True Cost of Credit Card Minimum Payments

How much does an item purchased really cost you if you bought it on credit and only pay the minimum monthly payment each month? Answer - Depends on the credit card interest rate. Interest rates over 20% are not unusual. Here are two examples:

1. If the credit card interest rate is 18% and you only pay the minimum amount listed on your monthly bills, then your actual cost (interest paid plus principal amount still due) doubles after 4 years, triples after 8 years, quadruples after 12 years!!
2. If the credit card interest rate is 24%, then as above except instead of 4, 8, and 12 years, use 3, 6, and 9 years.

Black Economic Inequality - What News Media are Hiding

 Next time you see a news story about the economic inequality of Blacks compared to Whites, be aware of what they are not telling you that really matters and explains the difference:

1. Black educational achievements, despite up to $20,000 per public schools student invested annually, are much below the national average. Blacks can fix this themselves and nobody can stop them.

2. 3 out of 4 Black babies are born to single parent households while 3 out of 4 White babies are born to married households. Given the advantage of having two potential income earners and two potential parent babysitters versus one, it is no surprise that only 10% of married households with children live in poverty versus 50% for single parent households. Blacks can fix this themselves and nobody can stop them.

3. For decades, the crime rate for Blacks has been roughly 8 times the national average while the White crime rate has been below the national average, largely a factor of Black teenage boys growing up and having no father to guide and discipline them. Hard to earn income in jail and also hard to earn good income with a criminal record when out of jail. Blacks can fix this themselves and nobody can stop them. Blacks can fix this themselves and nobody can stop them.

Texts need to go the way of the Dinosaurs

 What is the fascination with texts and why does the entire world seemingly believe that every person has text capabilities? I don't and never want to. A text is essentially an email that annoyingly dings your phone. Emails and phone calls are far superior than texts. If you want to communicate with a person right away, then call them. Talking is much faster and easier than typing text messages. Plus with phone calls, you do not need to learn essentially another language consisting of text abbreviations. I sometimes see text abbreviations used on Facebook and often have no idea what is being said. With spam texts, from what I've read. you have to delete each spam text individually. With spam emails, you can elect to check the "all" box on the top of the first listed spam email and delete all of them in one step whether they be dozens or even hundreds of spam emails. Plus, with spam emails, you don't have the annoyance of each spam email dinging your phone as you do with spam texts. Who needs or wants that? Texts need to go the way of the dinosaurs.

Protect Our Police

 A cop is 25 times more likely to die in the line of duty than a Black person is likely to be killed by police. Most of the Blacks who got killed by police, including George Floyd, were resisting arrest and/or either fleeing or fighting with police, which in itself is a crime!. So Congress, your real job is to protect our brave police, who put their lives on the line everyday, so that we can be protected from criminals, by widely educating people, starting when they are public school students, on a national level to always cooperate with police and they will be fine and also there will be less cops killed on the job. That's a Win-Win for everyone!! If they do not cooperate with police including fighting or fleeing from police, and consequently get hurt or killed, than that result is on them, not the police.

House Mortgage Warnings and Guidelines

 Be careful on house closings. We've been unpleasantly surprised in the past when showing up to a closing and the closing costs were thousands of dollars more than we expected. Hidden fees and much more escrow for property taxes than we expected. Most mortgages - the bank pays your property taxes and adds that to the mortgage payment to make sure that the town doesn't foreclose on a home that the bank is financing. High escrow at closing protects the bank for a while from using their own money to pay property taxes when the homeowner is late with a mortgage payment. If you lose a job and can't pay your mortgage, sell it as fast as you can to prevent bank foreclosure. Banks love to foreclose because they, not you, keep the equity you put in your house when they sell it and do not return any excesses above the mortgage amount, but instead keep all that equity. Also, never voluntarily increase your mortgage payment to pay the loan off faster. If you lose your job or are in ill health and therefore can't make mortgage payments in the future the bank could foreclose and keep even more equity. Plus most of that extra payment pays down interest not principal. It's equivalent to you giving an interest free loan to the bank. Who wants to do that?!! Instead, invest that extra mortgage payment until it grows large enough to pay off the loan. Double advantage - if you lose your job in the future, that savings gives you more time to sell the house while continuing to make your mortgage payments before the bank can foreclose when you run out of money and stop making mortgage payments, plus by investing your money, you will likely be able to pay off the mortgage sooner than increasing your mortgage payment as your investment grows in value over time. Finally get a 15 year mortgage, not a 25 or 30 year mortgage. The mortgage payment isn't that much higher for the 15 year mortgage, and you will save lots of interest paid on your mortgage. Get a fixed rate mortgage, not a variable rate mortgage. People who got variable rate mortgages are getting huge increases in their mortgage payments with the recent large increases in interest rates. If you have a fixed mortgage and interest rates go down substantially, you can always refinance (usually closing costs are much less on a refinance). Finally, as property taxes increase each year, expect your mortgage payment to also increase. If the bank allows it (some do) structure your mortgage so that you pay it, not the bank. But be careful - its normally paid to the town in one lump sum per year which can be several thousand dollars, and you need to be prepared to have that money available. If your other tax deductibles are large, you can deliberately plan to pay two years of property taxes in the same year, by paying one year a couple of months early. This can raise you tax deductibles sometimes enough to "itemize" your taxes and get a tax refund or pay less total taxes. This strategy would be an every other year strategy. If it doesn't raise your deductibles enough to get taxes saved by itemizing your taxes, then it's not worth doing.

The Fair Way to Conduct Presidential Primaries

 Primary schedules have always been unfair and ridiculous in my opinion. There should be 10 primaries of 5 states each and each of those groups of 5 states should be spread out across the nation and be a mixture of "red" and "blue" states as much as is practical (some states are neither red and blue and there is not an even divide of red and blue states). Also should be a mixture of large population and smaller population states. Then every primary that follows should rotate those groups of 5 states up in the primary schedule and move the group of 5 states that were first in the last primary to last place. That's the only "fair" way to conduct primaries. All states rotate and there is never just one state that is the only state in the first primary. No state should ever get such preferential treatment in a national primary.

America's Federal Debt as of January 2023

 Americans have heard so often about the high level of Federal debt being a serious threat to our Economy, but nothing has happened yet, that they've seemingly become immune to it. Take a look at these facts:

1. It took 224 years to reach 5 trillion dollars in Federal debt in the year 2,000.
2. It only took 8 more years to add another 5 trillion dollars to Federal debt, thus doubling it in 2008. (Bush Administration).
3. Next, just 8 years later during the Obama Administration, an additional 10 trillion dollars was added to Federal debt thus doubling it again in 2016 to 20 trillion dollars.
4. 6 years later, another 11 trillion dollars has been added to the Federal debt bringing it to 31 trillion dollars!! That works out to $95,000 worth of debt for each man, woman, and child in America or $380,000 for a family of four.
5. The current Federal Budget has 2 trillion dollars in additional spending than the recent pre-Covid budget of 2019. We need to get back to the 2019 budget, and then find more spending cuts to avoid Economic disaster!!

https://www.thebalancemoney.com/national-debt-by-year-compared-to-gdp-and-major-events-3306287

Democrats and Electric Cars

Democrats want you to buy electric cars instead of gas powered cars and have been creating laws that essentially ban gas powered new cars in the future. The average price for a brand new EV is about $55,000. That’s considerably higher than the average four-door sedan, which runs about $35,000, according to Kelly Blue Book. Most Americans cannot afford the price of an electric car. Are you going to let Democrats drive you into poverty? Remember that when you cast your vote in future elections.

