Friday, November 2, 2018

Prepared for the downturn?


How are you preparing for the downturn?
Advisors get paid, not for making you money, but for keeping you from a disaster in your portfolio. Every advisor with the fiduciary pledge will keep your portfolio diversified. Depending on your age, most advisors will have your mix lean toward stocks when you are younger and bonds when you are older. Timing the market is a fool’s fantasy. Day trading is the easy way to lose money. The average investor using an advisor earns only 3.79% or less. Since the most successful investor today advises that we use low-cost funds, you may skip your financial consultant and just buy the most rewarding funds over time. Which ones? Well here is a list: https://www.businessinsider.com/forgetful-investors-performed-best-2014-9. My friends and I, formerly in the business have worked with clients that pick the Ten Best funds for the long term:

Can financial planning be automated?
Can you leave planning your financial future to a machine—even a smart one? These are the days of the robots of tomorrow. One company thinks machines can establish the feasibility of goals like retirement, college funding, home purchases and taking extended time off from work. But the service isn’t as simple as picking a target, a strategy and saving money. The service estimates home purchase prices based on location and college funding based on the tier of college and the expected cost of attendance in the future, so the user is more likely to receive an accurate estimate of the realistic amount of funding needed to achieve a goal. We need some understanding of the time value of money to be able to understand our money needs in the future. Since most of us do not receive this concept in school, we need to learn it one way or another. You can play with this calculator http://www.moneychimp.com/calculator/compound_interest_calculator.htm to learn how money grows or how much college will cost in the future. For instance, you need to save (invest in low-cost mutual fund) $8,000 a year at 4% (low-cost bond fund) for 10 years to have a $100,000 for college. Or $3,000 a year at 10% (low-cost stock index fund) for 35 years to have $1 million for retirement. Over time, stocks create a return of 10-12% http://www.moneychimp.com/features/market_cagr.htm. Stocks are the only consistent inflation hedge. In almost any given period of 10 years, a low-cost index fund (not sold by a brokerage) will provide the best chance of high earnings. The hard part is sticking with your investment over time. Automated planning cannot do that for most people. Everyone wants to sell when the market falls. Can a robot talk you out of it?

Is taking your Social Security benefits EARLY right for you?
Lucky you if you are even considering taking benefits later than age 62. Most people take benefits as soon as they can. Usually this is because they need them. If you take your benefit early, at age 62, you only receive about 75% of your monthly benefit.  Every year you delay taking it, your benefit goes up until age 70. If you delayed until then, you’d have approximately 132% of your benefit.  At first glance, waiting seems to be the best decision. If you are still working, you probably have a choice and receiving the maximum is tempting—especially if you can increase the amount each year you work past age 70. Yes, SS will recalculate your benefit based on your current wages. Also, when you and spouse have benefits you earned, the survivor has a choice of which benefits to take. The decision is not easy since the rules are complicated and have changed in recent years. My wife and I were lucky in that our local office (now closed) called us to inform us we had other options we did not know about so make an appointment as soon as you get near age 62. We found it helped us when we had to start taking benefits for our needs.

Another rich person’s tax dodge when you win the lottery
Our Leader provides another example of how to lower or eliminate taxes when you become wealthy like he is. You give money to a charity you control and receive a tax deduction on Sch A line 14. Then you have the charily buy something you own and pay you for it. This may be something no one else will buy from you like a picture of yourself. There is no way to set a price so you are free to charge whatever you want. You can also use money other people donated (to get their deductions) to pay your personal obligations. You can also use their money to make a big impact (or say you will donate) for a worthy cause like American veterans. Either way, you benefit—turn a tax deduction into a tax-free ‘bank.’ There are tax-credit benefits you can take before you win.

Best ‘emergency fund’ available
Every financial advisor will tell you that you need to have 3-6 months of salary saved in case you have an emergency like being laid off. Since most of us live pay check to pay check that is a great fairy tale to tell us. Some of us may have a hidden way to gain this emergency fund without having to keep all that cash sitting in a savings account earning just 1-2%--essentially losing buying power to inflation at 3%. Or worse, taking away our future life by ‘borrowing’ from our 401k. When you take money from your retirement investment funds, you are destroying the compounding power of your money. Instead of having $250,000 when you retire, you could have as little as $150,000 since you lost all those years of compounding: when invested money can double every 8-10 years. The better way—this hidden method—can provide the money for an emergency and the money won’t cost you a dime until you need it. I am talking about a HELOC. If you have equity in your home—your home is worth more than you owe on the mortgage—you can use it to obtain a standing line of credit, to be used anytime you need it. Now we have enough to pay to rebuild our home if a tree limb falls on it. Insurance never covers everything so our HELOC will cover us. Any interest payments are deductible too.

