Time Limited
.Time Limited
Jonathan Clements | December 19, 2020
OUR MOST PRECIOUS resource is time. I’m determined to waste as little as possible.
Unless we’re at death’s door, none of us knows how much time we have, but we all know it’s limited. Yes, money is also limited—but, if we squander money, there’s always a chance we can make it back. Time lost, by contrast, is gone forever.
My preoccupation with time and its dwindling supply has grown as I’ve grown older. I may be patient with my investments, but I’m not patient with much else. After 58 years of trial and error, I know how I want to spend my days—and what miseries I want to avoid. That’s led me to adopt nine strategies:
1. Fix problems quickly. Faced with a distasteful task, I’m often tempted to put it off until next week or next month. This is foolish. The distasteful task—calling customer service, dealing with my tax return, cleaning out the basement—is going to cost me time, but now I’ve compounded that loss by spending unnecessary days contemplating the need to do it.
Time Limited
Jonathan Clements | December 19, 2020
OUR MOST PRECIOUS resource is time. I’m determined to waste as little as possible.
Unless we’re at death’s door, none of us knows how much time we have, but we all know it’s limited. Yes, money is also limited—but, if we squander money, there’s always a chance we can make it back. Time lost, by contrast, is gone forever.
My preoccupation with time and its dwindling supply has grown as I’ve grown older. I may be patient with my investments, but I’m not patient with much else. After 58 years of trial and error, I know how I want to spend my days—and what miseries I want to avoid. That’s led me to adopt nine strategies:
1. Fix problems quickly. Faced with a distasteful task, I’m often tempted to put it off until next week or next month. This is foolish. The distasteful task—calling customer service, dealing with my tax return, cleaning out the basement—is going to cost me time, but now I’ve compounded that loss by spending unnecessary days contemplating the need to do it.
I’ve tried to break myself of this habit, with mixed results. What if I can’t handle a distasteful task right away? I’ll add it to my to-do list. If I do that, I find I don’t think about the task quite so much, plus writing it down removes some of the problem’s perceived burden, perhaps because I feel like I’m one step closer to getting it done.
2. Don’t stop halfway. This is another bad habit. I’ll often start on a project, but then switch to something else and come back to it later. This works well when writing—time away from the draft of an article allows me to look at it with fresh eyes—but it’s usually a time waster with other endeavors, because stopping and restarting chews up precious minutes.
3. Search less. Thanks to the internet, we can spend countless hours finding, say, the perfect toaster at the best possible price. But how about capping that search at 10 minutes? To save time, I’m inclined to check out a few options and then make a quick decision.
I realize that shopping brings great pleasure to some folks, in which case they should take all the time they want. Along those lines, I like pondering possible vacations, so I’m happy to spend an hour scouring the internet for information. But toasters? Not so much.
To continue reading, please go to the original article here:
How to Find a Financial Advisor You Can Trust
.How to Find a Financial Advisor You Can Trust
By Jeff Desjardin
More and more people are using financial advisors to help them navigate the complex journey to financial freedom.
But although more Americans are seeking advice on matters of personal finance, they are also less sure that the advice they are getting is trustworthy.
Unfortunately, a growing amount of Americans see advisors as serving their companies’ best interests rather than their own best interests. According to a survey by The National Association of Retirement Plan Participants (NARPP), 60% of Americans now feel this way compared to just 25% of respondents in 2010.
How to Find a Financial Advisor You Can Trust
By Jeff Desjardin
More and more people are using financial advisors to help them navigate the complex journey to financial freedom.
But although more Americans are seeking advice on matters of personal finance, they are also less sure that the advice they are getting is trustworthy.
Unfortunately, a growing amount of Americans see advisors as serving their companies’ best interests rather than their own best interests. According to a survey by The National Association of Retirement Plan Participants (NARPP), 60% of Americans now feel this way compared to just 25% of respondents in 2010.
Who Can Be Trusted?
Today’s infographic is from Tony Robbins, and it covers key points from his #1 Best Selling book Unshakeable: Your Financial Freedom Playbook, which is now available on paperback.
The book dissects the investment advisor landscape to show the value of a relationship with an advisor, the legal distinctions between different advisor types, and how advisors are incentivized.
Ultimately, it helps give you the ammo you need to find an investment advisor that will provide you with better service than the rest.
The Value of the Right Advisor
The right financial advisor can help you make better decisions, address your cognitive biases, and use their expertise to save you massive amounts of money.
A recent Vanguard study helps quantify the value a good advisor can bring:
Lowering expense ratios: 0.45%
Rebalancing portfolio: 0.35%
Asset allocation: 0.75%
Withdrawing the right investments in retirement: 0.70%
Behavioral coaching: 1.50%
Total: 3.75% of added value!
