Review IRA Beneficiaries

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When I was a financial planner, there were a lot of little things that came up over the years that I realized went unnoticed by the vast majority of people, no matter how well educated they were in finance and investing. Understanding, setting and updating the beneficiaries on accounts like IRAs was one of those things that slips through the cracks for many people. Of course, IRA plans aren’t the only accounts with beneficiaries on them. Be sure to check your life insurance accounts, annuities, 401k accounts, and other retirement plans to keep them up to date. Without this important part of estate planning, all your other efforts might be for nothing. Will Versus Beneficiaries One of the most important things to understand about accounts with beneficiaries, is that that accounts only become a part of your estate after your die, IF AND ONLY IF, there are no living beneficiaries assigned to the account. What that comes down to is that updating your will and changing who you are leaving what, does NOTHING to affect how your insurance or IRA account balances are distributed upon your death. Even if you specifically disinherit someone in your will, they will still get …

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What Are Expected Earnings?

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It’s earnings season again, and interest in running high in many companies including technology giants like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and so on. With each earnings report, there is typically commentary noting how the company’s actual reported earnings ended up comparing to the expected earnings. This phrasing comes up so often, that most investors are used to the terminology long before they actually make any investments, but it is useful to understand just what expected earnings are, and who it is that generates those estimates. How Companies Report Earnings Publicly traded companies are required to issue financial reports about their company on a regular basis. These earnings reports are generated and published each quarter. In addition, companies generate an annual financial report, which typically accompanies the fourth quarter earnings report. There are very specific rules that govern when and how a company can disclose “material information.” A company’s financial information is most definately material. The basic rule is that companies may not make any disclosure of material information without doing so publicly. Just what counts as public has evolved slowly over the last few years, but the basic point is that all investors must get the same information at the same …

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Right Homeowners Insurance Deductible

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Most property insurance works the same way. Therefore, if you understand your auto insurance, you understand a lot about your homeowners insurance, or house insurance. The basic moving parts of a homeowners policy are much the same as car insurance. There is a property insurance part in case something happens to your home, which is like the comprehensive or collision insurance part of your car insurance. There is a liability insurance component much like the liability part of your auto insurance. There is a premium that you have to pay in order to keep your coverage in both types of policies. And, finally, both types of insurance have a deductible, or an amount that you have to pay before your insurance kicks in. Understanding Homeowners Insurance Policies There is a thing about home insurance that some people don’t know. Insurance companies can sometimes cancel homeowners policies if there are too many claims filed for the insured property. In some cases, it only takes two or three claims over the years to get cancelled. And, almost all homeowners insurance claims lead to higher rates. Even worse, when you apply for insurance with a new company, one of the first questions is …

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Tax Season Bumped Back by IRS

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The IRS announced that it was moving back the beginning of tax filing season due to the government shutdown. Apparently, workers finalizing tax forms and systems for the end of the 2013 tax year and getting them ready for the 2014 filing season were not part of the essential government workers that kept working during the recent government shutdown. As a result, the IRS is about two weeks behind on getting ready for the tax filing season. The original date when taxpayers were first allowed to file tax returns was supposed to be January 21, 2014. However, after having basically making no progress during the 16-day shutdown, that date is being moved back. Although no official date has been set for when the IRS will begin accepting 2014 returns, the agency announced a “one- to two-week delay.” That means that the earliest date would be January 28, 2014 and the latest start date would be February 4, 2014. The delay is not due to big changes to paper forms, but rather to ensuring that the electronic systems for filing, as well as the electronic tax preparer data provided to firms like TurboTax, are up to date. In addition, the IRS …

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Investing the Government Shutdown

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Too many investors try and ride short-term news events and rumors as a way to make easy money. It seldom turns out that way. Take the current government shutdown. Conventional wisdom says that Wall Street hates uncertainty. Furthermore, a lengthy shutdown could disrupt the still fragile economic recovery. Add that to the upcoming fight over the debt ceiling and you should have a plunging stock market. Funny thing, the stock market isn’t really going down. Stocks and the Shutdown of the US Government The problem, of course, is that we’ve seen this show before. Recently, Congress and the President took both the debt ceiling and funding the government to the wire but eventually reached a deal. While political partisans go red in the face discussing who won and the lost, the reality is that the overall economy, and by extension Wall Street, really doesn’t care how the pie is sliced up, as long as there is a pie. The only real concern for investors is that the instability at the government level will eventually bleed over into Main Street and Wall Street. Some may argue that is happening right now, but the fact is, no matter how long it seems, …

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Is Microsoft a Good Investment Now?

