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Dear ,
Welcome to the February 2011 issue of The Wealth Chronicle.
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Investing in Dividend Paying Stocks
Companies that pay dividends to their shareholders are great for investors to have in their portfolio. With Dividend paying stocks investors get the best of both worlds. A steady income stream in the form of dividends and the ability to participate in the gains of the stock market. This video looks at a couple of principles to follow when adding this type of stock to your portfolio.
 | | Principles of Dividend Investing |
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MAXIMIZE RETIREMENT INCOME
A FREE SEMINAR TO EDUCATE BABY BOOMERS
ON SOCIAL SECURITY PLANNING
Scheduled for 7pm on Wednesday March 30, 2011 at Wood-ridge Public Library, 231 Hackensack Street, Wood-ridge, NJ 07075, this free seminar will be hosted by Marc Bautis, a wealth manager and creator of the Retirement Fitness Challenge ™.
Register now for Wednesday March 30 @ Wood-Ridge Public Library
With this Social Security planning seminar, learn the answers to the following questions:
- Will Social Security be there for me?
 - How much can I expect to receive?
- When should I apply for Social Security?
- How can I maximize my benefits?
- Will Social Security be enough to live on in retirement?
After being told for years that Social Security is "going broke," baby boomers are realizing that it will soon be their turn to collect. But the decisions you make now can have a tremendous impact on the total amount of benefits you stand to receive over your lifetime.
By the close of the seminar, you will have learned:
- 5 factors to consider when deciding when to apply for benefits
- Why you should always check your earnings record for accuracy
- How to coordinate benefits with your spouse
- How to minimize taxes on Social Security benefits
- How to coordinate Social Security with your other sources of retirement income
Anybody nearing or who has reached retirement age is encouraged to attend. RSVP for this seminar by contacting Christine Hartigan, Director of Wood-ridge Public Library, by phone (201) 438-2455 or email hartigan@bccls.org. Also you may RSVP by visiting http://www.bautisfinancial.com/seminars.html.
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Matthew Pastore, CPA
Tax Season is quickly upon us and many people have to make the decision whether or not to prepare their own taxes. The costs saved by preparing your own taxes must be weighed against not having to spend the time and assurance that your return was done correctly.
The following are a couple of things you have to consider before preparing your own taxes
- Do you understand taxes? You do not have to have to be a CPA or be a Tax
 Attorney, but just as fixing a car or flying a plan takes a specific set of skills, so does preparing taxes. You should have a basic understanding of your situation as well as the knowledge of income, debt, and investments
- Did you have any major changes in your life? Major changes could complicate your situation making sense to have someone help with your tax preparation
- Do you have the time? The IRS has done a good job at making information available www.irs.gov, but you can still expect to spend a good amount of time preparing your taxes. You have to weigh that amount of time, possibly 10-15 hours against the cost of hiring someone to do the job for you.
If you decide that you want help in preparing your taxes an accountant I recommend is Matthew Pastore. Matthew is a CPA based out of Hoboken with over 20 years experience preparing taxes.
Matthew Pastore
423 Washington Street
Hoboken, NJ (201) 792-2747 |
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What to do with your 401k?
You may have recently changed jobs or possibly unfortunately even lost your job and you have to make a decision what to do with your old company's 401k account. You have a couple of options to consider.
- Do Nothing - Some 401k plans will allow you to keep the money in your old plan. You will not still receive your company's match if they were providing one, nor will you be able to contribute additional money to it, but if you were happy with the plan and averse to change, doing nothing may be fine with you. Some plans require a minimum amount of funds in the plan to keep it with the old company and others will only allow it in the old plan for a certain amount of time.
- Rollover to IRA- This option is one that is heard all the time throughout the media. It involves taking the money out of your 401k plan and transferring it to an IRA. Since you are going from a retirement plan (401k) to a retirement plan (IRA) there are no taxes or penalties assessed on your money. This option may make sense because a 401k plan has a limited number of choices that you can invest in. With an IRA the additional choices can improve upon your investing performance
- Transfer to New 401k plan - Let's say that you start a new job and enroll in the new company's 401k plan. You can take your old 401k plan and merge it into the new plan.
