Back in November we wrote about the spin coming from Wall St ahead of the Dept of Labor's Fiduciary Rule. We were skeptical of the Wall St sales machine's intentions. It seems we were right to do so. In response to the Fiduciary Rule's delay and expectation it will be gutted (or completely killed) Merrill [...]
I believe I've passed the age of consciousness and righteous rage. I’ve found that just surviving was a noble fight. I once believed in causes too. I had my pointless point of view. And life went on no matter who was wrong or right. - from Billy Joel's "Angry Young Man" Life advice from the [...]
On January 10th California Governor Jerry Brown proposed a whopping $179.5 billion (yes, that’s a “B”) budget. State revenues are projected to fall short by $1.6 billion. The culprit? All those greedy millionaires and billionaires who refuse to pay their “fair share.” According to the most recent data (2014) the top 10% of the state’s [...]
Many brokerage firms and insurance companies speak from both sides of their mouths. Surprised? We shouldn’t be. The marketing departments of these firms promote the idea that employees are trusted advisors providing personalized investment advice. Conversely in an attempt to avoid complying with the upcoming fiduciary rule (i.e. doing what’s in the best interest of [...]
The sad reality is that financial planning for some means spending 6 hours finding the best Black Friday deal on an 85” TV vs. the 5 minutes spent understanding where they obtain financial advice. (That’s not true. I spent 10 minutes one rainy Sunday comparing my fund returns to the S&P 500 just like that [...]
With apologies to Bobby Fuller (who popularized a work originally written and recorded by Sonny Curtis) we've co-opted this wonderful song to make a point about the weapons-grade BS that continues to come out of Washington. On Tuesday the Clinton campaign (via communications director Jen Palmieri) said the election is a choice between improving President [...]
The Washington-based Tax Foundation (a non-partisan, independent research group educating taxpayers about sound tax policy and the size of the tax burden borne by Americans at all levels of income) has analyzed Hillary Clinton’s proposed tax increases on people with “high incomes” and businesses and determined it to be a drag on economic growth. Findings [...]
Aristotle famously stated, "A is A." A fork is a fork. A fork is not a spoon (well, unless you're a fan of the spork!), a fork is not a baseball, a fork is not a pencil, etc. Seems obvious enough. Apparently politicians are lousy logicians as they seem to think permanent is temporary. On [...]
“You do understand the function of the magician’s assistant, don’t you?” “Yeah. She’s there to distract them as he sets up the trick.” That exchange occurs between characters played by Morgan Freeman and Mark Ruffalo in the 2013 film Now You See Me. If you prefer a musical reference here’s a favorite Pearl Jam lyric [...]
Our caveman ancestors had a simple test for survival – Fight or Flight. In our modern world money is the source of survival. As a result every primitive survival and pleasure-seeking drive is intensely focused on capturing and guarding money. These drives are involuntary and highly emotional emerging more quickly and forcefully than logical analysis. [...]