That’s more than 3x what a sophisticated advisor might charge, and doesn’t include the benefits of reducing taxes or other areas.
Advisors vs. Brokers
There are roughly 310,000 people in the U.S. who call themselves financial advisors – but they actually fall under two different legal frameworks.
About 90% of this group are brokers, while 10% are registered investment advisors. Confusingly, there is also a significant portion who are dual-registered as both brokers and registered advisors, as well.
What’s the difference?
The two have different legal obligations, as well as differing ways of receiving compensation from clients:
Investment Advisor (RIA)
RIAs are registered with the SEC and with the state they are working in
Like doctors or lawyers, investment advisors have a fiduciary duty and legal obligation to their clients
In other words, they must serve your best interest at all times
They also must disclose any conflicts of interest
They don’t accept commission from third-parties for their products
How they get paid: They charge a % based on assets managed, or a flat fee for financial advice
Brokers
Brokers are usually employed by banks, brokerage houses, or insurance companies
The products they recommend have to pass a suitability standard, based on your personal circumstances
However, they do not have to necessarily recommend the best product for you
How they get paid: They get commissions for selling certain products to you. They may also charge based on assets under management, as well.
Picking the Right Advisor
Remember, the right advisor can add 3.75% of added value to a portfolio, and that’s before taxes and other areas! With the stakes so high, how can Americans pick the right advisor for them?
Here are the 7 questions Tony Robbins would ask a potential advisor to work with:
1. Are you a Registered Investment Advisor?
If the answer is yes, he or she is required by law to be a fiduciary.
2. Are you (or your firm) affiliated with a Broker-Dealer?
If yes, he or she can act as a broker and receive commissions for guiding you into specific investments.
3. Does your firm offer proprietary mutual funds or separately managed accounts?
These products will likely compensate them with additional revenues, at your expense.
4. Do you or your firm receive any third-party compensation for recommending particular investments?
This is the ultimate question you want answered. You want products to be recommended because they are right for you, not because they give the best kickbacks.
5. What’s your philosophy when it comes to investing?
This will help you understand whether your advisor believes he/she can beat the market.
6. What financial planning services do you offer beyond investment strategy and portfolio management?
Financial planning is much bigger than just investing – it also involves planning for your child’s education, handling vested stock options, estate planning, and tax advice. You want someone that can help you in all stages of your life.
7. Where will my money be held?
Having your money held by a trusted third-party custodian will mean your money is in a secure environment.
Like most financial endeavors, picking an advisor is an area lined with potential pitfalls.
But choosing the right investment advisor can be a difference maker – it can even possibly even set you up with many years of extra retirement savings.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/financial-advisor-trust.jpg
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/find-financial-advisor-can-trust/
Could Knowing Your ‘Money Script’ Help Your Finances?
.Could Knowing Your ‘Money Script’ Help Your Finances?
By Charlotte Cowles@charlottecowles My Two Cents Nov. 5, 2020
One thing I hate about most money advice is that it tells you what you should be doing, as if you didn’t already know. Most of us are aware that we need to spend less, save more, and plan better (thanks for the reminder). To me, the real question is how you actually get yourself to do those things, and what’s making it so hard.
Enter “money scripts,” also known as “money stories,” a concept that has been tossed around by financial therapists for years and more recently edged into mainstream financial planning. Loosely defined, money scripts are “what you learned about money from your upbringing, how you responded or rebelled, and what your current money dynamics and patterns are,” says Bari Tessler, a financial therapist and author of The Art of Money.
Could Knowing Your ‘Money Script’ Help Your Finances?
By Charlotte Cowles@charlottecowles My Two Cents Nov. 5, 2020
One thing I hate about most money advice is that it tells you what you should be doing, as if you didn’t already know. Most of us are aware that we need to spend less, save more, and plan better (thanks for the reminder). To me, the real question is how you actually get yourself to do those things, and what’s making it so hard.
Enter “money scripts,” also known as “money stories,” a concept that has been tossed around by financial therapists for years and more recently edged into mainstream financial planning. Loosely defined, money scripts are “what you learned about money from your upbringing, how you responded or rebelled, and what your current money dynamics and patterns are,” says Bari Tessler, a financial therapist and author of The Art of Money.
To be clear, teasing out your money script won’t solve your financial problems, especially ones that are out of your control (which, at this particular moment, may be a lot of them!). But the process of self-examination will help you notice your behaviors, look at what’s behind them, and — theoretically — recognize and change the ones that aren’t working. As Tessler puts it: “Awareness leads to understanding, and that allows us to dismantle and replace the habits we don’t like.”
If that all sounds a little woo-woo and simplistic, I get it. You can’t sit around blaming your financial woes on your parents or vision-boarding your way to a higher paycheck. But you also shouldn’t ignore the abundance of research showing that certain early life experiences do correlate with destructive financial choices as an adult, and how they can be overcome with specific therapeutic techniques.
