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You're probably wondering, “what's with the crazy title?”
Well, one of us getting married in a few months and is getting quite the education on weddings and I say “miscellaneous” costs that tag along for the ride.
But don't fret, if that's of little interest to you, we've got plenty more to discuss
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Sometimes after we record the Financial Procast I realize that though we've discussed three or four separate topics with no apparent connection, a common thread emerges that ties them all together.
Today's episode is one of those moments.
What is the obsession with “objective” financial advice? What does that even mean? And…more importantly, just because your advice comes from an objective source (for the purpose of this discussion that would mean someone with whom there is no financial incentive to provide advice that leans one way or another) does that necessarily mean it's good advice?
We don't think so. You can be objective and still be wrong.
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Despite it being a bit of a slow week in the world of financial news, we managed to find a few nuggets that hopefully you'll find interesting.
Today we are talking about President Obama's proposed budget for 2016…well not really. But we are discussing some of his proposed changes to how IRA's are taxed–both in regard to Roth IRA conversions and to the repeal of stretch IRA provisions. No doubt both will prove to lightning rod issues for many.
Also, we're taking a look at a grand experiment that is being funded by Peter Thiel that pays kids to drop out of college and dive into the world of entrepreneurship. It started a few years back and we have an update on its progress.
Institutional bond investors have decided now's the time to buy bonds? Seems like they're late to the party…no?
Finally, we look at some common mistakes and misconceptions surrounding life insurance beneficiaries. Yes, we know it's not terribly interesting but it is very important, be sure not to skip it as it could save your heirs a ton of trouble and money.
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No today's episode of the Financial Procast is not really sponsored by Apple, but if you listen closely you'll get the joke. All I can say is thank goodness for the amazing battery life of my Macbook Pro Retina. We were able to record this hour long podcast with me only having about 25% of the battery life when we started.
But not to worry, this episode has nothing to do with that in particular, just a little humor to get things started.
No, there are much more pressing issues to discuss today…so let's get to it.
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In episode 158 we were truly given the gift of awesome topics to discuss and we even get to reference some commentary from one of our favorite economists/financial commentators, Robert Shiller.
Today we're discussing what Dr. Shiller thinks investors can expect in regard to asset returns moving forward, the rise of “roboadvisers” (and their insane valuations), millennials have discovered that you actually have to pay for stuff, and we think that most of investing world has the idea of diversification all wrong.
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Well, we're back after I was gone on a little vacation last week. I know that many of regular listeners were shocked that we didn't release an episode last week as it is customary for us to do so even when one of us is away. Alas, life happened and we weren't able to record anything prior to my time away.
But never fear, we have a great lineup for you today.
Now, I will admit at least part of our episode is a bit self-serving but that's only the first 15 minutes or so. If you don't like to hear us gripe, we understand, just look at the time stamps provided below and skip ahead to the parts that interest you more.
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Well, today's episode takes us back to our normal format where we scoured the interwebs looking for stories that we think would interest our community and that we could pontificate on for more than a minute or two.
Oddly enough we ended up with two stories that illustrate what we think is vast governmental overreach into your wallet and into the financial services industry. Enjoy.
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Today's episode is all about taxes. Now, we normally talk about taxes as the April 15th deadline approaches, however, with all the buzz concerning the President's latest proposed changes that could ultimately change tax law, we felt obliged to talk about taxes today.
So, we don't have a neatly organized show for you today. Instead, it's more of a free flowing rant about the proposed changes and what we think about them.
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A new variable universal life insurance lawsuit was filed in California Superior Court back in October of 2014 alleging Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Fraud, Professional Negligence, and Unjust Enrichment. Defendants listed in the lawsuit include Larson Financial Group, Larson Financial Securities, John Hancock Life, and Nationwide Life and Annuity.
The complaint tells an interesting story of Larson Financial Group’s infiltration into a professional medical association in Southern California that resulted in the sales of a handful of larger sized variable universal life insurance policies that three purchasers later regretted and for which they are now seeking damages.
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We had a couple of thin topics to start off today's episode but not to worry…the last two topics carried us and we had plenty to say about those things. It seems talking about 401k's and picking on government officials is always good fodder.
Be sure you tune in to the bit on Roth IRA rollovers from 401k's as that may very well pertain to some of you and for your convenience I've timestamped the whole thing so you can skip around.
And I know I mentioned this last week but…
It's been a while since we've done a “Q&A” type show and we would love to do a couple this year, so if you have questions that you'd like us to tackle, please comment on this post or use our contact form. Send us your burning questions and we will do our best to address them all in an upcoming episode.
We've gotten a couple of questions so far and we thank those of you who have submitted those but keep them coming in so that we can have a couple of information packed episodes. We really enjoy doing this when we feel that we are providing value to our audience.
