Thinking About Market Timing? Forget It!

Sometimes, lessons on investing come from the most unexpected places. Maybe you saw the news this week that rap artist 50 Cent came into a “Bit” of a windfall. According to a Wednesday article by TMZ, one of the payment methods the artist accepted for his 2014 album, Animal Ambition,was Bitcoin. At the time, one of the crypto coins was worth between $650 - $700, and the rapper took in about 700 of them in sales.

Fast forward to today, with each Bitcoin worth $10,000, er, $12,000, uh, $11,000…oh, you get the point, and his stash is now worth somewhere around $8,000,000. Thus, leading to what is sure to become one of the most famous investing quotes of all time, “Ima keep it real, I forgot I did that $#!+, lol.”

Roth IRA Tips, Back Doors, and Key

It seems that all we have been doing for the past few months is talking about taxes. The Tax Reform & Job Act did, in fact, give us much to talk about. At one point, it appeared that the bill was going to do away, or significantly reduce, pre-tax savings opportunities currently available to eligible retirement plan participants.

The talk was that after-tax contributions would largely replace pre-tax contributions in 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and other defined contribution plans. In other words, they would have forced everyone into Roth IRA type of arrangements, where you don’t get the near-term incentive of saving on taxes, but the earnings would be tax-free. Fortunately, taxpayers retained the incentives and flexibility to decide for ourselves between pre-tax accounts that defer income taxes or post-tax alternatives that grow tax-free. With both alternatives still available, a common question remains.

Should I do a Roth IRA?

Q4 2017 Market Review

Q4 2017 Market Review

Last year, at this time, post election market gains were attributed to the prospects of a Republican controlled federal government busting through years of gridlock to reduce regulations, cut taxes, and maybe even launch some infrastructure projects (if walls count). The rally has seemingly continued non-stop, and Q4 of 2017 was no exception, even though the GOP couldn't seem to get much done until finally passing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in late December. Equity markets rallied in anticipation of the tax cuts, and have continued to melt up as low interest rates, low unemployment, low inflation, and now lower taxes have created a "just right" market environment.