Make the New Year better
How to deal with the stock market fall
In every time period, low-cost funds beat high-cost funds, unbiased analyst Morningstar showed. The unbiased financial scorekeeper, Dalbar, has found that the average advisor-managed returns were 3.79% compared with the S&P 500 index of 11.06%. If inflation runs at 5%, your real returns are under ZERO. Few advisors can beat a low-cost stock index simply because of the costs. Warren Buffett bet $1 million that the Vanguard’s 500 Index fund would beat the returns of a stock picking guru and 5 hedge funds. He won. He also designated Vanguard low-cost index funds in his will for his heirs. Advisor managed funds underperformed indexes nearly 93% of the time. Over time, advisor fees, charges, trading and bad decisions will lower your total accumulations by 63% or more.
Buffett’s advice: https://www.amazon.com/Warren-Buffetts-Vanguard-Funds-Retirement/dp/1496148592
How to start investing with $250 or less
If you are paying off student loans and trying to get your career going, you don’t have a lot of money to invest. If you are lucky enough to start a 401k or 403b at work, you can have the money taken out of your check so you don’t even get to spend it first. Some employer plans allow you to invest in a tax-deferred or tax-FREE account. However, if your employer does not offer these perks, you can start investing with just $250. After opening an IRA or Roth IRA at Vanguard, you can use their commission-free brokerage account to buy an ETF share. These are stock market index funds packaged like a stock. So one share of the total stock market index fund (VTI) costs under $250 due to the current sale (market down). Another strategy is to use your tax refund (average $3,000) to buy the low-cost 500 Index Fund so you can automatically invest $200 a month from your checking account. After 35 years, your $1 million is tax-FREE.
https://www.amazon.com/Tax-Refund-Millionaires-Let-Uncle-Help/dp/149595644X
Hope you did NOT buy crypto recently
Investors are fleeing riskier assets from tech stocks to cryptocurrencies. If you are investing for your retirement, I hope you did not put your money into ‘Bits’ and lose HALF your money. Tech stocks are the market driver and will be with us for the future. However, it is hard to pick the future winners. What to do? ‘Buy them all,’ John Bogle used to say. A low-cost index will help you get through this period since there will always be corrections and you just have to wait, as Warren Buffett advises. You can put your investing on full-time automatic and not have to decide when to sell or reduce your stock or bond complement. You can use a Target Retirement Fund like the Vanguard Target Retirement 2065 Fund (VLXVX). You can tell the trustee of your Roth IRA account to debit a monthly amount from your bank account. As you grow your investments tax-FREE, your trustee will move more of your money into the bond index inside your Fund. By the time you retire, you will have earned more than an advisor-managed account with less risk and all your earnings will be available tax-FREE.
Use the Best: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Robo-Advisor-Ultimate-Automatic-Management/dp/1537111957
Supremes caution employers about high annuity costs
The court said federal courts should look at more than a 403(b) retirement plan’s flexibility and investment menu size when deciding whether the administrators have met the Employee Retirement Income Security Act standard for the duty of prudence. Plan administrators must be concerned with costs as fiduciaries. They can’t simply offer participants’ preferred options and wave off concerns about the other options. This institution’s employees accused the fiduciaries of acting in an imprudent manner by offering plans with high record-keeping costs; retail mutual fund and variable annuity share classes with high, retail-level fees; and, in the beginning, an investment option menu that was too long and could have led to poor participant investment choices. The employees cited the withdrawal penalties and restrictions built in to a fixed annuity on the menu were too high. Lower courts (siding with the administration) were criticized for overlooking ERISA’s core purpose, which is to protect plan participants from an administrator’s failure to perform its fiduciary duties. TIAA, the annuity provider, claimed the extra costs are justified. The Supremes said institutions must remove “all imprudent investments.” Employees have lower-cost options.
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Annuity-Strategy-Income-Growth/dp/1497532019
Do seniors really need life insurance?
What is life insurance for? What do you expect life insurance to do for you? Why is life insurance so expensive? These are the questions I get from retirees or pre-retirees. The answer is really very individual and specific. Life insurance benefits are there to protect others against unexpected loss. But retirees know they are going to die and can prepare for that possible loss to their families. Life insurance typically protects against UNEXPECTED loss—when we are young and raising children and supporting a family. By the time we retire, most of us are not supporting a family with a weekly wage. If we are buying life insurance in retirement it is very expensive. Senior Life is typically issued without any tests. Thus if you are in good health, you are paying for all those who are not in good health. And life insurance is NOT a good investment. These are the typical rates for adults: Male age 71 pays $26.77 for $5,000 death benefit. $321.24 a year for 15 years (your life expectancy) costs $4,818.60. If invested, your $321.24 a month is worth $10,866. So depending on your health, don’t waste money on ‘death’ insurance.
Double benefits: https://www.amazon.com/Your-Plan-Live-Age-100/dp/1548180793
Excessive fees—savers giving up 63% of potential nest egg
Saving for any goal—retirement, home, education—is difficult enough but the saving/investing industry depends on overcharging for all its services. The wealthy owners do it because they can: “Many financial institutions obscure the true price of their services by luring customers with enticing offers and then charging excessive junk fees.” Regulators of financial services are run by and paid for by the industry itself. There is little incentive to give honest service at a reasonable price. “Over a 50-year investing lifetime, that little 2 percent fee will erode 63 percent of what you would have had. As John Bogle, founder of Vanguard Group, puts it, ‘the tyranny of compounding costs’ is overwhelming.” Low-cost passive investing funds have become the norm. With a little shopping around, we could pay 0.04% instead of 2.00% a year for quality money management. Instead of having $ 740,961 for retirement after 35 years of investing $250 a month we could have $1,243,368. And using a special IRS account, it could all be tax-FREE. Contribute $105,000; spend $1.2 million.
