With stocks hovering around an all-time record high, a growing likelihood of a Federal income tax rate hike by 2021, and the deadline for end-of-year tax tactics closing in fast, this is a timely reminder to run a reality check on your retirement income plan. An unusual confluence of tax, financial-market and political factors make this a particularly good time for high-income and high net worth individuals to check their retirement income plan. Let’s get specific about current conditions: In 2019, the federal government is spending a trillion dollars more than it collected in revenue, and at the end of 2018, the national debt totaled $22 trillion Meanwhile, changing political winds could sweep in higher federal tax rates. Managing your tax bracket now — in case of a hike in federal income tax brackets — could lower your tax bill, not just for 2019 but in the year or two ahead, as well. Proactive tax planning before the end of 2019 may be especially timely for business owners with an interest in a pass-through entity, like an LLC, S corp, or sole proprietorship.

By any measure, we spend about half of our time thinking about something other than what we’re supposed to be doing. At work, this can be especially lethal to our projects and, along with them, our job satisfaction and success. Yet few people understand the degree to which routine diversions impact our performance. In fact, how many of us consider interruptions and distractions as just part of the job? But they aren’t, nor should they be, particularly when our precious projects are on the line. To start, let’s differentiate between interruptions, or externally driven diversions, and distractions, or internally driven diversions. Of the two, interruptions tend to be harder to deal with because they usually involve other living beings — say, a meddling micromanager, a chatty coworker, or even a playful pup. But distractions, particularly in the digital age, can be just as difficult. Who among us hasn’t allowed a ‘quick’ Facebook or email check devolve into 45 minutes we’ll never get back? Though minimizing distractions and interruptions may require different solutions, the solutions themselves share a common thread: They require recognizing the ‘entry point’ and then uncovering how to counter it. By focusing on entry points, we can actually prevent distractions and interruptions rather than just react to them. After all, once we’re diverted, we lose valuable momentum and oftentimes the will to recover it. So, whether interruptions or diversions, here are nine ways to deal with project diversions — and do your best work.

Family businesses are fraught with conflict, tension and a distinct lack of sophistication. Still some of the most successful companies in the world are family-owned and have succeeded through multiple generations. Now current sociopolitical and economic forces are threatening the very survival of family businesses. It has been cited by numerous credible sources that only 40% of family owned businesses are now surviving to the second generation, 12% to the third, and 3% to the fourth and these statistics are rapidly diminishing. But there are several things that have kept family businesses as one of the strongest sectors of the economy. It is their fortitude, resilience and indomitable will. The secret to saving the fate of family businesses lies in the behavior of the family business leaders. The overriding tenant of this book is that, “behavior precede performance.” If we can positively influence the behavior of family members they will perform at a higher level. They will win more cooperation from others, achieve higher goals and produce more fruitful outcomes. This book examines how impacting behavior dramatically improves performance and can sustain the entire enterprise for generations.

Tons of government, trade association, and private company sponsored data and research about the economy are released every day. We summarize what you need to know to invest intelligently for the long run in this series of videos every week. Much of the economic research is from independent economist Fritz Meyer. Fritz was the senior investment strategist at one of the world’s largest investment companies for over a decade. In 2009, he went independent — so he has no ties to any financial products, no conflicts of interest in analyzing financial economics.

There are approximately 35 million people who are millionaires in the world. As Robert J. Samuelson states so perfectly in The Washington Post, "That's about 5 percent of the U.S. adult population (241 million in 2014), or one in 20. Rarefied, yes; exclusive, no." Though the population numbers have gone up in the last year, they still prove a point. It's totally possible for you to become a millionaire. I will tell you that a lot of people will need more than a million dollar. Wealth is nothing more than a byproduct of success. The pursuit of success is dependent upon the desire to succeed and become wealthy. Wealth, therefore, is the carrot at the end of the stick. Take away that carrot and you remove the desire to succeed. Socialism not only takes away that carrot, it renders obsolete all of the necessary ingredients that make success possible: a hard work ethic, creativity, persistence, genius, good habits, overcoming fear and the courageous pursuit of dreams and goals. Success is therefore impossible in a Socialist society – why pursue success if the carrot at the end of the stick, wealth, is removed? America’s founding fathers knew this. While becoming a millionaire rarely occurs overnight, it's still an achievable dream if you work hard and use these habits: Todays show is about Millionare’s Frugal Habits is Markeith Gentry who is the WNCU’s Production Assistant and makes sure Mastering Your Money is available to our listeners. Welcome back to Mastering Your Money, Markeith Gentry

