the tax benefit is the same as a regular IRA in terms of effectively deferring taxes until you withdraw
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/401(k)_IRA_matrix
― El Tomboto, Sunday, 23 March 2008 15:54 (sixteen years ago) link
there are some 401(k)s that have a brokerage option, where you can buy individual securities or non-plan mutual funds or ETFs. mine doesn't, though, and i wish that it did b/c some of the fund offerings are pretty shitty.
― Eisbaer, Sunday, 23 March 2008 15:58 (sixteen years ago) link
also, i would take the roth 401(k) if it is offered -- b/c distributions will be tax free when they are made (absent some future congressional tinkering). it does hurt your paycheck, though, b/c contributions are post-tax.
― Eisbaer, Sunday, 23 March 2008 16:01 (sixteen years ago) link
pfft I don't need that many choices, I'd spend all day trying to allocate
― El Tomboto, Sunday, 23 March 2008 16:02 (sixteen years ago) link
and the equivalent of a "mortgage strike" is called "jingle mail" -- i.e., when one realizes that the "flip that house!" nonsense isn't gonna work any more and the house is worth less than the mortgage, and one just mails back the keys to the McMansion or the luxury condo to the mortgage processor.
― Eisbaer, Sunday, 23 March 2008 16:03 (sixteen years ago) link
I prefer the extra liquidity now over the roth stuff. I know that my overall effective tax rate in 2042 will be in all likelihood quite a bit higher than 19.82% but by 2042 I will probably just be a brain in a jar anyway
― El Tomboto, Sunday, 23 March 2008 16:09 (sixteen years ago) link
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080321/ap_on_bi_ge/living_with_parents
― gabbneb, Sunday, 23 March 2008 21:05 (sixteen years ago) link
see, back in the day, that wouldn't even be an issue, because by the time you're fifty your parents are supposed to be well and dead or so close to it you're moving in anyway
― El Tomboto, Sunday, 23 March 2008 21:11 (sixteen years ago) link
This sort of talk:
Parents "jeopardize their financial freedom by continuing to subsidize their children," said Karin Maloney Stifler, a financial planner in Hudson, Ohio, and a board member of the Financial Planning Association. "We have a hard time saying no as a culture to our children, and they keep asking for more."
makes me feel a bit icky. If anything, I think our culture prizes financial independence from family way more than others. Sure no parents should indulge a deadbeat child forever, butI think it's worth risking your blessed "financial freedom" a little to help a loved one in hard times.
― Hurting 2, Sunday, 23 March 2008 21:14 (sixteen years ago) link
The Stifler family making a mark once again.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 23 March 2008 21:17 (sixteen years ago) link
There is, or should be, no shame in moving back with family, and there is no real financial pain for the parents in taking a child back in. although the article talks about subsidizing lifestyle as well as having them back home, not so sure about that
there has been massive wealth transference from young to old, it is no surprise this is happening
this article is not so bad, compared to the ones we have in the uk. the current vogueish articles are about 'the bank of Mum and Dad'. you would think that these articles would be about feckless children sponging off parents, but no! The Bank of Mum and Dad is being presented by the media as a viable and positive way to replace banks that will no longer lend!!! last gasps of the ponzi scheme over here
― laxalt, Sunday, 23 March 2008 21:40 (sixteen years ago) link
http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article3590383.ece
believe it or not, The Times is a respected newspaper in the UK
― laxalt, Sunday, 23 March 2008 21:41 (sixteen years ago) link
Getting help from anyone is the ultimate libertarian sin (and probably the most common shameful libertarian secret)
― Hurting 2, Sunday, 23 March 2008 21:49 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh, it's probably funds, then, not stocks, but I thought there would be an option to pick A (high risk), B (mid risk), or C (low risk), for people who can't be bothered to do all the homework.
― Virginia Plain, Monday, 24 March 2008 01:17 (sixteen years ago) link
there are, but you kind of have to know the code.
