New data from the Social Security Administration shows that the government won’t be able to pay promised benefits after 2035. The new report reads, in part: “The combined asset reserves of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Funds are projected to become depleted in 2034, the same as projected last year, […]
Should you rely on Social Security?
The guy who runs the morning shift at our gym is a great guy but has some health problems. So when he didn’t show up this morning, we were a little worried about what happened to him. Fortunately he was just at the DMV. He was at the DMV at 7:30 am and didn’t make […]
Why retirement plans are a big fat tax idiot
Let’s rap about why retirement plans are the basic b*tch of the financial industry. The most obvious reason is… everyone has one and nearly EVERY financial planner recommends their clients pile into one. It almost doesn’t matter what the situation is… bloggers, investment advisors, CPAs… they all recommend the same damned thing: 401(k)s, IRAs, SEPs, […]
How the government manipulates your retirement plan
Was reading recently that the first 10 or so pages of the Internal Revenue Code spell out the rules for what constitutes income and taxable income. The next 1,100 or so pages spell out exceptions to those tax rules. Now, I ain’t no legal expert, but if the government creates a problem (i.e. onerous taxation) […]
Investment returns vs risk capacity
Cornerstone Investment Services put out a piece a while back that showed the average annual rate of return for the S&P 500 (THE stock market of stock markets) since 1871 is about 5.63% to 5.85%, depending on where you source the raw data from and how you interpret that data. MOAR: Vanguard has a report […]