Here's what's making the rounds on Capitol Hill: Taxes: Representative Jan Schakowsky (Democrat - Illinois) introduced HR 1124 - a measure that, if enacted, would institute new and higher income tax brackets for Americans earning more than $1 million. Those earning between $1 million and $10 million would pay a confiscatory 45% while those making $1 billion [...]
Financial planners are an insecure bunch. Mommy didn't hug us enough when we were children. The kids at school didn't like us. Excuses abound. Whatever the cause the effect is we live adult lives of desperation. Love us. Embrace us. Tell us we're good. OK - maybe this isn't the message behind the CFP Board's recently launched [...]
This is how the world of finance sees us - at least some of the folks who provide "solutions" for us. Their view is that most of us are so woefully ignorant of financial issues that we are too ill-prepared to make decisions affecting our retirement. What's more we're apparently not just unwilling to become [...]
A wonderful opinion piece appeared on Bloomberg a couple of days ago with an interesting perspective on entitlements and how to pay for them. It's a quick read worthy of a couple of minutes out of the day. Click here to read the op-ed.
Lately we've heard a great deal about the aggregate level of Federal debt. At just north of $14,000,000,000,000 (yes, that's trillion with a "T") we're lookin' at a whole lot o' zeros! Concerns are plenty. Is the debt too high? Is it crowding out private investment? How will we afford the interest payments? Is it [...]
"Religion is the opium of the people." If there's one Karl Marx quote with which we're familiar this is it. Sadly his words are taken out of context and provide a distorted impression of what he had to say about religion. What did he really say? "Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real [...]
"You know, I didn't just heed what I was taught, men and women should be together, it's the natural way, that kind of thing. I'm not with you because of what family, society, life tried to instill in me from day one. The way the world is - how seldom it is that you meet [...]
You may be surprised to learn the answer is yes yes yes! Whether it's the humorous GEICO gecko or the shamelessly transparent, ethnically non-threatening State Farm pitchman (what, we're not supposed to see through this?) we're inundated with message after message promoting the idea that insuring our homes, the most valuable asset for many of us, is all about [...]
The Obama administration's proposed budget includes myriad items that, if enacted, would impact individual taxpayers. Some of the key proposals include: a 3 yr AMT "patch" a limit on the rate at which "high income" earners could itemize deductions such as mortgage interest and real estate taxes an increase in the dependent-care tax credit Additional details of [...]
Microsoft? Google? Facebook? Forget about it. If you want to break the bank forget about pre-IPO investing. Instead nationalize an entire company. Today AIG is expected to report earnings. The focus will be on performance at SunAmerica and Chartis - the life/annuity and P&L operations being counted on for future growth. What will likely be [...]