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Steve’s Butler’s 2008 Columns ...
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2007 Articles
December 29, 2008 - Consider tax value of savings
Are your kids around the house for the holidays? What a great time for sharing some financial wisdom while you have them as a captive audience.
December 22, 2008 - Stocks looking like a good buy right now
"The drums, Bwana. What do they mean?" While the media unearths one major financial disaster after another, my jungle tom toms keep telling me that there is a lot of light beyond the thick underbrush.
December 15, 2008 - Gas tax could pay off country's debt
Sooner or later, the amount of money we'll be spending on bailouts will begin to impact the quality of life for retirees.
December 8, 2008 - Time may be right for thinking small
The term "diminishing returns to scale" comes to mind when I think about the extent to which huge financial institutions have been wiped off the map.
December 1, 2008 - Don't give up on 401(k) plans
Here's another solution looking for a problem. Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor, has managed to get some traction for her new retirement savings concept that would call for doing away with the tax benefits of 401(k) plans.
November 24, 2008 - Taxpayers may have to help with pensions
Thumbing through my dog-eared copy of "My Years at General Motors" by long-time president Alfred P. Sloan prompted me to remember his phrase "What's good for General Motors is good for America."
November 17, 2008 - You're a Long-term Investor and Don't Forget It
"Plan for a hundred years, but live each day as your last." This blast of hyperbole offers one of the best antidotes for coming to terms with the stock market's deluge.
November 10, 2008 - Patience pays dividends, too
til 2006, our real investment tracked the hypothetical 10 percent line falling off slightly by the end of 2007.
November 3, 2008 - Tough times bring the jitters
My Brain Fitness Program arrived in the mail as a token of appreciation for my charitable contribution to KQED. Step One is to read the book that came in the kit entitled "The Brain that Changes Itself."
October 27, 2008 - Long Term, We Won't Be Left Behind
I don't think the current economic malaise is a canary in the mineshaft signaling the "End Times," as some religion-oriented economic web-sites have proposed.
October 20, 2008 - Stay cool; invest for long term
INVESTORS got spooked? Well, not everyone. Let's recall the obvious, that every dumped share was bought by a patient buyer. The seller was in a panic, and the buyer was a long-term investor.
October 13, 2008 - 401(k) money can offer a lifeline
WHEN my daughter recently moved out of her San Francisco apartment to go to New York for graduate school, she went on Craig's List and sold everything she and her roommates had used to create that home in the city.
October 6, 2008 - Get on your board, ride the waves
This week marks the ninth anniversary of this column. With 468 columns under my belt, the temptation to just regurgitate old material can sometimes be compelling, but I've successfully resisted.
September 29, 2008 - Taxpayers deserve equity stakes
BACK in the days when leadership existed, Franklin Delano Roosevelt got on the radio and announced that the government would stand behind any bank savings deposit up to $10,000.
September 22, 2008 - Prison guards test for governor
Former S.F. Mayor, Willie Brown, suggested recently that anyone eating dinner in Oakland should order soup. Why? If the restaurant is held up, patrons can slip their jewelry into the soup to prevent theft.
September 15, 2008 - Remedies to pay for health care
Last week's depressing news was a report that health insurance premiums have risen yet again.
September 8, 2008 - Lower profile, higher return
A PRESS RELEASE pointed out that the 290-foot sailboat "Maltese Falcon" owned by Belvedere resident and venture capitalist Tom Perkins would be in San Francisco later this month.
August 25, 2008 - Lower wealth reason for hope
Considering that a stopped clock tells the correct time at least twice a day, it's interesting to read what a variety of economists and stock market newsletter writers have to say about the future of the stock market.
August 18, 2008 - Social Security fix lost in shuffle?
My island vacation retreat, six miles off the coast of Maine, presents a vision of our Social Security system that helps me consider all those citizens, from sea to shining sea, that benefit from this jewel of a government program.
August 11, 2008 - Outliving your money pretty easy to do
Lately, I've been obsessed with the study of running out of money in retirement, a condition I described as "range anxiety." I borrowed this term from the electric car industry where they use the phrase to explain why electric cars don't sell very well, yet.
July 28, 2008 - Range anxiety during retirement
In the world of electric car development, there is the phenomenon known as "range anxiety" that refers to the 75-mile range of the 90's-era General Motors electric car
July 21, 2008 - Rely on markets to flucuate
As we peer into the stock market's current abyss, it may be theraputic to recall the year leading up to October of 2007 and consider it just an embarrassment of riches.
July 14, 2008 - Banking rules recipe for failure
When the investment banking firm of Bear Sterns recently imploded from $29 billion in shareholder value to essentially nothing in a matter of days, I was prompted to crack the books I had to study to become a licensed broker dealer many years ago.
July 7, 2008 - Patience may bring nice return
In the face of the stock market's gloom, it may be refreshing to learn that things look good over here on the sunny side of the street.
June 30, 2008 - Our strict, chemical laden diet
On my way to a golf tournament in Sun Valley, Idaho, I passed mile after mile of potato fields and thought about a book, "The Botany of Desire" by Michael Pollan.