A Loving and Merciful God – True or False?

 One of the teachings of my 12 years of Catholic parochial school was that God is loving and merciful. I would love to believe that, but the evidence seems to suggest the opposite when it comes to mercy and that is really scary!!. Examples include:

1. God had no mercy for his son Jesus being tortured and cruelly crucified. If God had no mercy for his Son, what makes you think he has mercy for us mere human beings?

2. 10 million people died in World War 1. A little over 20 years later an incredible 70 million people died in World War 2. Millions of others were wounded with many carrying life time disabilities and/or pain afterwards. Plus there have been many wars throughout human history right up to today. Why doesn't God, in his mercy, stop them?

3. Where is God's mercy for the millions of people suffering now and in the past from cancer, paralysis, blindness, deafness, physical and mental disabilities, and other horrific diseases?

4. God's punishment for dying in sin is eternal hell cruelty. Think about that for a moment. Imagine being punished for 100 trillion years. Think of how incredibly long that is to be excruciatingly punished. Now imagine the punishment of 100 trillion years being repeated 100 trillion times!! And the punishment is still not done!! Where is God's mercy?

5. Yet God made us to be imperfect. Everyone sins in his life – no exceptions per the Bible (“He who is without sin cast the first stone”). Per my Catholic school teachings, if a very kind, generous, and obedient person commits a “mortal” sin and suddenly and instantly dies, say of a heart attack, leaving him no time to confess his sorrow for sinning, that person goes to hell for eternity. Also, if a person who lived a horrible life, sinning many times including multiple cases of robbery and murder, gets sick and slowly dies over weeks and/or months, thus giving him time to think about his sins, confess truthfully that he is sorry, and sincerely asks for forgiveness before he dies, he goes to heaven. Is that fair? Is that merciful to the person who lived a long and good life and sinned once just before he suddenly died?

Retirement Expenses

 I'm trying to give you some perspective of what you might face in retirement expenses versus income.

Never expected that in retirement that my largest expense would be insurance. About $13,600 a year for house, car, umbrella (in case you get sued for millions of dollars such as in a car accident), Medicare, Medicare Supplemental, Medicare prescriptions, and Dental. Despite all that insurance, out of pocket medical expenses still totaled over $7,000 despite all that insurance coverage (over $4,200 for prescriptions and non-prescription medications, $1,600 for doctors, and over $1,100 for dental). Fortunately, our house is paid off so we don't have a mortgage expense though property tax adds over $6,400 a year (would be more, but frozen for 10 years due to our age in our residence county - may not be frozen where you live or if you buy another house after you've been retired a while). The other two large expenses were Utilities (electricity, heat, air conditioning, and water) and Groceries - both over $9,000 a year. Leaving out over $11,000 for restaurants as that is more of a controllable than the others. We are fortunate enough to have enough savings to afford our expenses, but so many retired people have little or no savings. Shows the importance of saving for retirement starting at a young age.

Those out of pocket expenses total $45,000 (over $56,000 when restaurant meals are included) and there are many day to day expenses not included in those numbers that total over $20,000 (some optional such as lawn and maid service; others less optional such as phone, TV, internet, repairs, major purchases, clothes, etc.). We did no vacations due to Covid the last 3 years, but normally that has been the most expensive optional expense as we used to do 3 to 4 vacations a year. Our expenses in retirement have been more than when we were working due to the optional, frequent vacations we took in retirement.

This is why I preach about the importance of saving for retirement, plus give you an idea of what you will likely face in expenses relative to income when retired (though both would be higher then due to normal inflation, but the relationship between them likely will be similar). Now we do receive over $50,000 a year combined in Social Security income ((2/3rds me; 1/3rd my wife in SS income) because most of my career I paid out the maximum in Social Security taxes . Most married couples don't pay out in SS taxes and therefore don't receive that much in SS benefits. Singles receive SS income (and pay out SS taxes) much less. 

Also keep in mind, that when one spouse dies in retirement, the surviving spouse loses the lower monthly Social Security check. That can reduce SS retirement income by 33 to 50% (50% when both spouses paid the maximum SS taxes when working and thus each received the maximum SS benefit in retirement), but your monthly expenses won't go down anywhere near that amount (will mostly remain the same).

Social Security Taxes Value If Invested

 

To arrive at the calculation of what would Social Security be worth for a 23 year old by the time he reaches age 65 (42 years later), several facts are vital to analyze:

1. Each individual pays 6.2% of his income in Social Security taxes up to $142,800 annual limit.

2. The employer of that individual matches the 6.2% in taxes paid bringing the total to 12.4% taxes paid for each individual.

3. In addition to social security pensions, SS pays out welfare benefits for disabled workers and dependents, and widowed survivors with children.

4. 76.1% of total Social Security taxes paid goes to SS retirees. Therefore 76.1% of 12.4%, or 9.36% of the 12.4% paid are devoted to retirement. The rest goes to welfare programs.

5. So if it were possible to invest 9.36% of your income in actual investments for age 23 to 65 (42 years), what would your retirement benefits be? Note in the past some government institutions were allowed to do this (no longer) and the results were much better than regular Social Security benefits.

6. The long term average growth of the stock market is 10 to 11% or a doubling every 7 years. Some 7 year periods do better; some do worse, but string 4 to 5 of those 7 year periods together consecutively, that's your average. Therefore in 42 years, your investment would double 6 times. Every $1,000 invested annually would amount to $64,000 each year for 42 years in a row. $2,000 invested would amount to $128,000.

7. Relative to point 6, for both safety, minimum cost, and performance, only invest in large stock market index ETF funds such as the S&P 500 largest stocks - SPY , the S&P 400 Mid-Size stocks – MDY, and the S&P 600 Small Size stocks – SLY, plus the Nasdaq Top 100 stocks – QQQ (kind of a technology investment). Hold forever; don't sell and buy repeatedly (those who do that average only 4% growth annually). There are also growth (add G to the end of the symbol) and Value (add V to the end of the symbol) versions of the 3 S&P index funds mentioned.

8. For a person making $30,000 a year, that works out to $2,808 invested a year. By age 65, a 23 year old would be looking at receiving $179,712 for each of 42 years of retirement, and that assumes that person never got a raise in 42 years!! Otherwise, the total would be dramatically higher.

