Michael Moore is an idiot, but there is hope
September 29, 2009
I just saw a preview for his latest work of crap. Moore is out there and whats even scarrier is the fact that there are others who think like him….
But there is hope for America…. I got an email full of “Tea Party” pictures and I thought I would post one just for Mr. Moore!
Investing in solar power, at home…
July 19, 2009
While surfing my favorite hunting forum I saw an advertisement for “Power 4 Home” Being the tool that I am, I clicked on the advertisement for the owners of the hunting forum.
The web site I was directed to was http://www.power4home.com
It was very intresting to read and I actually wanted to wip out my credit card and order the info package. But I figure I’ll do some research first. We have this thing called the internet, I think a guy named Al Gore invented it….. We can find out everything we ever wanted on the internet. So its time to start looking for some DIY power…..Solar and wind for the home that I can do myself.
Not only can we power up our own power plants, we can invest in those companies that make up the alternative energy needs that we need.
So I’ll be looking for not only ways to power my own power, I’ll be looking for opertunities to power up my 401K
Investing in the outdoors and finding stocks
June 30, 2009
Well, now that ball season is over and my oldest child has graduated and hopefully starting a job soon, I hope I can get back on track to a better investing education.
I was reading a blog out camping and there was a post about investing in your outdoor gear. That got me thinking over the weekend while I was trying to get my work shop cleaned up. I started looking around at my power tools and wondering if I could invest in any of those companies. Naturally I moved over to my hunting gear. What products do I use and more importantly, how many other hunters are there, who buy this stuff every year before they head outdoors.
Somewhere on this blog, I think I told yall I own some Smith & Wesson stock along with my dad’s old S&W 38 revolver. I also own a Ruger 10-22 rifle however I dont own any Ruger stock, but I do watch it along with my S&W. I own some Rocky boots so I should look them up and see what going on with them maybe.
Over the next week or so, Im going to make a list of stuff I carry on every trip outdoors. Then I’ll start looking online and see what companies are publicly traded.
Heres your first symbol to look up “BOOT“
Kansan Makes $1 Million Pledge to Pheasants Forever
June 3, 2009
A lifelong Kansan, Madl grew up on a dairy farm outside of Lawrence. He still remembers shooting his first quail with a single barrel .410 shotgun, and his early adventures in the outdoors grew into a lifelong passion for upland and waterfowl hunting. “As the years have passed, the more I’ve realized bird hunting was my real love,” Madl said. Much of that is attributed to his love of bird dogs. Even his beloved lab Jess has a PF Life Membership as a memorial. “I love to hunt, but if you don’t have the habitat, you don’t have the hunting, and consequently you don’t have places for the dogs to work.”
Having grown up in an agricultural family and a farmer himself, Madl is acutely aware of finding a balance between conservation and agricultural production. “I’ve seen what happens when conservation is thrown out the window,” said Madl, now a Financial Advisor, who specializes in Estate and Succession Planning, “But I’ve also seen what happens when the two exist in harmony.” A few years back, one of Madl’s hunting buddies, David Schaffer, consulted with a PF Farm Bill Biologist about his South Dakota property where the pair hunt. Being there for the consultation, Madl says PF is on the right track with the Farm Bill Biologist program and delivering conservation programs on a one-on-one basis. Madl’s belief in the Farm Bill Biologist program has lead to his involvement in the Kansas Grassroots Conservation Campaign. In fact, Madl currently serves as the Eastern Kansas Co-Chairman of the Kansas Grassroots Conservation Leadership Team.
Madl sees a great deal of potential for the delivery of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s wildlife habitat mission in his home state, which currently boasts 41 PF chapters, eight QF chapters and over 6,100 PF/QF members. Madl is pledging $1 million to PF/QF through the organization’s first-ever national fundraising effort, the Grassroots Conservation Campaign. Madl is also the second Kansan in less than six months to make a significant contribution to PF/QF through the Campaign. At the end of last year, Wallace Weber, 65, of Russell County, Kansas, made the single largest donation in the organization’s history by donating 1,700 acres of land, along with a stewardship fund.
“I’m a lifelong and true Kansan, and I want to see land used the right way,” Madl said, “There are great opportunities for wildlife habitat improvement in this state for pheasants, quail and all other wildlife, and I’m convinced Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever can help capitalize on those opportunities.”