― El Tomboto, Monday, 24 March 2008 01:18 (sixteen years ago) link
they should have the morningstar boxes for everything though, that's usually pretty good at clearing things up
― El Tomboto, Monday, 24 March 2008 01:21 (sixteen years ago) link
lol
OIL PRICE UNCERTAINTY
NEWS Oil sets fresh record above $109 Oil hits record at $108 a barrel Oil rises past $105-a-barrel mark Oil soars to new high above $104
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 24 March 2008 15:36 (sixteen years ago) link
-- El Tomboto, Sunday, March 23, 2008 9:21 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link
So you're saying veggie burgers are the next growth area.
― Hurting 2, Monday, 24 March 2008 19:49 (sixteen years ago) link
hurr hurr
this is neat:
http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/03/japans-financial-services-minister-has.html
― El Tomboto, Monday, 24 March 2008 19:50 (sixteen years ago) link
nothing wrong w/our economy cant be fix by a little redistribution or wealth
http://www.variety.com/VR1117982907.html
― jhøshea, Wednesday, 26 March 2008 03:27 (sixteen years ago) link
of of of wealth
― jhøshea, Wednesday, 26 March 2008 03:29 (sixteen years ago) link
rolling Iceland into the shitbin now:
Fears that Iceland could be the first country to fall victim of the global financial turmoil grew yesterday when its central bank abruptly increased interest rates 1.25 percentage points to 15 per cent in an attempt to restore confidence in its struggling currency and stave off a full- blown economic crisis.
― stet, Wednesday, 26 March 2008 03:49 (sixteen years ago) link
ATA files for bankruptcy; 2200 people unemployed overnight; Google acquires Doubleclick at too-high price, lays off 300
― J0hn D., Thursday, 3 April 2008 12:40 (sixteen years ago) link
If you haven't already enjoyed about as much of this as you can stand, today's Fresh Air was one of the best explanations I've heard of the current financial crisis:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89338743&ft=1&f=13
― Hurting 2, Thursday, 3 April 2008 23:42 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.economagic.com/em-cgi/data.exe/fedstl/exszus+2
destruction of the US dollar since 1971
1971: $1 bought you 4.3 swiss francs 1981: $1 bought you 2.1 swiss francs 1991: $1 bought you 1.5 swiss francs 2001: $1 bought you 1.7 swiss francs
this time last year it bought you 1.2 swiss francs
now it buys you a swiss franc
― laxalt, Saturday, 5 April 2008 12:15 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm not convinced the CHF is by any means immune from everything right now (esp with UBS stuff going on) but it will be interesting to see how the $ fares against it over the next couple of years
― laxalt, Saturday, 5 April 2008 12:27 (sixteen years ago) link
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2399/2388931511_bb89b35e6d_o.gif
its more dramatic over the last 40 but here it is since dotcom crash
― laxalt, Monday, 7 April 2008 23:15 (sixteen years ago) link
The Swiss franc is kind of an odd currency. Deprecation of the USD against the franc is probably just because Swiss inflation has historically been really low.
― circles, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 00:34 (sixteen years ago) link
Agreed, but isn't what makes it a good benchmark to measure against?
― laxalt, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 00:36 (sixteen years ago) link
better to measure against countries we do more trade with, I would think?
― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 00:38 (sixteen years ago) link
The price of oil has actually fallen considerably against Picassos.
― Hurting 2, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 00:41 (sixteen years ago) link
that chart is worthless
― Dandy Don Weiner, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 00:42 (sixteen years ago) link
I don't have any data, but I would kind of assume that the GBP, Euro/Euro precursor currencies have all fallen against the Swiss franc post-Bretton Woods.
― circles, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 00:43 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh, yes, from that perspective agreed. I meant as a measure of depreciation of a currency (maybe this is why people wanted swiss bank accounts!) - though you are right, comparable currencies over the long term have probably weakend at similar rate to dollar
― laxalt, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 00:44 (sixteen years ago) link
Agree with Circles there
What didn't you like about the chart Don? (just thought it would make a change from charts of dollar vs gold is all!)
― laxalt, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 00:45 (sixteen years ago) link
well it a way all that chart does is show that the swiss franc behaves a lot like a commodity
― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 01:34 (sixteen years ago) link
True - which is why i figure it could be in an interesting measure of the path of the dollar/gbp over the next couple of years (cf inflationary vs deflationary bust). gold fulfills this function pretty well but can be emotive, volatile and speculative (the "is gold in a bubble?" arguments - whereas it harder, at least i think its harder, to argue that CHF is in a bubble
― laxalt, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 07:44 (sixteen years ago) link
Which side of the inflation/deflation fence do you sit on Tombot? or to ask another question, "Is Cash King Now?"