I recommend rolling over to an IRA and going with option two, 9 times out of 10, An IRA gives you options that the 401k just does not have available. For example, if you want to hedge against inflation by adding TIPS, Gold, Oil, or Real Estate to your portfolio, you can do it with an IRA, but usually not with a 401k plan. Usually a 401k plan gives you the option of constructing your portfolio from 10-20 mutual funds and the company's stock. An IRA gives you thousands of options including individual stocks and bonds. It's not just the number of options that make the IRA appealing it is also quality of investments where the IRA also wins out. A lot of times the investment options in the 401k plan are loaded up by the financial services company managing the 401k plan. They tend to put in the plan investment options that are in their best interest versus in the best interest of the plan participant. Throw on top of that the fact that the financial service company managing the plan charges your company for running the 401k plan. Usually the company passes those costs on ot the individual participant.
If you want to see the quality of your 401k plan a website that is gaining momentum is Brightscope (www.brightscope.com). Brightscope quantitatively ranks 401k plans with the hope of improving the quality of 401k plans over time. |
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- Deflated at the Pump - The stock market has been on a tear lately, however that could come to end quickly solely based on rising gas prices. One study shows that for every 10 cents rise in gas prices, consumer confidence falls by half a percentage point. The last time gas prices rose sharply was in 2008 when the economy tanked. Their were other factors in the economy going down, but rising gas prices definitely contributed to the problem. Due to unrest in the Middle East and Africa we could see rising prices sooner rather than later.
- The Academy Awards are the last weekend in February and here are some financial stats about the 10 Best Picture Nominees:
- The biggest budget was Toy Story at $200 million while the smallest was Winter's Bone at $2 million.
- The Kids are All Right had the most producers on the film with 20.
- The film with the most siblings investing: True Grit - Executive Producers David and Megan Ellison (Larry's kids) and Directors Ethan and Joel Cohen.
- An iPhone user in the NYC Metro area cheered this month when Verizon started offering the iPhone. Dropped calls and not even able to make a call have become the commonplace on the AT&T network in the area. Verizon has decided to create their own controversy by throttling their heaviest data users. I'm not sure why they think penalizing their users is a good thing, but the last company I can remember to throttle users was Netflix, however it hasn't hurt them as Netflix's stock is up over 400% this year.
- Meredith Whitney, a banking analyst, made headlines on December 19, 2010 by predicting widespread defaults with municipal debt on a 60 minutes segment. Whitney became famous by predicting the demise of the big banks before the credit crisis hit in 2008. Bloomberg News researched Meredith's "prediction history" and found that over two-thirds of her stock picks lagged the index that they were tracked against. It just goes to show that if you make enough predictions eventually one of them will be right.
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Please contact me if you have any questions about the articles above or about your personal or business finances.
Sincerely,
Marc Bautis
Wealth Manager tel: 201-221-6895 fax: 201-754-9760
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Disclaimer:The information contained in this newsletter is for information purposes only and may not be suitable for your specific financial situation. You should consult a financial advisor before making any investment decisions relating to the information contained in this newsletter
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 | MEET MARC
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Marc Bautis is a Wealth Manager specializing in working with young families as well as retirees and those nearing retirement. He understands that everyone wants to not only protect their principal, but also be sure that their money lasts. He is committed and proud to deliver independent advice, always in the interest of his clients.
Marc is the creator of the Retirement Fitness Challenge™, a program designed to be sure his clients enjoy the retirement years as they have always envisioned them. Marc's program is designed to prevent outliving your money but also to minimize expenses during retirement and find the best time to start taking Social Security benefits.
Marc is a graduate of Seton Hall University. He is a Bergen County native, from Lyndhurst, where much of his extended family still resides. He currently lives in Hasbrouck Heights with his wife Katie and Old English Bulldog, Winnie.
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