MONEY: The stretch IRA to be killed

Monday, February 20, 2012

http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2012/02/08/congress-may-crush-key-tool-for-ira-inheritors

Personal Finance
2/08/2012 @ 3:40PM
Congress May Crush Key Tool For IRA Inheritors
Deborah L. Jacobs, Forbes Staff

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Let’s hope there’s enough of a public outcry that this legislation doesn’t pass. If it does, owners of traditional IRAs will have one more reason to convert them to Roth accounts. For more about Roth conversions, see my post, “Smart Moves For Battered IRAs” and two sophisticated strategies described here and here by Forbes Associate Editor Ashlea Ebeling. Meantime, stay tuned.
Hat tip to financial planner Michael Kirsh and CPA Robert Keebler for calling the pending legislation to my attention.

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More bad advice. Pay taxes now rather than later? Guess what tax rates in the future or ROIs will be. I never liked IRAs or 401Ks just because it put you at the mercy of the future politicians and bureaucrats. Argh!

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MONEY: Predicting a Euro collapse

Sunday, February 19, 2012

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2012/02/09/if-the-euro-breaks-up-scenarios-for-greece-piigs-and-total-collapse

Tech
2/09/2012 @ 12:35PM
If The euro Breaks Up — Scenarios For Greece, PIIGS And Total Collapse
Tom Groenfeldt, Contributor

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SunGard is not alone in modeling the potential for a eurozone break-up. Finextra reports that firms such as ICAP and industry utilities like CLS, the FX settlement bank, have initiated scenario planning in the event of a major soveriegn default and subsequent euro exit. It also said that banknote printers have reported that central banks have been scouring the market for printing presses capable of running large stocks of once-defunct currencies.

As the song says, breaking up is hard to do.

*** end quote ***

So how does the little guy play this?

Like the sailing ship of old, it’s rig for stormy weather.

* Cut your OPEX (operating expenses).

* Minimize your CAPEX and build your capital for the future.

* As many in the tin foil hat community say, build your food larder. Even if you’re not preparing for the end of the world, food prices are not going down anytime soon. The Mormons are said to believe that everyone should store a year’s worth of food. Can’t hurt.

* Save in inflation protected way. (The tax of inflation is the silent killer of savings.) If nothing else, everytime you get a nickel save it. (It’s worth 7½¢ now.)

* Develop skills or sidelines that can lead to alternate streams of income. A web-based business can have an store open 24/7/365. You can write stories and publish them for free.

* Stay in shape because getting sick will be even more expensive in the future.

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MONEY: Is Retirement Just Too Dang Risky?

Thursday, February 16, 2012

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2012/02/08/is-retirement-just-too-dang-risky/

Is Retirement Just Too Dang Risky?
Wednesday, 8th February 2012 (by Robert Brokamp)

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3. Savings to the rescue…or not.I won’t trot out all the stats about how people don’t save enough, or how the baby boomers, as a group, are entering their golden years with too little gold (that is, net worth — I’m not suggesting that every retiree hoard the shiny metal). That’s bad enough. My concern is that for these (often-too-meager) savings to last, investment markets have to cooperate, and, as we’ve seen over the past decade or so, they often don’t. I’m not predicting Armageddon or anything like that; most of my longterm savings are in the stock market. But investing can be risky; we just don’t know for sure how much a certain stock or even a bond will be worth a decade or two from now. Yes, you can play it safer with CDs or Treasuries, but only if your money will last as long as you do — and keep up with inflation — while earning 2%.

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Funny, he stumbled on my hot button. Gold. Specifically bullion. Silver. Even nickels!

On FBC, there’s an add where the retired couple goes to their bank to get their retirement savings and the teller gives them stacks of blank paper.

Maybe my depression era grandparents are too much on my mind, BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), they loved cash and savings.

I remember the Metropolitan Life guy calling on my grandmother when I was being watched for my Mom. (Maybe I was 4 or 5?) And, she pay him some small amounts for “insurance” on a whole bunch of people. “Eddie”, my paternal grandfather, would called to pay for “his relatives”, and he’d come out with his Chock Full A Nuts coffee can where he had “his change”. He had gold coins in that. I remember they’d argue cause “he was going to jail if the government found out he kept them”. (Wonder what ever happened to those?) And, later, I remember she’d go weekly to the Harlem River Savings Bank, to put something away or even just to have her interest “put in the book”.

