Your Unbiased Advisor

Friday, March 10, 2023

How your kids can learn to make good financial decisions

How can your kids learn to make good financial decisions?

A single-credit financial life skills course does NOT have much influence on financial well-being or financial stress. However, there are still good reasons for colleges to offer financial education courses. Among the measurable benefits derived from these courses are greater financial socialization and financial self-efficacy. In other words the course may help a persons understand their needs. For instance, if you learn that you may get help in paying off your loans, you may seek out help from more professional sources. On the whole, people learn what they need to know when the specific need arises. My real financial awakening came when my boss showed me how much money he made investing in a particular mutual fund without a broker. I was lucky. This guy was a helping type. He was happy in his career and he liked helping me understand how financials worked. When I needed a high-interest savings vehicle, I learned to compare rates and costs of different formats by asking questions. I learned about how the brokerage business was done. Eventually I took an MBA and was hired by a Wall-Street brokerage firm to manage a unit. I did not sell securities. I had to get 5 licenses to keep my job as an annuity automated computer processing system.

Learn when you need to: https://www.amazon.com/Insiders-Guides-Discount-Financial-Services/dp/143480593X

Another tax avoidance strategy for the wealthy

Some rental real estate owners will take advantage of the “1031 exchange” or like-kind exchange. A 1031 exchange is a tax strategy that allows rental real estate owners to avoid paying capital gains taxes on the sale of an income property by using the proceeds from that sale to purchase a similar commercial property. Wealthy owners can delay paying taxes on their gains until they eventually sell their new property, or do another 1031 exchange in the future. If used correctly, there is no limit on how frequently you can do 1031 exchanges. Special rules apply when a depreciable property is exchanged. “I love depreciation,” Trump responded during the interview with Anderson Cooper on how many years he has avoided paying federal income tax.

https://www.amazon.com/Tax-Credit-Class-your-credits-ZERO/dp/1539462382

GOP vision of America’s future “freedoms”

Children’s education reduced to DeSantos Conservative ideology

FL wants to ban the Democratic Party as revenge for toppling Confederate monuments

FL DeSantis will have a veto-proof majority in both chambers: junta installed

Kids Carry concealed weapons without a permit back to 18

Block programs on diversity, equity and inclusion, and critical race theory.

Death sentence without a unanimous jury.

Easy to sue journalists you don’t like

Further restrict abortions.

Trump: military to stop crime: martial law replaces civilian control of cities: dictator

Couples with 10 kids would have their property taxes cancelled under TX law

Catholic group spent millions to track gay priests: Russia or America?

30 GOP states limit public health authority: next pandemic wipes out millions?

AR Gov bans child sex talk and child labor law limits: roll back child labor protections

“Do nothing” funds beat stock pickers even in rocky year

Fewer than half of actively managed funds outperformed their passive peers last year. Active funds do NOT do better in rocky markets, Morningstar found. Active managers overseeing fixed income and real estate funds saw substantial declines in year-over-year success rates too. Morningstar also found that fees continue to matter, as the least expensive funds succeeded more than twice as often as the most expensive, with a 36% success rate versus 16% for the decade ended Dec. 31. Over that time, 67% of the cheapest funds survived versus 59% of the most expensive. Our readers reaffirmed that paying more for management means keeping less. Readers have stayed the course of holding their funds through these difficult times. They tend to use a very balanced portfolio so that they lost less than 9% in 2022. Many found the mix of Vanguard’s 10 Best funds avoided huge losses.

https://www.amazon.com/Vanguards-Top-Ten-mutual-funds/dp/150073909X

Are 401k after-tax contributions right for you?

If you’re on track to max out your 401(k) plan for 2023 and want to save more, your plan may have another option: after-tax contributions.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/28/heres-how-to-make-after-tax-401k-plan-contributions-for-2023.html

Using your tax refund to build a tax-FREE retirement fund

What do you do with your refund? Most people pay bills they had put off already. They don’t have a choice. The car or home needs fixing and the IRS money is real. The average refund is $3,000 or so. That is your money that you we forcibly saved from each paycheck. A lot of folks need help saving money and that is a way to do it. You made an interest free loan to the spendthrifts in Washington. This year, start a new trend for yourself so you are sure you will have enough to do what you want in retirement. It is hard to save but the bonus is that if you save in a tax-FREE account; you won’t pay higher taxes later when you will need the money more. Inflation makes everything cost more in the future.

https://www.amazon.com/Tax-Refund-Millionaires-Let-Uncle-Help/dp/149595644X

Are 401k after-tax contributions right for you?