“Duayne Madl’s commitment to the mission of Pheasants Forever is truly remarkable,” said David Bue, PF/QF’s Vice President of Development, “As Duayne and I worked together through the donation process, it became clear
that leaving a legacy through Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever is extremely important to him. At the same time, he’s also serving as a conservation leader in the hope that others will follow.”
Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever are non-profit conservation organizations dedicated to the protection and enhancement of pheasant, quail, and other wildlife populations in North America through habitat improvement, land management, public awareness, and education. PF/QF has more than 130,000 members in 700 local chapters across the continent.
Anthony Hauck (651)209-4972 or AHauck@pheasantsforever.org
Retirement Game Planning article
February 22, 2009
Ol’ Red posted this at Woody’s hunting forum last month……..
Periodic market downturns may result in significant investment losses, particularly within retirement accounts. If you are faced with this situation, you may have to reconsider when, or even if, you can retire.
The effects of a decline
Historically, the stock market has had its ups and downs. How any substantial market change impacts your retirement outlook may depend on how close you are to retirement. If you plan on working and contributing to your retirement savings for many more years, you may have time to recoup losses to your accounts due to poor investment performance. But if you’re closing in on retirement or you’re already there, a dip in your savings may affect how much you can safely withdraw and how long your savings can last.
To demonstrate, assume you and your spouse have $1 million in retirement savings, expect an annual average rate of return of 7%, and estimate that you presently need $100,000 annual retirement income for both of you to live comfortably, of which $30,000 will come from Social Security. Presuming withdrawals increase by 3% each year to offset the effects of inflation, your savings will last about 22 years.
However, a decrease of 14% in the value of your savings in one year shortens the duration of your savings by over 4 years.
What are your options?
If you’re fortunate, even a significant decrease in savings may not impact your retirement income dramatically. You may have other sources of fixed income such as company-sponsored pensions, so you won’t need to rely on your savings to provide much of your income. Or you may be able to offset the effect of diminished savings by spending less — forgoing that planned cruise, putting off buying that new car, or making smaller gifts to children and grandchildren, for example. But if you rely on your savings for most of your retirement income, considerable investment losses of the magnitude recently experienced can require major lifestyle changes. Here are a few ideas to help you cope with the erosion of your retirement savings.
Continue working
You may have to delay the retirement party a little longer. Postponing retirement lets you continue to add to your retirement savings, which can offset losses caused by poor investment performance. Also, working allows you to delay withdrawing from your savings. That could allow more time for your retirement accounts to recover from investment-related losses.
Delay taking Social Security
Social Security may be the only source of fixed income you’ll have in retirement. If you delay applying for benefits until your full retirement age, you can get as much as 30% more in monthly payments compared to taking benefits early. And, for each year you defer benefits past your full retirement age (between 65 and 67, depending on when you were born) to age 70, your benefit is increased by 8%. That could mean an additional $500 or more in your benefit check each month–and that doesn’t include annual cost of living increases.
Consider fixed income investments
Investments such as single premium immediate annuities (SPIAs) provide an income for the rest of your life, or for the combined lives of you and your spouse. However, while the income is dependable (subject to the claims-paying ability of the annuity issuer), you generally don’t have access to the money you paid for the SPIA and you may not be able to change the amount of income payments or their duration once you’ve started.
Red
Personal Finance: 20 Dos & Don’ts for 2009
December 23, 2008
During the worst economic crisis in a lifetime, the right financial decisions are crucial.
BusinessWeek asked financial planners for some advice on what to do—or not to do—with your money in the New Year. As we bid farewell to a dreadful 2008, these “resolutions” may help keep your finances on the right track in 2009:
1. Don’t try to predict the future.
“We are currently in the midst of unprecedented and complex challenges,” says Femi Shote of Asset Harvest Group in McLean, Va. Anyone who thinks he or she can predict what’s going to happen is “delusional,” Shote says.
Financial advisers often hear from clients who would like to sell stocks now and then buy again when the market hits bottom. “My response is, ‘How do you know when that will be?’” says Trent Porter of Priority Financial Planning in Fort Collins, Colo.
2. Do keep enough cash available.
Even if you’re not worried about losing your job, a rainy-day fund can provide peace of mind.
