Olympics and blog warfare!
About a month ago, my colleague Cameron penned an article about the Mortgage Interest Deduction - namely, whether it is a good idea or not. For an itemizing taxpayer in the 25% bracket, he pointed out, "The bank receives 4.0% interest, the homeowner pays 3.0% and the taxpayer is left footing the 1.0% difference." Right - and the bank ends up pocketing the subsidy.
The multi-payer system sets up the incentive for those without their own insurance to be unhealthier. Car accident deaths increased after the seatbelt law was instituted. When I finally have to foot some of the bill, do I still want to see Americans wolfing down their Wendy’s?
Thoughts and prayers go out to all of the victims (and their families and friends) of the shooting in Aurora, […]
I know the title sounds like I'm about to sell you some snake oil, but bear with me for a second here. Some bloggers have discussed the inherent unfairness of the Roth IRA's contributions - namely, being capped at $125,000 for a single filer and $183,000 for a joint filer in 2012. Other have discussed the backdoor IRA - building on a 2010 rule change which allowed people of any income to convert IRAs (and other eligible accounts) to Roth IRAs. We're going to bypass both of those and talk about how you can contribute over $30,000 to your Roth IRA - with the only requirement being that you have access to a 401(k) with certain features. Read on...
In a case of great timing, DQYDJ's article guessing how Mitt Romney has so much money in his IRA is now the third most popular article on the site! While I hold no belief that this situation will continue past November of this year, I think that, in the moment, it's interesting to ask how a retail investor (read: the rest of us) might have fared had we contributed as much as the Romney family must have during Mitt's 24 year stint in the public sector (whew). So, how much out-performance did Mr. Romney achieve?
Welcome Len Penzo Readers!
It's a person and a site. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, click here.
In the pilot episode of NBC's self-referential 30 Rock, the new boss accurately stereotypes a member of middle management after meeting her just thirty seconds before.
Parody? Undoubtedly. Is it a thing? Yes, it's a thing.
So we've got a nifty new political status indicator to roll out to you next week. It's actually a bit early to know anything with any decent amounts of certainty about the upcoming elections in the old USA, but I want to have this in place soon. Oh, expect more political articles when the race heats up. Make sure to complain loudly in the comments section!
Once again I dropped the ball and neglected to give you folks a post on option contract divined predictions over the next few months (and years). Operating from the school of better late than never, I've gone numbers as of last Friday, 6/29/2012, when the S&P 500 closed at 1362.16. I neglected it right on into July, from the publishing date - but I'll attempt to get July numbers at the proper time (options expiration day is on the 20th).