The leaves are changing - Should your portfolio? Should changing leaves mean changes to your portfolio? To be sure, we’re not recommending drastic portfolio reallocation. Rather, the following are some thoughts assuming you’d like to do some pruning or have a few dollars to add to round out your existing, well-balanced portfolio: ENERGY: Although this [...]
The IRS and Treasury today issued proposed regulations governing non-qualified deferred compensation plans. Here are the highlights: employees cashing out early must withdraw entire amount early withdrawals subject to interest and additional 20% tax stock appreciation rights (“SARs”) exempt if granted at fair market value broad-based plans of non-U.S. companies operating in U.S. are exempt [...]
The recent act signed into law by President Bush was promoted by the popular press as a lucrative gift to energy companies. However, it contains a few nice tax breaks for consumers including credits for home improvements and car purchases. A subtle but important point is that these tax breaks are credits – the best [...]
The long awaited revaluation of the Yuan has arrived. After keeping its currency virtually fixed near 8.28 per Dollar since 1996, China said that it was adjusting the Yuan’s value to 8.11 per Dollar. In addition, China will abandon the Yuan’s peg to the Dollar and, instead, value it based upon a basket of currencies [...]
The investment product that’s the latest rage among investors (except for those still chasing high-risk, high-fee hedge funds) is the life-cycle fund. Life-cycle funds are mutual funds that invest in other mutual funds. They are a “black box” approach – a one-size-fits-all default. They’re the kind of investment where investors “set it and forget it” [...]
Beginning January 1, 2006, employers may (but are not required to) offer their employees a new retirement savings option called a Roth 401(k). As its name suggests, it will combine features of the traditional 401(k) plan with those of the Roth IRA. As with Roth IRAs, contributions will be made with post-tax dollars. Goodbye upfront [...]
Unless your name is Mr. Spock, you sometimes make illogical decisions. If your name is Mr. Spock, it’s time for you to move out of your parents’ basement and get a job! Why do we make seemingly irrational decisions when it comes to our lives? Shouldn’t we do what’s right?...what’s best? While these are highly [...]
Here at Apollo Wealth Management, Ltd., we’re fans of Dennis Miller and his acerbic wit. To paraphrase his point on race relations in America, it seems rather silly to hate a person simply for the color of his skin…especially when there are so many valid reasons to hate a person! We like to carry on [...]
On March 21, 2005, Barry Diller and IAC/InterActiveCorp announced an acquisition of Ask Jeeves Inc. IAC will offer $1.9 billion in stock for the web search site that ranks a distant fifth to the likes of Yahoo! and Google. Barry Diller and IAC/InterActiveCorp seek to capitalize on the strong growth in the online advertising market. [...]
High-yield or ‘junk’ bonds are debt securities offered by companies considered to be poor credit risks. These bonds offer attractive returns in the form of high coupon payments. Like other bonds, they also offer appreciation potential. High-yield bonds have enjoyed wonderful rates of return over the past few years. This has been due to two [...]