When looking at your investment returns, its important to calculate your return after the impact of taxes and expenses (management fees, commissions, bid/ask spreads). That number is what you really end up with, but its never shown on any year-end statements. ETF provider iShares put out a that shows the average annualized tax cost for actively-managed mutual funds over the last 10 years. Via and .
Many actively managed mutual fund managers have had difficulty delivering benchmark-beating, after-tax returns. Figure 1 shows the 10-year average tax cost for active funds and top quartile active funds. What’s striking is that in every case except for mid cap blend and small cap value, top quartile funds’ tax costs (as indicated with a white dot) were equal to or greater than those of the category average (black dot). Eve
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Christmas is the time of year to have fun while enjoying the holiday with family and friends. However, the magic can also be extinguished by the mad rush of stressful shopping, vacation planning, and other logistics. It’s no wonder that the holiday season is actually one of the most stressful times, especially from a financial perspective. The commercial aspect of the holiday encourages spending. Smart spending and creating a Christmas budget, can reduce the financial burden and alleviate some of that unwanted stress. Here are some money-saving strategies and tips to weather the financial blizzard.
Define Your Budget
In your Christmas planning, you need to set boundaries. Remember, you can’t buy everything for everyone. Yes
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Social security is for some the only retirement income they will have. Two social security income checks may be sufficient to provide the basic needs of a couple at retirement. It is very hard to retire on one social security income.
This situation usually happens if one of the spouses has never worked and therefore is not part of the social security system. You need forty quarters to be fully vested in the system. For some this is very hard to get if they never worked.
Fortunately, for self-employed people this situation can be corrected. A couple can literally double their retirement income with the stroke of a pen. How does this happen? A little background can help explain this point.
First, social security retirement amounts are supposedly skewed against high income people. Fo
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Tobacco manufacturers in Arkansas are affected by a new law that was recently enacted. The new law, which is named HB 1950, requires tobacco manufacturers who aren’t part of the Master Settlement Agreement for escrowing funds into the settlement account to obtain a surety bond in order to be included in the State’s directory of manufacturers. The new required bond must be $50,000 or the amount required to be deposited in escrow, whichever is larger.
Below is an excerpt from Adam Davidson’s latest New York Times Magazine column, “What Nail-Polish Sales Tell Us About the Economy.” Read all of Davidson’s Times Magazine columns here.
Economics is all about consumption. People either spend money now or they use financial instruments — like bonds, stocks and savings accounts — so they can spend more later. A healthy economy is largely a result of a reasonable balance between consumption today and consumption deferred, and it’s pretty clear that balance has been ridiculously out of whack for a while…
…the key factor that determines consumption and, therefore, the health of the economy, lies in our psychology. Eco
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Kentucky Neighborhood Bank provides Elizabethtown, KY residents with a golden opportunity to end 2011 on a positive note with a high-yield CD account. They are offering customers a special 25-month CD rate of 1.50% APY. This low-risk investment account is a great way to build substantial savings in a moderate amount of time. Don’t be left behind–deposit into a CD account today to secure your finances moving forward.
25-Month CD Rate Terms and Conditions
A minimum $500 deposit is required to open a 25-month CD with Kentucky Neighborhood Bank. Customers are permitted to make a one-time withdraw up to 25 percent of the principal without penalties during the CD term. Howe
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