Obama Wants To Reduce Tax Breaks For 529 plans It seems to me that one of the main problems with this type of discussion is that some participants seem to classify fellow citizens as either "100% self-made men" (whether true or not) and "everyone else", who by definition are therefore no-good lazy scumbags. Interestingly, these folks invariably classify themselves as the 100% self-made type. The dictionary defines "selfish" as: "lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one's own personal profit or pleasure". I leave it to others as to whether that particular definition is appropriate to the type of individuals I've mentioned.
Perhaps my observations for the past 75 years are not typical, but it has been my experience that there many more than just two types of individuals; rather there is a very broad spectrum of people, with hugely varying degrees of human assets: inherited assets, mental ability, physical ability, and plain old luck. Sure there are no-good bums out there who have chosen not to contribute their fair share to their personal good, to say nothing of the common good. BUT I DO NOT FOR A MOMENT BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE THE MAJORITY of those who need some sort of assistance to allow them to survive.
To suggest that all it takes for anyone in America to succeed is a little hard work is totally fatuous. This concept of rugged individualism, wherein someone feels that they have absolutely no obligation to spend one tax dollar on anything that isn't a direct immediate personal benefit to them is, in my opinion, just plain sick. I say this as half of a married couple who have no children, but have cheerfully voted for over fifty-five years to support our public schools, common infrastructure, and where reasonable, public assistance to the less fortunate. Does that mean that there is no place for alternatives, such as charter schools? Not at all: depending on the effectiveness of the local school system, alternatives may be a very good thing.
Additionally, anyone who thinks that our younger people have the same advantages of relatively inexpensive higher education, employment and retirement stability that we older folks enjoyed is living on some other planet.
I'm under no illusion that this commentary will change one single mind, but at least some things have been said that needed saying.
Looking for advice on small-cap funds
The Closing Bell: U.S. Stock Losses Steepen, Still On Track For Weekly Gain
Looking for advice on small-cap funds My experience is this is another area for active management, not indexing. Fido has some excellent sc funds. Discovery and one or two others. I myself favor, in addition, GABSX and WEMMX. Gabelli would probably be the chief person to call himself brilliant, but he does outperform, and is prudent. FLPSX is not small-cap, but well worth having in your 401k if you do not already.
Obama Wants To Reduce Tax Breaks For 529 plans Mcm --- ' wealth redistribution ... has never worked over the long-haul anywhere in the world throughout history'
Jeez louise. Progressive taxation, and even unprogressive taxation, has been long considered redistributive, and widely accepted as such, as long as there has been taxation. And a huge and longlived success. Learn some history before asserting.
There have always been shortsighted libertarian-style arguments against it, but it has been so meant from the getgo.
Bully for all the tough and hardworking bootstrappers here. You go. If only you can keep from always concluding that anyone can do it. You did not build that alone.
+1 to Tiger.
Mark Hulbert: Stock Market’s Fate Depends On The Next Six Days
Watch out or Ignore?
Watch out or Ignore? Read this quote in an article. To tell the truth it makes me feel like now is the time for dampening down risk. The question is what are the best vehicles for accomplishing that while realizing returns better than short term bonds and cash. Are you positioning your portfolio for a significant correction, and if so what investments are you using?
"US equities have risen each year since 2009. Since 1871 US equities have never risen for seven consecutive years. Are you betting that 2015 will break the record? Even though there are secular bull and bear markets that can last 20-30 years, there are dramatic cyclical market downturns that occur about twice a decade which can have severe negative impacts on one's cumulative investment return. It took 30 months for the S&P 500 to fall 49% between March 2000 and October 2002, and about seven years to recover (total return). It took 17 months for the S&P 500 to fall 57% in the 2007-2008 financial crisis and 5.4 years to recover (total return). More significantly, this last recovery has been fueled by central banks flooding markets with liquidity and forcing money out of savings and into risk assets to find a return.
Push To Tax ‘529’ Plans Stokes Debate
Real Asset Funds as Diversifier Thanks for the info, Scott. I see that Fidelity and Vanguard both hold a lot of shares of ELS in their respective real estate funds.
Probably in part due to Sam Zell as chairman. That said, ELS is an example for me of the importance of being interested in the underlying company. I liked it, but didn't really feel that it was a long-term holding (or that I guess it "made the list") and did well and sold it late last year because I felt it was overvalued. Had I held on, would have continued higher nicely.
I suppose it speaks to the idea of you hold something for a long-term and sometimes it'll be overvalued, sometimes not, but you hope the long-term trend is higher. Trying to make judgment calls about overvaluation in the short-term - especially with monetary policy the way it is in the world - can certainly lead to disappointment.
I continue to hold a number of other real estate holdings (or hybrid REITs, or in the case of BPY, a REIT-y MLP) - some of which I think are noticeably overvalued - for the long-term and simply reinvest.
There's quite a few REITs that I would be interested in (Vornado, Boston Properties, Tanger Outlet), but not at these levels.
That said, what will be the demand for REITs if the
10 year goes to
1%?