There are different guidelines for how much cash to keep on hand. Some say $12,000 or more per adult; others say it should be six to nine months of living expenses. With extra cash available, you can avoid selling investments to pay for expenses in an emergency.
3. Do invest internationally.
Though the financial crisis started in the U.S., the past year has been worse for investments in the rest of the world. The MSCI EAFE, an index of international stocks, is down 43% this year, and stocks in emerging economies fared far worse. American investors who diversified abroad have also been pummeled by the rise in the U.S. dollar.
Even after a year like that, advisers say it’s not wise to abandon international investments entirely. For one thing, though some key overseas economies, like China’s, have been hit hard lately, their long-term economic fundamentals look better than those of the U.S.
4. Don’t try to pick one winning investment. Diversify.
Putting all your money in one stock is dangerous at a time when a company’s bankruptcy can completely wipe out the value of its shares.
Robert Siegmann of Financial Management Group in Cincinnati advises clients to balance their portfolios between fixed income and stocks, with shares in various types of companies — small and large, U.S. and international. “Don’t try to pick the winning stock, or the winning idea. Just diversify across all investments and markets,” he says.
5. Do think about energy efficiency.
Russell Francis of Portland Financial Advisors in Beaverton, Ore., recommends that investors take advantage of a $500 federal residential energy tax credit that was rescinded in 2008 but returns in 2009. The credit can help cover the costs of adding insulation or replacing doors, windows, or furnaces—home repairs that should also save you on heating and cooling costs.
6. Don’t stop contributing to 401(k) and other retirement accounts.
Says Sidney Blum of GreenLight Fee Only Advisors in Evanston, Ill.: “Everyone loves to invest in their 401(k) when the markets are flying high, but they should keep putting money in while the markets are down.” He adds: “More money is made at the bottom of a market than at the top.”
Even more pessimistic planners say you should be taking advantage of any match your employer offers for retirement fund contributions.
Click here to read the full article:
Starting Retirement Account Allocations for Someone Under 40
December 23, 2008
I read a great article tonight and I thought I would share it.
One of the most important financial moves you can make is to start investing for your retirement early. This post is directed at those in the USA (but you can adjust the ideas for your particular situation). Retirement accounts with tax free growth, tax deferred growth and/or even tax deductible contributions can add to the benefits of such an investment. And matching by your company can give you an immediate return or 100% or 50% or some other amount. With 100% matching if you invest $2,000 your company adds $2,000 to your retirement account. For 50% they would add $1,000 in the event you added $2,000.
In other posts I will cover some of the other details involved but some people can be confused just by what investment options to chose. Normally you will have a limited choice of mutual funds. Hopefully you will have a good family of funds to choose from such as Vanguard, TIAA-CREF, American, Franklin-Templeton, T.Rowe Price etc.). If so, the most important thing is really just to get started adding money. The details of how you allocate the investment is secondary to that.
So once you have made the decision to save for your retirement what allocation makes sense? Well diversification is a valuable strategy. Some options you will likely have include S&P 500 index fund, Russel 5000 (total market index – or some such), small cap growth, international stocks, money market fund, bond fund and perhaps international bonds, short term bonds, specialty funds (health care, natural resources) long term bonds, real estate trusts…
Just to get a simple idea of what might make sense when you are starting out and under 40 and don’t have other substantial assets in any of these areas (large mutual fund holdings, your own house, investment real estate…) this is an allocation I think is reasonable (but don’t take my word for it go read what other say and then make your own decisions):
25% Total stock market index (~Wilshire 5000)
25% international stocks
20% small cap stocks
10% real estate
10% high quality short term bonds in a Euros, Yen…
10% short term bonds (or money market)
Another option:
25% international stocks
20% S&P 500 index
20% small cap stocks
15% real estate
10% emerging market fund (China, India, Mexico, Singapore, Brazil…)
10% money market
Coming up with a retirement plan
December 7, 2008
Time for a plan.
Well dont know where to start but its time to start putting a plan on paper. What do I really want to happen when I retire? Where am I going to live? How much will I have to live on?
I could go on and on with the questions. So this week, I will be trying to answer some of these questions and posting some links to the places I find some answers and hopefully you can gain a little more knowledge about coming up with a retirement plan.