9. A 23 year old person making $45,000 a year, would be investing $4,212 a year and therefore looking at collecting $269,568 a year for 42 years at age 65 without any raises during his working career. Likely many raises and therefore much more invested and collected. Plus, very importantly, his estate will own all that money not yet collected when he/she dies and be distributed to his beneficiaries!!

10. A 23 year old person making $60,000 a year, would be looking at collecting $269,568 a year for 42 years at age 65 without any raises. Likely many raises and therefore much more collected. Plus, very importantly, his estate will own all that money not yet collected when he/she dies and be distributed to his beneficiaries!!

11. A 23 year old person making $75,000 a year would be investing $7,020 for his retirement and therefore looking at collecting $449,280 a year for 42 years at age 65 without any raises. Likely many raises will come and therefore much more collected in retirement. Plus, very importantly, his estate will own all that money not yet collected when he/she dies and be distributed to his beneficiaries!!

Final Note:

None of your Social Security taxes collected have ever been “invested”. That's because when Social Security was started in 1937, the taxes collected were used to pay benefits for retirees who were 65 or older who had never contributed to Social Security (as it did not exist when they were working). There was never any chance to invest the SS taxes collected. It was always, effectively, a “pay as you go” system. Even in years when a surplus of SS taxes are collected, relative to SS benefits paid out that year, the excess money is transferred out of the Social Security Budget to the Treasury Department, which then transfers the money to the General Budget where it is immediately spent and an “IOU” generated allowing the government to “pay back” SS in the future when taxes collected are less than benefits owed, by “borrowing” the money by selling Treasury bonds.

How many ancestors do you have?

 We tend to think of ourselves by our surname. For example I am a Puma. However, only one of my two parents was a Puma, only one of my four grandparents was a Puma, only 1 of my 8 great grandparents was a Puma, etc. Every generation I go back, doubles the number of my ancestors, but the number of Puma's remains only 1 for each generation back. If I go back 10 generations, then I have 4,094 total ancestors of which only 10 were a Puma.

The other interesting factor is that going back in time a few thousand years, would produce billions of ancestors or many more people that lived on Earth at that time. How is that possible? It's called Pedigree Collapse. No matter what your surname, we share many of the same ancestors as it was not unusual for related people such as second cousins with the same ancestors to marry in the past. More on this in the following article: https://namecensus.com/blog/how-many-ancestors-do-you-have/

What I don't like about cell phones

 What I don't like about cell phones:

1. Two of my cars were hit and totaled in 15 months by people driving while on cell phones going through red lights that had been red for quite a while. Both times my wife suffered pain for weeks.
2. Fact - Cell phone drivers are 6 times more likely to cause an accident than drunk drivers.
3. It is faster and easier to communicate to someone by calling them rather than texting them. Don't want to hear that annoying "ding" by others texting the cell phone. Use emails instead!!
4. Phone screens at movie theatres are very distracting when trying to watch a movie. How rude and selfish!!
5. People in a group together are using their cell phones to communicate with others not in the group or just look up stuff when instead of talking to each other. How rude!!
6. More and more, can no longer use computers to sign up for entertainment shows and bring a paper receipt to get into the show; must instead use an app on a cell phone. You now lost me as a customer.
7. Can't call for a ride with a regular phone; must use a cell phone that is connected to the internet.
8. Hate photos and videos taken by cell phones that have huge left and right black margins much bigger than the picture itself. Should be all picture with no margins!!

How can the human race be so smart and so stupid at the same time?

 How can the human race be so smart and so stupid at the same time?

We live in a world of technological wonders unimaginable to our ancestors that we just take for granted and shouldn't. We have cars, trains, planes, motorized ships, boats, and submarines. Also, land line phones, cell phones, TV, radio, cameras, music players, CDs, DVDs, computers, the Internet. Plus heated and air conditioned homes, electricity, electric and gas appliances including ovens and cooktops, microwave ovens, artificial lighting, safe hot and cold water on demand, working tubs, sinks, showers, and toilets connected to effective sewer systems. Modern farming that provides us with an amazing amount of food. Our medical advancements are remarkable compared to our ancestors.

In other words, we have the capability to live in a human paradise, but we don't because we still have wars, crimes, and dictatorships that brutally suppress our freedoms. Again, how can we be so smart and so stupid at the same time?

Failures of Joe Biden and the Democrats

 Failures of Joe Biden and the Democrats:

1. Very high inflation (10%) including doubling of gasoline prices and worse.
2. Moving America from an energy independent nation to a nation dependent on our enemies for our total energy needs.
3. Immense, uncontrolled illegal immigration (two million illegals in a year) by stopping the border wall and failing to enforce our immigration laws.
4. Illegally depleting our emergency Strategic Petroleum reserves for a non-emergency.
5. Botching the Afghanistan withdrawal.
6. Supporting child castration, gender affirming surgeries, and child gender brainwashing attempts in schools, even threatening to take away Federal funds if they don't comply.
7. Baby Formula crisis in America and making it worse by sending baby formula to illegal immigrants at the border.
8. Pushing to lower tariffs on China imports despite their bad behavior and the benefits we received under Trump of moving jobs back to the US.
9. Pushing for all electric cars in the near future despite the fact that most Americans cannot afford them and our electric grid cannot support that quick transition.
10. Campaigning for President as a "Uniter" but loudly blasting Republicans instead.

Where is God's Mercy?

 

We are taught that God is loving and merciful. I very much want to believe that, but where is the evidence of his mercy? I look for it, but only see the opposite. Examples include:

1. Jesus, the son of God was cruelly tortured and crucified. Where was God's mercy for his own son? If he had no mercy for this own son, then how could he be merciful to us?

2. 70 million people were killed in World War 2. Millions more were wounded with some suffering from their wounds for the rest of their lives. Where was God's mercy? Why didn't he interfere and stop the extreme carnage?

3. Where was God's mercy for the people killed and wounded in all wars past and present?

4. Where was/is God's mercy for the millions of people past and present who have suffered horribly from Cancer? From paralysis? From Multiple Sclerosis? From Lou Gehrig's disease? From Polio? From Covid? From the Spanish Flu? From mental illness? From all other human diseases from which humans suffer?

5. Would you agree to punish criminals by forcibly pressing one of their hands on a hot stove for one minute? Of course not!! Then why, given the fact that we are taught that all humans are imperfect and are sinners, does God punish some people forever in eternal hell? Imagine one day of such punishment? Then imagine a thousand years!! A million years!! A billion years!! A trillion years!! A hundred trillion years!! A hundred trillion years repeated 100 trillion times and still not ever done!! How could a loving and merciful God condone that and not stop it? Since every person in hell has a mother and a father, then how can a parent in heaven be eternally happy if their child is in hell?