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Like many others in both technology and finance, I haven’t really looked at Microsoft as more than a staid company in a long time. However, recent events have necessitated a re-examination of the company. Is Microsoft a Buy or Hold? In the fantasy world of investment recommendations and analysts, buy, hold and sell, don’t really mean anything. Wall Street firms are reluctant to rate a stock as a sell lest it hamper their chances of getting investment banking business or other lucrative fees from the covered companies. Thus, most investors know that a “hold” rating is pretty much a sell rating. That doesn’t leave much room, so analysts added ambiguous ratings like Market Perform, and Overweight, among others. Whether or not it’s smart to invest in Microsoft depends, as always on your goals and risk tolerance. That being said, certain recent moves have made Microsoft an attractive play for an investor looking for a technology sector investment. First off, Microsoft is a company in flux. Two seismic level events this summer make any investment in the corporation a bit of a leap of faith. The CEO, Steve Ballmer is retiring. Truthfully, there aren’t many who are losing any sleep over …

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Is Paying Off Debt Better Than Investing?

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As a former financial planner I know that not all finance is just about the math. The truth is that earning money, spending money, and saving money is a highly emotional thing. While it is fine to suggest that people eliminate emotion when dealing with money, that’s a little bit like telling people to eliminate hunger when dealing with dieting, it just won’t work in the long run. Is It Better to Save Money or Pay Off Debt? One of the things that gets thrown around like a solid, no-exceptions, rocket science idea from time to time is the concept of paying off debt as a high, guaranteed return. The theory goes a little something like this: If you pay off a credit card with an 18 percent interest rate, then that is like getting a guaranteed 18% return on your investment. Obviously, a sure thing 18 percent return is probably the best possible investment in the world from a risk/return perspective. But, is it really that simple? Mathematically, paying off higher interest debt is always the right move. However, that isn’t necessarily always the best move for real life, particularly if your finances are not in very good shape …

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Is Extreme Couponing Worth It?

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The extreme couponing fad hit its high water mark a few years ago. That doesn’t mean it’s gone away, and every time someone shows up on TV or a magazine article is published, the race is on again to figure out how to do extreme couponing. If you’re wondering how using coupons can get extreme, consider this hypothetical example. You see a coupon in the newspaper for $1 off of something. For our sake, let’s say it’s $2 off of a bag of cookies. Now, let’s say that the grocery store is having a sale where those cookies are 2 for $4. Bam! You’ve got yourself some free cookies. That’s not really extreme, yet. Now, imagine that you go through the recycle bin at your office building and find eight of those coupons and you get eight bags of free cookies. That’s a little more extreme. Now, imagine that you build your entire shopping list around this sort of deal and you roll home with $300 worth of groceries for just $23. Now, that’s extreme. Is Extreme Couponing Right for Me? Coupons can save you money, there is no doubt about that. If you have a coupon for something you …

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IRS Mileage Rate 2013

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The current IRS standard mileage deduction amount is in the updated article. One of the most common tax deductions is deducting miles driven for business purposes. Even if you can’t deduct your mileage because your employer reimburses you, chances are that reimbursement rate is set to the IRS standard mileage rate. Of course, you may also deduct your actual expenses for operating a motor vehicle rather than taking the standard rate per mile. However, this requires that you keep all receipts for any expenses and properly account for a variety of complicated factors. Most small businesses and self-employed individuals use the standard rates which is simpler, and in most cases, just a generous as deducting actual expenses. Standard IRS Mileage Rate Chart There are actually three different types of IRS mileage rates for 2013. For miles driven for business, the IRS rate per mile is 56.5 cents for each mile driven. For miles driven for medical purposes, or for taxpayers deducting moving expenses, the standard IRS rate per mile is 24 cent for each mile driven. For miles driven for charitable purposes, the standard deductible mileage rate is 14 cents per mile for each mile driven. The standard deduction mileage …

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What Is the Misery Index?

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There are few institutions examined more scientifically or mathematically than the U.S. economy. After all, in-depth understanding of economic conditions mean billions of dollars to the right people and policy makers. Unfortunately, a nation’s economy is a complex machine composed of an almost infinite number of moving parts. Economists seek to study and understand the economy in many ways, often by simplifying things with numbers and formulas. One of my favorite names for an economic statistic is the Misery Index. How to Calculate Misery Index The original Misery Index was surprisingly simple. You calculate the Misery Index by adding the unemployment rate to the inflation rate. The idea is that both unemployment and inflation are negative factors acting against a positive economy. By combining them, you could get some idea of how much of a headwind the economy is facing. Under this methodology, things would be worst during a time where unemployment was high and inflation was also high. Also, check out this review of Credit Karma Ironically, the Misery Index can peak right before a strong recovery. Consider a situation where there has been a recession or depression. Unemployment rises as companies lay off workers to reduce costs and …

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