Rick Brooks
Rick Brooks's Latest Posts
What Does a Smoke Break Really Cost?
I was recently struck by how much money Americans spend on healthcare every year. The figure is astounding: almost 18 percent of all spending in our economy goes to health care. So I thought it might be interesting to break out some of the costs of one of America’s favorite bad habits: smoking. Of course, […]
Financial Planning for the Terminally Ill
Preparing for the Worst Unfortunately, this seems to have become a theme for me lately as a colleague and a client both recently asked me to help them prepare for an imminent death in the family. Estate planning in general is a complex, difficult and often emotional process. Having to rush the planning by doing […]
Tax Efficient Investing, Part II
Last month I wrote about different types of investment earnings, including taxable and tax-exempt income and capital gains. This month I’ll discuss how investors can go about creating portfolios that take advantage of these characteristics. Given the different types of earnings from investments, it should be clear that each will have a different impact both […]
Tax Efficient Investing, Part I
For the first time in over a decade, tax rates on income and investment gains have risen. In addition, a new Net Investment Income tax has been imposed on all investment income for taxpayers whose Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) is above certain thresholds ($200,000 for single filers and $250,000 for married filers). So, given these […]
Update to Estate Planning
One of the most challenging things about estate planning since 2001 has been keeping up with the changing rules and Congress’ inability to decide on a ‘final’ estate and transfer tax regime. Well, with the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (“ATRA”, the fiscal cliff deal), we finally have some clarity, and a set of […]
Dementia: More Than Just a Family Matter
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, an estimated 5.4 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, a form of dementia. This includes 5.2 million people over age 65, most of whom are women. That’s roughly one in eight older Americans, and about one half of all those over age 85. I’m not trying to scare you, but […]
The Fiscal Cliff. Hype or Hysteria?
Last month I tried to show how Americans are both unclear and conflicted about what our federal government spends its revenues on and how much ought to be spent on those things. I tried to show that We The People want our government to spend more money on security and services than we are willing […]
Taxes, Spending and the Federal Debt
I’ll warn you, this is kind of wonky, but it’s a national conversation that is LONG overdue. Here are two tables excerpted from a 2011 CNN poll of American voters: Share of the Federal Budget What We Think Actual 2010 Budget Keep Same or Increase Military 30% 19.3% 63% Medicare 20% 13.1% 87% […]
Municipal Bonds Part II
Whatever happens in Washington on the tax policy front will have a significant impact on the holders of municipal bonds (“muni bonds” or just “munis”). As I discussed in July, the benefits of owning muni bonds depends on your tax rate. The higher your tax rate, the better off you are with muni bonds lower […]
Capital Markets Today
I had originally planned to continue writing about Municipal Bonds, but a question I was asked recently really got me thinking: with all of the scandals and problems that have come to light, can we really trust our financial future to Wall Street brokers and bankers. In case you hadn’t heard, HSBC and several other […]