Evolution – There's A Problem

 

Here's where I agree with Scientists:

Through natural selection, animals can change/evolve over time. We see this ourselves in human species. Normally, tall parents produce tall children and short parents produce short children. Facial, hair and other features (for example, big nose, blond hair, etc.) can also be transferred to children and grandchildren. Same would be true for animals.

Here's where I disagree with Scientists:

1. I do not believe that life can and did evolve from inanimate objects. If true, then prove it by creating life from inanimate objects.

2. How can all the body parts (brains, hearts, veins, stomachs, lungs, intestines, bladders, kidneys, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, arms, legs, fingers, reproductive organs, etc.) which must function together to sustain animal and human life develop separately over time and the human or animal remain alive?

3. Given the fact that in most species, including us humans, newborn babies cannot survive or be created without parents – a male and a female. For instance, the first human being could not have started as a baby. That implies that two adult humans, a male and a female, who were never babies, had to be created simultaneously in the same location on Earth, started the human race by having babies together. Otherwise, there could never be a human species. Same is true for animals, fish, and insects.

Big Bang Theory – There's A Problem

 Here's where I agree with scientists:

1. Before the Big Bang that started the Universe, there was nothing – no matter, no energy.

2. Energy and matter are interchangeable – the atomic bomb proved that.

Here's where I disagree:

Per the Big Bang theory, out of nothing, in an infinitely small space, an energy so hot developed that it exploded into matter creating all the mater in the universe.

1. First problem – you can't get something from nothing. So this incredibly hot energy in an infinitely small space which supposedly started the Universe, could not have come from nothing.

2. Second problem – not only something from nothing in an infinitely small space, but supposedly energy so hot that it created enough matter to create hundreds of billions of galaxies, each with 100 to 400 billion stars, plus even more planets and moons, plus countless trillions of black holes. That's an incredible amount of matter that supposedly came from one energy source contained within an infinitely small space (less than the size of a single atom). How hot must this first spec of energy from nothing be to create such a huge amount of matter? Inconceivably, impossibly hot!! Sounds more like a “God” theory to me that really created the Universe, but scientists won't admit it.

Crime – Let's Get Serious About How to Prevent It

 Crime rates are high because we tolerate it. Let's have zero tolerance for crime in the future by putting real fear into those who are thinking of committing a crime. Here's how:

1. Murder someone – Death Penalty – No exceptions.

2. Try to murder someone and fail - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

3. Threaten to kill someone while holding a lethal weapon (for example robbing someone while holding a gun) - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

4. Recruit a minor to commit a crime (for examples gangs do this a lot) - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

5. Fight with or shoot at police - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

6. Throw rocks, molotov cocktails, fire crackers and other hurtful objects at police and/or others, and/or intentionally start fires of buildings and cars - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

7. Encourage others to harm other people - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

8. Drive Drunk and harm or kill someone - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

9. Drive while on a cell phone and harm or kill someone - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

10. Rape someone - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

11. Engage in massive phone and/or internet fraud - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

12. Kidnap a person, especially a child - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

13. Run away from cops without shooting or otherwise threatening them – Life Imprisonment.

14. Spying against the US - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

15. Treason - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

16. Election fraud (this literally amounts to treason) - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

17. Enter the US illegally – One year in jail, take fingerprints and DNA samples, deport and never allowed to enter the US for any reason again. Requests for refugee status must be made at American embassies, not in the US.

18. Escape from jail - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

19. Theft without using a legal weapon and not on a massive scale – Life imprisonment.

20. Sell or transport illegal drugs - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

21. Smuggle illegal aliens into the US - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

22. Child pornography, sex trafficing, force people into slavery - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

23. Pimp - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

24. Start a fight and/or physical abuse that does not result in death - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

25 - Accuse someone of a crime that you know he/she did not commit - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

26. Deliberately commit Perjury - Death Penalty – No exceptions.

Family History Questions I Wish I Had Asked My Parents and Grandparents

 

1. Please tell me all you know about the lives of your parents and grandparents, and also their brothers and sisters.

2. Please show me any photos of them and you that I've never seen.

3. Can we make a copy of these particular photos for my records plus write down the names of the people in these photos on the back of the photo.

4. On our family immigrants, why did they come to America?

Why did their other family members not come to America?

When were they born and what town were they from?

What else do you know about family that stayed in Italy, especially their descendants that are still there?

Are you still in contact with them?

5. Please tell me about family medical history/problems.

6. Did any relatives serve in the military? Were any that served in the military wounded or killed?

7. Is there any advice you'd like to give me?

8. Are there any regrets that you have that you'd like to share?

Communist Economic systems have all failed

 Communist Economic systems have all failed:

1. Russia was the first to implement Communism. Consequently, Russians became desperately poor and miserable. Communism collapsed in Russia in 1989, freeing Russia and all the forced nations that were forcibly inducted into the Soviet Union at the end of World War 2. All are much better off now under Capitalism.

2. China was the second nation to adopt Communism. 10 of millions of Chinese starved to death after China banned private ownership of farms and moved to "Collectivazation". It converted to Capitalism in the 1980s. The percentage of extremely poor people in China in 1981 stood at 88.3%. By 2015 only 0.7% of the Chinese population was living in extreme poverty. In this period, the number of poor people in China fell from 878 million to less than ten million.

3. North Korea remains staunchly Communist. Millions of its people eat grass in order to survive. Its per capita annual wealth is $1.700. By contrast, capitalist South Korea annual per capita wealth is $42,765.

4. Cuba was militarily forced into Communism by Fidel Castro in 1959. Their economy collapsed and the people became desperately poor. Shortly after Castro died, they converted back to Capitalism and are doing better.

4. Venezuela was once the wealthiest nation in South America. Then it converted to communism/Socialism. Now it is poor, plagued with food shortages, and millions have left the country.

So then why do we have idiot liberal teachers and organizations such as Black Lives Matter (created by admitted Marxists using a Trojan Horse popular slogan to fool you into supporting them) preaching and trying to convert America from Capitalism to Communism? Be wise and learn from following history and don't be fooled believing the economic nonsense by these total Economic ignoramuses.

Solo 401K for Business Owners

 This may be a good option for any entrepreneurs out there running their own business with no employees (or employees working less than 1,000 hours a year). A solo 401K gives you a lot of room to catch up on building your tax deferred savings. The maximum contribution limit is huge - $58,000 in 2022; - $64,500 once you are over 50. And it can be set up as a Roth Solo 401K too (or a Traditional 401K though I don't recommend that). Here are relevant links:

https://gusto.com/blog/benefits/solo-401k

https://www.irafinancialgroup.com/.../2022-solo-401k.../

https://www.solo401k.com/.../roth-solo-401k-everything.../

Non-Working Spousal IRAs

 Non-Working Spousal IRAs - https://www.forbes.com/advisor/retirement/spousal-ira/

Gender Identity Realities

 There are only two “Biological” genders (male and female) that are determined at birth and they never change. The overwhelming majority of people understand that and agree with that. There are some people who mentally believe that their actual gender is different than their biological gender. These people have literally come up with dozens of these “mental” genders and assign themselves specifically to one of these dozens of mental genders and they want the rest of the world to acknowledge their mental gender and use it in every day life.

