One point about your negativism towards buy and hold..you have to distinguish if you'e talking about qualified money or not..because of the tax consequences..
When you put equities into a qualified plan, you're essentially turning a tax preferenced item...long term capital gains..into ordinary income..
Also, my business was in NY..so during the 80-90%..between federal, state, and city taxes..most were in a 50% tax bracket..
So a client who bought 1,000 shares of XYZ at $10, and happily saw it go to $20 after one year..well, if he has a change of of heart, or is in love with anothe stock, it's cost him about $4,000 to "lock in" his profit..or to put it another way..if he sells to protect his gain, the stock would have to decline by 40% for him to be "even"
The majority of my clients, when they retire, moved, or will move to states like Florida, my new home, without any state or local income tax..
Tax planning....much of it is just good common sense..but it can often have a far bigger impact that investmetn advice.. on total return..
Yes, that’s true, and I often forget that I’ve made sure to live in states with no state income tax (NV and WY) for the last 16 years. Your clients in NY state have my sympathies - I lived in NY state for one year after engineering school, looked at the NY state income tax and just up and left. Didn’t look back. Even in 1985, I saw the handwriting on the wall... which today appears to be read by a whole lot more people.
On the S&P AA+: NB now the various chimps in the FDIC, Fed, OCC, et al have come out and said “This will have no effect!”?
Basically, I read it as they’re telling S&P “Blow it out your ear.”
The diminution of credibility out of DC continues apace. What a bunch of idiots.