 11% over time and reflects every sector of the market. Recently it was dominated by the tech firms since it is structured along the current market capitalizations. But also recently, the Energy index soared. The index fund you pick must be a low-cost one so that you don’t give up HALF your gains to the seller. Art may help you broaden your portfolio but it can’t match the 500 Index as your primary retirement nest egg. Paul Allen already had his HUGE $20 B nest egg.

11% is better than bank’s 3%: https://www.amazon.com/New-American-Retirement-System-ReserveTM/dp/1461030072

Getting through a economic recession

1. Make a budget with your family and write it down. Most folks don’t know how much money they are wasting because old habits take work to change. 2. “Shit happens” so make sure you have an emergency fund of at least $1,000. This is no time to look for extra cash. 3. Know how much you are saving since these times are when people are likely to think “we can make it up later”. The stock market is down 17%. I promise you it will gain 17% when the market turns around so this is NOT the time to quit investing. You will kick yourself later. 4. Checking your spending every other month alerts you to the deficit you are creating when you spend more than you take in. 5. It is the habit of good saving-spending balance that you must get right to live through this period. You don’t know how long this will last so don’t cheat on your own successes. 6. Savings must become the top priority. Most folks fail to reach their savings goals—new car, home, appliances, furniture, college fund, etc—because they don’t prioritize savings. 7. Most budgeters underestimate all the little things they buy. We justify the $5-10 daily buys as rewards. We waste over $4,000 a year this way. That’s a $400,000 hole in your future retirement fund. 8. Did you account for taxes? The average tax bill is about $8,000. Property tax is another $6,000. 9. Be realistic in your budget about spending. Budgets don’t work if you cheat or misunderstand what your costs are. I sign up for a certain streaming and then I forget to stop. 10. Card companies have trained us to charge it without knowing we can pay for it by the end of the month. The average household credit card debt is nearly $9,000 with a total of $887 billion in Q1 2022. It's the fastest rise in more than 20 years. It takes 3 years to pay off IF we stop adding to the balance.

Use your discounts: https://www.amazon.com/Insiders-Guides-Discount-Financial-Services/dp/143480593X/

Advisors secrets to persuade you into buying

A recent study showed that your advisor’s positive statements about your future can get your attention. Scaring you is an amateur’s way. Advisors use ‘enjoyment’ for boomers and ‘plan retirement you deserve’ for millennials. Advisors using technical jargon is NOT for you. Advisors pushing a product are not appealing to anyone. Lazy advisors use slideshows and different images to overload and confuse us. Too many images of inactive retirement life sends the wrong message. Too many demographic diversity images instead of diverse active ages ruins the message. Images of older white men in suits leave many cold. Women and singles can have a rewarding retirement too. The best advisors get you to talk about your interests and needs first. Genuine open-ended questions from an advisor can help you define what you need. You may not need a product. Find a fee certified financial planner (CFP) to help you organize your strategy and goals.

https://www.amazon.com/Get-What-You-Want-FINANCIAL/dp/1514751151

?**********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

Billionaires paid $881 million for votes in 2022 midterm elections

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” failed

Nov 15 2022 Trump announces for 2024 to avoid lawsuits

Jan 2025 Dictator pardons himself: his Supremes agree

How Govt wastes our money:

United Arab Emirates oil money changes our policy in its favor: they decide; not us

Our smartphone applications contain hidden Russian code: Army combat unit use

We spend $millions returning to moon on a joy ride: could save Earth from asterioids

We bail out crypto billionaires: Congressmen paid: bankruptcy makes Trump millionaire

IRA owners age 70½ or over option to transfer up to $100,000 to charity tax-free yearly.

Biden to protect MBS Khashoggi killer from suits: leverage for more oil?

SCAMS/SPINS:

Trumpists cancel student loan forgiveness program: only The Leader has authority

Trump to get his Supremes to cancel subpoena to testify re: Jan 6 coup instigator

Trump has support of about 80% of white evangelical Christians: Christian Nationalism

Trumpists’ first act: set up Benghazi-type witch hunt for Biden family sins

UVa shooter purchased 2 guns legally after prohibition to buy removed by state

37 GOP voted against law to make marriage legal: will Clarence approve?

Maryland investigation identifies 158 abusive priests, more than 600 victims: no jail-free

Jan 6 committee ends without action on the instigators of the only US coup: Trump walks

Trump needs terrorist donors: "three-time loser" tries again: “Justice never sue candidate”

Lost: Every election denier who sought to become the top election official of a state lost

Lost: Lake lost AZ gov bid after Trump backing

AZ voters approve measure to crack down on ‘dark money’: who buys our elections?

