On Friday I thought I was going to die! I was in between preparing tax returns and my computer told me my tax software had an update (had been telling me for 30 minutes in fact) so I said the dreaded (OK). The update hung up in the middle and it was affecting all the laptop systems. Super slow, could access the internet but things would hang up, and I couldn’t restart or shutdown. A computer friend of mine once told me if you can get your computer in safe mode you can usually get any hungup software to finish up, but I couldn’t do anything. I finally thought of (after 3 hours, I had to drive all over Southern Cal on Friday to clients) turning the laptop over and taking the battery out, unplugging it, then putting battery back in and turning on (duffus, should have thought of it earlier). It automatically went into safe mode because of how I shut it down and the software finished loading and I could reboot and everything was fine (whew!)
Brian’s Tax Musings
I don’t know if you heard but Thursday the House passed a bill repealing the 2012 1099 “bookkeeper and accountant permanent employment job” act that would have required any business paying anyone over $600 (bestbuy, quiznos, taco bell, etc) to 1099 that business or individual. Businesses would have to file hundreds of 1099s and would probably have to increase their fees to absorb the additional costs (although if you use a credit card to pay for stuff, the reporting requirement falls to the credit card processor, not the business, so there was a partial solution.) Now we have to wait for the Senate to pass their version of the bill (which I believe is similar) which is part of the new FAA bill that should be passed soon. So one less worry in 2012 (I hope).
Brian’s Financial Musings
Let’s talk about Brokerage Managed Funds. They are funds managed directly by a brokerage that your broker will sell to you. They can sometimes be sold by independent financial advisors, but most of the time they are an inhouse product. My problem with these funds is that most of the time your broker or advisor is paid a much larger fee to sell you this product. This can create a conflict of interest with your broker. These funds can have a place in your portfolio, but if there is a non inhouse fund with similar asset makeup and performance, it will usually pay a smaller broker fee and probably be cheaper to you, the investor. Just make sure there is a valid reason for getting into this fund besides buying your advisor a new car.