Friday, April 10, 2020

Employer quit matching your 401k?


Employer quit matching your 401k?
OK. Now you have to decide whether you will continue the contribution rate when they did match. Stocks are a bargain so they will compound faster over time. This is a time when it counts more that before the virus recession because stocks are on sale—average 20% off. Your best option is a tax-deferred IRA. You can open one anywhere but the larger fund companies have the lowest cost—0.04%. Your individual IRA acts like a 40lk: reduce income now. You can have the trustee take up to $6,000 from your checking account automatically. You control the amount and the costs as the market swings back to its growth mode. You will automatically gain 20% and as time passes; your compound interest will supercharge the growth. Over the next 25 years, your monthly contributions of $250 could become $400,000. And because you use a low-cost market fund, you avoid giving up 63% of your total potential accumulations.

Congress people benefit from advance on virus recession
GA GOP Kelly Loeffler said she wouldn’t do anything different despite her moves looking like insider trading based on the virus recession of 2020. Her stock sales show they add up to $1.8 million profit on the C-19 market fall. The stocks sold have lost a 1/3 of their value, meaning the couple avoided taking a big hit on them. Under Trump’s new rules, they may end up paying no capital gains on their jackpot. Her husband Jeffrey Sprecher is a regular gambler in the markets. Other insider-trading kingpins include Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) who claimed his winnings by selling $1.7 million in stocks just in time, while assuring the public that the U.S. was well positioned to withstand a pandemic. As the head of the intelligence committee, Burr has access to the government’s most highly classified information about threats to America’s security. His committee was receiving daily coronavirus briefings around this time, according to a Reuters story. There are many more Congress people engaged in illegal (for us) trading. Only one was caught and he gets home time not jail time. As you can imagine they are not held accountable since they write the exceptions to the laws.


Suggestion list: What to do with your $1200
Hold on to it for essentials as the future is unknown. If you must have cash to buy an essential down the line, you have it. Doctors, landlords, lenders, utilities can wait—they have reserves and access to federal lending programs we don’t have. Many states are making evictions and shutoffs illegal. If you have been laid off, explore your health care options. Trump says he will pay hospitals for C-19 care but what if you break a leg running your part-time business or fighting to get into the grocery store. Use some of your money to start/expand a hobby. People need something to do at home so offer your hobby/book/toys/etc over Amazon eBay, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, etc sales process. You may be allowed a tag sale in your front yard as long as you have 6 feet lines on ground. Better yet use Craig list. I sold an attic house fan that way once. Never take anything on the internet for truth without verify first. I go to 3 other sources before I click. My garden center sent me an email offer with link to see details. I emailed them directly and they confirmed it was a scam/phishing from theft of their email list. Explore your situation. Ask your employer for help: vacation pay; forward sick time, etc. Ask your vendor for a couple of months wait in writing.
Gov resources to help deal with virus recession:

Is your income down in 2020?
You are only working half the hours? Is your stimulus check paying for essentials and that is all the income you expect this year? If you expect to have less income this year, you can increase your take home pay by telling your employer to reduce the fed and state amounts for withholding for the rest of the year. Use IRS form W-4 https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf to compute your withholding amount. Ask your employer to help you figure out the form since it was made more complicated last year. Even if you don’t have enough taken out this year, you will not be penalized next year since the penalty does not begin until you owe over $1,000. You need the money more than the government since they can print it and you can’t.

And you wonder why your fees are so high?
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, after giving himself a raise in 2019 to $27.5 million, decided to buy two (2) Gulfstreams for $75 million each. A spokeswoman for Goldman said the purchase of the planes would save it money. Right, Father Christmas! Solomon will be at the Fed window taking the forgivable federal loans. The program was for critical aid to small businesses, including some advisors, who need the assistance to stay in business during the COVID-19 crisis. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told Fox Business that the loans should be able to cover about 50% of the private workforce. Goldman could have covered their workers but Solomon already spent the firm’s money. You could switch your accounts to low-cost Vanguard as many others are doing: $48.5 billion--more than four times its nearest competitor, BlackRock. Tell David NO.

