*Investors Blog*

Dave Hess said:
Unfortunately most Americans never heard of a Roth or RMD….. they can talk about the pro athletes, musicians or celebrities they follow on social media.

Sad but true.

Roth yearly contribution limits are waaaaay too small considering the inflation.
It should be $40-50K in the year 2024.
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On a personal basis I'd in interested in taking advantage of higher limits but I don't see a good reason to increase them other than it would be good for my bottom line. People already already have a bunch of avenues to defer today's taxes or create tax free growth. The average person is going no where near their limit. Nothing stopping people from savings in other accounts for retirement as well.

Current rules let me save $30K (roth ira and 401K) already that grows tax free and continue to do so 10 years beyond my death. Likely going to be a lot of cash if I'm taking advantage or it. That doesn't include catch up contributions, 415(c) limit, HSA, FSA, etc.

Perhaps more universal treatment so that folks are not subject to however much (or little) their employer is willing to create as an opportunity for them to defer taxes today or pay taxes today and forgo taxes in retirement.
 
Dave Hess said:
Interest rates currently killing realtors….. and AI will put lots more out of business.

I had a few realtors knock on my door asking if I wanted to sell my house. They are desperate for some commission and going hungry.
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Real Estate is and always has been cyclical, always will be. Its markets like this that full time hard working professional agents love. It gets all the excesses of agents and part time agents out of the business. Homes always need to be sold and homes always need to be bought. Less competition from agents, more income.

I made a killing during these times up in NY, my clients really liked me, my name became common, agents and brokerages didnt know what hit them. I trained many agents and I always knew who would make it, also, very rarely did a part timers make any significant money, I used to feel bad for them, like the public at large, they thought even for a little extra income all they need to do is sell a house or two a month .. *LOL* ha. The thing is, we have to remember, these are people who are trying to make a living, or support a family or divorced and single parents trying to make it on their own without the "state" paying their way. The perception is way out of line and I feel for them, running around every chance they get showing homes for free, with no pay unless someone buys one.
I rarely showed homes except for my clients homes for people who called on my ads or signs.

It's laughable what a typical agent makes and then they have to pay all their own expenses out of that.
I climbed a ladder where everyone knew my name, including some law offices so I speak from experience and it makes sense what I say below. I knew what had to be done being a business person my whole life, the public at large has no clue as what it is and what it cost to run a business.

Florida is starting to hurt, price reductions are occurring at a higher than national rate after the boom cycle.
I know you dont like the industry but nothing changes, and AI ?? Not so much compared to what AI is going to do to middle income college educated Americans who work for a company. It's going to devastate them. To me, Real Estate will be one of the lessor affected industries. It's a down in the dirt contact management, pavement pounding business compared to white collar office workers.
 
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I only wish I knew which way this market was going to end up. I have a bad feeling but I dont fight what it does. I would LOVE to preserve my gains of the last few years yet I keep reinvesting the profits.

I only wish (though I dont say it) my wife would get defensive in her separate 401k which she manages without any input from me. This way at least one of us will be safe *LOL*
All of our investments, like everyone else at this point are doing VERY well and it scares me to lose it*LOL*. Someday the party will end but I have been saying this a very long time and haven't altered what I am doing, index funds for 401k and at this point to conservative (gulp) stocks in my Roth. In all fairness 50% of that I trade with lower P/E stocks and the other is never traded- WMT for years now. The other, this past couple months is GM, which I bought and sold on and off over the last year.

A crystal ball at this point would be nice. I retired 4 years ago but worked PT for 2 years just to have my health insurance paid. We have not had to touch our roths or 401k's either, not sure if we ever will other than mandatory. I emphasize the words "not sure" I do not want to find out. I do have a real estate holding to get rid of and that in itself is my primary retirement. No one knows what the future will hold our nations debt is a disaster and we can only blame our voting habits.

So... Hearing more stock suggestions in here would be nice before that day comes!
 
alarmguy said:
I only wish I knew which way this market was going to end up. I have a bad feeling but I dont fight what it does. I would LOVE to preserve my gains of the last few years yet I keep reinvesting the profits.

