Rhode Island is a great place to visit but a rotten place to die. The top inheritance tax rate is 16% on estates more than $921,655. Compare that to “The Live Free or Die State” of New Hampshire which has no estate tax. It’s an island among the tax happy states of the northeast. “Have your cake and eat it too” in NH or “Live Free then Die Free”, could work for you if you live in NH. I like this illustration in Forbes: … [Read more...]
Archives for May 2014
Good ‘Ole Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett has pulled the wool over the eyes of so many with his “aw shucks” mid-western persona. But in reality he’s a self-preserving stock salesman just as comfortable playing inside Wall Street boardrooms as he is inside the D.C. beltway. On the tax front he’s been of no help to successful Americans trying to keep more of their hard-earned money. He’s all for higher taxes. That is unless it’s his taxes. Then it’s all about his bottom line. The WSJ’s Review & Outlook has more on good ‘Ole Warren here: So it was fascinating to hear Mr. Buffett explain that his real tax rule is to … [Read more...]
We’ve Seen this Movie
Retirement investors are piling back into stocks, a bit late I’d point out. Stocks accounted for 67% of employees’ new contributions into retirement portfolios in March according to Aon Hewitt. Let’s not forget that we’ve seen this movie before, as the WSJ points out here: Individual investors, notorious for mistiming the market, didn't fare well in the financial downturn. At the stock market's peak in October 2007, investors put 69% of new 401(k) contributions into stocks, according to Aon Hewitt. The S&P 500 went on to lose 57% of its value by March 2009. Some financial advisers now … [Read more...]
What’s Going on Here?
Here’s what former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke said in July 2007 prior to the housing bust and the recession that began later that year: Overall, the U.S. economy appears likely to expand at a moderate pace over the second half of 2007 with growth then strengthening a bit in 2008 to a rate close to the economy’s underlying trend. Such an assessment was made around the time of the June meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee… The central tendency of the growth forecast… is for real GDP to expand roughly 2.25% to 2.5% this year and 2.5% to 2.75% in 2008. ….The unemployment rate is anticipated … [Read more...]
VIDEO: Built For It Trials – Stack: Largest JENGA® Game Played with Cat® Excavators
Caterpillar: "Stack" pits five Cat® machines, including Excavators and Telehandlers, against a mountain of massive JENGA® blocks. The object of the game is for heavy equipment operators to remove and then reposition a stack of 27 JENGA® blocks one at a time, without toppling the structure -- using only their Cat machines and attachments. #BuiltForIt … [Read more...]
Silver Cheap Relative to Gold
I like having some gold and silver in portfolios. In terms of how many silver ounces it takes to buy one ounce of gold, the historical mean has been 50 ounces. Today it takes about 67 ounces of silver to buy one ounce of gold. Silver may be the value play, but keep in mind that the chart tells us nothing about the short-term. It’s simply a nice historical snapshot. … [Read more...]