Argh!

And you wonder why I have a tin foil hat?

So, even some of the most conservative financial writers don’t spurn 5 – 10% in “metals”. Of course, they mean “paper” (e.g., a gold ETF).

How did that work out for the counter-parties of MF Global?

Imagine my favorite mental experiment? Henry Hackel’s “box of money.” or my mythical pirate’s’ chest. “Open that pirate’s chest and what do you want to see: greenbacks, Confederate currency, or gold coins?”

At the very least, every time, you go to the bank, buy a roll of nickels. 2$. Put them at the back of the “junk closet”. Even today the melt value is 7½¢ each. How can you go wrong?

Argh!

Lest you hit retirement and one of the many risks in this article comes to pass. You’ll always have your “bullion” stash. Your own personal “pirate’s chest”.

And, no estate tax if I am wrong.

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MONEY: How can anyone not count food and gas in the CPI?

Sunday, February 12, 2012

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/02/05/hows-that-change-working-out-for-you

How’s that “change” working out for you?
Sunday, February 5th, 2012
Posted by Ed Mattson

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These government “number slingers” are the same bunch that tells you the Consumer Price Index increased 3.0 percent before seasonal adjustment to end 2011. Let’s see… 3% inflation. Do you really believe that? Have you been shopping lately? Have you purchased gasoline or diesel for your vehicle so you could go to work (if you still have a job)? Oh, that’s right.  THEY DON’T COUNT GAS AND FOOD IN THE INFLATION RATE!  I guess we don’t need food or gasoline.

In most families the women do most of the grocery shopping right? Men usually aren’t always up to current grocery store prices. Next time anyone talks about politics and how things are going, just ask them if they have purchased ten pounds of potatoes this past year, or stopped in at a gas station.  In 2009, 10 lbs of potatoes cost about $3.50 in Western Michigan (about $3.00 at Wal-Mart). Today the cost is over $5 any place you want to shop. Gas was $1.79/gal when Obama’s entourage slithered into Washington and today, down at the local discount gas station here in North Carolina, it’s $3.59. Is it any wonder they DON’T CALCULATE FOOD AND GAS INTO THE CPI?

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Excellent point. If they did then they’d have to give a COLA to all the old folks.

It’s like the scam with ZERO interest rates by the FED. That keeps Uncle Sam’s 15T$ debt as a near zero expense.

When do “We, The Sheeple” wake up?

When does the World wake up?

You’ll know the scam is over when we have to pay for oil in gold or someone else’s national currency.

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MONEY: Mitt and his IRA

Friday, February 10, 2012

http://moneyland.time.com/2012/01/20/romneys-ira-big-and-possibly-misdirected/

Financial Planning
The Lessons of Mitt Romney’s IRA
By Dan Kadlec
January 20, 2012

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Mitt Romney’s IRA account is valued at tens of millions of dollars.

Mitt Romney may have made the classic IRA mistake: holding low-tax investments inside a tax-favored account. His IRA strategy isn’t clear, of course. Romney continues to guard his personal finances. But details are trickling out, and even if it turns out that Romney’s traditional IRA is built right for him, the securities he holds in it serve as a valuable reminder that not all investments belong in a tax-favored account.

Romney’s IRA is valued at between $20.7 million and $101.6 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. That’s an extremely wide range that the Journal found in Romney’s latest financial disclosure report, filed in August. His IRA produced income between $1.5 million and $8.5 million last year.

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He has a tax liability of 3½M$ when he turns 70.

This was a “mistake” made twenty years ago.

Interesting to know what was the thinking going on at that time.

When the Congress first created IRAs, I was skeptical of the whole idea on betting what future politicians and bureaucrats were going to do.

I went in on it, but I’m always concerned that the “rules” will change in the future.

Recently, I advised someone to FOREGO participating in their company’s 401k because of the restricted investment choices and the high fees of those choices. I recommended nickels, bullion silver, or other such commodities.

Remember that Social Security was NEVER supposed to be subject to taxation. Then Congress changed the rules.

Who knows what these criminals will do in the future?

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MONEY: Confiscation Through Inflation

Thursday, February 2, 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DObOzOMhXvE&feature=colike

Confiscation Through Inflation

Uploaded by DollarDazeDotOrg on Dec 8, 2010

Through continual issuance of the currency, the U.S. dollar has depreciated in value when compared to gold.

