Ed R


I really screwed up and have over $50,000 in investment losses this year! Our gross income from salaries for this year will only be around $50,000.

In addition, I lost $5000 in my Roth IRA. I just read that I can only deduct $3,000 in investment losses. Does that include IRAs PLUS regular investment activities?

Also, will any interest I accrue via CDs or dividends from stocks or mutual funds essentially be tax-free now since I have such a large investment loss? Or is that a different category?

Please help, I really screwed up this year and am hoping somebody has some suggestions to make this better. Thanks in advance!

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benjyo909

XRL.us/ebaysecret Top 10 Craziest Purchases on ebay. Girl Sells her Virginity. Man sells a sandwich for $28000. Very interesting. Money on ebay with strange items. More at XRL.us/ebaysecret

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Johny


I know that real estate has created the most millionaires but now that I think about it I only know of 2 real estate billionaires. So what is the investment vehicle that has created the most billionaires?? Im guessing oil/large corporations?

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music


I’m am 20 and in college, and thought I would invest some money in the stock market. I am new to stock investing and am planning to invest a $200 first. How do taxes come into play with stock investing? What companies should I invest in currently?

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The Daily Elitist


It’s very well known that it’s easier to make money when you already have a lot of it. For someone with a net worth of $50 million, it’s easy to have an extremely comfortable life by just sitting back and investing in investment-grade fixed income securities – you collect millions of dollars in interest payments, and can just as easily continue increasing your fortune with no risk and no effort. For someone starting out at the bottom though, it’s become very difficult just to advance to middle-class status. Even if you’re incredibly smart and have an innovative idea for a business, securing the capital necessary to get it running is nearly impossible, at least without toiling away for years and years, working in comparatively unproductive menial jobs.

Despite the social and moral problems with allowing such a neo-aristocratic society to develop, the inherent nature of unfettered capitalism presents us with economic problems as well. In the example above, it is highly uneconomical for the idle beneficiaries of a large inheritence to consume society’s resources without taking any risk or exerting any effort. Likewise, it is highly uneconomical to make a bright, innovative person born into poverty toil away at Wal Mart. Would it not be far better economics to tax the idle holder of idle capital, not to give the smart, poor person a handout, but to invest in them (i.e., providing low-cost education), allowing them to advance in economic and social status, and therefore realize their potential to the benefit of all?

Structurally, there’s also the problem of wealth concentration. As more and more wealth is concentrated into the hands of fewer and fewer people, much of our economic output is devoted to “managing” their wealth – in practice, this means loaning it out to businesses (which is somewhat productive) and consumers (which, in the case of things like credit cards, is often wholly unproductive). Not only is this uneconomical, but eventually, if those at the bottom do not have the playing field leveled in their favor somewhat, we reach a point in which all “production” centers around kicking an ever-increasing share of the society’s income up to the idle creditors at the top.

Left unchecked, this inevitably leads to a total economic collapse (i.e., what’s happening now), as business doesn’t have enough customers financially able to buy their products. In other words, as the working classes become more and more heavily indebted, the people at the top hold the claims on so much of workers’ income that they can’t consume enough to warrant current levels of production, so economic output must fall. So then, how can the capitalist system continue to be productive without government action to ensure that the ratio between work and reward remains at least somewhat equitable?

Along the same lines, those who favor letting this concentration continue cite two objections – first, that of wealth creation. Of course new wealth can be created, but what is there in the laissez-faire paradigm to ensure that the gains won’t simply be sucked up by those at the top? They necessarily control capital allocation.

Second, they often object on moral grounds, saying that it’s immoral to “take” from the upper classes to invest in the lower. Now, I think this objection has some merit, but on the other hand, if what’s being “taken” are just paper assets and they’re left with more than enough to maintain their lifestyle, is anything really being taken at all? For the most part, it’s really just an accounting adjustment – there’s no material effect to them – to ensure the durability of the system, is it not?
Simian,

You make a valid point. You are correct that if too much is redistributed – especially, possibly exclusively, if it is merely handed over – the incentive to produce at all disappears. I don’t think anyone would dispute that.

However, looking on the other side of this, surely there’s a point wherein too much wealth concentration causes systematic problems, no? I mean, capitalism functions though finance and accounting, and those have to operate within certain mathematical limits. What I’m saying, in mathematical terms, is that in the system without redistribution, the share of income going to those at the top increases geometrically approaching a limit of infinity. However, for obvious reasons, the material limit is 100% – and in practice, it is far lower still. Once we get to whatever the practical limit is, physical production cannot continue, as the accounting/math of the thing cannot deal with such a high degree of concentration.
“Your follow up under your question is way too long to read.”

Imagine how I felt writing it! It’s really not my fault that reality can’t always be expressed in soundbytes, however.

“‘Redistribution of wealth’ is socialism.”

Actually, socialism is state control of wealth. Redistribution proper necessarily occurs within the strictures of the capitalist system.

“With free enterprise, everyone has an opportunity.”

They do in theory, but do they in practice? For instance, in the US, a poor black student with straight A’s in high school is much less likely to finish a 4-year college degree than a rich white C-average student. Call me crazy, but I don’t think this is the “meritocracy” that capitalism is supposed to embody. What I’m asking is, IN PRACTICE, is some redistribution necessary for the theoretical potential of the capitalist meritocracy to be realized?
For the last time, I AM NOT ADVOCATING FOR SOCIALISM, CENTRAL PLANNING, or anything of the sort. I agree that socialism proper does not and cannot work. However, it seems to me that totally unfettered capitalism is every bit as impractical.

Indeed, is there even a single example of the “pure” form of any ideological system EVER existing, much less working, in practice? Not to my (quite extensive) knowledge.
Mo Fayed,

“Tax-and-spend socialism” is a contradiction in terms. Under socialism, the state owns all income-producing property, so there is no need for taxation at all.
Mark M,

The United States experienced its most rapid economic growth and development when the tax rate on the wealthy was a staggering 91%. Your claim is historically and materially false.

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dar


What form do I use?
Is there a limit to the fees (I payed about $8K for investment fees)?
Do the fees get bundled into other “deductoins” so that I have to meet a threshold of expenses?

Thanks all!

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majms77


I don’t have any prior experience in starting an investment in Stock, Mutual Funds and Bonds and I’d highly appreciate it if you could please help me in

1.Explaining what does each term refer for.
2.Where to start
3.Which company to start with
4. Successful investors names.

Best regards,

MAJDI SUMREEN

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