Friday, August 28, 2020

Is “smart beta” investing right for you?


How can a parent assure their child of a bright future?
You just don’t know how your child will turn out. Will they have enough money in the future given that the GOP is threatening to cut Social Security and the individual national debt is already $80,000 per person? No one knows what will happen when they are older. It would be great to start now with a small savings/investment account since it is time and not the amount that helps people become rich. Unfortunately, young people don’t learn about compounding in school so they don’t know what $50 per month can become over time. If invested in a low-cost stock market index account when they are born, it becomes $4 million by age 65. If they start at age 20 it will take $750 a month to reach $4 million. And if you use the tax-free Roth IRA for them, the money is free of tax. All you have to do is put the account on automatic and don’t tell them about it until later.

Is “smart beta” investing right for you?
New fad: growing interest in sustainable “smart beta.” In case you don’t follow the most recent Wall Street hype, that means investment portfolios that say they offer the benefits of passive strategies combined with some of the advantages of active ones, placing it at the intersection of efficient-market hypothesis and factor investing.[1] Here is the pitch: “Recent events have heightened investors’ focus on environmental and social factors, international cooperation and their potential impact on the financial markets," said David Harris, the group head of sustainable business at the London Stock Exchange Group, the owner of the FTSE Russell. "Given these large-scale shifts, combining smart beta with climate and sustainability priorities could become an even bigger trend for asset owners."
In English, smart beta funds claim to beat a traditional index fund by the owners making stock/sector selections based on their own guesses. With this, fund owners are trying to recapture simple index investors. We are still left with marketers thinking they know where the market is going. A “smart” investor knows this marketing trick.

Billionaires use tricks to avoid paying fair share
Robert Smith is investigated for taxes owed on $200 million that was moved through offshore entities. Like many corporations—Apple, Google, Amazon—the wealthy send money through countries with low or no taxes to avoid paying for the benefits they receive from US. Smith and his associate, Robert Brockman allegedly use offshore entities, trusts, and foundations to hide their dough. Tax havens include Caribbean countries only a few miles away in their jet. Good tax lawyers are expensive so you will need millions to start. The wealthy have been avoiding taxes for years. Even those running for high office use tax havens: Bloomberg, Romney, and Trump. The tricks are working and now a few wealthy people own over 20% of all wealth, up from 7% in 1978.

How do the wealthy increase their wealth?
Since the 1970’s, the middle-class has been losing their means of growing wealth: their savings from their income. The wealthy do not need to work more hours or more jobs to increase their income and assets. Once they own assets that produce income, the assets can grow on their own—the miracle of compounding. People like Tim Cook or Warren Buffett don’t work for wages but stock in tax-advantaged accounts. In fact wage income is taxable. Their assets grow without taxation. Assets are taxed ONLY when sold. The wealthy use loans to pay for their expenses. Loans are not taxed. Remember Trump’s boast that he pays NO taxes yet he is a billionaire with real estate income. He claimed a $1 million loss on his 1995 taxes that really consisted of defaulted loans and bankrupted businesses not an actual personal loss. He used his poor business management (6 bankruptcies) to avoid taxes for up to 18 years. The wealthy own stocks that do not pay dividends because dividends are taxable. So they may own Buffett’s own BRK.a at over $300,000 a share because there are no dividends. Buffett uses the dividends of the companies he owns to buy more companies. Early investors with Buffett are now billionaires and pay no taxes because they never sell their assets. They borrow to pay expenses. Clearly, Americans support those who have done well. Our tax system favors those with money even for the kids. Our reps are beholden to the big companies and the wealthy who finance their elections. However, most companies and wealthy don’t pay taxes—we pay their taxes. We pay for the roads, courts, and police they use. Stop paying their taxes!