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Spot on!

It gets even worse when you consider the debt being run up. It can never be repaid.

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MONEY: No meaningful way to save

Sunday, January 29, 2012

http://www.forbes.com/sites/charleskadlec/2012/01/23/gingrich-the-gold-standard-and-the-florida-primary

ForbesOp/Ed|1/23/2012 @ 4:33PM
Gingrich, The Gold Standard, And The Florida Primary Charles Kadlec, Contributor

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There is no meaningful way to save for your retirement, for your children’s education, or for the future if you don’t know what the dollar will be worth when you will need to spend it.  That makes us insecure and more dependent on government.  Sound money — a dollar that can buy the same amount 10, 20 or 30 years from now — increases our ability to take care of ourselves, our families and to be far less dependent on government.  That goes to the heart of our ability to live in liberty.

The gold standard also reinforces the constitutional limits on the power of the federal government.  When the dollar is linked to gold, the Federal Reserve cannot finance federal government deficits by printing excessive amounts of money.  If it were to try to do so, holders of dollars could over-rule the Fed by turning in the extra dollars for gold, forcing the Fed to reverse its policies.  Except in times of war, the Federal budget deficits were tiny.  From 1947 to 1967, they averaged just 0.1% a year.  In today’s economy, that would be the equivalent of $15 billion.

Finally, making the dollar as good as gold, and restoring gold to the center of the international monetary system, will give the Unites States an enormous boost in soft power.  According to a recent study by the Bank of England, when compared to even the flawed, post World War II gold standard, the paper dollar standard has been a disaster whose true dimensions have been disguised by the time over which it has been inflicted on people all over the world.   Since 1971, real per capital growth rates have been cut by 1 percentage point a year, even as world inflation increased 1.5 percentage points to average 4.8% per year.  Meanwhile, the frequency and severity of economic downturns have increased, as have the number of banking crises.

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As far as I know, Gingrich doesn’t support a Gold Standard; only Ron Paul wants to start the process. And, it would have to be a process. A complete process of unwinding the “Era of Big Government”.

There’s a TV commercial on about the old couple at the bank being congratulated about their retirement. The teller is counting out blank pieces of paper. How true is that? In my mind, very.

Social Security was sold to “We, The Sheeple” as “insurance”. Unlike real “insurance”, the politicians and bureaucrats took the “contributions” and spent them on the welfare / warfare state. And, put IOUs in the “lockbox”. What a joke! A fraud. At least Ponzi didn’t force people to participate. If MetLife did what the Gooferment did, all the executives would be jail. The politicians and bureaucrats collect a big Gooferment pension for <synonym for the act of procreation in real time> us.

And, Social Security was never supposed to be taxable. And, inflation adjusted. Until the Gooferment decided that energy and food shouldn’t count towards inflation. Right!

And, good luck saving on your own for your retirement. The FED, to hold down the Gooferment’s borrowing costs, has by diktat keeps interest rates at zero. Or pretty close to it.

401Ks and IRA were introduced to induce savings for retirement and take pressure off Social Security. Since “it was never intended to entirely fund a person’s retirement”. That would surprise “We, The Sheeple” circa 1935.

But then a lot would surprise them!

So, perhaps, youngsters might be better off saving for their retirement in gold or silver bullion coins.

Remember that in ancient Rome two gold coins would buy a fine man’s outfit. Pretty much the same today.

Remember that in 1964, three silver dimes would but a gallon of gas. I can PERSONALLY attest to that. And, they cleaned your window, gave you a free class, and trading stamps. Today, those three silver dimes would be worth about SIX DOLLARS; enough for almost TWO gallons of gas.

So, what has changed?

The dollar!

So returning to that old couple at the bank with a lifetime of paper savings. They’ve been defrauded by society. Hard to imagine, but visualize if they’d put those savings into gold bullion coins that they kept in a kitchen pot. Each week, instead of “saving” with paper, they put some gold or silver away in that pot. Hard to imagine that they would nt be better off.

Finally, returning to Gingrich, I agree he could ignite a fire of reality. But, that’s not going to happen. Because at the end of the road, these guys are all suits who want to control people.

Vote Ron Paul. A return to sanity begines with a single step.