If you’re on track to max out your 401(k) plan for 2023 and want to save more, your plan may have another option: after-tax contributions.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/28/heres-how-to-make-after-tax-401k-plan-contributions-for-2023.html

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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

Trump still terrorizing election woman

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

January 6, 2021 “A date which will live in infamy”

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

Dec 3 2022 Trump: cancel Constitution rules so ‘I win’

Jan 2025 Dictator pardons himself: his Supremes agree

How Govt wastes our money:

Twenty more years to occupy Iraq: more wasted taxes: 2,500 soldiers Iraq; 900 in Syria

Lindsey wants US to invade Mexico: I follow Trump on Mexico policy

Share pain:Biden’s alternative to job cuts: tax increases for wealthy & large corporations

Fed inflation target 2% is absurd: long-term average is 3.29% (1914 - 2023) cost jobs

SCAMS/SPINS:

Trump’s holy war: “If we don’t do this, our country will be lost forever"

Trump: criminal indictments increases his chance of 2024 win: crime pays?

Tucker’s True Crime show: merchandising the overthrow of the United States

Just 9% drivers trust self-driving cars: 10% think they can sleep until destination

Tesla Y steering wheel falls off by itself: self-driving must work!

China could use TikTok to control users' devices

Purely Soothing and Brimonidine Tartrate recalled for problems

Fake notice: Twitter is not forcing people to remove the Ukrainian flag from profiles

Fake fact: Trump did not donate expired bottles of his brand to East Palestine, Ohio

Nicholson: You can’t handle: Falsehoods are 70% more likely to be retweeted than truth

51% of the global population will be overweight or obese by 2035 as per WOF

Signs Someone is Trying to Scam You: investigate

Solar Panel Scams: 7 Red Flags to Avoid: details details

Home Warranties Are Lousy Deals: most take more than they give

Calico Critters toys have been recalled for killing kids

Banks caught overcharging fees on overdrafts other times

Kevin and Sean M Kane caught defrauding clients: using info illegally, etc

Health Care Sharing Ministries: Understanding the Risks: save upfront; pay big later People are already using chatbots as therapists

Jobs

22 million Americans are working less than 35 hours a week for "noneconomic reasons

GOP to fire staff they don’t like under new rule: no citizen benefits considered if ended

10.8 million job vacancies: some pay well: will Fed put them out work?

GM offers salaried employee buyouts

Who owns your account now?

Walgreen’s avoids GOP threats: cuts support for women in need: “soft” totalitarianism

Membership groups may save car insurance premium: some may cost you more

Avoid these home sales mistakes: raise the selling price: recoup improvements

How to pay IRS when you can’t pay 100%

J D Power: Owner Satisfaction with new Electric Vehicle

Low-cost internet service for low-income families

Miracles:

New device that can identify and analyze cancer cells from blood samples

New device can 3D print living cells — inside the human body: 1^st test

TX builder uses new “geo-grid” pumps house heat to cool earth: no airconditioner

Russian soldiers can give up to Ukraine using safer process

Our winters are warming faster than our summers

Greenland temperatures surge up to 50 degrees above normal

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

Energy into matter: scientists converted light energy directly into matter in one step

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.

Gold made from neutron stars: collisions produce more neutrons:79 protons,118 neutrons

The proton is so complicated science still finds new energy entities/forces every year.

“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.

Scientists build 'baby' wormhole as sci-fi moves closer to fact: inside quantum computer

starts-with-a-bang/universe-expansion-not-accelerating/

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

http://www.theinsidersguides.com/

Alerts available at http://dankeppel.blogspot.com/

Friday, March 3, 2023

Best free tax filling software

Some of my readers have used https://www.freetaxusa.com/freefile2022/ from the IRS list of Free file offers https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/browse-all-offers/. Once you start using this software, you can file and print from it. It also retains the non-private items (name of bank, mutual fund and employer) so you don’t have to reenter the same name address, phone, IRS number next year. I personally have used this company for 7 years and have never had a problem. Since my tax return is a little more complicated than most, I pay only $15 for the state filing. The Fed return is still free. Compare this to the $500 I used to have to pay a person to compete all the forms. Most paid preparers charge by the page so filing can be expensive. I still pay $15 even though last year’s page count was over 40. Since I use direct deposit my refund hits my bank about 2 weeks after I file. The software is written without jargon so I have only had to ask the company for help once. They answered within 36 hours. Now that most filers do NOT itemize, the software helps you take all the other deductions available. Try one of the Free File firms. Then use a FREE preparer like AARP to compare the outcome. You can always cancel before you “submit” if you don’t like an answer. Be aware that some tax preparers lure you with “Free” but hit you with a bill at the end. Even if you don’t need to file, there are 4 tax benefits available. I volunteer in the AARP tax aide program and my best advice is to use last year’s return as a guide to make sure you include all items. Do your return yourself. Then you can always pay someone if the numbers are not close to last year if nothing has changed. Some pandemic $ stopped. BEST: use a Tax Free retirement account to avoid paying anything.