Is an unbiased financial mentor right for you?
Where can you find unbiased financial information? Some lucky folks have a mentor who helped them get past the recent virus-initiated market drop. They have seen what a friend or colleague has done with investments and followed their lead. Successful people have learned how to cope with money over good times and bad. They claim they don’t even look at their 401k and IRAs because they have been through it all before. They made good choices early on and have kept a steady path since. Unbiased mentors may decline expensive trips which they don’t mind explaining to folks at work. I got my start that way when my boss at the NYC Health Department showed me his Magellan fund statements in the 1980s. Despite the fees, Peter Lynch the manager was creating 29% average annual returns. My boss got me started in IRAs and 403bs not a brokerage account. My mentor showed me that I would never catch up to my goal if I waited to start investing. He showed me charts: https://money.usnews.com/investing/investing-101/articles/2018-07-23/9-charts-showing-why-you-should-invest-today. Time is more important than the amount he said. Of course once I began to see the account grow, I added more. Then my wife and I started a mortgage down payment account. Like others I fell victim to the advice to buy a universal life insurance policy for savings. I finally cancelled and switched to a term contract—using the old premium to fund my IRAs.

Is your advisor pushing the new ETF model strategy?
Known as model portfolio investing, it’s a booming corner of money management in which the fund companies bundle funds into ready-made strategies. Basically instead of advisors creating a unique stock portfolio for you, they are using pre-selected ETFs (index funds) in a standard configuration or model for growth, income, preservation, etc. In a sense, they are avoiding the risk of picking the wrong individual stock for you by using an index. As John Bogle, founder of Vanguard, used to say, "Don't look for the needle in the haystack. Just buy the haystack." The “new” model portfolios are really the old Target Date Funds re-packaged by fund companies for profits: growth for younger; income for older and everything in between.



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

Like 1776, this period is a test of democracy—do we really want ‘low-IQMobster?

Philly DA: we have an “authoritarian dictator."

Dictator: “we will see what happens” on election loss


How Govt wastes our money: Congress gives 3.7 Trillion to the wealthy! 
Trump mob all voted to separate kids from parents 2018: People will hate us for a long time!
Gov can’t even stop robocalls let alone virus, coal subsidies, fires, senior scams: on vacation

Trump waives 3,000 pollution monitor rules: more pollution makes virus symptoms worse
Another Trump cure for virus: “save countless lives” using other people’s blood: biased results


SCAMS/SPINS:
PO vows to deliver “mail securely and on time" but “on time” is after Nov 3 Trump says. 

Trump seeking to ban ballot drop boxes to bypass PO’s planned delays: More lost mail
Robert Duncan Postal Service board of governors now agency of Republican National Committee
How can I ensure that my ballot is not rejected? 534,000 mail ballots were rejected so far’
Trump has PO telling us lie: “Customer requested mail held”: Trump trick to slow mail delivery

Trump now in charge of virus testing labs not FDA: his new/innovative tests not reliable
Drug insiders have taken $1 billion from us but vaccine not any closer.
57% of Republicans find 176,000 coronavirus death toll in the U.S. ‘acceptable:’ poll

FL Gov DeSantis’s order in-person school during pandemic: ruled unconstitutional.


Sean Premock FL defrauding clients out of their life savings; promised low risk. prison
Mark J. Boucher CA stole $2.2 million with fake letter, statements, fake bequest
Ease of trading has turned trading into a cultural phenomenon to lose money: “too easy” 
Trump lets Wall Street devour retirement savings: gambling can take our nest egg fast

Fake ID scams can ruin your credit report using genius-level method: Check yours Free!
PayPal student loans carry 24% interest so we will never pay them off: 6 mo teaser
Scammers steal $ millions and pay $1 penalty when caught: Trump’s new CFPB agency!
Accredited Investor”: changing definition to rob 401ks: private equity too risky for us
No new taxes: Biden plays the same song as Bush I: song never worked with rich


Jobs
Rent due without the money or job? Find help: 10 steps to survive
College rankings by how much you earn after college: Some state schools do well.


Who owns your account now?
Man who claims “king of debt” put US over the line: your family’s share is $ 426,824+
Kabbage to American Express: Biz payments, cash-flow, financing fintech

Miracle:
HALF million votes not counted: too late, no signature, no match: no good
“Wealthy hunter types” may save the Alaska salmon region--Junior: “fragile fishery
No one killed: Far-right extremists: armed terrorists fire on Portland protestors

Teens fight discrimination by helping those in need: they overcome bias with love

Republicans for Biden: “save their souls” from evil deeds: cage children, pollute
Why teachers care: required to work in unsafe conditions means quit or ill or die
$7 glasses for people who know what they want and don’t want to spend $600.


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