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MONEY: Kill the FED; save the Republic

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_777634.html

Kill the FedBy Eric Heyl, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEWSaturday, January 21, 2012
Read more: Kill the Fed – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

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John Allison is the former chairman and CEO of BB&T, the nation’s 10th-largest financial holding company. He was named one of the 100 most successful CEOs by the Harvard Business Review and since 2009 has been on the Wake Forest University Schools of Business faculty as Distinguished Professor of Practice.

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Q: In the long term, what do you think should be done with the Fed?

A: If I were in charge, I would get rid of the Fed. I believe that as long as the Fed exists, Congress can effectively print money. And it doesn’t matter whether they are Democrats or Republicans, they would rather print money than tax people. They want to spend because that effectively buys votes, and they don’t want to tax people because that loses votes.

I think the Fed provides the temptation for massive government deficits. If the federal government couldn’t print money, it would have to have better financial discipline than it has today.

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Vote Ron Paul.

There’s no other candidate on the horizon that understands or articulates that the FED is the problem.

It gives the duopoly — the D’s and the R’s are two sides of the same coin intended to give “We, The Sheeple” the illusion of a choice — an unlimited checkbook to borrow and spend.

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MONEY: Savings bonds have gone digital

Sunday, January 8, 2012

http://www.doughroller.net/investing/how-to-buy-us-savings-bonds/

Electronic U.S. Savings Bonds–Say Goodbye to Paper
by Rob Berger
in Investing

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As of today, U.S. savings bonds have gone digital. Paper savings bonds are history.

I’m get a bit nostalgic when it comes to paper bonds. There’s just something comforting in holding physical evidence of your investment. And the designs of paper bonds over the years have been quite impressive.

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In the old days, a family accumulated savings bonds to pay for the children’s education. War bond, savings bonds, even savings stamps that led to a savings bond were common.

Over time, even rubes recognized that this was a joke.

Sorry, but this is just another scam pulled off on “We, The Sheeple”.

If the inflation rate is what I think it is, there’s no way that Gooferment Bonds of any type make any economic sense.

And, any interest on those savings bonds add to your taxable income in the future.

Also, those “savings” count in the formula for aid for that education.

Bullion is a better vehicle for any saving. Similar to passing along an inheritance, the rounds don’t appear on any form or schedule.

Hey, if the Gooferment and Wall Street can have “off book” and “off balance sheet” entries, why can’t you?

Call it jewelry. Just don’t keep it in a safe deposit box. (FDR raided those.) Everyone should have a garden.

Keeping what’s yours and / or getting back what was stolen from you is just financial self-defense.

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MONEY: Rich people buy new cars. Poor people do not

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

http://dailyreckoning.com/the-corruption-of-america

The Corruption of America
By Porter Stansberryleadimage
12/21/11

 

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All we’ve done is convert the government’s nominal GDP stats into a fixed currency value that’s based on real-world purchasing power. The fact is, our data are far more accurate than the government’s because they represent the real-world experience. That’s why our data are far more closely correlated to other real-world studies of wealth in America.

Consider, for example, annual sales of automobiles. Auto sales peaked in 1985 (11 million) and have been declining at a fairly steady rate since 1999. In 2009, Americans bought just 5.4 million passenger cars. As a result, the median age of a registered vehicle in the U.S. is almost 10 years.

Our data shows that real per-capita wealth peaked in the late 1960s. Guess when we find the absolutely lowest median age of the U.S. fleet? In 1969. At the end of the 1960s, the median age of all the cars on the road in the U.S. was only 5.1 years. Even as recently as 1990, the median age was only 6.5 years.

Rich people buy new cars. Poor people do not.

 

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Once again we have the “underground” confirming what we know in our gut, the country is getting poorer day by day.

 

“Penny candy”! Remember that? Like the recent Ron Paul point about 1964 dimes and gas, “penny candy” is a similar point.

 

One tenth of one single silver dime in the Sixties would get you one or more pieces of loose candy at the cash register. (Amazing in light of today’s focus on germs and health hazards that anyone survived.) Fast forward to today. That silver dime is worth about two of today’s dollars. So a tenth is about 20 cents. “Penny candy” is sold in quarter “gum ball” dispensers. So all that’s changed is the value of the money with respect to the  goods available.

 

Who wins in this inflation? No surprise there. The politicians and bureaucrats!

 

Argh!

 

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