From AFP report on Yahoo News: US wholesale inflation continued its upward trend in January, recording its largest monthly gain in more than four years, according to data released Tuesday by the Labor Department. The Producer Price Index, which measures prices from the seller’s perspective, rose 0.6 percent in seasonally adjusted figures, which was the largest such gain since September 2012 and well above an analyst consensus forecast of 0.3 percent. Excluding food and energy, the index saw a monthly gain of 0.4 percent. Year over year, however, the figure was unchanged at 1.6 percent, unadjusted. “In short, fairly strong and not just because of energy,” Jim O’Sullivan, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a client note. (yahoo.com)
What Bill and Melinda Gates are Doing with Warren Buffett’s $30 billion Historic Gift
Bill and Melinda Gates describe Warren Buffett’s $30 billion donation a decade ago as “the biggest single gift anyone ever gave anybody for anything.” As reported on Geek Wire, Buffett’s unprecedented gift doubled the size of the Seattle-based Gates Foundation’s endowment — increasing its capacity to take on some of the world’s biggest challenges. “That’s an incredible thing,” said Bill Gates in an interview with GeekWire. “It really energized the foundation, and half of what we’ve gotten done in this last decade is because Warren trusted us.” So what have they done with Buffett’s billions? Some of the money has gone to the Gates Foundation’s work in education, agriculture, and financial services for the poor. But the bulk has gone to global health, supporting the Gates Foundation and its partners in areas such as vaccine distribution, access to contraceptives, and scientific research to help the world’s poorest people. (geekwire.com)
Free College Tuition for All San Francisco’s Residents
Public colleges in Germany, Norway and Finland are free for residents. Soon San Francisco will join that league as the first city in the US to offer free college. CNBC reported: San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor Jane Kim announced plans to offer free City College tuition to all of San Francisco’s residents regardless of need. It would be the first metropolitan area to do so. San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim told local station KGO-TV, “Making City College free is going to provide greater opportunities for more San Franciscans to enter into the middle class and more San Franciscans to stay in the middle class if they currently are.” Under the proposed deal, which is expected to take effect in the fall, the city of San Francisco would provide the City College of San Francisco with nearly $5.4 million annually. (cnbc.com)
Fight Tax-Refund Fraud and Identity Theft by Using This IRS Form
According to the Internal Revenue Service, tax-refund fraud jumped to $21 billion by 2016, from just $6.5 billion two years ago. Criminals can use your personal information such as your name, date of birth and Social Security number without your permission to commit fraud. With so many online filings available, it takes so little time to file a false return. Use Tax Form 8821, Tax Information Authorization, to fight identity theft. Form 8821 authorize any individual, corporation, firm, organization, or partnership you designate to inspect and/or receive your confidential information verbally or in writing for the type of tax and the years or periods listed on the form, and it also delete or revoke prior tax information authorizations. So by using Form 8821 and appoint yourself to receive communications and then if someone files a false tax return using your identity you would receive the information and take action to stop the tax-refund fraud and identity theft. You can avoid the fraud or recoup the money by letting IRS know that your tax refund has been issued improperly.
Apple Valued at $700 Billion as Shares Reached Their Highest Closing Level Ever
On Monday Apple’s shares closed at $133.29, valuing the company at $700 billion. Fox Business reported: “Apple Inc.’s shares reached their highest closing level ever Monday, as investors bet that the 10th-anniversary iPhone expected later this year will return the world’s most valuable company to renewed momentum after its worst stumble in years. The stock closed at $133.29, topping the prior record close of $133 set in February 2015. The all-time intraday trading high for Apple shares is $134.54, also reached in 2015. That puts Apple’s market value at about $700 billion, which is more than $120 billion ahead of the No. 2 company, Google parent Alphabet Inc.” (foxbusiness.com)
Google Engineers on Self-Driving Car Project Quit Working After Reaching Financial Independence
Engineers on Google’s self-driving car project were paid so much that they quit. With so much money and bonus throwing at these engineers to help retain dedicated workers in the short run, it has resulted in many employees leaving the company in the long run after they reach financial independence. The Verge reports: “Google has spent a lot of money on its self-driving car project, now spun off into a new entity called Waymo. Much of that money has gone to engineers and other staff, according a new report from Bloomberg. In order to keep self-driving staffers happy — and, presumably, from leaving the company for other firms doing similar work — Google backed the proverbial Brinks truck up to the self-driving department and unloaded. Bloomberg says that early staffers “had an unusual compensation system” that multiplied staffers salaries and bonuses based on the performance of the self-driving project. The payments accumulated as milestones were reached, even though Waymo remains years away from generating revenue. One staffer eventually ‘had a multiplier of 16 applied to bonuses and equity amassed over four years.’ The huge amounts of compensation worked — for a while. But eventually, it gave many staffers such financial security that they were willing to leave the cuddly confines of Google.”
