Blog

Here is a good recap of withdrawal strategy basics. To read more click here.

Richard Feldman was quoted in the South Florida Business Journal. To read Susan R. Miller’s article titled “Nonprofits can benefit from IRA donations” please click here.

Frank was quoted in the South Florida Business Journal article “Wealth Management Smart Strategies: Business owners adjust to save retirement plans”. To read the article, please click here.

Frank discusses retirement on Wisconsin Public Radio. He will be live on Larry Meiller’s radio show Thursday, December 23rd at 12:06-12:45 PM EST. To stream live please click here.

Yahoo Finance posted an interested article titled “Could the Government Shrink My 401(k) Retirement Account?” To read the article, please click here.

Jason’s article “6 Reasons Why Boomers’ Retirement Is Different From Their Parents’” made Morningstar’s front page. To read this article, please click here.

“You worked hard all your life, paying into the Social Security system. Now you’re ready for payback time. Not so fast. Uncle Sam may want a piece of your benefits. Up to 85% of Social Security benefits may be subject to federal tax, but tax planning can help ease the pain.”  To read the full article please click here.

Finally a 401(k) rule change that matters. New rules will bring buried 401(k) fees to light. To learn more click here.

Frank Armstrong, III, CFP, AIFA

It’s been a slow news week. The gulf oil well spill is capped, we are all sick and tired of Bristol and Levi, and Lindsay Lohan is safely off in rehab. So, the financial press is cranking out stories about a possible Deflation.

Who knows what to believe? I generally hate making predictions, but, I’m not spending much time worrying about deflation.

We might all argue that the real estate bubble has further to go before we see equilibrium re-established. Otherwise, most of us are not feeling it. Check the price of gas, hospital bills or college education and tell me you see deflation at work.

But if, and it’s a big if, the government were to allow a general deflation it would lead to a global economic nuclear winter. We don’t want to go there.

Capitalism will not work in an atmosphere if expected across the board price declines. No one would buy anything today if prices will be lower tomorrow. The economy would come to a grinding halt. There are other problems as well. Debtors will find it harder to repay in appreciated dollars, and corporate profits will be squeezed.

The last time we experienced a true deflationary period was the Great Depression. The US Government did all the wrong things after the stock market crash of 1929 triggering a decade of misery. But, we have learned a lot about how economies work since then.

Helicopter Ben would emerge and sprinkle enough money around to prevent a widespread price decline. Ben gets it. Of course, any first year econ student could tell you: Dump enough dollars into the system and prices will react. It shouldn’t be difficult to provide enough fiscal stimulus and monetary expansion to prevent a deflation from happening.

So, if you are losing sleep because of deflation, mellow out. You are more likely to be bitten by a black swan.

To learn more about the total return policy click http://bit.ly/b5jBJ7