Marketplace Perspectives: 12/15/23
Marketplace perspectives is a bi-weekly personal finance bulletin for business owners.
Each edition will include reviews of recent events & topics related to entrepreneurship, markets, economics, tax management, and other matters relevant to business owners.
You'll find a mix of content here, including links to articles we liked, recent blog posts, podcast episodes, and other videos or posts.
Enjoy!
December Market Commentary - Rates: Lower and Sooner?
After a year in which Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell managed to hold everyone’s attention – again – here we are waiting for the outcome of the last FOMC meeting of the year.
A few weeks ago, with the narrative of rates being higher for longer taking firm hold, the upcoming December meeting would likely have been less of an attention-grabbing event.
But that was last month.
Headlines We're Tracking
What’s Really Driving Inflation and Bond Yields?
Milton Friedman famously said that inflation is “always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.”
Not quite. Friedman later admitted that he overstated his case. It is true that all things being equal, printing more money does create higher inflation.
For example, Argentina has doubled its money supply over the past 12 months, accompanied by a 142% annual inflation rate—and, not coincidentally, the election of a new president.
Weekly Research Briefing: Questionably Priced Berries
There is nothing better than finding fresh berries at a fair value at the grocery store or a farmers’ market. One of the downsides to fresh berries is that you know a few at the bottom of the basket will be crushed, spoiled or have a six-legged friend claiming it as its home.
But what if you got home and found that 40% of the berries in the basket were in a bad state and possibly inedible?
领英推荐
Are You On Track for Retirement?
We've fielded a ton of questions from readers like you over the years. From investing to insurance to entrepreneurship to retirement to taxes, you all have asked questions covering almost every corner of financial planning.
That being said, there's one question that tends to come up more frequently than any other. The most asked question, by far, is whether you're "on track". On track for retirement. On track to buy that business or that new house. On track to pay down debt. On track toward your other goals. While answering one off questions might be helpful to engaged readers like you, it doesn't really help you determine whether you're "on track."
Which is precisely why we're rolling out WealthGauge. WealthGauge is a 3-minute assessment to give you direction surrounding whether you're "on track". To be clear, WealthGauge is not advice or a deep dive analysis. It's some quick feedback about your financial situation and our thoughts on what to look out for. No more, no less.
Click the link below to take our short questionnaire. We'll run your information through our financial planning software, and email you a short, private video sharing the output and thoughts & observations.
Business Owner's Corner
Don't Make This S-Corp Mistake
Owners of S-Corporations might know that they’re required to pay themselves “reasonable compensation” each year as W-2 wages subject to payroll and FICA taxes. It’s tempting to suppress this compensation, since taking less money out of your business as W-2 compensation (and more as profit distributions) results in less overall tax due.
We’ve seen dozens of business owners who take this too far, by paying themselves less than a reasonable amount and even $0 in some circumstances. Don’t let this be you. Enforcement can be stiff, and generally includes back taxes owed, interest, and other penalties.
Latest From the Podcast
GMB #210: Here's What to do if Your SSN is Compromised
Are you concerned about getting your non-public information compromised? We dedicated this week’s episode of Grow Money Business to discussing what to do if your personal information is misplaced or compromised in some way.
Join us as we dive into how people can take advantage of your personal information, both yours and banks’ responsibilities to mitigate events like this from happening, the credit reporting agencies, how a credit freeze can be of help in a situation like this, how to improve your credit, and more.
Thanks for Reading!
Feel free to shoot me a message with your feedback about Marketplace Perspectives or other content ideas.
-Grant