Archive for the ‘Financial Markets’ Category

Positive Market News

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

In the latest issue of The Lange Report, we finally had a chance to share some positive market news. In fact, the second quarter of the year turned out to be the first positive quarter in a year.

Continuing the upturn, the market also had a great July. The S&P 500 reached its low on March 9, 2009 closing at 676.53.  On August 3, 2009, it closed at 1002.63.  This is a return of 48.2% off the March 9th bottom.  The second quarter performance of the S&P 500 - an increase of 15.9% for the quarter - was its best quarterly performance in over 10 years.

Even though the market is still well off the highs that we experienced in 2008, the latest market news is certainly promising.  Many of our clients continue to ask what’s going to happen to the market in the next 3 to 6 months or even in the next year.  The truth is - we don’t know.  Nobody knows.

However, it is interesting to take a look at historical trends.  From 1926 (before the depression) to the second quarter of 2009, the S&P 500 Index has generated an average annual return of 9.6% (compared to government bonds which have averaged 5.5%).  Let’s say that you invested $1 in 1926.  If you had invested in government bonds, you would have roughly $100 today.  If you had invested in the S&P 500 Index, you would have roughly $2,000 today.

Of course, individual circumstances play a critical role in determining what asset allocation is appropriate for you.  At Lange Financial Group we continue to be believers in well diversified portfolios with some representation in most asset categories.

If you’d like to take a look at a more detailed analysis of the latest market figures as well as other economic indicators including international markets, emerging markets, interest rate changes and unemployment figures - it’s all available in the latest edition of The Lange Report.  For a copy, please contact the office at 1-800-387-1129 or sign up for our e-mails on the home page of this website.

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Posted in Economy, Financial Markets, S&P 500 Index | No Comments »

Tax-loss Harvesting — Reduce Your Taxes

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Possibly the single most important tool for reducing your taxes is tax-loss harvesting. Usually, tax-loss harvesting is done at the end of the year. But, as Jim Lange and radio guest Bob Keebler pointed out during the May 20th edition of The Lange Money Hour, the current down market has created an opportunity to harvest losses right now.

Bob is a partner with Virchow, Krause & Company in Wisconsin and has been busy all year executing this strategy for his clients. (By the way, congrats to Bob on being named one of the Top Most Influential CPAs in America by CPA magazine 4 out of the last 6 years).

If you have never used this strategy before, tax-loss harvesting is the art of selling securities at a loss in order to offset a capital gains tax liability. It truly is an art and Bob strongly advised against trying to execute this strategy yourself. Turn first to your trusted financial professional for their advice.

The key to this strategy is to take losses at their deepest point without getting out of the market completely. As Jim and Bob mentioned, you don’t want to miss a good run in the market. Therefore, a slow and methodical approach to tax-loss harvesting is the way to go.

What if you’ve accumulated thousands of dollars in losses, but don’t have an equal amount in capital gains? There are a couple of things to consider — a capital loss can offset only $3,000 of ordinary income as adjusted to your AGI (Adjusted Gross Income). The good news is that tax losses may be carried forward onto future tax returns.

If you have the bright idea that you can buy an asset and sell it solely to pay less taxes, you’ll have to think again. The IRS figured that taxpayers would try this, so their rule is that your loss won’t be allowed if you purchased the same asset within 30 days.

Tax-loss harvesting takes some serious analysis, but the results can be well worth it — especially in this down market. Jim and Bob’s final piece of advice was to sit down with your CPA now if you have losses. Don’t wait until the end of the year when the market may be on a rebound.

Thanks again to Bob for his great advice. His material is always incredibly helpful and informative and his latest product is designed to make the complicated topic of IRAs easy to understand. It’s called The Big IRA Book (literally big with 11 x 17 pages) and is packed with charts, graphs and tools to help you make informed decisions. For more information, call 800-955-0554.

As always, if you’d like to listen to Jim and Bob, the audio is available on this website.

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Posted in Financial Markets, IRS, Tax-loss Harvesting | No Comments »