Monthly Archives: May 2015

My Family

How to Create Your Lowest-Cost Investment Portfolio – US News 3 of 3

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Key Point: Shop around.

  • Fees can have a dramatic impact on your portfolio balance over time.

  • How to create a low-cost investment portfolio. It’s easier than you may think. Let’s take a look at some typical mutual funds and ETFs and their fees. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any investments, nor is this advice on constructing a portfolio.

    These are sample, diversified low-fee stock and bond index funds, along with their fees listed as a percent of total assets invested:

                                          

    Stock Market Funds Fees
    Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (VTSMX) 0.17%
    Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) 0.05%
    PowerShares QQQ (QQQ) 0.20%
    iShares MSCI Emerging Market Index (EEM) 0.67%
    PDR S&P Dividend (SDY) 0.35%
    Schwab 1000 Index® Fund (SNXFX) 0.29%
    Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund Investor Shares (VGTSX) 0.22%
    Bond Funds  
    Fidelity Spartan® U.S. Bond Index Fund (FBIDX) 0.22%
    iShares Core US Aggregate Bond (AGG) 0.08%

      When creating your investment portfolio, be mindful of fees. The money paid out in management fees doesn’t guarantee higher returns and detracts from your overall opportunity to build long-term wealth.

      The best way to create a low-fee investment portfolio is to pay attention and choose low-cost index and ETF funds. Don’t let careless investment oversight cost you thousands of dollars. Before investing in any mutual fund, look at the fee structure. And, if you work with an advisor, ask him or her what the fees are on the funds in your portfolio. If they’re too high, then ask for lower-fee replacements. Fees matter!

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

My Family

How to Create Your Lowest-Cost Investment Portfolio – US News 2 of 3

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Key Point:  the lower the better

  • How to Create Your Lowest-Cost Investment Portfolio – US News

    • Fees can have a dramatic impact on your portfolio balance over time.

    • You may not think much about fees now, but imagine how you may feel with 1 percent or 2 percent stock market returns, or even worse, negative returns and fees zapping up to 1 percent or 2 percent of your total assets.

       

        Investment fees matter. Let’s look at a few scenarios to understand the effect of high fees on a typical investment portfolio.

        JoAnn is 40 years old and has an investment portfolio worth $200,000. She expects to retire at age 66. For the sake of this example, assume she doesn’t put any more money into her account (not a great idea). JoAnn doesn’t worry about fees and has actively managed mutual funds, and part of her money is with an investment advisor. Her average fees as a percent of total assets are 1.75 percent.

        That means every year she’s paying out $3,500 in investment management and oversight fees. Multiply that $3,500 by 26 years until retirement, and at age 66, she’ll have shelled out $91,000 in fees. During the years her portfolio earns less than a 1.75 percent return, she’ll earn nothing on her investments.

        Daren is also 40 years old and much smarter about investing than JoAnn. He invests in low-cost index and exchange-traded funds. He also has a portion of his portfolio with an advisor – a low-fee robo advisor – who also invests in low-cost index funds.

        Daren also has a $200,000 investment portfolio, but his fees average 0.30 percent of his total assets. Unlike JoAnn, who pays $3,500 per year in fees, Daren pays just $600 per year on his investment portfolio. That’s $2,900 per year less than JoAnn. Over 26 years, when Daren retires at age 66, he will have paid just $15,600 in investment fees.

        JoAnn paid almost six times more than Daren during their future investing horizon.

        Do I have your attention?

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

My Family

How to Create Your Lowest-Cost Investment Portfolio – US News 1 of 3

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Key Point:  stock market returns long-term average > 9.6 percent (1928-2014)

  • How to Create Your Lowest-Cost Investment Portfolio – US News

    • Fees can have a dramatic impact on your portfolio balance over time.

    • Most investors don’t worry about costs. After all, isn’t it the returns that are the most important part about investing? Investors want high returns, and as long as the returns are in an acceptable range, fees don’t seem to matter.

        During the last several years, we’ve experienced exceptional stock market advances. Last year’s Standard & Poor’s 500 index returns clocked in at 13.48 percent, and 2013 more than doubled that with a stratospheric return of 31.15 percent. If you look back at 2012, the market returned 15.89 percent, and 2012 took a breath with a 2.10 percent increase after 14.82 percent and 25.94 percent returns for 2010 and 2009, respectively.

        Those remarkably high stock market returns make investors both giddy and complacent. Realize that when stock market returns are above the long-term average of 9.6 percent (1928-2014), there’s a statistical tendency to revert to the mean. In other words, there’s a strong likelihood that returns are going to head back to normal.

        You may not think much about fees now, but imagine how you may feel with 1 percent or 2 percent stock market returns, or even worse, negative returns and fees zapping up to 1 percent or 2 percent of your total assets.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

My Government

How to Get Your Adult Children Out of the Basement and Into a Career – US News

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  • How to Get Your Adult Children Out of the Basement and Into a Career – US News

    • “I think parents are assuming they’re helping their children,” says Rachel Cruze, 25, a speaker, author of “Smart Money Smart Kids” and the daughter of financial expert Dave Ramsey. “What parents are doing is they’re unintentionally harming their children.”