June 23, 2008 - Gift of giving brings breaks
It’s a good bet that the estate tax will be back after 2010, and we’ll all have even more reason to give to charities. The current tax disappears completely in 2010 after grading down over the past several years.
June 16, 2008 - Reverse
mortgages could be big
Johnny Carson was being interviewed on a park bench a few years
ago, and when he saw a pigeon strutting around his feet he looked
down at it and said, "Any messages for me?"
June 9, 2008 - Optimism
risky with 'target distribution'
I've worried about things all my life and nothing really bad has
ever happened, so it must be a system that works.
June 2, 2008 - Health
care on corporate agenda
The Securities and Exchange Commission just decided to let corporate
shareholders vote on proposals to have their corporations endorse
national health care.
May 26, 2008 - Dividends
scratch itchy investors
Remember the "Seven Year Itch?" It was a movie starring
Marilyn Monroe, but the term applied to the statistic illustrating
that marriages tended to fail most often at that seven-year mark.
May 19, 2008 - New
401(k) law great for investors
Sometimes it takes an act of Congress to straighten out a few
kinks in the financial services sector.
May 12, 2008 - Downsizing
life's rich expectations
Lets assume, for a moment, that we are headed into a period of
time when we may all have to be a little less self-indulgent.
May 5, 2008 - Saving
better than earning
Ben Franklin was apparently a big fan of nudity and wrote about
the value of what he called "air baths." He's more commonly
known, however, for being one of the earliest champions of the
personal growth movement spouting aphorisms about getting to bed
early, eating apples, and pointing out that "a penny saved
is a penny earned."
April 28, 2008 - Ayn
Rand and Alan Greenspan
Some prankster must have pasted a Post-it note saying "kick
me" on the back of Alan Greenspan's shirt.
April 17, 2008 - Correction:
House beats stock market
Last week's column compared the performance of residential
real estate with a comparable investment in the Dow Jones industrial
average. My e-mail was just sizzling on Monday morning thanks
to several readers who pointed out that my math had failed to
take leverage into consideration.
April 8, 2008 - Homeownership
versus stocks
A few of my friends have now received that well-publicized
letter from the Bank of America telling them that their home equity
line of credit has been, let's just say, "expunged from the
records."
April 1, 2008 - Pick
your own large-cap stocks
The late Muktananda was a swami in Emeryville back in the
'70's who taught me some meditation techniques along with a mantra
that went "oohm, neva, shevaya."
March 31, 2008 - Social
security as an investment
The farmer who was asked why his pig had a prosthetic leg
said, "Because we're saving the rest of him to eat later."
March 17, 2008 - Book
sheds light on taxing issues
David Cay Johnston is a Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times
reporter and author of the book "Perfectly Legal" that
chronicled the way in which the wealthiest U.S. citizens have
avoided taxation.
March 3, 2008 - Real
reason for optimism
About that light at the end of the tunnel, it might not be the
headlight of the locomotive after all.
February 25, 2008 -
Diversification is key, Yale shows
According to the Jan. 17 New York Times, Yale's endowment fund,
run by David Swensen, posted fiscal year-end results ending June
30 that beat all other college endowments in the country. The
return was 28 percent --not bad.
February 18, 2008 -
Predicting market is anyone's guess
Black Swan this, Black Swan that. It seems like the term "Black
Swan" is on everyone's lips these days and is even in the
title of a John Bogle speech.
February 11, 2008 -
Swiss can teach us about health plans
Last week's ski trip to Zermatt in the Swiss Alps gave me ample
opportunity to quiz the Swiss on their country's health plan --
a timely subject considering that here in this country, health
insurance is a domestic concern second only to the economy in
the minds of voters.
February 4, 2008 -
Seeking safe haven in economic storm
Contemplating the market turmoil of 2008, I found myself thinking
about Bob Dylan's song "Dirge," where he sings, "In
an age of fiberglass, I'm looking for a gem."
January 28, 2008 -
Self-reliance is key to success
My friend Bill Southard was at West Point in 1974 and heard novelist
Ayn Rand give a commencement speech titled, "Philosophy,
Who Needs It?"
January
21, 2008 - Take an educated guess at the future
I woke with a start a few weeks ago to a radio interview with
Paul Saffo, a Stanford futurist. He definitely caught my attention,
because I coupled what he was saying with a recent speech by Vanguard's
John Bogle. Combining both sages, I found my own view of the future
coming into sharper focus -- at least as it applied to me.
January 14, 2008 -
For '08, rethink investments
With respect to considering this year's investment strategy, I
feel like I'm in one of those submarine movies where the speakers
are crackling, "Dive. ... Dive!"
January 7, 2008 - Use
relationship rules for money
There's nothing like a little "grist for the mill" to
spark an intelligent conversation about money. This year, to make
it more interesting, we'll be so bold as to talk about "money
and relationships" -- the extent to which managing both money
and relationships fruitfully share some common skill sets.
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