In one British study, subjects who’d been raised in households that were secretive about spending were more likely to have compulsive money habits, like hoarding, when they grew up. Another study found that childhood trauma (financial or otherwise) often had a deleterious effect on subjects’ financial decision-making later in life.
On the upside, psychologists have also found that cognitive-behavioral therapy (or CBT) can help people overcome negative financial habits ranging from the very serious (like compulsive overspending) to the more garden-variety (avoiding bills).
To continue reading, please go to the original article here:
https://www.thecut.com/2020/11/could-understanding-your-money-script-help-your-finances.html
The 6 Biggest Mistakes Ordinary Investors Make
.The 6 Biggest Mistakes Ordinary Investors Make
By Jeff Desjardins
In many areas of life, we are often our own worst enemies. The realm of personal finance is no different. What’s the biggest threat to achieving financial independence? Unfortunately, it’s your own brain. You can invest in all the right things, minimize fees and taxes, and even diversify your holdings. But if you fail to master your own psychology, it’s still possible to fall victim to financial self-sabotage.
The Brain’s Design
Today’s infographic is from Tony Robbins, and it uses data and talking points from his #1 Best Selling book Unshakeable: Your Financial Freedom Playbook, which is now available on paperback. The graphic is based on a chapter in the book that reveals the key psychological limitations of the human brain. It turns out that these fallible survival instincts have been hardwired into our brains over millions of years, and they become very troublesome when we try to make rational financial decisions.
The 6 Biggest Mistakes Ordinary Investors Make
By Jeff Desjardins
In many areas of life, we are often our own worst enemies. The realm of personal finance is no different. What’s the biggest threat to achieving financial independence? Unfortunately, it’s your own brain. You can invest in all the right things, minimize fees and taxes, and even diversify your holdings. But if you fail to master your own psychology, it’s still possible to fall victim to financial self-sabotage.
The Brain’s Design
Today’s infographic is from Tony Robbins, and it uses data and talking points from his #1 Best Selling book Unshakeable: Your Financial Freedom Playbook, which is now available on paperback. The graphic is based on a chapter in the book that reveals the key psychological limitations of the human brain. It turns out that these fallible survival instincts have been hardwired into our brains over millions of years, and they become very troublesome when we try to make rational financial decisions.
To overcome these instincts, investors need to adopt simple systems, rules, and procedures that can ensure the decisions around money we make are in our best long-term interest.
What I’ve found again and again is that 80% of success is psychology and 20% is mechanics. – Tony Robbins
Six Psychological Pitfalls to Avoid
Remember these six pitfalls – and how to counteract them – and you’ll be able to avoid the biggest mistakes often made by investors.
Mistake #1: Seeking Confirmation Of Your Own Beliefs
Your brain is wired to seek and believe information that validates your existing beliefs. Our minds love “proof” of how smart and right we are.
Even worse, this is magnified by the online echo chambers of the modern world.
News media (MSNBC, Fox News, etc.) tend to favor one point of view
Google and Facebook filter our search results
Unsubstantiated rumors can run unchecked, as long as they reinforce existing points of view
This can be exceptionally detrimental in investing.
Convincing yourself that a particular stock or strategy is correct, without taking into account contradicting evidence, can be the nail in the coffin of financial freedom.
The Solution: Welcome opinions that contradict your own
The best investors know they are vulnerable to confirmation bias, and actively ask questions and seek qualified opinions that disagree with their own.
Ray Dalio, for example, seeks the smartest detractor of his idea, and then tries to find out their full reasoning behind their contrary opinion.
The power of thoughtful disagreement is a great thing. – Ray Dalio
Mistake #2: Conflating Recent Events With Ongoing Trends
One of the most common – and dangerous – investing mistakes is to believe that the current trend of the day will continue.
In psychology speak, this is known as recency bias, or putting more weight on recent events when evaluating the odds of something happening in the future
For example, an investor might think that because a stock has performed well recently, that it will also do well in the future. Therefore, she buys more – effectively buying at a high point in the stock.
The Solution: Re-balance
Our memories are short, so what can we do?
The best way to avoid this impulsive and faulty decision making is to commit to portfolio allocations (i.e. 60% stocks, 40% bonds) in advance, and then re-balancing on a regular basis.
This effectively ensures you are buying low, and selling high. When stocks to well, you sell some of them to buy other assets in the underweighted part of your portfolio, and vice versa.
Mistake #3: Overconfidence
Very successful and driven people often assume they will be just as good at investing as they are at other aspects of their life. However, this overconfidence is a common cognitive bias: we constantly overestimate our abilities, our knowledge, and our future prospects.
The Solution: Get Real, and Get Honest
By admitting you have no special advantage, you give yourself an enormous advantage – and you’ll beat the overconfident investors that delude themselves in believing they can outperform.