Do any of the virus bailout firms pay income taxes?
Boeing hasn’t paid taxes in years. They get guaranteed loans every year from ExIm bank. Recently they got $64 Billion from us. They got $13 Billion from state/local subsidies on top of the federal subsidies. Our taxes are still paying off these gifts. Other top welfare state firms include Nike, GM, Fiat, Ford, etc. Cruise lines don’t pay. Trump’s various businesses don’t pay. He personally deducted almost $1 Billion in losses which were carried forward for years. Rich people don’t pay taxes since they claim their income is from outside America. Yet they take most of the bailout money we will be paying off for the next 100 years. The real wealth is held by private equity owners and they don’t pay.

Most of us know we need financial planning but …
A study shows most of us trust ourselves—not advisors—for financial advice. We are smart enough to realize advisors are in it for the money. They want to be rich, not right. Since advisors can’t be right all the time about falling markets and when and where to invest, we take our own advice. So are we all currently in a panic? Most of us are happy to have a job. We are not gamblers. So who is causing these daily swings? So called Wall Street gurus—money managers who earn in the $ millions from our fees, want to richer so they must trade every minute. They try to escape a falling market so they can ride the ‘upside.’ However, as Bogle, Buffett and other students of success have taught, there is only investing over time and gambling. It is the gamblers who create the volatility. Some win their bets and others lose; just as it has been for all time.

Why file your taxes by April 15?
If you have refund, waiting gets you nothing. Could the IRS run out of money? Could gov computers make a mistake after April 15 because they did not get the email about extension to July 15? Is it possible there will be big delays since all the IRS and check printers are out of the office now in virus lockout? Just to avoid all the bad stuff, file now. Check your state for deadline. The federal and state filing can cost you nothing at https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/. Another site has no cost or restrictions: https://www.creditkarma.com/tax. And remember you can usually reduce income and thus tax by making a deductible contribution to your IRA. File now for refund: 90 day interest-free extension if you owe. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-20-18.pdf


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

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

NYC has to go to China for ventilators: Jared says federal ones are for “our stockpile

Genius Mobster decided: 'There will be a lot of death'





Congress on vacation during emergency: I’m laid off and can’t get health insurance
Not a good Friday: GOP DEMs fight over helping states, hospitals, small biz. Politics

SCAMS/SPINS:
Testing sites may be scam: $250 for test may actually give you virus. Fake Medicaid claims. Jail?

TX stayAThome except church, gun show, groceries, work, liquor, other ‘essentials’.
Twitter shuts 20,000 propaganda accounts: Maybe using twitter isn’t such a great idea
Trump GOP stifle accessible Nov 3 election; no easy voting. Dems outnumber GOP Fact
KY GOP outlaw DEMs vote: GOP to keep McConnell—but no history of ID fraud

Diets (except Med) benefits largely disappeared after 12 months. Lesser amounts works
Williams-Sonoma caught for deceptive ‘made in the USA’ claims fine $1 mil no jail



Jobs
Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset: our sailors
It is not smart to call a carrier commander ‘stupid’: His life is on the line not yours, Tom.



United Health to pay doctors/hospitals now, not normal 30 days: providers can focus on delivering needed care,”

Who owns your account now?
RMD from your account has been waived for 2020: no recoveries if already taken.
Insurers resist business-interruption coverage claims: loss due to virus excluded in some policies  
Student loan suspended payments and reducing interest to 0% through Sept. 30, 2020.

Get virus payment even if you don’t file: https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/non-filers-enter-payment-info-here

Miracle:
Blood donors may save us: they survived C-19 and their blood may have answers
New drug may stop virus from duplicating: tests show possible antivirus pill
Why keeping your distance works: family wipeouts: 15 people infected 3 die 1 carrier

Airlines forced to refund: CEOs can afford to take cut in pay.
GEICO, Allstate & American Family give back premium since no one is driving.

Court gets child abuser Cardinal out of jail: he wants ‘victim to suffer no more.’ Duh

DEMs all in for Joe but Cuomo looks stronger: virtual election loses HALF DEMs

IAN
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