A guy I communicated with through a hunting web site, is in the financial/retirement planning buisness. He says this:
I actually don’t start with investing. There are 4 parts to financial planning…Estate planning, business planning, retirement planning and wealth accumulation(investing). Some clients don’t need help in all areas. I typically ask them a whole lot of questions and try to find the most pressing or important issues and deal with them first. I approach the investing aspect of it as well. There has to be a reason to make a particular investment and to me, it needs to coincide with a plan.
So now what do I need to do? Estate planning, whats that? Well I guess Im going to find out and the next few posting will list what I can come up with.
Bailout Includes IRA Charitable Giving
November 30, 2008
The Wall Street Journal
By ANNE TERGESEN
If you’re age 70½ or older and are charitably inclined, the bailout package that President Bush signed into law in October contains some good news: Uncle Sam is temporarily resurrecting a tax break available to those who make donations from their individual retirement accounts to charity.
We mentioned this break in brief several weeks ago and — based on readers’ questions — decided to discuss it this week in greater detail. What follows is a look at the requirements involved, as well as a warning: Be careful how you transfer the money.
To be eligible, you have to be at least 70½ when you make the donation. You and your spouse can each give up to $100,000 from your respective accounts this year and next. The money can also come from two other types of retirement accounts — a SEP or a SIMPLE IRA — with the condition that you are no longer contributing to those particular accounts, says Ed Slott, an IRA consultant in Rockville Centre, N.Y. Employer-sponsored plans, such as 401(k)s, aren’t eligible.
You must give the donation to a public charity; a private foundation, supporting organization or donor-advised fund won’t work, says Blanche Lark Christerson, a managing director at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management in New York.
The charity has to acknowledge the gift, and you can’t receive anything in return — not so much as a chicken dinner, says Ms. Christerson. Moreover — and this is critical — the check must be payable to the charity. If you withdraw money first, you’ll get stuck paying income tax on the entire amount.
Under the law, any money you donate to charity from your IRA will count toward the annual withdrawals you’re required to take from these accounts after reaching age 70½. (Be aware, though, that if you already took your withdrawal this year, you’re out of luck. You can’t retroactively claim the tax break, even if you gave some or all of this money to charity.)
If you are able to take advantage of this tax break, you won’t get the tax deduction for your gift that you would normally be entitled to. But you are almost sure to come out ahead. To see why, consider what would happen if you were to donate $1,000 to your alma mater.
If when filling out your tax returns you don’t itemize deductions, you’d normally get no tax deduction for the gift. But under the new law, you would receive a nice tax break. That’s because under the new law, the charitable donations you make from an IRA don’t count toward your taxable income. As a result, a $1,000 gift would reduce your income by $1,000. That would save someone in the 25% tax bracket $250.
If you itemize your deductions, you’ll also come out ahead. That’s because taxpayers whose adjusted gross incomes exceed certain thresholds lose some of their deductions and personal exemption amounts. By not adding $1,000 to your income, this gift might help you keep your income below these levels.
“Without this provision, your required minimum distribution may trigger all these other stealth taxes,” Mr. Slott says.
A few states, including New Jersey, don’t allow residents to take deductions for charitable gifts on their state income-tax returns. Residents of these states would still have to pay state income tax on donations from an IRA, says Michael Steiner, a wealth manager at RegentAtlantic in Morristown, N.J. Residents of these states should realize they “won’t get the full tax break,” Mr. Steiner says.
Write to Anne Tergesen at anne.tergesen@wsj.com
Retirement Calculators
November 29, 2008
When I was in the treestand yesterday waiting on a big buck to come along my way, I was wondering how many bucks (the green kind) I was going to need when I retire. Then I got to thinking about the plan and how to get to the goal of an easy outdoor life during retirement. In order to live the easy life one needs money to pay the bills while one lays around or in my plan, hunts and fishes every day possible.
Try it out and see how easy it is. There are several different calculators and tools and they will be a great benifit to you when you are laying out your plan. You cant have a plan if you dont know what you goals are! Outlining a plan can be pretty easy if you have a few tools like the CNNMoney.com calculators. Start with how you want to retire and how much you will need a month to live on. Its a great and easy site to have in your arsenal and you prepare for retirement. No matter how far away it is.