If you can’t predict the future, the most important thing is to admit it. If it’s true that you can’t make forecasts and yet you try anyway, then that’s really suicide. – Howard Marks
Mistake #4: Swinging For The Fences
It’s tempting to go for the big wins in your quest to build financial wealth. But swinging for the fences also means more strikeouts – many which can be difficult to recover from.
The Solution: Think Long Term
The best way to win the game of investing is to achieve sustainable long-term returns that compound over time. Don’t get distracted by the short-term noise on Wall Street, and re-orient your approach to build wealth over the long term.
The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient. – Warren Buffett
Mistake #5: Staying Home
This psychological bias is known as “home bias”, and it is the tendency for people to invest disproportionately in markets that are familiar to them. For example, investing in:
Your employer’s stock
Your own industry
Your own country’s stock market
Only one asset class
Home bias can leave you overweighted in “what you know”, which can wreak havoc on your portfolio in some circumstances.
The Solution: Diversify
Diversify broadly, in different asset classes and in different countries. From 2000 to 2009, the S&P 500 only returned 1.4% per year, but foreign markets picked up the slack:
International stocks: 3.9% per year
Emerging markets: 16.2% per year
A well-diversified portfolio would have done well, no matter what.
Mistake #6: Negativity Bias
Our brains are wired to bombard us with memories of negative experiences.
In fact, one part of our brain – the amygdala – is a biological alarm system that floods the body with fear signals when we are losing money.
The problem with this? When markets plunge, fear takes over and it’s easy to act irrationally. Some people panic, selling their entire portfolios to go into cash.
The Solution: Prepare
The best way to avoid negativity bias is to:
Keep record of why you invested in certain securities in the first place
Maintain the right asset allocation that will help you through volatility
Partner with the right financial advisor to offer advice
Focus on the long term, and avoid short-term market distractions
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. – Benjamin Franklin
Conclusion
These simple rules and procedures will make it easier for you to invest for the long term.
They’ll help you:
Trade less
Lower investment fees and transaction costs
Be more open to views that differ from your own
Reduce risk by diversifying globally
Control the fears that could otherwise derail you
Will you be perfect? No.
But will you do better? You bet!
And the difference this makes over a lifetime can be substantial.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/biggest-mistakes-ordinary-investors.jpg
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/6-biggest-mistakes-ordinary-investors-make/
How To Live Your Best Life Without a Lot of Money
.How To Live Your Best Life Without a Lot of Money
September 18, 2019 by One Frugal Girl
Live Your Best Life
I sit on the floor, surrounded by a group of smiling first graders. “What do you want to be when you grow up,” I ask. Their hands shoot up high into the air as they enthusiastically call out their answers.
“A doctor.” “A nurse.” “A basketball player.” “A builder.” “A teacher.” “A zookeeper.”
They are so excited they have a hard time waiting for their turn to share. As we go around the room, each child speaks confidently about their desired career. Their futures are full of possibilities. They have big plans to live their best life and no fear that they may fail. After class, I reminiscence about my childhood desires when an unexpected longing arises from deep within. A desire to go back to a time before obligations, bills and responsibilities altered my goals. A desire to live the best life I dreamed about as a kid.
How To Live Your Best Life Without a Lot of Money
September 18, 2019 by One Frugal Girl
Live Your Best Life
I sit on the floor, surrounded by a group of smiling first graders. “What do you want to be when you grow up,” I ask. Their hands shoot up high into the air as they enthusiastically call out their answers.
“A doctor.” “A nurse.” “A basketball player.” “A builder.” “A teacher.” “A zookeeper.”
They are so excited they have a hard time waiting for their turn to share. As we go around the room, each child speaks confidently about their desired career. Their futures are full of possibilities. They have big plans to live their best life and no fear that they may fail. After class, I reminiscence about my childhood desires when an unexpected longing arises from deep within. A desire to go back to a time before obligations, bills and responsibilities altered my goals. A desire to live the best life I dreamed about as a kid.
Live Your Best Life
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” How did you answer this question when you were a child?
Around the age of ten or eleven, I wrote a report about the greatest speeches of American presidents. Speeches like John F. Kennedy’s “We Choose To Go To The Moon”:
“But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard…”
Or Ronald Reagan’s Brandenburg Gate Speech:
“General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
At the time, I couldn’t imagine anything more thrilling than becoming a speechwriter. (Looking back, I suppose I was an unusual kid.) I was certain I could write the words that would inspire a nation. Of course, that never happened. I graduated with a degree in English Literature and went on to become a software engineer. I enjoyed my career, but I never forgot about that original goal. Even now, three decades after I first dreamed about it.
What Is Important To Me?