However, this “mental confusion” regarding gender on their part presents problems in the real world. Let's review those problems:

1. Physical health:

No matter what your mental gender, your biological gender determines some of your health issues and how to deal with them to keep you healthy. For example, a biological male has a prostate, no matter what his mental gender is. As a person ages, prostates can cause problems including prostate cancer and urinary issues, thus requiring medical help and prostate exams specific to your biological gender. Mental gender is irrelevant.

In a similar manner, a biological female, no matter what her mental gender, has breasts, a uterus, and ovaries – all of which can become cancerous, requiring medical help and preventive exams specific to her biological gender. Again, mental gender is irrelevant.

2. Sports Competition:

A biological male has 40% more muscle mass than a biological female due to all the space in a biological female's body devoted to reproduction. That's a fact that makes it totally unfair and unreasonable to allow biological males, no matter what their mental gender, to compete against biological females in sports. This is cheating and should never be allowed. Any historical sports “records” for female sports taken by biological males should be expunged and awarded to the biological females who competed.

3. Privacy, Modesty, and Safety Concerns:

Multi-person public bathrooms and locker rooms, for the safety, modesty, and privacy of biological females should be assigned and utilized strictly by biological gender designation.

4. Grammar:

Those with mental genders that differ from their biological gender reject the grammatically correct pronouns of his and her for addressing singular persons. They want people to use the grammatical incorrect “plural” pronoun “they” instead for a singular person. Not only is it grammatically incorrect, but it is confusing and non-instinctive, thus difficult to use.

Modern Life – We Take So Much For Granted

 Everything good in modern life had to be invented, built, and successfully distributed. Think of what we have now that a mere 200 years ago or less did not exist for our ancestors:

1. Clean water, toilets, sinks, and easy, safe disease free waste disposal and treatment.

2. Transportation ease – cars, planes, trains, buses, trucks, mechanized ships, rockets, satellites, space travel.

3. Telephones, cell phones

4. Photo and video cameras.

5. Radios, TVs, Movie theaters, CDs, DVDs, USB Flash Drives, video games.

6. Automated heating and air conditioning.

7. Washing Machines, Dryers, Dishwashers, tub and showers and hot water tanks to service them, plus Refrigerators and Ice makers.

8. Computers, personal computers, printers, fax machines, and the Internet.

9. Modern Medicine, X-Rays, CT Scans, MRIs, disease and other medical treatments that did not previously exist.

10. Electricity, light bulbs, vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, modern ovens and cook tops.

11. Skyscrapers, elevators, escalators, mechanized, mechanical cranes.

12. Concrete and asphalt roads and highways.

Discrimination is Immoral and Should be Forever Outlawed

1. Definition of Discrimination - Treatment or consideration based on class or category, such as race or gender, rather than individual merit.

2. Yes or No - Do you agree that all Discrimination is morally wrong and should be outlawed? The right answer is Yes.

3. The selection of less qualified Blacks or Hispanics and/or women over people of other races or genders for the purposes of "Diversity" is very obvious Discrimination and should be forever outlawed.

4. Individual merit only should be the sole determination of who gets the job or job promotion or college admission or college scholarship.

Questions I Wished I Asked When I Was In Parochial School

 1. Every person in hell has parents. How can a parent in heaven be eternally happy if their child is in hell?

2. We humans are homo sapiens, one of twenty one species of humans, 20 of which existed before us and who had intelligence, including some wearing clothes and using fire to cook. Do those other extinct human species have an after life or just homo sapiens?

3. God knows everything each of us are doing every moment that we exist so that he can judge us worthy or not of heaven when we die. So that's 7 billion people today, speaking and thinking in hundreds of languages, plus 60 to 100 billion people that have already died and like one third of the Angels could still fall into sin, plus who knows how many other intelligent life species throughout the Universe exist. How does God handle those billions of deeds and thoughts every second of the day in hundreds of different languages, and also how does God have any time to have fun himself?

4. God knows everything that has ever happened in the past. So God would remember his very first thought ever. He then could date when that first thought occurred. Since God has always existed, that means for hundreds of trillions of years prior to his first thought, he had no thoughts. Must have been very endlessly boring.

5. When the 10 Commandments were given to Moses, the Sabbath Day was Saturday and one of the Commandments told us to keep it Holy. So since God never changed the Sabbath Day after the 10 Commandments were given to Moses, why do Christians use Sunday as the Sabbath Day?

6. How can a loving and merciful God allow people to be eternally punished to suffer very painfully in a horrible hell? Think about how long eternity is – hundreds of trillions of years repeated hundreds of trillion times is nowhere near as long as eternity. Doesn't sound very loving or merciful. Perhaps eternal hell was a Pope's idea to make people afraid of defying him or the Church and thus subservient to his wishes.

7. Even if a person ascends to heaven, after trillions of years in heaven, won't he/she run out of interesting things to do and become eternally bored?

8. No person is perfect. Only God is perfect. Therefore every person will commit sins. It is the teaching of the Catholic Church that the determination of whether a person spends their afterlife in heaven or hell depends on whether they had unforgiven sin at the moment of their death. So a person who has been extremely holy all of their life commits a sin and coincidentally dies instantly after sinning goes to hell while a person who has been very sinful all their life has a heart attack and just before dying sincerely asks forgiveness goes to heaven. Hardly seems fair!!

9. The Church believes in the 10 Commandments. Why did the Catholic Church ignore the Sixth Commandment – Thou Shall Not Kill – for hundreds of years, cruelly murdering millions of people? Why are some of the Popes who led this effort canonized as saints? Shouldn't they be in hell?

10. In nearly 12 years in parochial school, We never read nor discussed the Bible. Why?

11. There were actually 50 gospels, not 4. So how did these 4 get chosen. About 300 years after the death of Jesus, the pagan Roman Emperor Constantine, just before a battle that he won, saw a comet explode in the shape of the Cross. He did not understand that it was a comet and took it as a sign from God to convert to Christianity which he did. Since there were so many different essentially unorganized sects of Christianity, Constantine wanted to have one organized religion and use it to support and unite his empire. So he convened a meeting with different religious leaders to determine which gospels best supported his goals of empire. That's how those 4 gospels were chosen and the rest ruled as heresy, punishable by death to believers. He made Christianity the official religion of his empire to more firmly control his empire.

12. Why are there so few saints in the Catholic Church compared to the Earth's population? Shouldn't the overwhelming majority of us be going to heaven? If not, then why were we created? So that the majority or very substantial percentage of us would burn in hell forever?!! Would be better to never have been born then to involuntarily assume the risk of eternal hell.

