Author Archives: David John Marotta

Bitcoin satisfies some of the characteristics of a currency, but there are at least seven areas of concern.

Whenever the IRS challenges you, the burden of producing evidence that your claims are true rests entirely with you.

Some states do not tax their residents on income from a mutual fund that was earned on U.S. government obligations.

Three generations explain this family saying which teaches one method of mitigating risk.

On Tuesday, March 8, 2022, David John Marotta appeared on Radio 1070 WINA’s Schilling Show with Rob Schilling to talk about “How The United States Ruined Its Own Fiscal Health.”

At 4.0% inflation, cash will lose 82.88% of its value over 45 years. Such loss of value can ruin a retirement plan more so than any market returns. Your long term investments need to appreciate well over inflation. The best method to do that is to stay mostly invested in stocks.

A gone-fishing portfolio is a portfolio of just a few stocks which should weather the ups and downs of the market fairly well while only rebalancing twice a year.

This gone-fishing portfolio is our default portfolio which can be used at any custodian.

We recommend this gone-fishing portfolio for accounts hosted at Vanguard.

I expect that eventually Bitcoin will either develop a real, useful value for investors or the bubble will burst.

Now that the Franklin Templeton funds have been added to the Institutional Intelligent Portfolios platform, we are updating our allocations to use the cheaper funds as their primary targets.

Saving for long-term care, if done early enough, is not too expensive and helps to protect yourself from this potential financial shock.

We are very thankful that Genworth has released this information freely for everyone to use.

The class will be held virtually on Zoom each Thursday from noon to 1:00 PM EST between March 10 and March 31, 2022.

On Tuesday, February 8, 2022, David John Marotta appeared on Radio 1070 WINA’s Schilling Show with Rob Schilling to talk about “The Failure of Government.”

Like any good free market system, it is infinitely flexible, adapting to the needs and resources of the environment.

The class will be held March 10 through March 31, 2022 each Thursday from noon to 1:30 PM on Zoom.

Add this to the list of reasons to avoid long-term care insurance and strive to self-insure.

Why do people do Roth conversions? Should I? This timeless article and video answers all your questions.

The estimated advantage of Franklin funds during 2021 was 0.40% or $118,955.

Many financial writers get the answer to this question wrong.

It is important to understand your investment philosophy well enough to know what they aren’t telling you.

A 2007 article that stands the test of time. This is the year you should keep your financial resolutions. Getting help from an objective advisor can provide both a powerful catalyst for action and real peace of mind.

All in all, this card is a fairly easy way to pay 5% less for any Amazon purchase.

These credit cards won’t change your life, and they shouldn’t, but they can get back a very small portion of the money you spend each month.

Hard work can often only be learned by struggling. You can’t teach your children to live within their means if you always supplement their means.

Which account you should fund depends on your circumstances. However, there are some general guidelines you can follow to make your decision.

You don’t need their product. You don’t even need to know why their specific product is bad. Just say no.

Yes, many retirees may die with significant assets. However, this helps to ensure that they have sufficient assets to support their lifestyle should they make it to age 100.

On Tuesday, November 9, 2021, David John Marotta appeared on Radio 1070 WINA’s Schilling Show with Rob Schilling to talk about health insurance subsidies and inflation.

The annual drag of taxable account taxation may seem like a small amount, but the effect over long periods of time such as 30 years is significant.

You don’t need to know why an annuity is a bad deal to say no.

On Tuesday, August 10, 2021, David John Marotta appeared on Radio 1070 WINA’s Schilling Show with Rob Schilling to talk about Systemic Inequality in the Social Security Rules.

By being relentless about turning off marketing, you protect your finances from the poor decisions that advertising inspires.

These complex formulas help decide when highly appreciated investments should be sold and the proceeds put in a different investment philosophy.

Long-Term Care insurance is too risky and too expensive. If you can self-insure, you will likely be better off.

Stopping to think through questions like these will likely help you make smarter decisions with your spending.

There are five ways that both you and the government could make charitable giving more significant.

The selection of what products we purchase or avoid for clients is based solely on what we believe gives our clients the best chance to meet their goals.

This is a fairly easy way to receive a 5% reward for my gasoline purchases but it does require that you have a family member who served in the military.

This five-part series on “How to Get Out of Debt” will try to address the concerns of those who have debt problems.

We think keeping expenses low is an important part of the investing process.

In this video we are going to compute the first mortgage payment of the 5-year loan used in the article “How to Help Your Children Purchase a Home.”

Once set up, the extra rewards may be worth the extra effort.

In this video we are going to compute the first mortgage payment of the 30-year loan used in the article “How to Help Your Children Purchase a Home.”

Social Security as it exists today is a failure either way you look at it.

Given the purposeful complexity and limitations to structured products we suggest you avoid them.

On Tuesday, July 13, 2021, David John Marotta appeared on Radio 1070 WINA’s Schilling Show with Rob Schilling to talk about Elder Abuse Scams and how to protect yourself.

Punishing people for inflation is neither fair nor good economic policy.

This was part of an intentional anti-ad campaign that my mother instituted to inoculate her children against the power of Madison Avenue.