The Debts That You Can’t Discharge in Bankruptcy
Many people think that once discharge is granted by the Bankruptcy Court, the debtors are released from the liability of paying all debts. Think again! Not all your debts can be discharged in bankruptcy. Super Saving Tips lists several types of debts you can’t kick out in bankruptcy.
- Debts you owe the government: “Have you been penalized or fined by the government? If so, I’m afraid bankruptcy can’t give you any relief. No one can give you any relief. You have to pay the fines and penalties or they will stay with you till your last breath. If you have more questions regarding government debt and how it will be treated in bankruptcy, then consult an attorney.”
- Child support and alimony: “Child support payments and alimony aren’t dischargeable in bankruptcy. These two basically comprise the amount your child or ex-spouse needs for covering basic living expenses. Debts you owe due to marital property division don’t come under this kind of support. In a few states, these debts are dischargeable in bankruptcy.”
- Student loans: “Millions of students and parents would have given a sigh of relief if student loan debts could be eliminated through bankruptcy. Unfortunately, in most cases, they can’t be discharged in bankruptcy proceedings. Private student loans, federal student loans, loans taken out from a school or university all can’t be kicked out by filing bankruptcy.”
- Income tax: “Most people think about bankruptcy to discharge unpaid income tax. It isn’t impossible to discharge income tax in bankruptcy.”
Disney Raises Single-Day Ticket Price to Magic Kingdom to $107
Disney Magic Kingdom is the most visited theme park in the world. And it is getting more expensive for visitors to experience the so-called happiest place on earth. “Walt Disney World is increasing single-day tickets at certain times of the year and setting expiration dates on tickets in hopes of preventing overcrowding during its parks’ busiest times. Company officials said Saturday that single-day ticket prices are either staying the same, or are increasing no more than $5 under the new price structure for its Florida theme parks. Starting Sunday, ‘value’ days for Magic Kingdom will cost $107 for adults and $101 for children.” Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler confirmed the changes in Disney’s ticket prices. “Our pricing provides guests a range of options that allow us to better manage demand to maximize the guest experience and is reflective of the distinctly Disney offerings at all of our parks,” Wahler said. (clickorlando.com)
Finland’s Universal Basic Income Is Useless and Unworkable
According to Finnish Trade Union Economist as reported on Bloomberg, “Finland’s basic income experiment is unworkable, uneconomical and ultimately useless. Plus, it will only encourage some people to work less.” The trade union argues this Universal Basic Income program would cost 5% of Finland’s entire gross domestic product, making it impossibly expensive. “The labor group says the results of the two-year pilot program will fail to sway its opposition to a welfare-policy idea that’s gaining traction among those looking for an alternative in the post-industrial age. ‘We think it takes social policy in the wrong direction,’ said Ilkka Kaukoranta, chief economist of the Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions, which has nearly one million members. Since January, a group of unemployed Finns aged between 25 and 58 have been receiving a stipend of 560 euros ($600) per month. The amount isn’t means-tested and is paid regardless of whether the recipient finds a job, starts a business or returns to school… Advocates say it eliminates poverty traps and redistributes income while empowering the individual and reducing paperwork… While limited in scope (it’s conditional on the beneficiary having received some form of unemployment support in November 2016) and size (it’s based on a randomly-selected sample of 2,000 jobless people), the Finnish trial may help answer questions like: Does it work? Is it worth it? And the most fundamental of all: Does it incite laboriousness or laziness?” (bloomberg.com)
Top 5 Personal Finance Apps for Windows 10
Managing your personal finance can be a pain sometimes. Luckily, there are many useful personal finance apps out there. Here are the top 5 personal finance apps for Windows 10 to help you plan your spending and manage your finances efficiently. These Finance apps which are available in the Windows Store, help you to track its flow and limit your spending and create budgets.
- Money Keeper: “An amazing application with all the required features that lets you maintain accounts, keep track of your income and your expenses. You can generate reports, see summaries and also forecast your expense. You can even create budgets to limit your spending and save some amount of money.”
- Money Lover: “A fluid, easy to use expense tracker available in both free and premium variants and comes with great tracking and budgeting features. You can manage loans and debts using this application.”
- Homeasy: “A financial application designed to track the spending in normal households. You can create your own monthly billing calendar which would include recurring bill payments, rents and all those monthly expenditures of your household.
- MoneyPoint: “A complete offline application and does not synchronize any data to other devices. All data is stored locally in the device and you can export data in form of reports and expense summaries. All other major features like expense management, budgeting, goals, and performances are offered by this tool.”
- Spending Tracker: “Another great personal finance app that tracks your monthly expenditure and generates category wise reports and summaries. With not many advanced features, Spending Tracker is quite simple to use. It can generate all sort of reports including weekly, monthly, annually, categorized and cash flow reports as well.”
6 Greatest Sins of Insurance Agents
Insurance agents are not fiduciaries in most cases. They have no obligation to place your interests above their own or above those of the insurance companies they represent. The White Coat Investor describes 6 greatest sins of insurance agents trying to disguise selling as advising:
- Underselling Term Life Insurance: “I see doctors who are sold a 5 year term policy at age 30. That’s dumb. Your term ought to be long enough to get you to your likely date of financial independence.”