Supremes allow illegal racial gerrymanders despite AL, LA, GA judges’ rulings

Do not accept packages to reship; refuse unexpected packages; refuse money to reship

We have to ask for inclusive BnB price to find all fees: ask in writing

dollar-stores caught overcharging: shelf and register price different

Patient debt: profit margins top 29% in patient financing industry: Congress allows it

Credit bureaus fail to investigate bad reports and mistaken ratings: you must fight them

Most discounts bogus because the same sale price was offered before: fake prices

Airlines caught cancel/delay air travel: $600 million reimbursement fines

Allen Hershberg caught selling his own products outside his firm’s list: defrocked

Goldman Sachs caught paying off executive who said toxic workplace for women: sexists

Are home warranties worth the money?

Walmart caught killing thousands on opioids: $3.1 Billion fine: stock up: lawyers paid

Crypto sales like Ponzi scam: no actual value: as long as assets grow, can function

Jobs

Background checks filled with errors keep tenants and employees at disadvantage.

Who owns your account now?

Near-historic numbers of young people turning out to vote motivated by their issues

AZ Kelly, NV Masto hold their seats: Trumpists go home unsatisfied

Young women broke hard for Democrats in the midterms

Auto repair delays: no mechanics, no parts: shop around or do it yourself

4 college savings plans (529) you can avoid: use the best: MI, UT

How Safe is Your Hospital?

Toledo OH to pay off citizens’ medical debt with tax money

Prints of a mangled car crash fetched $85.4 million: end of ‘civilization’ or insanity?

Miracles:

Using the gene-editing technology CRISPR to treat cancer.

Electric vehicle battery breakthrough enables 10-minute charge time: stay cooler

Cancer vaccine has successfully triggered significant tumor regression

Blood test for Alzheimer’s? Cure?

CA survives on bottled water: price escalates: shower at a mansion’s sprinkler system

US to recognize our rights in law to same-sex and interracial marriage: Supremes act?

Iceberg on the loose: area equal to about twice the size of London, the largest iceberg

World’s largest floating wind farm off Norway has become operational: replace oil

Lab Grown Chicken Gets a Green Light From the FDA

Karen Bass first woman mayor of LA: 241-year history: won despite 11 to 1 dollars

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/

Friday, September 30, 2022

Your RMD--Correction

Will a $250,000 retirement fund be enough?

CORRECTION

Last week: “Your RMD will tell you how much you need in retirement” blurb was misleading. RMD is the required minimum distribution from your deferred retirement accounts (401k, 403b, other pension) so that income taxes can be assessed. The amount of your RMD is calculated by your mutual fund or brokerage from IRS tables based on your age and deferred accounts total at the end of the previous year. Because we all must withdrawal our amount, use an RMD calculator to test the total amount we will need to live on in retirement: our nest egg. https://www.aarp.org/work/retirement-planning/required-minimum-distribution-calculator.html For instance, if I need $833 a month, $10,000 a year for my basic needs, I use this calculator to estimate how much of a fund to accumulate. Based on this estimate, I will need to accumulate at least $250,000 in order to cover my basic spending. The IRS tables and our life expectancy changes so don’t use this calculator to determine your RMD for yourself. You can take your RMD out of one account, or take bits from each one, so long as you withdraw the required minimum amount. You can take more but it is taxed.

https://www.amazon.com/What-your-RMD-much-spend/dp/1718946716

Stocks are on sale but you must be patient

Stocks represent ownership of a company. If you are patient, the value of what you own can grow significantly. Some stocks produce dividends (profits) that are taxable and some don’t. For instance, if you had purchased one share in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway in each year since 1965, you would be a multimillionaire. You would own parts of 50 profitable companies. Each share is worth over $500,000. The value of your stocks grew at 20% a year on average but you had to be patient. (Annual report, p 3) You lost 48% of the value in 1974 but gained 129% in 2 years. Buffett does not pay dividends so you would have paid no taxes on this stock each year. You pay when you sell. However, you could borrow from your broker with stock as collateral if you needed quick money. The stock is down 10% —HALF of the broad market index decline YTD. There are many stocks that retain earnings (no dividends) so you have your choice of assets without paying tax on growth every year. You choose when to pay taxes.

