Link: In Investing, It’s When You Start and When You Finish – Graphic – NYTimes.com Very interesting info-graphic at the NYT – total inflation-adjusted returns on the S&P 500 (including reinvested dividends, “average taxes and fees”).  The 20-year median real return was 4.1%.  Nearly 4000 combinations of start/end year in this graphic.  Very cool.

Link: Tax-Overhaul Advocates Study Reagan-Era Reform The only way to lower tax rates without losing revenues will require, as it did for Reagan, broadening the tax base. That is, some things currently untaxed (or, as the case may be, permitted as tax deductions) will need to be taxed. This article includes a list of the […]

Link: Odds favor index fund investors From Rick Ferri’s blog.

Link: In Health Law, Rx for Trouble – WSJ.com The key to this article is that it’s talking about unintended consequences – some of them driving costs rather than down – exactly the opposite of the stated intentions – from last year’s healthcare legislation.  We’ve talked about the (likely to be repealed before it goes […]

Link: FPA Applauds Action to Repeal Expanded 1099 Requirements Needless to say, Meyers Wealth Management believes strongly that these expanded 1099 requirements should be repealed.  See our article in the News and Notes section on our site for more information:  <https://meyersmoney.com/news_and_notes/1099s-and-you-and-the-new-h.html&gt;

Link: Health Insurance deduction for the self-employed for 2010 As in previous years, the self-employed may deduct their health insurance from their regular income taxes (this is on the 1040, line 29).  Unlike previous years, however, those premiums may also be deducted from the income which is used to calculate the self-employment taxes (Schedule SE).  […]

Link: Who can I declare as a “dependent” on my 2010 taxes? The place to figure this out is the IRS Publication 17, Chapter 3. In brief, for someone to be a dependent, they need to either be a qualifying child or a qualifying relative.  These two categories have different specific requirements.  Read all about […]

Link: Vallejo, California Drafts Bankruptcy Exit – WSJ.com This is a very important development.  There’s been some talk lately about possibly allowing states to go bankrupt, but the implications of that are far from clear.  We won’t know how bondholders, for example, end up getting treated on the municipal level in this particular case for […]

Link: The Paradox of Corporate Taxes in America – NYTimes.com It’s worth remembering that corporations don’t pay taxes.  Their customers and their owners do and make no mistake that their owners do everything the can to make sure it’s the customers who pay.  In fact, the managers who run the companies on behalf of the […]

Link: The Haves and the Have-Nots – NYTimes.com Fascinating profile of cost-of-living adjusted wealth in the world.  As massive populations in China, India and Brazil start to have growing incomes, there may be some great ways for an American investor to profit as well.