- Selling Whole Life Insurance: “Whole life insurance (and its cousins universal life, variable life, variable universal life, and index universal life) is one of the most oversold products in the entire financial services industry.”
- Selling Insurance On Children: “There is simply little excuse to sell someone a life insurance policy on their children.”
- Trying To Be A Financial Advisor: “In fact, in order to get sold, the WORST investments pay the HIGHEST commissions. I don’t care how good of a person you are, that’s a tough conflict of interest to fight against every day for your entire career.”
- Selling Long Term Care Insurance to the Wrong Crowd: “Everybody doesn’t need long term care insurance. Stop trying to sell it to everyone.”
- Not Being An Independent Agent: “Why would any one company be the best company for every type of insurance for every person? It doesn’t make any sense. Yet many agents are ‘captive’ and sell insurance from only one company.”
Vanguard Reaches $4 Trillion for First Time
More and more investors are attracted to Vanguard’s extremely low-cost model. Several studies have shown that funds with lower expense ratios, as a group, deliver better performance than higher-cost funds—because investors keep more of their returns. Wall Street Journal Reports: “Assets at Vanguard Group climbed to $4 trillion for the first time, a fresh high for the index-fund giant. The Malvern, Pa.-based firm pulled in roughly $49 billion in net new money in January, according to preliminary numbers from a spokeswoman, boosting its assets under management to the new firm record…. Vanguard’s rise is largely the result of a rush by investors to embrace lower-cost index-tracking products such as exchange-traded funds. Vanguard executives said in a client webinar early this year that the firm had received ‘unprecedented phone volumes’ but that it doesn’t trade cost for service. Vanguard, which has a staff of about 15,000, hired more than 1,700 new full-time staff members last year and said it expects to hire a similar number of new ‘crew members’ in 2017.”
The trending to switch to low-cost index funds from actively managed funds is getting bigger and bigger every year. With more money pouring into Vanguards, the fund fees will be even lower, and that’s a good news for investors like you and me. The net money inflows at Vanguard in 2016 topped those of all of its rivals combined, and this year is going to be even better. According to Morningstar, $289 billion or 54% of the $533 billion of net flows into all mutual funds and exchange-traded funds last year went to Vanguard funds. [Read more…]
Here Are More Ways to File Your Tax for Free. Yes, Absolutely Free!
Ann Carrns writes on The New York Times: “This year, there are numerous ways to prepare and file income tax returns free of charge — but the variety of features and qualifying criteria is dizzying. So it is important for filers to slow down and make sure the programs they choose are really the ones they want. The Internal Revenue Service continues to offer the Free File program — online, do-it-yourself tax preparation software from a dozen commercial vendors — to low- and moderate-income filers. (Generally, this refers to people who earn less than $64,000, although some companies set lower limits.) The online software is made available free to eligible tax filers under an agreement between the I.R.S. and the Free File Alliance, a group of major tax preparation providers that includes Intuit, the maker of TurboTax; H&R Block; and TaxAct. About 100 million people are eligible to use Free File, but only about three million do each year, said Tim Hugo, the alliance’s executive director. The disparity, he said, may be a result of the I.R.S.’s lack of an advertising budget.” (nytimes.com)
Financial Lessons from Johnny Depp’s Undoing
“Depp’s earnings are massive any way you cut it, whether he is getting paid $20 million per film — purportedly his going rate in 2014 — or $1 million per week on any project. But his spending problems are relative to those earnings,” writes Chuck Jaffe. Johnny Depp’s issues with personal finance have been fodder recently for the tabloids. It’s a classic story of spending more than earning. Despite earning way above ordinary person, Johnny Depp ran into personal finance trouble due to the fact that he owned a 45-acre village in France, spent $18 million to renovate a 150-foot yacht, owned 14 residences, plus a collection of islands in the Bahamas, paid more than $3.5 million a year to pay for a staff of 40 people, and spent a purported $30,000 per month on wine. “The first secret to financial planning — which shocks people — is spend less than you earn,” explained Michael S. Falk of Focus Consulting Group in Chicago. “You start by living within your means, no matter how much you are making. If you always spend less than you earn, the question is did you save the difference, and how have you invested it.” (richmond.com)
The U.S. Mint to Release New $100 Gold Coin
The U.S. Mint will release a $100 gold coin on April 6th, 2017 depicting an allegorical liberty as an African-American woman to commemorate the agency’s 225th anniversary. The coin was unveiled during a ceremony earlier this year involving the U.S. Mint and Department of Treasury. The new $100 gold coin is the first in a series of coins that will be released biennially. Later coins will portray Liberty as Asian-American, Hispanic-American, Indian-American, and more. “We are very proud of the fact that the United States Mint is rooted in the Constitution,” said Principal Deputy Director Jeppson. “Our founding fathers realized the critical need for our fledgling nation to have a respected monetary system, and over the last 225 years, the Mint has never failed in its mission.” (usmint.gov)
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