Category Investments
A whopping 52.6 percent tax rate on ordinary income
From an article about ranking the tax efficiency of certain income-oriented investments for six-figure earners: Begin by choosing marginal tax rates for both ordinary income and long-term capital gains. Litman Gregory assumed a whopping 52.6 percent rate on ordinary income, which includes 8 percent for state income tax. The federal portion consists of this year’s […]
How to Save More For Retirement Without Really Trying
Today’s column from the excellent Jason Zweig: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323361804578390313278109482.html?mod=djintinvestor_t How to Save More For Retirement Without Really Trying [Click the link above to read the entire article] A highlight or two: • When people want to save but can’t bring themselves to do it, their retirement funds need to do the saving for them—automatically. • At companies that […]
Buy, Hold, and Rebalance
Rick Ferri, kind of a broken record, but at least it’s stuck on a great song — on buy/hold/rebalance. (His other “greatest hit” song is that one about low-cost, index-based, passive investments) http://www.rickferri.com/blog/investments/a-balanced-portfolio-for-a-balanced-life/ Many financial pundits criticize a balanced approach. They say a buy, hold and reliance strategy is simple-minded and a relic of the […]
Buy Facebook? You may already have!
When Facebook (FB) went public, several folks immediately asked if they should buy it. My response was, uniformly, “no”. It was not that I thought FaceBook was overvalued (I did), not that I thought the price was going to drop soon (I did – IPOs frequently go down in the short term, and a spectacularly […]
Malkiel: Buy Stocks, not Bonds
Burton Malkiel has been speaking up a lot lately, and with much the same message – repeated several times over the last few months (at least since an op-ed back in April). While hitting on some of the same themes he’s hit on for 40 years (index funds, low costs, broad diversification, don’t time the […]
Ten most common mistakes
Totally worth reading. I’d have said exactly these same things and I tell them to clients all the time. So good I’m thinking of mailing this link in my next On The Spot email. http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/07/investors-10-most-common-mistakes/ A really great “top 10” list by Barry Ritholtz: Investors’ 10 most common mistakes I seriously recommend reading the whole […]
Real 10 year yields
From an article about adjusting assumptions for retirement withdrawal rates in a ‘yield-free’ world. http://www.advisorone.com/2012/06/27/retirement-in-a-yield-free-world?t=the-retiree The author makes some important points about the rule-of-thumb that so many use for planning the level of withdrawals that’s “safe” from a given portfolio (or flipping it around, the level of savings that will be necessary to […]
BusinessWeek: 10 Strategies used by the ultra wealthy to avoid taxes
For all the silly bluster about the “Buffett rule” in Congress, the fact is that the vast majority of folks who earn a lot do pay a lot in taxes. And the very well known exceptions – such as Buffett himself claiming to pay a lower tax rate than his secretary – are due to […]
Zvi Bodie, TIPs, Zero-Cost Collars and Equity Risks
Major piece in today’s Wall Street Journal, “Why Stocks are Riskier Than You Think” by Zvi Bodie and Rachelle Taqqu http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204795304577221052377253224.html?mod=googlenews_wsj (Of course, Bodie and Taqqu are also hoping that this article will lead a lot of people to buy their recent book, “Risk Less and Prosper”. Bodie and Taqqu’s own retirement plan likely hinges […]
Savings Accounts
The current interest rate environment is weighing heavily on those who count on getting any kind of return on their cash and/or low-risk investments. Treasury bond yields are at historic lows, especially at the short end of the curve. That means that the most cash-like treasury securities – the ones which mature the soonest and […]
Meyers Wealth Management 