JoeTaxpayer

Regular readers know where I stand on Variable Annuities, and I though thought I’d share this quote from a Suze Orman interview on CNN Money which caught my eye;

“I hate them with a passion - a passion! - especially in a retirement account like an IRA. Variable annuities have all these extra fees and tax issues and penalties, but - oh, that’s okay! - because they give you a tax deferral. But a retirement account is already tax-deferred without all those fees. It’s absolutely ridiculous. I think variable annuities exist for one reason only: to make money for the financial advisers who sell them.”

I’ve had some disagreements with some of her advice, but lately I’m finding more of her quotes that are right on target.

Joe

written by JOE \\ tags: CNN, cnn money, IRA, money, Retirement, retirement account, Suze Orman, tax deferral, variable annuities

There’s an attraction to the interactive sites suggesting you plug in your age, sex, etc, and see details related to your category peers. From CNN/Money I found;

Yes, I am 45-54. The site also offers median net worth based on your income. Click on the image to be taken to the site to see where you stand. Keep in mind, net worth figures generally include the value of one’s home and median is not the same as average. Median means half the population considered is higher, half lower.
Joe

written by JOE \\ tags: cnn money, Finance, Home, income, Investing, median, money, net worth, Retirement

I recently read an article on CNN/Money’s website titled “Credit card rewards are a real rip off“. The page starts with a legitimate gripe, “You got burned with frequent flier miles, which were nearly impossible to redeem and hardly worth the hassle, so credit card issuers turned to other kinds of incentives to entice you to charge more.” Now, I’d be hard pressed to argue with that. I typically use the miles to upgrade to first class on longer flights for a more comfortable ride, but rarely have been able to use miles to get the original ticket, too few seats are available per flight, and tend to get booked well in advance.
But CNN goes on to trash other reward programs as well, suggesting that “though rewards do spur consumers to spend more, the study found that confusing rules and restrictions make most reward cards more trouble than they’re worth.” Really? Let me share my card reward experience:
I use Amex Open. It rebates 5% on gas from dollar one. I calculate the rebate at $600+/yr on just that. Same 5% on any office supply store purchases.
A Fidelity Mastercard that gives 2% (they changed to 1.5 for new applicants, but I kept the 2%) into a 529 account. My child is 10 and we will have a full semester of college paid free with the cards rebates. We only charge what we can pay in full each month.
There is responsible credit card use. We prove that. If one will be too tempted and run the card up on purchases they cannot pay in full, they should use cash only. Me, I’ll enjoy the rebates.
Joe

(Well, just when I finished setting up this post, the mail came, and Amex advised me, that due to the high cost of gasoline, they were reducing the gas rebates down to 3% on this card. Still, that’s cash back in my pocket, just no so much.)

written by JOE \\ tags: Amex, CNN, cnn money, Credit, credit card, credit card rewards, gas, money, reward experience