I only wish (though I dont say it) my wife would get defensive in her separate 401k which she manages without any input from me. This way at least one of us will be safe *LOL*
All of our investments, like everyone else at this point are doing VERY well and it scares me to lose it*LOL*. Someday the party will end but I have been saying this a very long time and haven't altered what I am doing, index funds for 401k and at this point to conservative (gulp) stocks in my Roth. In all fairness 50% of that I trade with lower P/E stocks and the other is never traded- WMT for years now. The other, this past couple months is GM, which I bought and sold on and off over the last year.

A crystal ball at this point would be nice. I retired 4 years ago but worked PT for 2 years just to have my health insurance paid. We have not had to touch our roths or 401k's either, not sure if we ever will other than mandatory. I emphasize the words "not sure" I do not want to find out. I do have a real estate holding to get rid of and that in itself is my primary retirement. No one knows what the future will hold our nations debt is a disaster and we can only blame our voting habits.

So... Hearing more stock suggestions in here would be nice before that day comes!
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@alarmguy I have a simple formula. Cover your basic long term needs and then you can be a little looser (gamble?) with some of your wealth. Steve Jobs said something like once you get to a certain point, make it enough.

"In the end, my wealth is only a fact of life that I am accustomed to. At this moment, lying on my bed and recalling my life, I realize that all the recognition and wealth that I took so much pride in have paled and become meaningless in the face of my death."

Coming from homelessness, having a home was #1. Fast forward 30 years, now I have the shelter issue covered. Beyond that, into the portfolio, I have "enough" in low risk products, even a double tax free CA Muni bond fund. Schwab Wealth Advisory manages this. The rest is in tech (high risk), which I manage. Much of this is the stock options and grants from my working days at Novellus and Lam Research.

I could live on Social Security and the Muni Bond fund. If you are lucky enough to get to this point, you have the luxury of helping others not as fortunate.
 
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There's a Credit Union here that pays 6.5% APY on a Checking Account if :

1 ) You have at least 10,000 in the account
2 ) You have to have at least 25 VISA Debit or Credit Card purchases in a qualifying cycle. ATM transactions are excluded
3 ) Direct Deposit of at least $900 a month into Checking Account
4 ) Enroll into E - Statements

Sound Do-able To You ?
 
Warstud said:
There's a Credit Union here that pays 6.5% APY on a Checking Account if :

1 ) You have at least 10,000 in the account
2 ) You have to have at least 25 VISA Debit or Credit Card purchases in a qualifying cycle. ATM transactions are excluded
3 ) Direct Deposit of at least $900 a month into Checking Account
4 ) Enroll into E - Statements

Sound Do-able To You ?
Click to expand...
What's the opportunity cost of #2 above? Guess there is always the 25 $1 or less transaction route.
 
Warstud said:
There's a Credit Union here that pays 6.5% APY on a Checking Account if :

1 ) You have at least 10,000 in the account
2 ) You have to have at least 25 VISA Debit or Credit Card purchases in a qualifying cycle. ATM transactions are excluded
3 ) Direct Deposit of at least $900 a month into Checking Account
4 ) Enroll into E - Statements

Sound Do-able To You ?
Click to expand...
Sure, but how long does the 6.5% APY last, and your essentially switching your banking to them. You need their CC. Presumably the direct deposit is your paycheck or whatever. So its there way to lure people.

The difference between that and a short term T-bill is bout 1.2%. So if you deposit the federally insured max of 250K, you will make an extra $3000

I'll also mention the T-bill has no state income tax, where the checking account does, so maybe $2800?

Is it worth $2800 a year? Might be?
 
Warstud said:
No mention of a $ amount on the required 25 transactions
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Guessing most people will need to use the bank card as their primary to hit 25 transactions. I was really saying what are they/you missing out on in the way of credit card points. For me that’s a minimum of 2% missed on every transaction. Probably more like 4% or 5% for most transactions.
 
Warstud said:
That's the first question to ask them .
You saying the Checking account may pay an extra $2800 but has State Income taxes
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Very generally (I am not a tax accountant) - interest income from all sources is treated as income. Except US treasury debt (t-bills, notes, bonds) interest is generally state income tax free. You need to hold the debt to maturity, otherwise its a capital gain. You still pay federal income tax.

For example, for me in South Carolina I pay 7% less income tax overall on my T-bills than I do on MM or CD's.

On your 1099INT you have a seperate line 3 that splits it out "3 Interest on U.S. Savings Bonds and Treas. Obligations"

There are Muni's that are tax free from both I believe - so I am told, I don't own any? That is why Muni's pay so much less interest.
 
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