We subscribe to a number of resources here at Cascade Investment Group. Recently, I saw this article on tax and investment decisions published by RBC Capital Markets and thought I would pass it along. Taxes are an important factor to consider as we work with you to accumulate, preserve and pass along wealth. We believe a strong tax plan, worked out with your tax professional and reviewed and understood by us, can accelerate the process of growing your asset and income base over time. We work you on a regular basis to help understand risks inherent in investing, in any particular security and how those investments can help you in the long run. Call us after this tax season for a portfolio review while your tax picture is fresh in mind so we can plan for the rest of 2013. Don’t Let Taxes Drive All Investment Decisions The recent debate
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“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you will go” —– Dr. Seuss Dear Clients and Friends, In the fourth quarter of 2012, economic growth in the U.S. slowed to a standstill. The culprits at that time were the Presidential election and the year-end “fiscal cliff.” In the first quarter of 2013, economic growth resumed at a 2.5% rate fueled by pent-up demand from the previous quarter and a “cliff that wasn’t a cliff.” One month into the second quarter of 2013, it appears that the economy may be slowing once again. Three consecutive months of erratic employment numbers (and declining payroll tax receipts) combined with weaker regional manufacturing data indicate that we have lost some momentum from the first quarter. The culprit this time appears to be the federal spending squeeze known as the sequester. The plain
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Divorce, Car Accidents, Mortgage Crisis And Other Reasons To Use A Trust Rob Wrubel CFP®, AIF® Special needs trusts are a key step in the process of planning for the future needs and high quality of life for your special needs family member. They can help provide a funding source for your special needs family member above and beyond those paid by government resources. Families with special needs members frequently ask the same question, “Why use a trust? I plan to leave the money to a brother or sister who will do the right thing.” Is a special needs trust really a necessary part of planning for your family? Or are you better off leaving the share of inheritance intended for your special needs family members to a sibling or other trust person and hope for the best? Imagine a family consisting of one surviving parent, age 70, and two
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“Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet, is fighting some kind of battle” Patricia Rogers Dear Clients and Friends, Here are some observations and overall random thoughts for snowy spring day in April ……… Just when and where we least expect it, terrorism strikes again in America. Terrorists are cowards but they can and often do, inflict maximum pain. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may have been kicked out of a private Swiss boarding school for poor grades and poor attendance, but his latest saber rattling should be taken seriously until proven otherwise. He claims that Colorado Springs, Colorado is one of his targets, probably because we are home to the old NORAD, now called NORTHCOM. Documents from the North Korean military show that the missile aimed at us, would not hit us because they have incorrectly identified our location as somewhere in Louisiana. The core problem with Europe
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The Trust Is Funded, Now What? Rob Wrubel CFP®, AIF® We get the call more than a few times per year. There is always a note of panic in the voice. There is also a note of concern and a strong desire to do the right thing. The call frequently begins like this, “I have been named the trustee of a special needs trust. What do I do?” Special needs trusts are designed to preserve available government benefits for a person with a qualifying disability by holding countable resources in a way that can be used for future needs without losing government benefits. For most people the word Trust, with a capital T, meaning money held in a trust account, seems foreign and incomprehensible. Most of us think trust and think of the richest in society – the Rockefellers, Buffets, Morgans and Gates. We do not think of our sons
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New DOW Record. What Does That Mean For You? By Rob Wrubel, CFP®, AIF® Last week the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the DOW for short, hit a new all-time high at the close on Monday March 11 at 14,447.29. The DOW hit a low in recent years in March of 2009 and it was hard to find an optimistic person or commentator who thought the US stock market would ever regain any of its value. Today, cocktail party conversations have turned back to conversations of how “my stock did better than that” and “can you believe this market?” The panic, fear and dread of opening statements have turned into a renewed expectation of gain in a portfolio. So where does a rational investor, who is planning for future income and asset growth, go from here? We invest for several reasons. One is to have our asset values keep pace with
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“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose” — Dr. Seuss Dear Clients and Friends, This will probably be one of the more redundant blogs of the year but no less important. In keeping with that quote from the great Dr. Seuss, the stock market is choosing to steer itself in an ongoing and upward direction. On Monday the 4th of March, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finally reclaimed all (and more) of the territory it had lost over the last five and one half years. The S&P 500 is now within 1% of a new record closing high and NASDQ Composite is the highest it has been since those heady days of 1998, 1999 and early 2000. Since Monday’s record close, we have had many calls from clients asking if this market is for real. Given
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Ketchup and Warren Buffett Share A Common Interest In Special Needs Planning Rob Wrubel CFP®, AIF® Last week, Warren Buffet bought one of my favorite companies – Heinz. Not just some shares in the company like we do for clients. He bought the whole company and plans to turn it private. Ketchup has been a staple of mine from the first french fry and hamburger platter I remember and it has always been Heinz ketchup for me. The other brands never seem to compare. These days, it has been more about Heinz the stock and investment for me than the ketchup and I am a little mad at Warren Buffet. Planning for our special needs family member along the Blueprints path I use means having emergency funds, getting rid of debt, putting money towards retirement and creating assets to fund special needs trusts for future spending needs. Along the way,
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“Dougie, the streets of Wall Street are paved with geniuses who made one great call in a row.” – Grandma Koufax Dear Clients and Friends, “There you go again” was a phrase spoken by Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential debate with incumbent President Jimmy Carter. If the great former President Reagan were alive today, he would probably be shaking his head in disgust and uttering the same phrase as President Obama and Congress once again take us toward the thresholds of worry and despair. If no agreement is reached by March 1st, automatic and deep spending cuts (known as the sequester) will kick in across a wide spectrum of government. The bearish case says that these cuts, especially to the defense budget, will create the potential for 800,000 furloughed civilian workers and increase the rate of unemployment. Fewer workers spending less will add to further weakness in an already
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Prices Matter When Allocating Your Portfolio By Rob Wrubel, CFP®, AIF® Investing literature and conversations are filled with great phrases. “Buy low and sell high.” “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” “Save for a rainy day.” “No risk, no reward.” “Bulls make money, bears make money, pigs get slaughtered.” Each phrase has an element of truth to remember when building your portfolio or saving and investing to reach your goals. At Cascade Investment Group, we like to start with the basics. “Save for a rainy day” is an old maxim that works time and time again. We usually recommend you keep cash on hand – either in accounts here that sit in money market funds or in bank savings accounts – to use when there is an emergency or immediate need for funds. The basics of financial planning call for a cash reserve of three to six months
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