Post #142 - Part 7 – Stuff You Need to Know, Now That You Know Everything About Investing

I’m done telling you about investing.  Why?  Because I’ve told you all you really need to know.  Plus, in Part 6, I reviewed the important points in case you forgot anything.  Now go to the bookstore and buy William Bernstein’s book “The Investor’s Manifesto: Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon and Everything In Between”.  Here’s a link to the first few pages…The Investor's Manifesto.

Also buy Dan Solin’s “The Smartest Investment Book You’ll Ever Read”.

You don’t need anything else in your investing arsenal.  Keep these books close and re-read them from time to time.

Part 7 will focus on other things you need to know to insure that your financial future is secure.  

The first big question you need answered is “Will future tax rates be higher or lower than they are today?”

It’s impossible to answer that one without knowing the answers to these other questions:

• Will Medicare/Medicaid costs ever be contained?
• Will significant changes be made to Social Security to ensure that it survives without taking two thirds of your weekly paycheck?
• Will we be able to reduce the national debt?
• Will national healthcare costs spiral out of control?
• Will politicians at the state and federal levels cut spending significantly?  Do they have the guts to tell government workers and unions that they have to make significant concessions?  Do they have the guts to cut programs we can’t afford?
• Will corporate tax breaks be reduced or eliminated?
• Will we stop bailing out industries that have no regard for the rules?
• Will our agencies assigned to safeguard US interests actually start doing some safeguarding?  I’m talking about the people who oversee mining, oil drilling, banking, factory emissions, hedge fund managers, stock brokers, power companies (and their power plants) and any other part of our industrial complex  that could really harm the country if somebody with the public’s interest at heart was not watching.
• Will we become an isolationist country, or will we continue to be the world’s policeman?

See how hard it is to predict future tax rates?  You just can’t do it.  My personal guess is that the top tax rates will be higher when you guys are in your sixties.  That’s because I don’t think politicians will ever change, which means they won’t cut costs and they will spend money we don’t have in their frenzied efforts to ensure that they are re-elected.  So, if you want lower taxes, be poor.  Poor people don’t pay taxes. 

Comments

[Porash Tiwari]

RBC Online Banking
Nice your personal guess is that the top tax rates will be higher when you guys are in your sixties.

[Ever Foucus]

If you want to see the mind blowing article with real facts and figures, this has really tremendous impacts on readers.

security equipment