Don't Quit Your Day Job…

Do you get a match? What’s the average management fee on your fund choices? Does your plan have all of the necessary asset classes? If you’ve got a 401(k) at work, no doubt you’ve been pressured to sign up (or automatically enrolled). How does your 401(k) stack up?

Now up… a timely report from the Tax Foundation on corporate tax rates in select world economies. This year has seen quite a few corporate tax rates cuts in countries such as Canada and Sweden. The United States remains stubbornly high on the list of countries with the most oppressive tax regimes. In fact, the United States is number two. The only country with higher taxes is Japan, who recently gave us a new meaning to the phrase “lost decade”.

“Finance is the art of passing money from hand to hand until it finally disappears.” – Robert W. Sarnoff.

From the “it’s about time” category, I present the Supreme Court case Jones v. Harris Associates. The case was filed because a group of investors felt:

1. The board of directors wasn’t sufficiently neutral (the law requires 40% of advisors to be “disinterested”).
2. The fund didn’t disclose the advisers’ financial links to the trustees
3. Compensation for the adviser should be controlled by a majority of the disinterested advisers

As Jason Zweig of the Wall Street Journal writes, the Supreme court has no business setting fees. However, the disclosure rules on mutual funds stem from older laws. Is it time for reform in fund disclosure?

Posts We Liked! Read these.  We did.  We liked them enough to provide the links for you here. “Will Buffet’s Value Principals Survive Buffet?” – Warren Buffet’s advancing age means one day soon his investing principals will have to carry on without him.  Will the value investing movement survive without it’s de facto leader? “Oil [...]

A recent unemployment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics introduced some light into the dreary situation in which the economy finds itself. Yes; the official U-3 unemployment numbers are in- and the headline unemployment number is now 9.4% unemployment compared to the previous 9.5%. U-6, a broader measure of unemployment (specifically the total employed, marginally attached workers and part time workers who want to work full time in the civilian labor force and marginally attached workers) ticked down from 16.5% to 16.3%. On the surface, a pretty good report. However, some signs of weakness are right below the surface.

The problem with the current rabble in the health care debate is the shift from talking about the actual facts to shooting at the straw men that Democrats and Republicans find easiest to negate. When the Speaker of the House calls a number of citizens Brooks Brothers wearing swastika-brandishing paid protesters instead of keeping on point, it really makes me question the aptitude of our current legislative branch. Yes; some protesters may be going too far in carrying out their dissent at town halls. The reason isn’t that they are nazis, Congresswoman Pelosi, it’s that they have a legitimate fear: that Government is going to step in and ruin something that is working well for them.

In my previous article, I compared some of the advantages and disadvantages of different methods of “welfare”.  Near the end, it seemed that the Earned Income Tax Credit was clearly the best option, especially as compared to the only other possible method, that of the Living Wage.  There is one important, and significant, advantage to [...]

Master Limited Partnerships are publicly traded Limited Partnerships, most often investing in the extraction and transportation of raw materials.  A limited partnership is a limited liability corporate structure which contains Limited Partners, and at least one General Partner.  This gives the funds great tax advantages with liquidity advantages coming from their listing on a public exchange.  The lack of understanding of MLPs also means they are a great place to start looking for market pricing disconnects and investment opportunities.

Carnivals DQYDJ articles are featured in for the week of August 10, and select links from around the internet on interesting and relevant topics.

Unlike the swine flu, the personal finance bug is a relatively hard bug to get. Unfortunately (for them), far too many people avoid putting any thought into their future until that ‘future’ is right around the corner. Investing is a topic that comes up a lot when I talk with people. How you field open ended questions like “How do I invest in stocks?” is a make or break question in which you need to figure out before your trust is deserved. I’ve come up with a step by step method which I use to narrow my confidant’s thoughts and distill their true intentions. Read on, then leave me comments on your style.