13. Did the Virgin Mary, being married to Joseph, have children after Jesus was born?

14. The Virgin Mary never died, but instead Jesus came down from heaven later in her life, and carried her alive physical body into heaven. That raises a lot of questions:

a. As a human body, wouldn't Mary have froze to death in the upper atmosphere which is over 200 degrees below zero, and in space where it is roughly 400 degrees below zero.

b. For her body to survive in heaven, it must reside in a physical space with warmth and oxygen to facilitate breathing. Theoretically then, heaven must be a physical place and thus possibly could be found through exploration. Correct?

c. If Heaven is a physical place, then how do the dead, whose bodies remain on Earth, navigate it?

Tax Deadlines and Fines

 The main reason to file a tax extension is because financial companies have not sent you documents you need, such a K-1s, by the tax deadline in order to file an accurate tax return. Without these records, it is impossible to know the exact amount of money you owe the government in taxes. Yet, the government still wants to be paid the "right" amount of money by the tax deadline even with a granted extension to file your taxes. If you, because of these missing financial documents, under pay the final taxes you really owe, the government fines you for the "error" even though you have no control of when you receive these documents which are needed to accurately calculate the taxes you owe. Instead, the government should be forcing every financial institution to send the required documents to taxpayers way ahead of the April 15 deadline. January 31 should be the latest due date by law. If missed, the financial company needs to be fined, not the innocent taxpayer.  

History of War

 

Nearly every war in human history has been started by Dictators, be they royal (kings, queens, emperors), religious (Popes, etc.), military, or civilian dictators.

Genders

 

When it comes to genders, there are:

1. Mental genders (some say as many as 22 mental genders exist).

2. Physical genders – only 2 physical genders exist, male and female, determined at birth, and both physically and scientifically NOT interchangeable.

Important Differences of Physical Genders:

1. Physical Differences and Impacts:

A. Physical males have 40% more muscle mass than physical females due to the amount of body space given to reproduction for a physical female. This matters greatly for fair sports competition. Therefore, physical males should never participate in Women's sports. Mental gender is irrelevant. Physical males, whatever their mental gender, can still play sports. Just play sports organized by their physical gender.

B. For privacy, modesty, and female safety/protection reasons, physical males should also never use women's locker rooms nor women's public bathrooms. Mental gender is irrelevant.

2. Medical health.

A. Physical males have prostates and by a certain age should have regular prostate exams to check for cancer. Mental gender is irrelevant.

B. Physical females have breasts, ovaries, uterus, cervix, each requiring regular medical health screening by a certain age, and/or medical problems unique to physical females. Mental gender is irrelevant.

C. In getting a person pregnant, physical males and physical females have different roles to be successful. Mental gender is irrelevant.

D. Pregnancy and child birth can only be experienced by physical females. Mental gender is irrelevant.

E. Periods, menstruation, and hot flashes are only experienced by physical females. Mental gender is irrelevant.

Hot Water Tanks Energy Consumption

 Concerned about climate change? A home's hot water tank(s) is normally second (to heating and air conditioning) in a home's total energy consumption. How many of you leave your hot water tanks running all day and night? Gigantic waste of energy and expense if you do. Put timers on your hot water tanks and set them to run for only the times you generally use hot water. Keep in mind that even when off, a hot water tank, especially if well insulated, will keep its water hot for hours when not in much usage. Also, is your hot water too hot for your hands and body when you use it so that you have to mix it with some cold water? If yes, then lower your hot water tank's temperature. These are normally preset to 140 degrees. Turn it down to 120 degrees or less.

When you go on vacation or business trips, do you turn your hot water tanks off for the entire period that you are away? If not, what a waste of energy and money!! For electric hot water tanks, just turn off its circuit breaker when you are away, then turn it on when you return and change the time on the timer to the correct time (I usually leave myself a note to do that where I will see it when I return. Note - I am not familiar with gas hot water tanks so you may need to handle it differently.

Finally, hot water tanks may eventually leak water. That can be a real disaster when you return. Have a shut off valve installed on the water intake of your hot water tank. When away, turn that valve off, then turn it back on when you return (I also leave myself a note for this too). That way, if there is a leak, it will only leak the 40 to 50 gallons of water in the tank, instead of possibly thousands of gallons continuously when you're away for extended periods of time.

We are so much better off than our Ancestors

 The overwhelming majority of our ancestors lived without:

1. Clean water, nor running water in their homes.

2. Sewer or septic systems (people in cities went to the bathroom in a bowl and threw the contents in the streets). Rural areas may have had out houses.

3. Cars, buses, trains, planes.

4. Electricity.

5. Automated heating systems.

6. Air Conditioning.

7. Phones.

8. Washing machines.

9. Good, knowledgeable medical care. Standard doctor practice for the very sick - deliberately bleed you to get out the "bad blood", thus often causing your death.

10. Television, computers, internet, credit cards.

11. Garbage Collection.

12. Soap which was not invented until the 1800s (used animal fat and oils as soap; used perfume to over power the smell of dirty bodies.).

Pretty much explains why until 1900, the average human lifespan was 45 years compared to about 80 years today.

In other words, the poor people in America today are infinitely better off than even the wealthy people who lived 200 years or more ago.

Voter Fraud Cheating Rights Bill

 Hey Joe Biden - Wake up!! The right to vote is already protected and is a non-issue. What you and Democrats are trying to do is pass laws that vastly increase the ability for voter fraud without being able to detect it. The current very cunningly but fraudulently named Voting Rights legislation will ultimately destroy our democracy if passed. Here are its horrible major points:

1. Stops states from requiring voter ID to vote (so how do you know the person voting has the right to vote?). Note 80% of Americans approve and want voter ID as a requirement to vote including the majority of Blacks and registered Democrats.

2. Stop states from purging voter rolls. Given the fact that over 40 million Americans move each year and over 3 million Americans die each year, there is a very obvious need to purge voter rolls to keep them accurate.

3. Protect and allow "voter harvesting". This is where one person collects voter ballots from dozens and even hundreds of people in their community and turns them in to be counted. Often they go to nursing homes where many patients are not physically and mentally competent to know what's going on.

4. It allows and encourages mail in voting. Every nation on Earth either forbids or heavily restricts mail in voting because it is very prone to fraud.

My Christmas Wish List

 

My Christmas Wish List

1. Excellent health for everyone on Earth.

2. Peace, freedom, and prosperity for everyone on Earth.

3. One day each year, please send back our loved, deceased family members to visit with us.

Why is it so Difficult For Retailers to be in Stock 100% of the Time

 My career spanning almost 40 years was to manage catalog inventory for a major Retail company selling apparel, shoes, home furnishings, toys, and sporting goods. The major principles learned in catalog inventory management also apply to stores and online sales, though store and online businesses have greater flexibility than a catalog in terms of reacting to sales increases and decreases from pre-season item estimates as they can instantly lower prices on poor selling items to boost sales and also replace out of stock items with other items so that the customers don't see the out of stock items. You can't do that with a printed catalog page within catalogs at customer homes.