    • Moving back home can be a suitable, yet temporary, solution for young people who have recently finished college or suffered a financial setback. But experts advise parents and children to have a frank talk before the kids arrive with suitcases

    • Some experts, including Tessina and Cruze, advise creating a written contract that spells all these things out. “When it’s in writing, you’re more likely to stick to it,” Cruze says.

    • Exactly how long a child should live at home after finishing school depends on individual circumstances. In some cases, a highly motivated, hardworking young person can take advantage of the opportunity to start a business, pay off student loans or save for a house.

    • There are also times the parents need help from the child, either financially or to help take care of ill family members

    • 11 tips that will help get your adult children out of the basement and launched into a responsible adult life.

    • Make sure your youngster has a clear plan.

    • Set a deadline for moving out.

    • Have clear house rules.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

My Government

Surviving the ‘Sandwich Generation:’ When Kids and Parents Depend on You – US News

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  • Surviving the ‘Sandwich Generation:’ When Kids and Parents Depend on You – US News

    • Congratulations! You’re part of the “sandwich generation” – people who are stuck between children and parents who are financially dependent on them.

    • Here are six tips for surviving the “sandwich generation” years:

    • 1. Be proactive

    • 2. Choose retirement over college savings

    • 3. Don’t hide your personal responsibilities from your employer.

    • 4. If children return home, make them contribute. Do not allow an adult child to live in your basement without making significant contributions to the household, either in the form of work or financial contributions (or both).  Be very clear about expectations. If your child is employed, suggest he pay a reasonable rent for his room. If your child is seeking employment, suggest that she help take care of household chores or seek out a part-time job. A child that just sits in the basement watching the months go by and consuming your resources isn’t helping you, isn’t helping themselves and isn’t helping your parents, either. Expect more from them. You deserve it – and they deserve it, too.

    • 5. Maintain an emergency fund.

    • 6. Involve your siblings.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

My Government

I Went to Prison After Exposing US Torture. Why Weren’t the Perpetrators Charged?

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For some torture is shameful; to others it is not.  To me it is shameful.
For some torture made them feel better; for others it did not.  To me it did not.

While reading through the book of Acts I always stopped to wonder at the boldness of the witnesses in light of persecution.  Paying attention to the background I realized I was peeking into the origins of much of our government today.  The Roman system was advanced for its day, but like ours still very primitive.  Two accounts from many, point that out: Acts 18:12-17 and the other, Acts 22:21-30.  Two thousand years and we have not advanced an inch.  I guess we have the most perfect system mankind can make. 

  • I Went to Prison After Exposing US Torture. Why Weren’t the Perpetrators Charged?

    • After I blew the whistle on the CIA’s torture program in 2007, the fallout for me was brutal. To make a long story short, I served nearly two years in federal prison and then endured a few more months of house arrest.

      What happened to the torture program? Nothing.

    • I thought they’d work together to ensure that our collective name would never again be sullied by torture — that we’d respect our own laws and the international laws and treaties to which we’re signatories.
    • In retrospect, I was naïve, even after having served in the CIA for nearly 15 years and as a Senate committee staffer for several more.

    • Take the case of Ammar al-Baluchi, who was arrested in Pakistan and sent to a secret CIA prison, where interrogators held his head under water, beat him repeatedly with a truncheon, and slammed his head against the wall, causing lasting head trauma.

      This abuse wasn’t authorized by the Justice Department. So why weren’t the perpetrators charged with a crime?

      Perhaps worst of all, CIA officers tortured as many as 26 people who were probably innocent of any ties to terrorism.

    • The architects of the program haven’t been held accountable. Nor have those who clearly violated the law by torturing prisoners without any legal justifications. Why should the government have locked me up for telling the truth and given them full impunity?
    • there’s a clear precedent in how the government has confronted similar actions in the past.
    • Some current and former CIA leaders will argue that torture netted actionable intelligence that saved American lives. I was working in the CIA’s counterterrorism center at the same time they were, and I can tell you that they’re lying
    • the report found that “the harsh interrogation methods did not succeed in exacting useful intelligence.”
    • Whether or not it ever gleans useful intelligence, however, is beside the point. The question isn’t whether torture works. Torture is immoral.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

My Government

DIANE BLACK: End late-term abortions – Washington Times

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  • DIANE BLACK: End late-term abortions – Washington Times

    • Democrats are quick to brand conservatives as “science deniers” on a host of other issues, so why would they choose to ignore the overwhelming scientific consensus in this debate?

    • Kermit Gosnell. This is the man who savagely killed babies born alive in his “clinic” and is responsible for the death of an adult woman. Americans were rightfully outraged when told of his crimes, but the truth is that innocent, unborn children routinely suffer the same fate as Gosnell’s victims through “normal” late-term abortions and the government does not bat an eye.

    • the House of Representatives voted to pass the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act this week, which will provide federal legal protection for unborn children at 20 weeks, with exceptions to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape and incest.

    • there is significant evidence that by 20 weeks of development, unborn children have the capacity to feel pain.

    • It is difficult to imagine a more important measure of a society than how it treats its most innocent and defenseless population.

    • Sadly, while we celebrate advances in technology that prove life has value and worth before leaving the hospital, we also continue to be one of only seven nations that allow elective, late-term abortions — putting the United States in the same category as countries like Vietnam and North Korea.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.