Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Giving Back to Your Community - Charitably

Charitable Giving is back on the rise after a two year decline according to Giving USA; charitable giving was up over 2 percent in 2010. While giving is values based it is also a smart move financially (as long as you stay within your means). But how do you make the most of your donations. A little planning can make a small amount go further – and make you feel better about the money you can give.

 
Follow these six simple steps to guide you through the process.

 
1. Start with your interests. To help focus your giving, begin with your own interests and experiences. Be clear on why you want to support them.

 
2. Look to your community first, every community has programs and projects that need financial help.

 
3. Not all gifts are financial, you can give your time to which for some charities is more valuable than money.

 
4. Do your research: is the charity effective, do they fulfill their mission. Check out sites like charitywatch.org and give.org – there you can find tips and research on how to evaluate charities.

 
5. Give yourself a break – tax break that is!

 
      The IRS allows you to deduct up to 50 percent of your adjusted gross income for most donations 
         to qualifying public charities
      If you plan to deduct charitable contributions, you’ll need to itemize deductions on your tax return
      Receipts are needed on donations of $250 or more to a single charity – also you’ll need a receipt       
         or bank record for cash donations
      If you have appreciated securities, consider donating that instead of cash. If you donate appreciated
         securities to a charity you pay no gains tax, plus the charity gets the full value of the stock and you get
         to deduct the full value of the gift – truly a win win!

 
6. Fulfill your mission – and take pride in knowing your generosity is promoting the greater good.

 
CBlakely CFP, CTFA 1/2012

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Viewer Discretion is Advised!

2012 seems like it could be the year prognosticators of doom and end of days theorists will be in the spotlight. Full disclosure: – I have a 2012 Mayan calendar and the kitten pictures are just too cute. But seriously, there is one prognosticator in particular that actually does scare me. Not because I think it is true, nope, that’s not even a consideration. It’s that it is loaded with exaggeration using scaremonger tactics to frighten investors into actually buying into this baloney.

Dis-infomercial

I was watching TV and saw an ad for an online video with the following warning label: “The following presentation is controversial and may be offensive to some audiences. Viewer discretion is advised.” “OK,” I said “you got my attention.” The production values are pretty high and I thought it made sense to at least skim the thing before passing judgment. So I watched this video proclaim the end of America and the dollar as we know it. Interestingly, it carried the requisite language ‘may’ and ‘likely’ added to avoid absolutes. This keeps the investment regulators at bay but makes for strange narration with phrases like – “there is absolutely no doubt that this may happen.”

What the video contains is about 45 minutes of hyperbole followed by thirty minutes of a really cheesy sales pitch for investor newsletters authored by the team at Stansberry Investment Research. Really?

Back in 2007 this group was substantially fined by the SEC for securities fraud. Now they make an end of the America as we know it pitch using scare tactics and specious charts and graphs (why are they not properly sourced or labeled?) to goad people into buying their newsletter.

While we are all entitled to our opinion a person who acts in a fiduciary capacity is held to a higher standard. Fiduciary law, putting others interests in front of your own, may be the highest law in the land. And to treat it lightly is to breach that duty. While I have read forecasts that are indeed dire, none of the pieces close by trying to sell you a way to actually make money, while the economy and the dollar and our standard of living collapse around us.

To give one example, at one point during the video Mr. Stansberry talks about something called the 100% Strategy. He claims you can make money without ever having to own a stock. OK, sure, that’s true. Then he makes the statement that you might be forced to buy a stock at less than its current value if something goes wrong with the 100% Strategy. These two positions are so obviously at odds with one another. This is one of myriad examples of how crafty yet misleading this report is.

Fool me once…….

Successful investing is difficult enough with an advisor that is working with you in your best interests, it is nearly impossible otherwise. My advice is to avoid this wolf in wolf’s clothing.

Chris Blakely, CFP® 01/2012