Society has done a huge disservice to young people by relying on outdated educational and workforce training models developed 50 years ago. Our one-size-fits-all approach that promotes college as the single path to a profitable, high-skilled profession is putting both the economy and an entire generation at risk. We face a national crisis of rising college costs, decreasing degree-requiring jobs and employer frustration with the younger generations in the workplace. Meanwhile, we’re pushing young people to obtain college degrees while simultaneously ignoring the importance of also acquiring valuable work skills. As a result, only 1 in 5 students feel prepared for today’s job market. We’re saddling them with enormous college debt for degrees that may not pay off.

One of my favorite movies is “A Wonderful Life”. It is a Christmas Classic starring Jimmy Stewart. It is about man who believes he has been wasting his life in a bank and everyone was getting ahead in life but him. He thought this until an angel shows him all the wonderful things he has in his life. Do you need an angel in your life to show you what you are missing? I believe it may be a purpose and happiness.

Stocks have been more volatile because the difference between perception and reality of financial economic conditions is growing wider. The S&P 500 — the key benchmark of America — is supposed to price shares after discounting everything — the Federal Reserve’s policies, politics, inflation, and population trends. When fundamental facts grow harder to discern, stocks grow more volatile, and that’s what’s been happening lately, especially with the widespread misperception of the yield curve inversion. A yield curve inversion is when the yield on 10 year US Treasury Bonds is less than the yield on three-month T Bills. Since the 1960s, when investors thought the 10-year long term outlook for bonds looked worse than the three month outlook, inverting the yield, recessions usually followed 12 to 18 months later. While the recent inversion of the yield curve is perceived as evidence a recession is on the way, the reality is very different. The inversion of the yield curve currently is being driven by negative interest rates in Europe. Negative yields in Europe and Japan — an unprecedented condition in the largest economies in the world — is a new thing and it’s not widely understood.

Part 2 of Do You Want To Retire Early? F.I.R.E. is an acronym. It stands for Financial Independence Retire Early. There's a growing movement of people who are practicing FIRE principles and retiring decades earlier than expected as a result. Smart, often middle-income earners are using a simple formula of high savings rates (50-70% of their incomes) + frugal living (minimalism) + low-cost stock index fund investing (Warren Buffett’s standard investment advice) in order to reach financial independence within short, usually around 10-year periods of time. For obvious reasons, FIRE is sometimes referred to as “the ultimate life hack.” This large and growing community has an ever-increasing cadre of 100+ high-traffic bloggers, most of whom chronicle their FIRE journeys and publish details of their methods, and report their actual personal financial information along the way. It’s a fascinating voyeuristic genre with an alluring punchline: retire early and pursue your true passions! There is more and more journalistic coverage of FIRE. Just search Google News for “early retirement” or “early financial independence” and you’ll find almost daily coverage of this fascinating phenomenon. Joining us for our discussion on Do You Want To Retire Early? is who is calling in from his Seattle Washington WA office . Paul Merriman is a nationally recognized authority on mutual funds, index investing, asset allocation and both buy-and-hold and active management strategies. Now retired from Merriman, the Seattle-based investment advisory firm he founded in 1983, he is dedicated to educating investors, young and old, through weekly articles at Marketwatch.com, and via complimentary eBooks, podcasts, articles, recommendations for mutual funds, ETFs, 401(k) plans and more, at Paulmerriman.com . He has 3 Complimentary Ebooks “First Time Investor: Grow And Protect Your Money,” “101 Investment Decision Guaranteed To Change Your Financial Future,” And “Get Smart Or Get Screwed: How To Select The Best And Get The Most From Your Financial Advisor.” WELCOME BACK TO MASTERING YOUR MONEY, PAUL MERRIMAN

Retirement can be a new, complex world. Our goal here is to help you understand that the retirement distribution game – spending assets in retirement – is much different than the accumulation game when you’re saving for retirement. Chances are, you have been in the accumulation phase of your life for several decades. You’ve been working hard trying to save money and hopefully your accounts have grown. But now, as you enter or prepare for retirement, you’re in an entirely different phase… The distribution phase. And the distribution phase has new, strange rules that can catch people off guard. Along with those new rules, there are often many changes in your own personal life that can have a big impact on your taxes, too.