Category Investments
UGMA, UTMA and 529 Plans (vintage post from 2009!)
The following post first appeared on Meyers Wealth Management’s pre-blog “News and Notes” section of our old website — back in October 2009. It is reproduced here all these years later, as still pretty accurate and relevant: A question often comes up amongst folks of a certain age regarding UGMA/UTMA accounts. Namely, since many of […]
There is no such thing as a Back-door Roth IRA or a Back-Door Roth Conversion
There is, however, a technique which is referred to as a “Back-Door Roth Contribution“. There are Roth IRAs. And there are Roth conversions. But “back-door” is a two-step technique, not an account, and not just a conversion. And, no, this is not just picking nits. This is a very important distinction and if you try […]
(Coronavirus) CARES Act and RMDs
A quick note about annual Required Minimum Distributions from IRAs and 401ks and other retirement accounts — The CARES act, which passed last week and was signed into law on Friday has made a lot of headlines, especially for the “stimulus checks” — the $1200/person which is simply being sent to most Americans. (It phases […]
Kiddie Tax and the 2017 Tax Reform
What’s the Kiddie Tax? Under the Tax Reform Act of 1986, a new “Kiddie Tax” was introduced in order to close a loophole through which wealthy folks were getting investment income taxed at lower rates by transferring assets to their children. Under the ’86 rule, unearned income (mainly investment income like stock dividends, interest, and […]
Stock Market Volatility
January 20, 2016 – Stock Market Volatility “In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.” ― Benjamin Graham In other words, there’s always a disconnect between prices and values. In the short run, markets move, sometimes hard and fast — and often very […]
Five Things Investors Should NOT Do Now (WSJ/Zweig)
Jason Zweig hits it right on the head. Must-read for all investors. Summary:1. Don’t fixate on the news2. Don’t panic3. Don’t be complacent4. Don’t get hung up on the talk of a “correction”5. Don’t think you — or anyone else — knows what will happen next Read #5 again. And again. It drives all the […]
FINRA warns about 401(k) Rollovers – Let’s talk again about conflicts of interest!
FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, is the securities industry’s self-reglatory organization. They do the various test, deal with broker and advisor registration and monitoring, etc. And FINRA has recently started cracking down on advisors and brokers who are giving questionable advice to investors about how to deal with their 401(k)s and rollovers. In […]
I-Bonds “Real” Interest Rate Goes Back Above ZERO
I-Bonds “Real” Interest Rate Goes Back Above ZERO — for the first time since the rate was set to zero back in Nov, 2010. For the last three years, any newly purchased US Treasury Series I savings bonds – which pay interest which is a composite of a fixed “real” rate plus a variable […]
Ritholtz: “A hedge fund for you and me? The best move is to take a pass”
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-05-24/business/39489985_1_hedge-funds-private-investment-partnerships-investors “A hedge fund for you and me? The best move is to take a pass” Barry Ritholtz on Hedge Funds The math is compelling. Hedge fund managers get rich – “2&20” as they say. The investors? Rarely. And the hedging? A lot less than you might think, since the name “hedge fund” has […]
US Treasury I-series savings bonds – still zero real yield
For the 6th straight 6-month period in a row, US Treasury I-Bonds will be issued with a fixed “real” rate of 0%. That’s zero. Nil. Nada. Zip. The nominal yield is higher, since it’s a composite built out of the fixed (zero) rate plus a component representing inflation. The composite rate right now is 1.18%. […]
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