To continue reading, please go to the original article here:
https://www.onefrugalgirl.com/2019/09/how-can-you-live-your-best-life-without-a-lot-of-money/
The How’s and Why’s of Taxing Your Child’s Allowance Money
The How’s and Why’s of Taxing Your Child’s Allowance Money
Trent Hamm Founder of The Simple Dollar Last Updated: December 15, 2020
A few years ago, when I was using TurboTax to prepare our family’s income tax return, my youngest child hopped up on my lap. He had the insatiable curiosity that only a five-year-old can possess, and thus he immediately began peppering me with questions. What are you doing? What are income taxes? Why do you have to pay that money?
As I explained to him the basics of income taxes, I realized that the best way to teach the lesson of taxes to him was to run a little experiment on his allowance, along with his older siblings. What could I actually teach them about taxes that would feel like a learning experience and not like punishment?
This is a question many parents ask themselves when teaching their children about money basics. Giving a child an allowance is a pretty standard financial teaching tool, but how do taxes fit into this?
The How’s and Why’s of Taxing Your Child’s Allowance Money
Trent Hamm Founder of The Simple Dollar Last Updated: December 15, 2020
A few years ago, when I was using TurboTax to prepare our family’s income tax return, my youngest child hopped up on my lap. He had the insatiable curiosity that only a five-year-old can possess, and thus he immediately began peppering me with questions. What are you doing? What are income taxes? Why do you have to pay that money?
As I explained to him the basics of income taxes, I realized that the best way to teach the lesson of taxes to him was to run a little experiment on his allowance, along with his older siblings. What could I actually teach them about taxes that would feel like a learning experience and not like punishment?
This is a question many parents ask themselves when teaching their children about money basics. Giving a child an allowance is a pretty standard financial teaching tool, but how do taxes fit into this?
To be clear, this is about “taxing” your child’s allowance, in the sense that you’re choosing to withhold a portion of their allowance for the purposes of teaching your child a practical lesson about taxes. This does not have any actual taxable consequence. Let’s be abundantly clear: there are no federal tax consequences for giving your minor child unearned income in the form of an allowance.
The first question that many parents ask is whether they should give their children an allowance at all. If so, should that allowance be tied to household chores?
A study by Rona Abramovitch, Jonathan Freedman, and Patricia Pliner in the Journal of Economic Psychology sought to answer that question. They concluded that children who received allowances demonstrated a better mastery of pricing knowledge, meaning that they had a much more developed sense of the prices of items and how far their money would go.
What about tying allowances to chores? Joe Pinsker in The Atlantic expressed doubt about this approach. “A range of experts I consulted expressed concern that tying allowance very closely to chores, whatever its apparent short-term effectiveness, can send kids unintentionally counterproductive messages about family, community, and personal responsibility.
In fact, the way chores work in many households worldwide points to another way, in which kids get involved earlier, feel better about their contributions, and don’t need money as an enticement.”
To continue reading, please go to the original article here:
https://www.thesimpledollar.com/financial-wellness/should-you-tax-childs-allowance-money/
Lost and Found
.Lost and Found
Dennis Friedman April 14, 2020
Sometimes, when we’re doing our estate planning, we get so involved with the financial side that we lose track of other things that might have special meaning for our loved ones.
WHEN MY FATHER died in 2012, my mother gave me his wedding ring as a keepsake—but I lost it. I turned my house upside down trying to find it. When my mother was alive, I prayed she wouldn’t ask to see the ring, because I didn’t know what I’d tell her.
I felt terrible that I had lost something that meant so much to my father, and I was upset with myself for not taking better care of it. I know that I’m terrible when it comes to protecting my valuables. Like a dog that hides his bone, I hide things in my house—but forget where.
Lost and Found
Dennis Friedman April 14, 2020
Sometimes, when we’re doing our estate planning, we get so involved with the financial side that we lose track of other things that might have special meaning for our loved ones.
WHEN MY FATHER died in 2012, my mother gave me his wedding ring as a keepsake—but I lost it. I turned my house upside down trying to find it. When my mother was alive, I prayed she wouldn’t ask to see the ring, because I didn’t know what I’d tell her.
I felt terrible that I had lost something that meant so much to my father, and I was upset with myself for not taking better care of it. I know that I’m terrible when it comes to protecting my valuables. Like a dog that hides his bone, I hide things in my house—but forget where.
Some weeks ago, I was cleaning out my condo, as I prepared to move to my new home. I noticed a small plastic bag tucked in the back corner of a drawer. Yes, it was the missing ring. What a relief. I could breathe again.
While cleaning out my condo, I discovered other missing items:
I found $160 tucked between the pages of last year’s calendar.
I found $100 in an old Christmas card.
I found $20 in the back pocket of a pair of jeans.
I found some old gift cards that probably haven’t been used, but I need to check the card balances.
