If lawmakers cannot agree on how to address the pending “fiscal cliff”, and why would we think they would, $7 trillion worth of tax increases and spending cuts will begin to go into effect in January. So how can you and your business plan for this? And what does it

The government recently announced that over 55 million Social Security recipients will receive a 1.7 percent increase in their benefits starting in January. This is among the lowest increases since 1975.  However, this figure is tied to inflation which has been at extremely low levels since the great recession.

Overview Until the last week of June, investors were waiting to see what the Supreme Court would do about the 3.8 percentage point tax on investment income – part of the 2010 health care overhaul. The new tax starts January 1, 2013 and affects joint filers that have an adjusted

With much attention, Facebook recently offered an Initial Public Offering or IPO. Throughout the process, the media commonly used financial language many investors did not understand. I received multiple questions from clients about IPOs. An initial public offering is the first offering of stock from a private company. Stocks, also

With 2011 in the rear view mirror, investors may look back and consider it to be the “year of the event”. The U.S. economy and stock market was affected by multiple events including the tsunami in Japan, the European Debt Crisis, and the overall ineffectiveness with the handling of the

Dividend paying stocks tend to outperform when the stock market decreases while paying a stream of income in the form of dividends. There is a reason they are called “widow and orphan” investments. However, these stocks are no longer just suited for the retiree crowd. With interest rates at historic

The government announced today that 55 million Social Security recipients will receive a 3.6 percent increase in their benefits starting in January. This figure is tied to a measure of inflation. There has been no increase in Social Security the last two years due to extremely low inflation.

If you think politicians in Washington are ineffective and create uncertainty, you are not alone. This is reconfirmed with polls showing the approval rating of Congress at all time lows. Eric Singer, portfolio manager and founder of Congressional Effect Fund (CEFFX), takes it a step further. He contends that legislative

The debt limit is a cap set by Congress on the amount of debt the federal government can legally borrow. The United States government relies on debt to continue to operate since it spends more than it takes in. That is right. If you or I did this, we would

Institutional investors, hedge funds, endowment money managers, and the rich had the resources and availability of a strategy of balancing bullish and bearish stock picks. The premise of this strategy is to pick stocks (long) money managers believe will increase in value while (shorting) betting against stocks money manager believe

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a security that tracks an index, commodity, or basket of assets. It acts similar to an index mutual fund. Unlike a mutual fund, an ETF trades similar to a stock by reflecting the price changes throughout the trading day. Advantages Investment choice Exchange-Traded Funds offer

Deadlines Emancipation Day, a holiday observed in the District of Columbia, falls on Friday, April 15 this year. Therefore, the tax reporting deadline has been pushed back to Monday, April 18. This means the deadline to contribute to a Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, and SEP IRA for the 2010 tax

Introduction As investors saw their nest egg deteriorate in the great recession of 2008, many moved their money into bond funds as a safe haven to protect their assets from decreasing stock prices. As interest rates decreased to near zero and continued to remain low, bond funds flourished. Many investors