Consolidate multiple investment accounts at a single firm

I’m 46 and have been working since I was 24. I have always been a saver, so I have about $850,000 accumulated in various accounts. I’m married and have two kids, in the sixth and eighth grades. My husband and I manage our money separately because we have different investment styles (so this $850,000 is entirely mine, although I understand there is no such a thing as “mine” while we live in Texas). I also have a $50,000 emergency fund in cash.

That $850,000 is in investment accounts split between Vanguard and Ameritrade. Over time, these accounts have become cluttered with too many funds and stocks (some were carried over from when I worked with a Chase financial adviser).

Since my kids will be going to college in four to six years, I probably should be less aggressive, even though I always feel that I can be aggressive until I retire (probably when I turn 60).

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Posted by Holly Bosworth 14 May, 2012 No Comments »
tag_img Tags: Accounts

Are Higher Tax Rates Really That Bad?

The Laffer Curve is an economic theory that pinpoints a revenue-maximizing percentage for taxation; in other words, it prescribes a certain tax percentage beyond which tax revenues actually start to decrease due to tax avoidance, evasion and nonpayment. Economists Peter Diamond and Emmanuel Saez believe the percentage for those in the top 1% of U.S. earners hovers somewhere between 50%-70%, meaning the government could raise their tax rate up to at least 50% before seeing a drop in revenue. The wealthy heartily disagree, but there is no way to tell other than to look at historical data, which indicates the hike would not change behavior.  

Peter Diamond and Emmanuel Saez:

The share of pre-tax income accruing to the top 1% of earners in the U.S. has more than doubled to about 20% in 2010 from less than 10% in the 1970s.

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Posted by Holly Bosworth 09 May, 2012 No Comments »
tag_img Tags: Tax Tax Rates

Five reasons the dividend boom isn’t about to go bust

BOSTON — The news keeps getting better for dividend investors. But can it last?

The latest sign of a dividend renaissance is Apple’s decision to begin sharing some of its profits with shareholders for the first time in nearly two decades. The world’s most valuable company will start paying a dividend this year, rather than continue to stockpile cash from iPhone and iPad sales.

That announcement came a week after major banks moved to restore their dividends, after cutting them during the financial crisis to conserve cash. At least nine top banks plan to raise their payouts or are considering doing so after the government conducted stress tests to ensure the banks can survive another crisis.

It adds up to better times ahead for dividend investors. Payouts by companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index are expected to climb 15 percent from last year to $277 billion, according to S&P Indices. T

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Posted by Holly Bosworth 14 Apr, 2012 No Comments »

What Makes Up Your Credit Score?

One question often on the mind of anyone undergoing credit repair is how exactly they’re supposed to fix their bad credit when they don’t even know what goes into their credit score?  Your credit score is a pretty shy customer, only really showing itself when certain people ask for it and never really revealing what goes into it.  This can make any serious attempt at debt settlement seem almost impossible.

So how do you go about credit repair when you don’t know what makes up your score?

For this blog entry, we’ll take a look at the FICO score model, the most widely-used credit scoring model in the business.  Other scores may differ slightly, but they all follow the same basic principals the FICO score does.  With that said:

Here’s exactly what makes up your credit score

Payment history.

Covering every account on your credit history, your payment history also factors in all the negative items on your report, such as judgments, bankruptcies, collections, and late accounts – and how many there are on file.  If you’re working to improve your credit score, you’ll want to pay extra close attention to this.

Amounts owed.

This takes a look at how much you owe on each of your active accounts.  It also factors in the proportion of revolving credit lines used and the number of installment loans still owed.  Basically, the more money you owe across multiple accounts, the lower your credit score could be, especially if more than one of those accounts is maxed out.

Length of credit history.

Going back to when you opened your first credit account, this looks at the age of your individual accounts; the older, the better.  If you plan on closing any credit accounts to help improve your credit score, consider keeping your older accounts away from the chopping block.

New credit.

New lines of credit are factored by the number and proportion of recently opened accounts to your existing ones.  It also looks at the n

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Posted by Alex Heidenreich 05 Apr, 2012 No Comments »

This weekend’s BIG announcement ..

Hey everybody

. I made good on my promise to You AND myself to give everyone personal attention and superior customer service

You all would have access to me personally

I also made a promise that I would only release a limited amount of copies of my emini trading system

its impossible to continue to sell indefinitely, at least online.

Its 2012 and that time has finally come: The Tick Trader Day Trading Course will be officially off the market June 1, 2012.

After June 1st I am going back to Live Training

What does that mean to you? After June 1st, if you want to learn my system all the tips and tricks and how I trade for daily income .

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Posted by Holly Bosworth 26 Mar, 2012 No Comments »

A Roth IRA is a good thing; don’t give it up

Should I convert a Roth IRA to a variable annuity? I am 62 years old. I have pulled all my money out of the stock market. I have sold all my mutual funds. I would like to safeguard this IRA until I begin to draw funds when I reach 65. An annuity sounds interesting, if it can generate more than I withdraw per month and if I only pay taxes on what I withdraw. What do you think?

— R.A., by email

Absolutely not. Let me explain why. A Roth IRA is a legal “wrapper” for an investment account that allows investment earnings to grow tax-free. A variable annuity is another kind of legal “wrapper” for an investment account that allows investment earnings to grow tax-deferred. The annuity contract may have other insurance-related benefits attached, but the most important fact is that one is tax-free, while the other is tax-deferred.

So why would you give up tax-free income for tax-deferred income?

Each wrapper can be associated with different levels of fees. I

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Posted by Holly Bosworth 18 Mar, 2012 No Comments »
tag_img Tags: Ira Roth Ira

Americans Display Little Economic Confidence

A new Gallup survey shows that Americans are not nearly as confident about the countrys economic outlook as politicians and pundits in Washington, D.C. like to think. The Economic Confidence Index indicates that, aside from people enjoying an energy industry boom in northern states and federal government dollars flowing in and around Virginia and Maryland, there is very little positive sentiment in the country. The majority of states display average to below average levels of confidence. For more on this continue reading the following article from Tim Iacono.

A new Gallup survey on how Americans see the economy is not likely to sit well with Iowa Republicans as the nations capital is acting as a confidence vacuum for the rest of the country. Though its hard to see in the graphic below, it seems Washington D.C.

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Posted by Holly Bosworth 09 Mar, 2012 No Comments »