Good afternoon,
Snooze warning, the WMR is all business this week. Or at least mostly business.
First, the financial services industry needs some marketing help. The WMR isn’t a fan of regular radio, we dislike the 16 minutes of commercials per hour. We prefer commercial free satellite radio or if our trip is longer than 10 minutes, a podcast. We do listen to news radio first thing in the morning to get caught up on the headlines, but that’s it. We don’t remember exactly when we started doing that, but likely it was around the same time that we acquired other adult habits like a mortgage and life insurance. We don’t watch local news either, never have, way too depressing. Every story is bad, like that Don Henley song, “Dirty Laundry.” Anyway, during our brief listen, we often hear commercials for financial advisors, financial firms, financial planners, wealth management firms, etc. Worst. Commercials. Ever. So boring. So generic. So awful. Every one is exactly the same. We listen to your goals... We plan for your future... Our comprehensive approach…. Yada, yada, yada. Well no kidding. Isn’t that expected from a financial service professional? Do they think that gibberish actually appeals to people enough to get them to call? We contend that it doesn’t. They’re wasting their ad money. None of those firms are acting like they’re Guardians of the Wealth of the Most Productive People on the Planet. It may be counterintuitive, but Team WMR is not in the financial or investment business, we’re in the helping people feel better business. We make our clients’ lives better because we handle the mundane, but important, financial stuff. Stuff that they are not trained to think about. Stuff that they don’t want to think about. Stuff they know they need, but has no interest for them.
Our industry may be boring, but it’s also necessary, perhaps even mandatory, for most successful people. We think personal financial planning should be taught in high school and/or college. The WMR has lectured for some various college groups and while they’re generally a very bright group of young people, they have very little financial knowledge. And it doesn’t take much to give them the basics. A bit off topic, we also think that they should still teach classes like wood shop and metal shop in high school. It’s good training to get your hands dirty and build a birdhouse or learn to use an arc welder. We took those back in the day, but most schools don’t even offer them any more. We had a semester of auto shop too, but that was back when cars were mainly mechanical. Auto shop today would be a technology class. We’d guess you need a programming degree before you could wrench on a Tesla these days.
Next, let’s talk taxes. The April 15 deadline is approaching quickly. Have you visited with your friendly and helpful, yet overworked and frazzled tax person yet? Tax laws changed quite a bit in 2018, so don’t be surprised if your conversation with him/her goes a little longer than it has in past years. Tax brackets were reduced, but so were many exemptions and deductions. https://www.irs.gov/tax-reform
Aside from some possible retirement plan contributions, it’s too late to impact your 2018 tax liability. But now is the time to begin thinking about tax reduction strategies you can employ now for 2019 and beyond.
I can only speak for Lincoln and the providers that we use for our clients, but many of client tax documents are available by now, or at least on the way. Some of them, however, are labeled “preliminary” which means a final version with be forthcoming as well. Your tax person can get started with the preliminary report, but will ultimately require the final version. Also, some documents are notoriously late every year, partnership K-1 returns for example, and often don’t show up for several more months. It is possible, sometimes advisable, to file an extension with the IRS if you need more time. You’ll have to make any required payment by April 15, but the return won’t be due until October. Disclaimer – The WMR is not a tax professional, neither is Michael Acho or Lincoln Financial Advisors, nor do we play one on TV or the interwebs. Check with your tax professional before engaging in any tax maneuvers. And by the way, the WMR loves tax people. Not literally, but we do want to coordinate with our clients’ other advisors. So if we don’t know your tax person, please provide their name and info so we can connect.
Now some insurance news. We had a chat with a client last week who had some old term life insurance policies that were maturing so she wanted to know if they should be replaced. We discussed her situation and then examined the pricing on the potential new policies. Which pretty much ended the discussion. She’ll be fine as her circumstances didn’t really call for any additional life insurance anyway. The moral of the story? Like we do with annuities, we can perform a stop light review of your life policies. We’ll label them green if they’re still good to go, yellow if we need to monitor them, and red if we need to make changes soon. Call us for details. Remember, the best time to buy life insurance is yesterday. You were younger and healthier then.
Finally, we mentioned a few weeks ago the $22 trillion US debt. Here are some reasons not to worry about it.
https://www.ftportfolios.com/Commentary/EconomicResearch/2019/2/22/debt,-the-economy-and-stocks
Or, if you prefer to worry about it, you can watch it climb here, http://www.usdebtclock.org/
Just for fun, we’ll close with another movie review. This time we watched Bohemian Rhapsody, not in a theater but on demand for $5.99 from our cable provider. We enjoyed it a lot. Without knowing how much of the story is true and how much was enhanced for dramatic effect, we thought it was excellent. Rami Malek was tremendous as Freddie Mercury and of course the music was outstanding. Two thumbs up.
LF25 – “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality.”
Have a great week.
Michael J. Acho, MBA, CFP®
Private Wealth Advisor
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Lincoln Financial Advisors/Sagemark Consulting
1000 Town Center, 26th Floor
Southfield, MI 48075
248-948-5100 direct
248-948-5101 fax
248-933-4339 cell
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/michael-acho/27/913/3a8
CRN-2442041-022819
If you do not want to receive future emails, please call me at 248-948-5100, or email me at michael.acho@lfg.com or write me at 1000 Town Center, 26th Floor, Southfield, MI 48075.
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