Trump to end citizenship by birth: Election teaser!
Trump to defy Constitution: if you can’t prove your parents were citizens, you are not an American. The Constitution, which was amended 150 years ago to include the words: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States." All Americans will need to find their parents’ birth certificates and present them to Trump’s immigration police. Trump supporters are already challenging people of color and non-English speakers where they work and live. Are you a target? Do you have your family’s papers? Do you carry them around all day just like in Hitler’s Germany? Is the Constitution wrong?
Are Supremes too political to decide if The Leader is right and the Constitution is wrong?


Make America (conservative Christian) Again
Conservative Christians believe all Americans—everyone—must live the lifestyle that the conservatives envision. Men will be cave men and women don’t have sex out of marriage. They believe America has violated the laws of God by making changes to their pre-1960 fantasy way of life (Father Knows Best). They don’t believe they should stand by any longer and let our democratically elected leaders decide what is permissible or our judges affirm the moral standards that have evolved since men enslaved other men and women. Individuals can’t have rights about matters they think God has ordained; eg: gender. Intolerant Christians vote for a TV con man ‘you’re fired’ that can say it is OK for powerful men to grab women by their genitalia. Some become part of the gov they want to end/control. They want to control all our choices. They don’t want other views or scientific-based knowledge. With the election of a strong amoral leader, they have reversed many modern trends: sexual habits, family planning, environment preservation, equality in votinghealth treatmentshousing—education—income—wealth—workcourts—and just about everything Americans do and are. The Leader actually banned non-Christians from entering the country. Non white countries were called ‘shithole’ and when a hurricane destroyed Puerto Rico, he downplayed the human destruction and held back aide. The Leader encourages violence at his rallies and multi-media messaging. Yet the corrupted leaders say: “I think evangelicals have found their dream president,” Jerry Falwell Jr. I compare this religious sect to Christ’s vision in the Bible and I am astounded—Are we reading the same Bible? Almost as much as the un-Christ-like actions of Catholic bishops who condone/hide child abuse/sex.
How can Christianity and the formal institutions ever recover?


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Make America, “The Don”, Great Again

Two Americas: A Banana Republic? Do we really want an infant king? Daddy Putin!

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How Govt wastes our money: Congress spends $1.3 Trillion we don’t have! 
Like Japanese concentration camps: “We are going to put tents up all over the place”

Bolton Calls U.S. National Debt `Economic Threat to Society': GOP plans MORE debt.
Review which deductions you can no longer take: Check HELOC and capital gains rules.

SCAMS/SPINS:
Trump decides his pipe bomber is insane: no need for trial—Trump to give pardon?
GOP ‘bomber’ in FL: Trump spreads hate for DEMs & media and blames the victims.

Trump mob paying women to discredit Mueller: GOP goes lower as Trump panics.

Most of the tweet links to our websites are robots, not human beings--autohackers.
Facebook—are the benefits worth the threats—give up privacy to stay in touch? 



Wells Fargo robo calling your cell w/out permission? Collect $1,500 per call?

D.A. Davidson & Co caught overcharging clients for shares
Did you get a call from Merrill Lynch? Ask for a bonus—the brokers get one for your $.
Robert Shapiro Woodbridge caught stealing $1.2 Billion in 10% RE Ponzi: no jail time.

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The Mob Boss can never go to jail: Trump has Kava as Supreme so no indictment.
‘No man is above the law’ … well up till now. Dictators nullify courts first, then votes.
Supremes protect Don’s ‘Orders’? – GOP: Sure, pres can change Constitution anytime.
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Jobs:
Only 100 jobs from Saudi arms deal; not Trump’s HALF million—‘trumped’up number. 

Who owns your account now?
Send money to anyone without fee: https://www.zellepay.com/how-it-works
Medicare B and Advantage plans changes will cost you more, of course. Never less.
Which Affordable health care plan is best for you? https://www.healthcare.gov/

Insurers fail claims from hurricane Maria: Claims no one was prepared forDef. of Ins.

Miracle:

Muslims feel the Jewish victim’s family pain. MALA Make America Love (thy neighbor) Again : THIS IS AMERICA!

IAN
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