What applies to all forms of retailing is that the total average sales of any item when measured to the total customer base that sees that item is statistically insignificant (roughly about .0001 of the customer base so that the “typical” average item sales of a customer base of 10 million customers is about 100 units sold). “Average” is calculated from the total number of items sold and there will be many items that sell significantly more than average plus many items that sell significantly less than average. If all items sold at the average number, there would be no problem forecasting and stocking the item, but that is not the case.

Keep in mind that many items come in multiple sizes and/or colors. It is at the size color level that stock levels need to be accurate (called the sock keeping unit or “sku” level for short) and sku level sales are much, much less than their item level sales. Furthermore, the sku level inventory needs to be broken out by geographical locations of multiple stores and distribution centers/warehouses. There can be significant sales differences and sales rate differences among items and skus in different geographical locations.

Due to the statistical insignificance of item and sku sales, the forecast accuracy of a pre-season item forecast is dismal. Only about 15% are accurate to plus or minus 10%. Therefore, 85% of all pre-season item forecasts are inaccurate! Given the fact that once sales start trickling in for an item, since those sales are far less than it's seasonal estimate, the statistical accuracy of those forecasts is often horrible.

There is no way that a Retailer can or would stock 100% of the pre-season estimate for all items before the selling season begins for multiple reasons. If a retailer did that, about half the items would be over bought resulting in very high markdowns to get rid of the inventory , thus hurting profits. Keep in mind that without profits, a retailer would go out of business. Also, the inventory space requirements needed to do that would be astronomically high and expensive, hurting profits plus resulting in higher prices in order to afford to do that. Therefore, “turnover” (the multiple usage of a fixed space to store an item repeatedly through multiple seasonal purchases) is extremely important for all retailers if a profit is to be achieved.

If the item being sold is imported, the retailer may have little choice but to buy 100% or close to 100% of it because many imported items have only one manufacturer production run (or at most two production runs within the same season) whereas the manufacturer of a domestic item may have several seasonal production runs enabling retailers to make multiple purchases at different times for different ship dates, thus facilitating good turnover and also increased forecasting accuracy over time for domestic items. Thus both overstock and out of stock situations are more common for imported items.

One other important factor resulting in imbalances of inventory are item “pre-packs”. A pre-pack is a manufacturer's shipping package with pre-determined units by sku. Compared to catalog and online orders to manufacturers, individual store orders are usually much smaller because an individual store's item sales are much smaller as their geographical “reach” is their own “local” area, not regional or national as would be the case with catalog and online service areas. For example with overstock on one sku and understocked on another sku for the same item would not be buying enough for the understocked sku and buying too much for the overstocked sku when ordering pre-packs. Some store chains mitigate this problem by buying to regional distribution centers and servicing their stores from them. With national catalogs and online businesses, their orders are large enough so that manufacturers allow them to buy their individual sku needs, not pre-packs.   

The best inventory management defense for a retailer is to have the people responsible for forecasting and purchasing item inventory be good “merchants”. In the beginning of the season when item sales are a tiny portion of their final seasonal sales totals, a “random” insignificant difference in sales to date can, when measured against historical rates of sales for that same time period the year before (maybe less than 5 or 10% done or especially less than 1% done) give astronomical mechanically generated forecasts that are highly unlikely. A good “merchant” considers factors beyond statistically generated historical forecasts based on few sales (that are highly likely to be very inaccurate), and tempers any item estimate revisions accordingly so that drastic mistakes are not made when it is impossible to be statistically accurate.

Bottom Line – We call it Inventory Management but in reality, it is “Risk” that is being actively managed because item and sku forecast accuracy that is needed (within the time frames of each individual manufacturer production runs) for good inventory management is pretty much an unattainable goal. That is why Retailers, no matter how much they work to keep in stock on all items and skus, will never fully achieve that goal.

Skin Color

 Observation:

Looking at golfers wearing white clothing tonight, it became very obvious that White people aren't White, more like Beige. Put your supposed white skin (for example your arm) next to a white piece of paper or a white tissue. Your skin color is not White.

It won't happen in my lifetime, but we need to get rid of "race" classifications by skin color. We all belong to one race - the human race. There are no other races. Even scientists agree that no matter what your human skin color is, we are all the same one species which is why our blood and organs are transferrable no matter what any differences in skin color are.

Some animals, for example horses, come in different skin colors. We don't divide horses into classifications by skin color. Neither should we divide humans by skin color.

Social Security Tax Benefits of Roth IRAs

 I've advocated the benefits of Roth IRAs and 401Ks over Traditional ones for years. So let me give another example in addition to the income tax examples I've given in the past from the impact of IRA value growth over decades and the difference in taxes from paying taxes the years when you contribute (Roth IRA) and paying taxes the years when you withdraw (Traditional IRA). While working, my income later in my career became too "high" by stupid government rules for qualifying to take out a Roth IRA and I had to use Traditional IRAs instead, plus my company 401K was only offered as a Traditional 401K and the 50% company match was too much not to take it. Now that I have finished converting all of my Traditional IRAs including my Traditional 401K which I moved to a Traditional IRA when I retired to Roth in 2021 (would have finished years ago, but I took a pension buyout in 2015 that was automatically put in a Traditional IRA that required several more years of Roth Conversions that delayed this), I will reap more benefits starting in 2022 - NO MORE FEDERAL INCOME TAXES FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES!!! Social Security benefits will be our only income (Roth IRA withdrawals are not counted as income and therefore not taxed) and without other income such as government required minimum distributions from Traditional IRAs, those benefits will not meet the SS threshold to be taxable (SS formula = half of our SS benefit plus other taxable income will be less than the $32,000 SS formula threshold to be taxable so that our taxable SS income will be zero even though it is over $50,000 gross combined total income). That will send all of my taxable income (about $1,000 in non-IRA dividends/interest) to a large negative (due to the large standard deduction - thank you Donald Trump) that will insure that I never pay Federal income taxes again.

Ron Puma's Federal Taxes Plan – A Better way to Collect Taxes

 

Ron Puma's Federal Taxes Plan – A Better way to Collect Taxes

A. Goals:

Simplify taxes in a fair way – no more annual income tax forms to fill out. We've essentially done that for payroll taxes (Social Security, Medicare, and Unemployment Insurance). So let's do it for Federal Income taxes also.

Eliminate unfair taxes and socially destructive taxes to include:

1. Taxes on Social Security benefits (which was the original promise to us when SS was created).

2. Taxes on deposits and withdrawals to IRAs and 401Ks. Call it the Freedom IRA and the Freedom 401K.

3. Estate taxes. All the taxes were paid while the Estate was being built up. Estate taxes are therefore double taxation. Unfair and unreasonable. Plus estate taxes, in order to be paid, can sometimes involve the forced liquidation of businesses and farms in order to raise the taxes needed to pay off Estate taxes. This results in loss jobs of those owners and employees and lost future revenues from those businesses, a really stupid government consequence. Estate taxes only contribute one half of one percent of Federal government revenues so are near meaningless in total to the government, but can be devastatingly meaningful to family members who inherit the estate.