Why am I so careless with things of monetary value? I’m not a careless spender. I’m a saver who knows the value of a dollar. And yet I misplaced my father’s ring, which was not only a valuable item, but also a cherished possession.
To continue reading, please go to the original article here:
He Gets, She Gets
.He Gets, She Gets
James McGlynn Humble Dollar December 15, 2020
IF YOU DESIGNATE beneficiaries for your retirement accounts, that’s usually a surefire way to pass those assets directly to your desired heirs without going through probate—but not always.
Because those beneficiary designations are so important, you should verify your choices every year in case there’s a change due to, say, marriage, birth, divorce or death. Especially marriage and divorce. Which brings me to a crucial issue: When dealing with IRA and 401(k) beneficiary designations, there’s a key difference when it comes to your spouse.
In general, a spouse who hasn’t been named beneficiary of an IRA isn’t entitled to inherit it. Unlike 401(k) plans, IRAs aren’t governed by ERISA—the Employee Retirement Income Security Act—so these accounts don’t have the same protections for spouses.
He Gets, She Gets
James McGlynn Humble Dollar December 15, 2020
IF YOU DESIGNATE beneficiaries for your retirement accounts, that’s usually a surefire way to pass those assets directly to your desired heirs without going through probate—but not always.
Because those beneficiary designations are so important, you should verify your choices every year in case there’s a change due to, say, marriage, birth, divorce or death. Especially marriage and divorce. Which brings me to a crucial issue: When dealing with IRA and 401(k) beneficiary designations, there’s a key difference when it comes to your spouse.
In general, a spouse who hasn’t been named beneficiary of an IRA isn’t entitled to inherit it. Unlike 401(k) plans, IRAs aren’t governed by ERISA—the Employee Retirement Income Security Act—so these accounts don’t have the same protections for spouses.
You’re free to name whoever you wish as your IRA beneficiary, even if you’re married, provided you don’t live in a community property state. Indeed, IRAs are excluded from ERISA coverage, even if the funds originated in a 401(k).
By contrast, under ERISA, if the owner of a 401(k) account is married when he or she dies, his or her spouse is automatically entitled to receive 50% of the money, regardless of what the beneficiary designation says. If there’s no beneficiary listed, the spouse is entitled to 100% of the account.
The spouse can sign a waiver, giving up his or her 50% of the account, but only if the spouse is at least 35 years of age. It isn’t enough just to name someone else on the beneficiary form that your employer gives you. The waiver must be filled out, with the spouse consenting to the participant’s choice of beneficiary.
If your spouse signs the waiver, which should be provided by the firm that administers your 401(k), a plan representative or a notary public must act as a witness. Why all this bother? Congress wanted to make sure surviving spouses weren’t shortchanged. Beneficiary designations for 401(k)s become particularly tricky with divorces and remarriages.
To continue reading, please go to the original article here:
Help Today’s Self
.Help Today’s Self
Adam M. Grossman December 13, 2020
SO MUCH OF PERSONAL finance is focused on our future self—and that’s a challenge. Think about the standard prescriptions: Open an IRA. Maximize your 401(k). Save for college. Save for retirement. Build an estate plan.
These are all about the future—often the very distant future. An enormous amount of time and energy is spent planning for “someday.” But it’s equally important to focus on things that can be done to benefit you today. As we head into year-end, it’s a good time to conduct some financial housekeeping along those lines. Here are eight recommendations:
1. Organization. Over the course of a career, it’s not uncommon to wind up with a collection of financial accounts, including multiple IRAs and 401(k)s from old jobs. Often these can be combined, making your finances simpler to monitor and manage. But this doesn’t always happen—and not just because folks are deterred by the paperwork involved. Another reason: Many people don’t even realize it’s possible. Fortunately, the IRS provides this handy chart showing exactly which accounts can and can’t be merged together.
Help Today’s Self
Adam M. Grossman December 13, 2020
SO MUCH OF PERSONAL finance is focused on our future self—and that’s a challenge. Think about the standard prescriptions: Open an IRA. Maximize your 401(k). Save for college. Save for retirement. Build an estate plan.
These are all about the future—often the very distant future. An enormous amount of time and energy is spent planning for “someday.” But it’s equally important to focus on things that can be done to benefit you today. As we head into year-end, it’s a good time to conduct some financial housekeeping along those lines. Here are eight recommendations:
1. Organization. Over the course of a career, it’s not uncommon to wind up with a collection of financial accounts, including multiple IRAs and 401(k)s from old jobs. Often these can be combined, making your finances simpler to monitor and manage. But this doesn’t always happen—and not just because folks are deterred by the paperwork involved. Another reason: Many people don’t even realize it’s possible. Fortunately, the IRS provides this handy chart showing exactly which accounts can and can’t be merged together.