https://www.amazon.com/New-American-Retirement-System-ReserveTM/dp/1461030072

Two more states adopt “best interest” standard annuity sales model

Illinois and Georgia adopted rules requiring a “best interest” standard for annuity sales and recommendations based on a model designed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). But remember, the “best” annuity as far as the sellers and their companies are concerned may not be the best strategy for you. Government protections that “safeguard consumers while also ensuring that middle- and working-class families retain access to annuities” may be the “best” compromise for insurers but their annuity strategy for life-time income may not be the best “life-time income” strategy for you. Insurers are not going to point you to other options unless they were true fiduciaries like a lawyer. They are not—they are salespeople. The “ensuring … retain access to annuities” means having large enough commissions so the industry can make a profit. One of the critics of the “best interest” regulation called the rule “one of the most anti-consumer actions” taken by the commission, arguing its “best interest” standard was woefully insufficient. You need to learn about alternatives for steady income.

https://www.amazon.com/NO-Cost-Annuity-Years-Income/dp/1508487308

GOP future world of “freedoms”

Based on what we have been promised, this is the GOP way of life:

Women can’t have leadership roles in religious life

Women are “free” to have more kids ONLY: men decide control of women’s bodies

Women are “free” to be forced to have children they can’t care for

Poor families denied help: SNAP ends for millions

One radical group decide NOT to pay our national bills, pay for Medicare or SS benefits,

One radical group decide NOT to defend democracy from Putin

Potential president bans books he doesn’t like and courses for more intelligent folks

GOP to make sure almost anyone can carry a gun any where any time

Blaming gay people for Hurricane Katrina: Nikki’s spiritual leader

God sent Hitler to create Israel Nikki’s spiritual leader

Women are only good for childbearing and motherhood. Nikki’s spiritual leader

GOP starves IRS: so never stop wealthy tax cheats like Bezos, Musk, Buffett, Trump

Smash the myths about long-term care insurance

7 in 10 (70%) of people who turn 65 today will probably need some kind of long-term care. It is the “some kind” that is true. LTCI sellers quote this stat so you can imagine most people need expensive facility stays. Among people who live to age 65, one in four 25% would spend at least one year or more in a nursing home or other type of long-term care facility. Medicare covers inpatient care. It covers skilled nursing care for a limited time (on a short-term basis). It covers care in a long-term care hospital (comprehensive rehabilitation, respiratory therapy, head trauma treatment, and pain management). After being discharged from the long-term care hospital, many people get one of these: Care in a skilled nursing facility or Custodial care in a long-term care facility. Medicare may cover both inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation after an operation, as well as in-home care. Your recovery time is influenced by your age, health, and the complexity of the operation. Medicare Part B (medical insurance) helps pay for medically-necessary outpatient rehabilitation including outpatient physical therapy. You generally pay 20% of the Medicare-approved amount and the Part B deductible applies. While your hospital stay may only be for a short time, you may need assistance when you return home. Medicare can provide home health care services to help you during your recovery. Medicaid will pay for full long-term care, but individuals will essentially be required to redeem their assets and spend down most of their cash prior to becoming eligible for Medicaid. About 14 million people need some sort of long term care. However, 85 percent, live in their own homes or with relatives.

Consider alternatives: https://www.amazon.com/Long-term-Care-Insurance-Updated-2013/dp/148274001X

Avoid these scammers’ “hooks”

We are susceptible to get rich scheme of all types. However, these are dead giveaways. There are no new ideas in becoming wealthy. We are all seeking the wealth to alloy us to live in “freedom” without a money worry. Think about it—why would someone you don’t know be offering you such a ‘great’ deal? Even “guaranteed” “secrets” of the super smart financial person? The stock market or any other market can’t provide returns over 12% over the short-term and return of 12% usually takes time. Social media is not a source of financial wisdom. However, a smart guy like Warren Buffett took years to attain an average return of over 19%. His strategy costs nothing in 8 steps. The pressure of “secret” and “urgent” response is not likely to come your way. If you can’t understand their means of high profits, it is not good for you to trust them. If there is money due upfront or you don’t need expertise, you have a scam. Pyramids take your money and tell you to sell what you bought. Your recruits are just creating competition for yourself.

More money scams: https://www.amazon.com/Money-Scams-insurance-financial/dp/1505437962