Milky Way Retirement

  Hi all, April rain brings May flowers. However, it hasn't rained as much as it did last year. Most of the plants in my yard were wilted because I was busy with lotus planting and forgot to water them. Will there be a drought this year? A few days ago, there was a Red Flag warning about the chances of wildfire in my area. Strange! The weather keeps changing unpredictably due to climate change. Farmers may have a year of loss, which may also affect the consumption price and inflation. I'm not a farmer, just an amateur gardener, but I felt the worry about the weather and the crops. April is also Financial Literacy Month. Do you think we are all literate about our own money? 20% of students lack basic skills of financial literacy skills, which means they may know nothing about budgeting, saving, or managing their own money. Adults are not better. 29% of working women showed basic skills of financial literacy skills whereas 47% of working men did. This means that around 50% of hou...

Bạn có thể đọc bài này bằng tiếng Việt ở đây.    Hi, Spring has sprung with a lot of flowers blooming early everywhere. However, a lot of people have been shaken by the news of the bank collapse since the beginning of March. Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was ordered to shut down on March 10, days after being featured as Forbes' 20th of the top 100 America's Best Banks 2023. Crypto banks like Signature Bank and Silvergate Capital also collapsed in about one week. However, SVB is mentioned a lot in recent news because: - SVB executives sold millions of shares before the collapse . - SVB operated without an official Chief Risk Officer for 8 months during a difficult transition in the venture capital market.  - SVB executive was the Lehman Brothers CFO before the 2008 collapse . - The bank's business was concentrated heavily on startups financed by venture capitalists , which is extremely risky itself. Source But the craziest thing SVB did was it invested billions of dollars int...

Hello, As promised, this month's newsletter will answer one of my client's questions, " Should I buy I-bonds ?" To get a complete answer, you will have to read a long piece of writing as usual. 😊 I bonds- what you should know about before buying them Bonds are fixed securities. Stocks are variable securities.  There are so many kinds of bonds out there, issued by federal, state, or city governments, and corporations.  According to Ric Edelman's book " The Truth About Money- Everything You Need to Know About Money " 4th edition , investors use bonds to produce income because the bond issuers have to pay back the bondholders the principal with its interest. So bonds are also named "fixed-income securities". CDs are also considered bonds because you lend the bank your money (yes, the bank says that you deposit your money). After a while, you want your principal back with the interest. However, CDs are mostly issued by banks and brokerage firms.  ...

  Bạn có thể đọc tiếng Việt ở đây.   Happy Lunar New Year to you! From now on, the monthly newsletter from Milky Way Retirement will focus on the questions my clients asked me during the last year. I answered them all via video call or chat, but now I'll put them in writing so that others can benefit from them also.  This January will start with questions about Individual Income tax. Although we get tax return forms every year, it may be hard for some to understand the difference among tax terms like marginal tax rates, effective tax rates, or tax brackets. I am not ambitious to be a CPA, but I hope this newsletter can give you a basic view of your tax landscape.  The Federal income tax has seven levels of tax rates, which are known as marginal tax rates : 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37%.  It's obvious that the more income you have, the higher tax rate is applied. It also depends on your marriage status: single or married. Source So, how is your income tax...

Merry Christmas to you and your family! Stay warm these winter days. With love from me and my family.  These days when I was scrambling for ideas to write this month's newsletter, I stumbled upon a story about a  used-to-be millionaire now residing on a remote island  for 25 years. David Glasheen, 78 years old now, was $30 million worthy before the stock crash in 1978.  Source He looks like Santa with his white beard, resting at the beach. And it reminds me of a book I read with my son a few weeks ago,  Santa Claustrophobia , a book for kids by Mike Reiss and David Catrow. In the story, Santa was so stressed that he kept having nightmares about being stuck in the chimney. The doctor of the town advised Santa to take a break in Hawaii while other holiday characters chimed in to help prepare and deliver presents to the kids all over the world. Santa Claustrophobia  by Mike Reiss and David Catrow You may find yourself stressed these days, especially women who ...