Avoid the middle person: https://www.amazon.com/New-American-Retirement-System-ReserveTM/dp/1461030072
Excessive health care costs: “high-cost, ineffective care”
What’s wrong? Two patients can get the same procedure and pay wildly different prices, according to a new study. “The same patient with the same insurance plan could go to another hospital five miles away and again see a significant change in what they owe.” "Perverse incentives": Why the healthcare market is motivated to provide high-cost, ineffective care. Profits rise when higher dollar claims increased—patient health is not measured. More profit from $4,007 claim for an ICU room vs $3,481 for another plan’s claim. This $526 difference goes straight to the bottom line. The Hospital Price Transparency Rule was supposed to reduce price by competition with transparency. However, this has not happened. Most patents never see the price list for their procedure. Most people just do what the medical “gods” tell them to do. For example, my doctor prescribed Januvia for type 2 diabetes but it cost $500 ($149 plan) for 30 days. I did my research for a low-cost substitute and asked her to prescribe glipizide instead. It cost $56 retail ($12 with my plan). Januvia generated $5.9 billion in sales last year. The low-cost treatment was effective in lowering my A1C. I do better with low cost financial services.
High cost is ‘ineffective care’ of your wallet: https://www.amazon.com/Pay-less-Get-more-investment/dp/1500598321
?**********ACCOUNTABILITY**************?
Like 1776, this
period is a test
of democracy—We
rejected an "American
fascist" once
The
Path to Dictatorship: 2010-2030
Another
terrorist goes to prison
Trump’s plan: Pentagon
to seize voting machines
3 states: ‘brown
shirts’ hunt voter ‘fraud’
Republicans in multiple
states created forged election materials
How Govt wastes our money:
Texas
AG Paxton hiding his part in Jan 6 coup in DC: local DA enforces the law?
Giuliani's
communications as
a foreign agent considered for prosecution
Wealthy
need not fear tax collector: IRS gave up on $1Trillion
unpaid taxes: 0.6% audit
We have military
people in uniform inside
Each state competes
to give
our tax money to companies who ask for socialist gov bump
SCAMS/SPINS:
TX
judge cancels gov worker vaxx mandate: GOP
out to kill as many as possible 900K
VA parent
threatens school with guns if require mask to protect all school
kids/teachers
“March
for Life” ends with March for Death: no choice for abortion; Vaxx gives
Life
Few
employers plan to drop vaccine mandate despite Supreme’s ruling against
mandate
RFKjr wife disavows his
claim that Covid mandate is worse than Holocaust victim’s death
Alex
Jones refuses answer re Jan 6 failed coup: refuse on “ground it may incriminate me”
How autopilot
cars go out of control and kill
people: TV advert is
not how AI works
Your
cruise ship is about to be seized for fuel bill so captain avoids US: how
to get home
We
are easily mislead by selfish people: Tucker
supports Putin’s position: has 4 kids here
Bogus cryptocurrency investments social media: send
money for promised huge returns
German Nino caught
stealing $5.8 million: fake transfers, fake returns, fake statements
Scammers love tax time: IRS sends letter
not call; no offers for “pennies-on-the-dollar”
Students
question our society banning books: preferred by dictators gov
banning history
CA town requires you have insurance
when you own a gun: like car liability insurance
30 high-power
gunshots coming from separate apartment complex kill loved one: 0 arrest
WI GOP to lower concealed-carry age to 18: all
students can ‘pack’ at school: easier kill
Our future
Senators have already been selected with cash from wealthy donors
GOP
with help from DINO deny Biden’s Supreme replacement like
RBG’s replacement?
Manchin now funded by GOP donors: “follow
the money”: Dem in name only
Trump
threatened GA to change voter count: illegal for president to change our
votes
Jobs
Immigrant
entrepreneurs and foreign genius workers are going where they are welcome
Google is training 100,000 Americans for vital
jobs in data privacy and security.
GM retooling for EV in MI: 4,000 jobs
build EV and the batteries
Who owns your account now?
Simple business pension plans: contribute up to $61,000 tax-deferred
Robo Advisor put out of business by UBS advisors: you pay more
These companies sell your data: you can make sure your credit history is correct
Mel Trump did not sell hat for $250,000: start “go fund me” account for new hat?
Average credit card debt: $5,525, down 14% in pandemic: where do you stand?
Miracles:
$15
hourly wage for 70,000 Fed employees: can you live on $510 net a week?
73-year-old woman lured
her scammer to her home and had him arrested: one less threat
Second year in a row
that
Still
claim your 2021 credit on tax return: Parents of children born in 2021,
guardians
Kansas City Chiefs fans
donate $178,000 to New York children's hospital after win
Regrow
limbs with special chem mix Next “regenerative medicine."
Some
student loans have been erased: get a letter after years of asking: Biden
does it
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
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B242
973.746.2014
www.InsuranceAdvisorsNetwork.com
Alerts available
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