It’s time to don the professorial robe for another lesson in econ 101. Today we deal with something we all know and love – money. In both a literal and figurative sense here’s the CliffsNotes version of the three basic functions of money: https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/economics/money-and-banking/functions-of-money See a problem? For a currency to serve as money it [...]
Behavioral psychologists know humans are OK being ignorant – we just hate being deprived of information. Big Media uses this to drive clicks and ratings. Which of the following headlines will make you want to read more? Woman loses 10 lbs by making this small change to her daily routine. Woman loses 10 lbs by [...]
It was a great year for the S&P 500: S&P 500 – up 19% It was a great year for the FAANGs: Facebook - up 53% Amazon - up 56% Apple - up 46% Netflix - up 55% Google - up 35% With such eye-popping returns the FAANGs dominated the list of best-performing S&P 500 [...]
Oh those cute TV commercials. They entertain while helping firms become household names. There's no better way to distract current and potential clients from the number of advisers with misconduct on their regulatory records. Should you really trust Ameriprise? Merrill Lynch? Read the full rankings here. Caveat Emptor!
Ostensibly written to explain economic events this article is one of the best you’ll ever read. Understanding what we tell ourselves and why is the first step down a path of better life decisions.
This chart does a nice job showing the prior laws, the competing Senate/House proposals for change and how things were resolved during the reconciliation process to create the new laws to go into effect beginning in 2018. Missing from the chart is discussion of the changes to §529s. Previously distributions in order to qualify for [...]
Both the House and Senate passed Bills to reform the Internal Revenue Code. Here's how they stack up as they had into the reconciliation process:
Yesterday members of the House of Representatives announced their version of income tax reform. The Senate is expected to offer its own version as early as next week. Assuming each passes without changes (and that’s a big assumption) there will still likely be changes as the legislation moves through the reconciliation process before being presented [...]
The IRS has announced it will no longer accept electronically filed returns where the taxpayer does not address the reporting requirements of the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”). In addition returns filed on paper that don’t address the reporting requirements may be suspended pending receipt of additional information and any refunds may be delayed. This marks [...]
The Internal Revenue Service has announced the annual inflation adjustments for a number of tax-related provisions. Assuming no changes as a result of the ongoing tax reform debate these are the numbers and tables that will matter come Jan 1st. Individual income tax brackets will remain at 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, 35% and 39.6%. [...]