No-tax alternative: https://www.amazon.com/Tax-FREE-Retirement-code-lifetime-income/dp/1475206976

Best Way to Withdraw From Your Retirement Accounts

When we retire we are faced with decisions that we should have planned before the day of retirement. Based on our goals for the future, we should have decided in advance which accounts to hit first, second and third. We should have already decided to transfer our tax-deferred accounts from our employer and former employers to one trustee—a mutual fund or brokerage. We should have already decided to take Social Security or wait to maximize our benefits. Some wait to their age 70 to receive almost double the amount at age 62. We should have already calculated our basic spending needs so that we would know we would use only the required minimum distribution not our Roth IRA or our individual securities. We should have already calculated how much tax we would pay on our RMD, Social Security and pension benefits. If we use fixed income assets like CDs and annuities, we may owe tax on these accumulations. You may have other issues and questions about the sequence of spending so a fixed-fee financial planner may be the best option at this time. A one-time fee is cheaper than 1-2% annual fee for 30 years.

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

You don’t need an advisor to accumulate a $1,000,000 fund

Saving and investing is not as hard as the financial industry makes it out to be. The folks who are successful in accumulation for retirement follow a few simple rules that they learned early, usually from their parents. Schools don’t teach basic investing. They teach how to open a bank account to spend a pay check. Employers can’t give us good advice since that makes them liable for our mistakes. Rule 1: start early—use your first employer’s tax advantaged plan. Rule 2: invest in low-cost stock index mutual funds inside a tax-deferred of tax-FREE account—use an IRA if your employer’s options cost more than 0.15%. Rule 3: invest the same amount each payday. Market timing and stock picking do not work over time. Rule 4: Cost is the best predictor of success. You can plan for retirement the correct way and have a $1 million when you need it.

Use Buffett’s advice: https://www.amazon.com/Warren-Buffett-Your-Investment-Advisor/dp/1518690963

?**********ACCOUNTABILITY**************?

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

The Path to Dictatorship: 2010-2030

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'

Nov 8 2022 Trump’s “national revolution”

Jan 2025 Dictator pardons himself

How Govt wastes our money:

$45.6 billion unemployment scam: 205,000 SS numbers of dead, prisoners: trick gov

Trump avoids suit over rape charge as government employee: defamed victim Carroll

Congress confirms members make $ millions on insider trading on secret info we can’t

Biden sanctions Putin for stealing Ukraine: real sanction: Steal St. Petersburg for Finland

SCAMS/SPINS:

Gaetz (R-Fla.) beats sex-trafficking charges: prosecutors fail to charge: fear lost jobs

Meadows was top lieutenant for Trump’s coup to overturn elected government

Avoid IRS Text Message Scams: IRS doesn’t text call or email—letters only

Owners Hometown Deli NJ caught pumping own security, fraud, laundering

Lombard International, others caught marketing PPLife Insur as tax shelter for rich

Regions Bank caught illegal surprise overdraft fees: customer refunds

MoneyLion Technologies caught illegal and excessive charges on servicemembers

Royals want fees: TV footage: Queen death ceremonies, march, grieving, crowds, etc

Weird stuff people make up for attention on media: https://truthinadvertising.org/

GOP OKs Gaetz child trafficking: FBI "disgrace for the ages": GOP defund FBI

Christian Nationalism Poses Threat to open Society: ethno-racial, authoritarian, moralism

Priests exempt from reporting predator of known child abuse: predator keeps abusing

Recall: 70,000 of Kia's Sportage and Sorento: catch fire automatically

Citroën invents cardboard car: running out of affordable metal?

US essentially run out of the 155 mm howitzers: we don’t have skills to make more

US to “respond decisively” if Putin uses nuclear weapons: Kill everyone on Earth?

Trump: “if we had them [nuclear weapons] why can’t we use them”

Jobs

JPMorgan to hire 1,300 advisors in wealth management division in the next three years.

Fake Job Scam: hire buys own equipment: fake reimbursement check: app has all data

CA to allow industrial buildings to convert to housing units: are they affordable?

Top employee perks to keep staff satisfied: when they ask “how are things going”

Who owns your account now?

55% wish they could delete themselves from the internet: tips to delete

Top five companies: some not available in your area

Fiduciary rule postponed again: sellers don’t need to prove they have right product

Miracles:

Warming: world’s fastest-sinking cities: water withdrawn from underneath soil

Alzheimer's Drug lecanemab reduced patient clinical decline by 27%

ALS drug gets FDA approval

Ancient viral genes have evolved to defend the brain against present-day infections

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!

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.