I hope you’ve noticed, I’ve added a logo up top, finally. Logos For Websites came highly recommended and I am very happy with the results.
You’ll also notice that my URL (web address) has changed. Until now, I was using JoeTaxpayer.com for monthly articles and a blog prefix for this blog. Maintaining two types of formats was getting pretty tiresome, so I moved the blog over to the main address. My sincere thanks to Mrs. Micah who consulted on getting the logo up top (I’m trying to be a finance writer, not a code writer) and also coached me through the steps to get the URL situated.
If you need a logo, or any consulting for your own blog, you can see the results I’ve gotten here. (Contect information for both also have been added to the page bottom below.)
Joe
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In March, Inflation fell to -.1%. Not bad. But the risk of high inflation isn’t far away.
Joe
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I read an article in last Sunday’s Boston Globe titled “During a bear market, future of the 401(k) is questioned.” The author gives us some data points such as “about one in four 401(k) participants ages 56 to 65 had more than 90% of their money invested in stocks.” Now, this is just one data point, which can alternately be stated,”fewer than one in four pre-retirees had more than 90% of their money in stock.”
The article goes on to suggest that “the 401(k) has shifted all the responsibilities for retirement investment from the firm to the individual.” Well, when did one’s employer become our caretaker? An employee with a defined benefit plan could work six jobs over thirty years and find that the individual pension didn’t add up to much when compared to the employee who stuck it out with one company for twenty plus years. A 401(k) with some matched employer money provides a nice portable plan that one should contribute to over their working life.
Why is it that when the market was flirting with its all time high, there were calls to invest the social security trust fund in stocks, but now that we are nearly 50% off that high, even 401(k)s are too dangerous and we need the government to take away our choices?
Disclosure – I am down in my retirement accounts by about the same amount the S&P is down, a bit less as there’s a bit of cash there. In my mid-40’s I am still nearly 15 years from retirement. As I aproach the 10 year mark, I’d start to rebalance and be about 50/50 as I’d intend to be during retirement. Keep in mind, 401(k) does not mean stocks. It’s simply a wrapper, tax deferred, into which you can put stocks, bonds, cash, etc.
I hope this movement doesn’t gain any popular momentum. Bad idea.
Joe
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Part 30? Wow, it seems like yesterday that I started this series. The good news from where I sit is that UFF has a defector problem. You see, any MLM (multilevel marketing) sales requires a serious dedication to recruiting new salespeople. I guess it’s tough to sell a $3500 piece of software that has you in debt a bit longer than simply prepaying on your own.
Back in October I wrote about a mortgage broker who was a client of Jubilee (Jaime Buckley’s company) and he was happy with his purchase, but didn’t understand how interest worked, despite the fact that he is a mortgage broker himself. If a broker doesn’t understand, what chance do most people have but to believe the claims of a scam artist? Funny thing, though. Jaime and his friends at Jubilee have already moved on to their next deal. I don’t have all the details, but instead of MMA (Money Merge Account), it’s now a MCA (Mortgage Checking Account.) I trust it has ‘factorial math’, ‘sophisticated algorithms’, etc, but is different than the UFF product. As Jaime owned and moderated the UFirst Forum (now down), I wonder if he’s going to pass the torch.
It will soon be time to move on, I believe I am close to exhausting all my thoughts on this topic. The math is simple, the product is a waste. The arguments in its favor quickly turn away from numbers and logic, to long rants about anything but. Until next time.
Joe
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This is the title of an article in Wired Magazine. Not a typical place to look for financial articles, but it came to my attention and I found it an interesting read. Turns out this is the formula (actually the proper word is “equation”):
While the explanation of this equation is beyond the scope of this blog, a read of the full Wired article makes one thing clear, the failure of the market had to have an origin, and to me, it started with the rating agencies basing their ratings on historical data. They had no ability to understand that subprime loan were being given to anyone with a pulse and the ability to write their name. Securitization itself was not to blame, but it certainly got a black eye in the process. The public radio program Marketplace offers an interview discussing this same topic in an article titled “Did math formula cause financial crisis“?
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