Weekly Market Review
Michael Acho
Guardian of the Wealth of the Most Productive People on Earth | Creating, Protecting and Distributing Wealth for Clients
Good afternoon,
Tax day is coming up. Unlike last year, there has not been an announcement of any additional waivers or extensions beyond the standard ones. So your tax filing deadline for your 2020 return remains April 15, 2021. Unless you file an extension, in which case any payment has to be made by April 15, but you get until October 15 to file the return and possibly fund your retirement account, depending upon which kind of account it is. Here is an interesting stat, 35% of the 153.8 million tax returns that were filed nationwide for tax year 2018 (the latest year for which data has been released) did not pay any federal income tax, a total of 53.4 million tax returns. 90% of these “non-taxable” returns (48.0 million returns) reported adjusted gross income of less than $40,000 (source: Internal Revenue Service). Hmmm, would it be controversial for me to ask a hypothetical question here? Why should people who don’t pay any taxes get to vote in our elections? If they don’t have any skin in the game, why should they get a say in voting for people who determine where those resources are deployed? Only shareholders in a company get to vote for the board members. I get the “one person, one vote” argument and I know this scenario would never actually be introduced, but I just toss it out there for debate.
I met with my personal tax preparer last week and based on preliminary analysis, I may have underpaid my estimates for last year. Uh oh, Uncle Sam may be due some more from me. “I’m proud to pay my taxes in the United States, the only thing is, I could be just as proud for half the money.” – Arthur Godfrey. “You must pay taxes. But there’s no law that says you gotta leave a tip.” – Morgan Stanley.
So if I haven’t yet met your tax person, please make the introduction. I need to coordinate and collaborate with my clients’ other advisors so we’re all on the same page.
I’d also like to meet your estate attorney, if you have one. I just completed an update to my own documents, which is something that needs to be done whenever your circumstances change and/or the tax and estate laws change. If you haven’t updated your documents in a while, please consider doing so. I’d be happy to assist with that planning, but we’ll need an attorney to make them legal.
The government is about to pass a nearly $2 trillion dollar “covid relief” bill this week. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/09/covid-stimulus-update-house-plans-to-pass-relief-bill-wednesday.html
I had prepared a very well written, cohesive and convincing rant about this development. Starting with the fact that there is only a modest amount of actual relief in the bill and the other fact that we wouldn’t need relief if we hadn’t self inflicted the economy destroying lockdowns in the first place. But rather than whine about something over which I have no control, and likely have my musings nixed by compliance anyway, I have decided that I won’t include my rant this week. If you’d like a taste of what I might have said, HMU individually and I’d be happy to share.
From the “is this real?” department, the CDC offers preparedness advice for the zombie apocalypse. https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/zombie/index.htm
I hope this is tongue in cheek, because If this is true, wouldn’t that bring into question advice they might be giving on various other real topics? Just askin.
Are you feeling ready to get dressed up again? Some retail sales data says yes. Clothing for “outside the home” has been picking up and in some cases outpacing casual WFH wear, signaling that some people are ready to go out again.
We had our opening night dinner/wine tasting at my golf club last weekend and it was fun. We got dressed up for some good wine, some good food and some good people in person. Aside from the masks on the way in and out and the limited capacity, it was almost normal.
First time for love and second time for money? Or is it vice versa? Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife Mackenzie Scott got remarried last week, to a Seattle high school science teacher. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/billionaire-mackenzie-scott-marries-seattle-194002617.html Ms. Scott, you’ll remember got a $35 billion dollar settlement from Mr. Bezos when they divorced in 2019.
I wonder if the words “pre-nup” ever came into the discussions while they were dating. And I wonder who asked whom to get married. No matter really, Ms. Scott signed the giving pledge in which she plans to give away most of her fortune during her lifetime anyway. “Money won’t solve all your problems, but it will solve all your money problems.” – Naval Ravikant. Marriage is hard so please join me in sending best wishes to the new couple.
And finally in high school news, it looks like they’re finally teaching something that might be relevant to the kids. The professor in my daughter’s econ class had them do some practical exercises. They had to go through the motions of getting a credit card, buying a car and buying a house. Cool, finally some real life training. Financial planning, of any type, is rarely taught in schools. Not even in business schools so I think it’s a good thing for kids to learn life skills like acquiring a new car.
What kind of car did you buy? I asked.
“A Mercedes.”
Nice, which one?
“I’m not sure.”
Can you afford it?
“I’m not sure. Did you know there are a lot of things you need to decide when you buy a car?”
Like what?
“Like what kind, what color, what options, insurance, financing. A bunch of stuff.”
Hmmm, sounds complicated.
“It is!”
This week’s chuckle is 4 minutes of Jerry Seinfeld discussing marriage, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA4kxlObK9Q Safe for work.
LF27 – “Life is a blockchain, you cannot alter past entries, you can only append new entries.” – James Wang via Twitter.
Have a great week and stay healthy.
The opinions expressed are those of Michael Acho and not necessarily those of Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp. CRN-3487439-031021
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Michael J. Acho, MBA, CFP?
Private Wealth Advisor
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3 年In addition to your question, why should people who don’t pay their taxes be allowed to vote, I pose another one to you… Why should people who don’t pay their taxes be allowed to run for office/president??
James M. Knaus, Investment Advisory Representative, Global Wealth Advisors LLC
3 年Mike, My first accountant used to say "The tax return is merely your first offer."
Contract Learning Solutions Architect ?? Strategic Workforce Development: Linking C-Suite Vision to Measurable Training ROI ?? Workplace Learning Strategist
3 年Michael Acho what a surprising post of content I was not expected. You've piqued my interest of what other insights are swirling around upstairs. Thanks for sharing.