2. Spending (part I). In his 1758 book, The Way to Wealth, Ben Franklin wrote, “Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.” He was ahead of his time. In recent years, more and more companies have refashioned their business models around small, recurring charges. Think Netflix and Spotify. Many of these services are great, but it’s easy to lose track of the little charges and to continue paying for services you no longer use. Fortunately, there’s a growing number of solutions. Credit cards like Discover offer a “recurring payments dashboard.” A number of apps can help you identify and cancel old accounts.
3. Charitable giving. A few years back, a longstanding pillar of the tax code changed. As of 2018, deductions for state and local taxes were curtailed, while the standard deduction was substantially increased. Result? Many people who used to itemize deductions, and therefore receive a deduction for every dollar given to charity, are now covered by the standard deduction. This means they no longer receive an incremental tax benefit from charitable donations. This has led many people to adopt an every-other-year strategy for donations.
This year is an exception, however. A provision in the coronavirus-related CARES Act offers a special onetime “above the line” deduction for a cash donation of up to $300. “Above the line” means that everyone can benefit. The upshot: Even if you no longer itemize your deductions on your tax return, be sure to let your accountant know if you’ve made charitable contributions.
To continue reading, please go to the original article here:
Long Time Coming
.Long Time Coming
By Jonathan Clements – Humble Dollar December 12, 2020
IF MONEY ISSUES had the urgency of a broken air-conditioning system on a 100-degree day, we’d all be in great financial shape.
But all too often, financial troubles are years in the making. We bumble along, vaguely aware that things aren’t quite right. Sure enough, one day, the red lights are flashing and the alarm bells are ringing. But by then, it’s usually way too late to fix the problem—because the fix required taking action years earlier. Consider seven examples:
1. Living precariously. This may not be an issue for HumbleDollar readers, but it’s a big issue for most Americans. All too many families live paycheck to paycheck, with little or no financial safety net. We’re talking about folks such as the 37% of Americans who can’t handle a $400 financial emergency. One result: When the economy shut down earlier this year and unemployment spiked to 14.7%, millions of Americans immediately found themselves in dire financial straits.
Long Time Coming
By Jonathan Clements – Humble Dollar December 12, 2020
IF MONEY ISSUES had the urgency of a broken air-conditioning system on a 100-degree day, we’d all be in great financial shape.
But all too often, financial troubles are years in the making. We bumble along, vaguely aware that things aren’t quite right. Sure enough, one day, the red lights are flashing and the alarm bells are ringing. But by then, it’s usually way too late to fix the problem—because the fix required taking action years earlier. Consider seven examples:
1. Living precariously. This may not be an issue for HumbleDollar readers, but it’s a big issue for most Americans. All too many families live paycheck to paycheck, with little or no financial safety net. We’re talking about folks such as the 37% of Americans who can’t handle a $400 financial emergency. One result: When the economy shut down earlier this year and unemployment spiked to 14.7%, millions of Americans immediately found themselves in dire financial straits.
I appreciate that those on the lowest incomes find it hugely difficult to save. But for everybody else, I wish there was greater thought given to the tradeoff between spending on baubles today and not spending so we’re better prepared for tomorrow. The baubles will provide only fleeting pleasure, while money in the bank can deliver an enduring sense of financial security.
2. Punting on retirement. Paying for retirement may be our final financial goal, but we should make it a priority from the day we enter the workforce. Why? If we’re aiming to retire at, say, age 65 with today’s equivalent of $1 million and our portfolio earns three percentage points a year more than inflation, we need to save an inflation-adjusted $11,700 every year if we start at age 22. What if we wait until 35 to begin saving? The required annual sum soars some 80% to $21,000.
3. Failing to diversify. Risk isn’t what happens, but rather what could potentially happen. If we own a lopsided portfolio—one that’s heavily skewed toward our employer’s stock, or to health care companies, or that includes only U.S. shares—perhaps all will be fine and we’ll roll along merrily for years with no ill effects.
To continue reading, please go to the original article here:
My "Crystal Ball"
.My "Crystal Ball"
By Anna Von Reitz Saturday, December 12, 2020
Some people accuse me of sorcery. How could I know what I know, just sitting out in the sticks in Big Lake, Alaska? I must be "connected" to some intelligence gathering community, must be an agent of some kind, etc. Believe me, the agencies have been up my rump for years, tracking every communication, following every trail, trying to discover my "intel" contacts--- and to no avail. The truth is that I just use my head, listen, look, and talk to my friends who are similarly employed with the task of researching the past, observing the present, and, in a sense, predicting the future.
If you have the first two parts --- the research into the past and observation of the present, it's not too hard to make good guesses about the future, particularly because the Svengalis in the back room are not really that bright or creative. They constantly repeat scams that have worked for them in the past. The present situation is just a variation of what they pulled to bring on The Great Depression---- with the same goals in mind, too.
