Your Wealth Reserve: We pay more taxes: Congress allows wealthy to avoid paying

What are the 3 most important rules of investing?

1. Invest just 10% of your income for $1,000,000 nest egg

2. Invest automatically in a stock index fund every payday

3. Use a tax-advantaged account to avoid income taxes

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

We pay more taxes: Congress allows wealthy to avoid paying

Congress cuts funds. The IRS is letting hundreds of thousands of high-income individuals duck their tax obligations, according to a government watchdog report. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that 879,415 high-income individuals who didn’t file returns cumulatively failed to pay $45.7 billion in taxes from 2014 to 2016 and that the agency hasn’t tried to collect from many of those taxpayers. The IRS didn’t put 326,579 of the cases into its enforcement system, and it closed 42,601 of the cases without ever working on them. “In addition, the remaining 510,235 high-income nonfilers, totaling estimated tax due of $24.9 billion, are sitting in one of the collection function’s inventory streams and will likely not be pursued as resources decline,” said the report, released Monday. Among those who haven’t paid their taxes are approximately 1,891 individuals who owe the IRS more than $1 million, according to the report. Trump is proud he does not pay his fair share. The number of people who have been failing to file tax returns -- a crime that could come with steep penalties or as many as five years in prison -- has been increasing in recent years. The average U.S. household is paying an annual surtax of more than $3,000 to subsidize taxpayers who aren’t paying all they owe.

Stop paying for their taxes: https://www.amazon.com/Pay-No-Taxes-Retirement-legally/dp/1507527977

We subsidize drug development; drug firm owners take the profits

We paid $ millions to develop remdesivir, but Gilead Sciences owners get all the profits. This has been the pattern for 100 years. Drug companies claim high prices are for development of new cures but we pay for the science behind new drugs. Drug companies control the manufacture, marketing and distribution and so can charge whatever they like. We have no say even though we paid $ millions for the startup. Drug prices are pushed up even if they are not new—just the marketing and packaging. Drug firms manipulate patents so that low-cost generics are kept out of our hands.

We pay; owners take profits: https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Socialism-Rich-little-people-pay/dp/1535218584

If you stayed in the market

Many long-term investors did NOT sell in the downdraft in March. Their portfolio is now at the level it was in January 30. What will happen next? No one knows despite all the high-priced fortune-tellers on radio and TV. As we have seen, if you had timed the market and missed 30 or 40 best days, you would have lost money. Over time, including recessions over the last 30 years, your stock investments have averaged 11% in a low-cost account. Timing the market—selling and buying—in any form: rebalance, single stocks to ‘sector rotation’ usually fails over time. Sure, some crystal balls do shine a light for a short time but you can’t be sure the next time. Ponzi schemes can look very impressive and confound all the critics, but not forever. Bernie Madoff’s $65 billion scam lasted longer than most because many so-called professionals went all in on the con. They were getting rich too. Remember Bogle’s favorite line: Stay the course.

Bogle changed everything: https://www.amazon.com/Disruptors-Three-Innovators-increase-your-WEALTH/dp/1720857563

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

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