|
| |
Disaster Decision - Do You Need Insurance?
The expenses involved with owning a home can be overwhelming at times - routine maintenance, repairs, seasonal preparations, improvements. Not to mention taxes, fees, and all those monthly bills. Some homeowners, in trying to reduce their expenses, ...
How to minimize your taxes on wealth
Taxes on wealth or simply wealth tax is the tax levied on the value of wealth owned by a person. As the term 'wealth' carries with it a broader meaning, generally capital transfer taxes (which include inheritance tax and gift tax), property tax, and ...
Starting A Business? What New (And Existing) Business Owners Should Know
Starting a business can be overwhelming enough trying to get up and running but when you think about all the tax requirements, your cup may runneth over. Here is what you must know in order to start your own business on the right foot and avoid paying ...
|
|
|
|
| |
With the stock market in steep decline, people are looking for safe places to invest their savings. Many banks and investment companies are pushing annuities. Annuities offer a higher interest rate than CD's, but are they safe?
You could view an annuity as a tax deferred CD. You don't pay taxes on the interest until you start drawing from the annuity. But there are some important differences between an annuity and a CD.
An annuity is a product offered by an insurance company. With giant corporations like Enron, Kmart, Worldcom, and United Airlines going bankrupt, can you guarantee that the insurance company won't fold, leaving you with nothing? Insurance companies are insured by re-insurers, like General Re. But it seems no matter how large a company is, you can't be sure it won't fold. The bankruptcy of a large insurance company might cause the re-insurer to collapse along with it.
Bank CD's are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for up to $100,000 per bank. The FDIC is a branch of the U.S. Government, who, as you know, are the people who print the money. If they go bankrupt, we'll have more to worry about than just losing our savings!
A new type of annuity called a charitable gift annuity has come on the market recently. These are issued by charity organizations. You give your money to the charity, you receive a tax benefit, and in exchange the charity promises you a fixed payment for life. Unfortunately, this scheme has become a mode of operation for con artists.
The charitable gift annuity has
been added to top ten scam list of the North American Securities Administrators Association. They explain that charitable gift annuities are subject to virtually no federal regulation. Here in Arizona, 430 investors lost their savings in a ponzi scheme run by the Mid-America Foundation Inc.
Banks and investment companies hawking annuities promote the higher than CD interest rates, but they fail to reveal the hidden fees and high early withdrawal penalties. If you need to access your annuity before age 59½, you could be subject to a 10 percent penalty.
With the recent bankruptcies, and discovery that many giant corporations have been cooking their books for years, I feel it's best to play it safe. If you love the thrill of risk, or if you have already purchased an annuity, I wish you luck. As Will Rogers said, "I am not as concerned about the return ON my money as I am about the return OF my money".
Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included.
Copyright(C)2002 Bucaro TecHelp. To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit http://bucarotechelp.com To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter Send a blank email to subscribe@bucarotechelp.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Tax cuts are a roll of the diceKansas.comSam Brownback has made it clear that cutting taxes is a priority. Brownback believes that lowering taxes is always the best prompt for fiscal growth, promoting Texas' recent history as a model. Brownback ignores Texas' high property and sales taxes, ...and more » |
|