― laxalt, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 07:45 (sixteen years ago) link
I believe that real currency stability should be the goal of a well-managed economy and that nominal growth - god forbid nominal plateaus - at the expense of real value is a short-sighted, equity-favoring, egg-sucking pack of communistic lies designed to keep the rich fat and let everyone else die while they continue to believe that the universal franchise is just compensation for struggling through nigh-unescapable chumphood
― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 07:54 (sixteen years ago) link
cash doesn't have to be king, but cash should never be a horrendously STUPID way to hold your worth, which is what it's become. If you ain't making money for the money changers you're just a little piddling peon and deserve your eventual destitude. Fuck the lot. Burn it down.
Oh, it's late, isn't it.
― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 07:56 (sixteen years ago) link
but anyway I've been considering that my near-future purchase of a primary residence might be worth scaling back so that I can put a bit more into the markets - my timing has been off for the past couple of years, but I know that jim cramer is a day-trader imbecile, and I know that whatever I decide I want to live in is unlikely to appreciate by any reasonable amount over the next five years or longer.
― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 08:04 (sixteen years ago) link
commodities are already too high. they'll go higher, but knowing when to sell in that market is rife with peril at this point.
― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 08:05 (sixteen years ago) link
I agree totally, thats kind of what i was trying to get at with my figures vs CHF, that holding savings over the last 40 years has been the fed laughing at you, punished for having savings. i save, despite the fact i also save in a currency that is debased and is headed nowhere good any time soon:/
interesting about whether commodities are too high, i cant work it out. (ie 'gold is in a bubble' talk, is why i posted CHF figures. is CHF in a bubble?)
― vaqueros, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 08:07 (sixteen years ago) link
are people holding lots of swiss paper to dump on the market when they retire? is there a mass retreat into swiss currency from scary things like stocks or american bonds? That's what I mean by commodities being high. The "so-called-smart" (lol smarter than any of us) crowd is already in up to their elbows in chicago now. I always try to think three steps ahead (lol not rich yet).
― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 08:10 (sixteen years ago) link
I know what you are getting at, but is there a mass retreat into commodities? I'm not saying there isn't, I'm saying I don't know - basically because I don't know how 'mass' mass is? At this stage of the game I'm happy enough just to be debt-free and with savings that could last a couple years in event of job loss. Can't see every being 'rich', more about a buffer ( but then how many people have any kinds of savings cushion? even rich people! who mightnt be so rich if can't liquidate assets in falling knife selloff!)
Whats chicago?
― laxalt, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 08:18 (sixteen years ago) link
chicago is the US commodities trading floor. it's where hardcore gamblers test their black box shit before trying it out on the "easy money" on wall street. smaller fortunes die far more horrible deaths in chicago on the daily, while the chubby ivy kids wring their hands in NYC over the perfumes of such unproven ideas as GOOG or APPL.
Anecdotally, a coworker told me that when he went to have his taxes prepared this weekend, his Girl April related to him that people are coming in crying, lost their job, their house, and please please jesus I just need a few dollars more, please don't make me owe the government too.
― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 08:26 (sixteen years ago) link
If people out in the boondocks are having that kind of a year already, I don't know whether that means bottom by june or if we're in for a double dip.
― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 08:28 (sixteen years ago) link
hmm im kinda seeing commodities (ok well gold) as long term hedge. volatility of thats tuff (and silver!!) wouldn't dare trade or try shorting it. i figure somewhere between 10-25% in gold as hedge for next 4 years or so. If it doesn't do well, silver lining means its maybe not as tin hat out there as it looks
― laxalt, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 08:32 (sixteen years ago) link
I see a big fat wad of stupid people selling off gold in quantity over the next decade until it's down to half of what is is now. I'll be wrong as usual, of course, I thought houses couldn't possibly go for half a million dollars out in the middle of goddamned nowhere, with no seaside and a horrific commute. On the other hand, I'm still right about that last part, after a terribly cruel and horrific fashion that's done nobody any good.
― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 08:35 (sixteen years ago) link