Harry Newton's In Search of The Perfect Investment
Newton's In Search Of The Perfect Investment. Technology Investor.
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8:30
AM EST Thursday, December 14, 2006: I'm trying to do what the "experts"
say: do some year-end stock juggling to reduce my taxes. What little I've learned:
1. There are two types of gains -- short (one year or less) and long-term (one
year and a day). They're taxed by the Feds differently.
2. There are two types of income -- ordinary (from working) and capital investment
(from investing). They're taxed differently.
Hence there are
four types of income: ordinary short, ordinary long, investment short and investment
long. How they're categorized is sometimes out of your control. If your hedge
fund loses money, you'd better hope they're smart enough to declare their losses
as trading, i.e. ordinary. That means you can apply their losses against your
ordinary income.
On the stuff you
own directly (not through a fund) you can sell your losing stocks before year's
end. You can use those losses to reduce your gains on the stocks you did make
money on.
There are gotchas.
You can offset capital losses against ordinary income -- but only up to $3,000
a year. You can carry the capital losses forward and offset them against as
many capital gains as you have.
It's easier to
keep all the gains and losses in their separate categories and see if you can
balance them. But it ain't easy and I'm not suggesting that you obsess trying
to save a few shekels in tax. My great accountant, Brendan Smith, sent me this
paragraph from a tax planning service. It shows how complicated things can become.
Another technique
is to seek to isolate short-term gains against long-term losses.
For example, say you have $10,000 in short-term gains in Year 1 and $10,000
in long-term losses as well. You're in the highest tax bracket in all relevant
years (assume that's a 35% bracket for Year 1). Your other investments have
been held more than one year and have gone up $10,000 in value, but you haven't
sold them. If you sell them in Year 1, they will be netted against the long-term
losses and leave you short- term gains to be taxed at 35%. Alternatively,
if you can hold off and sell them in Year 2 (assuming no other Year 2 transactions),
the losses will absorb the short-term gains in Year 1. In Year
2, the long-term gains will then be taxed at only 15% (unless the gains belong
in the 25% or 28% group).
Skype
changes. I reiterate. Skype is the best phone and video phone service
around -- if you're willing to wear a headset. The best holiday present is a
web cam. Give it to your children. You can talk with and watch your grandchildren
from afar. It's truly wonderful. Skype to Skype computer calls are free -- for
phone and video calls. It will probably always be free.
Skype to an outside
phone -- a normal landline or cellphone (not a computer) will cost money next
year. You'll be able to buy unlimited calling for only $29.95 for the entire
year. If you buy before January 31, 2007, it will be only $14.95. That's a genuine
bargain. Without a plan, you'll pay 2.1 cents per minute to calls within the
U.S. and Canada. International calls cost more. Calls to cell phones overseas
are particularly pricey.
Download Skype
software here. Buy
a headset here.
Buy a web cam for the kids here.
Logitech Quickcam Pro 500 webcam. About $90.
Back
problems solved: 80% of us have back problems.
This is the season for more of them. There'll be more stress. Traveling. Family.
Large meals. If your back goes "out" once, it will go out again. Most
back problems fix themselves with rest. Most are gone in three weeks. Most don't
require surgery or chiropractors. Learning to live with your bad back (I have
one) means being very very careful:
+
Never pick up anything heavy. Ask for help.
+ Carry your stuff in a backpack, not a briefcase. Balance is good.
+ Use your arms to lift yourself into and out of chairs.
+ Slide into cars using the central arm rest as support.
+ Don't bend over. Bend the knees. Keep the back straight.
+ Exercise and stretching works. The more the better.
+ Get yourself a decent office chair. I use the Charles Eames
Soft Pad chair from Herman Miller. It cost a fortune,
but it has saved my back over the years.
Charles Eames High Back Soft Pad. "Only"
$1,880. Click
here.
Don't
automatically download updates.
They're likely to be buggy and have new "features"
you don't want. There's an old rule in the computer biz: If it works -- even
if you have no idea why -- don't mess with it. Do not upgrade to Office 2007,
yet. Do not install Windows Desktop Search, yet.
The
ultimate in creativity
A burly, tattooed biker stopped by the local Harley shop to have
his bike fixed. They couldn't do it while he waited, so he said he didn't live
far and would just walk home.
On the way home
he stopped at the hardware store and bought a bucket and an anvil. He stopped
by the feed store/livestock dealer and picked up a couple of chickens and A
goose. However, struggling outside the store he now had a problem: how to carry
all of his purchases home.
While he was scratching
his head he was approached by a little old lady who told him she was lost. She
asked, "Can you tell me how to get to 1603 Mockingbird Lane?"
The biker said,
"Well, as a matter of fact, I live close by there. I would walk you there,
but I can't carry this lot."
The old lady suggested,
"Why don't you put the anvil in the bucket, carry the bucket in one hand,
put a chicken under each arm, and carry the goose in your other hand?"
"Why, thank you very much," he said and
proceeded to walk
with the old girl.
On the way he
said, "Let's take my short cut and go down this alley. We'll be there in
no time."
The little old
lady looked him over cautiously, then said, "I am a lonely widow without
a husband to defend me. How do I know that when we get in the alley you won't
hold me up against the wall, pull up my skirt, and ravish me?"
The biker said,
"Holy smokes lady! I am carrying a bucket, an anvil, two chickens, and
a goose.
How in the world
could I possibly hold you up against the wall and do that?"
The lady replied,
"Set the goose down, cover him with the bucket, put the anvil on top of
the bucket and I'll hold the chickens."
How
to park a horse.
The Lone Ranger and Tonto walked into a saloon and sat down to drink
a Beer. After a few minutes, a big tall cowboy walked in and said "Who
Owns the big white horse outside?"
The Lone Ranger
stood up, hitched his gun belt, and said, "I do....Why?" The cowboy
looked at the Lone Ranger and said, "I just thought you'd like to know
that your horse is about dead outside!"
The Lone Ranger
and Tonto rushed outside and sure enough Silver was ready to die from heat exhaustion.
The Lone Ranger got the horse water and soon Silver was starting to feel a little
better.
The Lone Ranger
turned to Tonto and said, "Tonto, I want you to run around Silver and see
if you can create enough of a breeze to make him feel better." Tonto said,
"Sure, Kemosabe" and took off running circles around Silver.
Not able to do
anything else but wait, the Lone Ranger returned to the saloon to finish his
drink. A few minutes later, another cowboy struts into the bar and asks, "Who
owns that big white horse outside?"
The Lone Ranger stands again, and claims, "I do, what's wrong with him
this time?"
The cowboy looks him in the eye and says,
(This is the worst)
"Nothing,
but you left your injun runnin".

This column is about my personal search
for the perfect investment. I don't give investment advice. For that you have
to be registered with regulatory authorities, which I am not. I am a reporter
and an investor. I make my daily column -- Monday through Friday -- freely available
for three reasons: Writing is good for sorting things out in my brain. Second,
the column is research for a book I'm writing called "In Search of the
Perfect Investment." Third, I encourage my readers to send me their
ideas, concerns and experiences. That way we can all learn together. My email
address is .
You can't click on my email address. You have to re-type it . This protects
me from software scanning the Internet for email addresses to spam. I have no
role in choosing the Google ads. Thus I cannot endorse any, though some look
mighty interesting. If you click on a link, Google may send me money. Please
note I'm not suggesting you do. That money, if there is any, may help pay Claire's
law school tuition. Read more about Google AdSense, click
here and here.
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