B. Current Sources of Federal Tax Revenues (before formulating a new plan, we need to know and understand the current plan)

1. Individual Income Taxes – 50% of the total federal revenues. Consists of:

Salary and Wages.

Business Partnership Income.

Capital Gains Income.

Interest and Dividends.

IRA/401K Distributions (recommend eliminating).

Pension Income.

Annuity Income.

Social Security Benefits (recommend eliminating).

Rent and royalty income.

Important Note – 2020 total personal income for the US was $19.7 trillion dollars.

2. Payroll Taxes – 36% of the total federal revenues. Consists of:

Social Security

Medicare

Unemployment Insurance

3. Corporate Income Taxes - 7% of total federal revenues. Consists of Profits.

Important Note – 2020 total corporate profits was $2.3 trillion dollars (compares to $19.7 trillion dollars for total personal income).

4. Estate taxes - .5% of total Federal revenues.

5. Other – 6.5% of total federal revenues. Consists of:

Regulatory fees.

Custom Duties.

Excise taxes.

Gift taxes (recommend eliminating)

C. Federal Spending:

1. What is the level of federal spending that taxes must support?

We need to know that before devising any new tax plan. Answer – Current Federal spending is $3.9 Trillion dollars.

2. How can we reduce Federal spending?

The huge hidden spending “hole” that none of us see and are therefore unable to evaluate are Federal subsidies. Federal subsides are hidden in many federal departmental budgets to hide their totals even though there is a Catalog of Domestic affairs to apply for subsidies that does not group by category or total the amount spent. There are at least 2,300 Federal subsidies and in some years that total has grown by more than 100 new subsidies. It has been estimated that federal subsides exceed one trillion dollars a year, but no one really knows. What we do know is that every subsidy is a “slice of Communism” - the most failed economic system in human history. All subsidies need to be eliminated. Until eliminated, list all subsidies within each category and give dollar spending totals for each subsidy, category, and the grand total of all subsidies combined in the Catalog of Domestic Affairs website and make it available online to everyone. Also, if no spending budget is passed, reduce all budgets to 95% of last year's spending to motivate politicians to compromise and pass a reasonable budget.

Ron Puma's Federal Taxation and Revenue Plan

A. Income Taxes:

1. All taxes on IRA and 401K deposits and distributions are eliminated.

2. All taxes on Social Security Benefits are eliminated.

3. All taxes on Estate inheritances are eliminated.

Individual Income taxes are assessed by individual only (no combined marital income tax). Government keeps track of the following rules and tells employers when a change in taxation rates are needed. Government also automatically refunds individuals when too many taxes have been taken out so that there is no need to fill out forms:

4. The first $25,000 of earned salary and wages (not including above exemptions) is taxed at a nominal 1% so that everyone has an interest in keeping government spending down. No other exemptions are allowed. The $25,000 exemption and the below taxable ranges are adjusted annually for inflation.

a. From $25,001 to $150,000, the tax is 10%. (Third tier)

b. From $150,001 to $300,000, the tax is 15%. (Second tier)

c. Above $300,000, the tax is 20%. (First tier).

Important Note – This plan plus the following plans will be evaluated annually to determine if the tax rates need adjustment up or down depending on how well they do or do not cover federal spending. If adjustments are needed, use the framework given above, with added percentage tax rates if needed, first given to the top tier income bracket, but not to exceed 35%, second tier if needed, but not to exceed 25%, and first tier if needed but not to exceed 15%. If more is needed, then cut spending.

B. Corporate Income Taxes:

Exactly the same as the individual income tax plan except taxes are based on profits not revenues or income.

C. Capital Gains Taxes:

20% of Profits minus losses. Paid automatically by banks and brokerage houses. IRA and 401K capital gains are not taxed.

D. Payroll taxes:

1. On Social Security:

Pension part only – everyone pays the same flat rate up to an amount, calculated by actuaries, so as not to exceed paying more than anticipated future benefits. Probably in the neighborhood of 4% to a cap of about $150,000. Matched by Employers. As is the case today. Must cover SS benefit expenses.

Welfare Part (Disability and widows with children)

Actuary determined percentage to cover expenses with no cap on income taxed. Probably in the neighborhood of 2%. As is the case today, matched by employers.

2. Medicare:

1.5% matched by employers. Adjusted by actuaries as needed. Similar as today.

3. Federal Unemployment Insurance:

1% paid by employers only. Each state has their own unemployment tax plan

E. Other Taxes:

Keep current regulatory fees, custom duties, and excise taxes. Eliminate gift taxes.

F. Revenues without Taxation:

1. Retirement Security:

In the Federal General Fund, that is outside and not related to the Federal Social Security Fund, invest $10,000 for each newborn American citizen into a new retirement fund to supplement Social Security benefits in the future. It is well known that up to 40% of retired Americans live only or mostly on social security benefits and have no supplemental retirement savings. It would be a great idea if for each American born citizen, we deposit $10,000 when they are born into an investment account which buys only ETF indexes (S&P 500- SPY, Nasdaq 100 - QQQ, S& P 400 mid -size companies - MDY, S&P 600 small size companies - SLY) and leave them there (never trading them) until age 65. After that, (when likely it would have grown to over 5 million dollars based on 10 to 11% long term stock market growth) they receive 4% a year (about $200,000 a year to start which should be divided by 12 and paid monthly) until they die. Likely the amount paid each year as benefits will grow in size most years given the 10-11% long term growth of the stock market. The annual cost would be roughly 30 to 40 billion dollars initially or only about 1% of the total Federal budget. Over time, the left over amount when people die must be utilized to fund new future newborns, thus becoming self sustaining over time. Increase the initial $10,000 by the inflation rate each year. Even a hard working poor American with no savings would be well off at retirement. To pacify those afraid of stock markets, put the money in a special US treasury bond with a typical long term interest rate for these securities, so that the higher of the two at retirement age is used to pay out these funds (will always be the stock market). Make it illegal for the Treasury or government to borrow or transfer this money out of these bonds to spend elsewhere.

2. Federal Budget Security:

In a similar manner, take 1% of revenues each year annually into a similar, locked US Treasury bond to invest in the ETF stock market indexes for 50 years. By that time, if past investment growth is realized, those annual investments would have doubled in value 7 times. For example, if we started with the year 2025 and 1% of the federal budget equaled 40 billion dollars, then the amount available for expenses and debt reduction in 2075 would be over 5 trillion dollars!! Similarly, the 2026 investment would yield about the same in 2076, and so on forever. We could eventually eliminate the need for any taxes through this plan.