My "Crystal Ball"
By Anna Von Reitz Saturday, December 12, 2020
Some people accuse me of sorcery. How could I know what I know, just sitting out in the sticks in Big Lake, Alaska? I must be "connected" to some intelligence gathering community, must be an agent of some kind, etc. Believe me, the agencies have been up my rump for years, tracking every communication, following every trail, trying to discover my "intel" contacts--- and to no avail. The truth is that I just use my head, listen, look, and talk to my friends who are similarly employed with the task of researching the past, observing the present, and, in a sense, predicting the future.
If you have the first two parts --- the research into the past and observation of the present, it's not too hard to make good guesses about the future, particularly because the Svengalis in the back room are not really that bright or creative. They constantly repeat scams that have worked for them in the past. The present situation is just a variation of what they pulled to bring on The Great Depression---- with the same goals in mind, too.
They want to crash the economy using the Covid-19 excuse, so that the people will be reduced to suffering and poverty and dependence on the government. They, the bankers and shakers, can then come in and buy up everything for pennies on the dollar. Just like The Great Depression, only instead of crashing the stock market, they are using "Covid-19" to do the same thing.
They also want to bring on World War III using the Chinese. First, they trick the Chinese into hiring on to act as the world's policemen; under the direction of the UN CORP and its franchises, the Chinese are slated to replace the Americans as the Cheap Mercenaries needed to coerce and oppress all the other countries.
The Chinese need some kind of work for their million man Army.
Meanwhile, the Americans (and everyone else on the planet) are waking up to the threat and bridling against the UN CORP and the Chinese Mercenary Police idea. People aren't liking the Corporate Feudalism that is built into the UN Agenda, either.
The Vermin plan to get the depopulation and "ecological advancement" they want out of China by misleading the Chinese into war with the West.
They are funding all this via counterfeiting "US DOLLARS" --- Obummer gave them the printing presses, engraving plates, inks, papers, etc., to do it, and so, they are just churning out cash by the container load and shipping it all over the world like manure. Ship High in Transit.
They launder this bogus windfall by investing in "assets" of all kinds, human and otherwise, to build legitimate asset bases, that they then employ to do the dirty work. It has taken them about twenty years to get this far with it.
They were obviously helped to do all this by manipulating the elections in Obama's favor in the first place, by corruption of the corporate Boards of Directors directing the operations of the FBI and CIA, and by using the abundant cash to buy off naval and ground force support in our own dear military.
Herr Rothschild and Monsieur Rockefeller simply hired the Chinese and enabled them to print USD, and now, plan to pit them against the West, fund both sides of the debacle, and profit themselves while getting the depopulation so cherished by the Pope.
From their perspective, it's all win, win, win. From our perspective, it's all lose, lose, lose.
In recent days, people have asked me what I think about Donald Trump and what he is doing?
I've been tracking Donald Trump's performance since he stepped foot in the Oval Office. Trump has steadfastly either accomplished or made a good faith effort to accomplish everything he promised the voters. Only one major thing remains --- to drain the Swamp.
Now, I can't prove it for sure, but if I were to lay odds, I would bet that he is doing what he promised to do at this very moment. And I would bet that as of Monday, December 14, Trump wins no matter what else happens in the world.
That triumph may be muffled, even silenced, but it will come just like the silent sweep of the hands on a digital clock.
Whether this is good or bad, depends a lot on China and its leadership.
Will they realize that their government has been undermined from within?
Will they see that instead of being Good Fellas bearing gifts and labor contracts and printing presses from the US Mint, their new friends are parasites intent on finding a new host?
Will both "the USA---Incorporated" and China refuse to take the same old bait?
Will they whirl around back-to-back, and destroy the common enemy of all mankind----the Vermin, instead? What part will valiant India play --- again? What part will Turkey's million man army play?
We tend to forget, but Turkey has an army well-able to counteract anything that China can do, already booted up and poised to move. And the two forces have a Bad Blood memory between them. In Korea, the Turks got no business from the Chinese, who actively (and wisely) avoided Turkish detachments like the Bubonic Plague.
So, in a one-to-one slugfest, a million man Chinese Army versus a million man Turkish Army---well, it doesn't look good for the Chinese.
I've said from the beginning that this is not about politics. It's not about race or religion. It's not even about money or corporate profits. It's about crime and criminals benefiting themselves at everyone else's expense.
As a result, the appropriate response isn't WWIII.
The appropriate and logical response is to play the bankers and their backers and all the criminals employed by the Vermin and give them enough rope to hang themselves.
And then, arrest them as the criminals they are, men and women of all nations, who have acted as criminals and betrayed their own countries for gold---- or what passes for it. \
http://www.paulstramer.net/2020/12/my-crystal-ball.html
See this article and over 2800 others on Anna's website here: www.annavonreitz.com