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Steve’s Butler’s 2006 Columns ...
Access to Steve’s weekly columns in the Contra Costa Times is just a fingertip away!  All 2007 Columns
December 25, 2006 - Taxes a big part of financial health
For those young graduates asking "What color is my parachute?" -- it doesn't matter. Just get a job somewhere and start experiencing the joy of making a contribution and learning the basics of money. There is no perfect job when you are first starting out. That's why it's called "work."
December 18, 2006 - Make nest eggs, not dynasties
Years ago, an IRS attorney explained in a speech that the "confiscatory" tax treatment of retirement-plan and IRA money upon death was "reasonable."
December 11, 2006 - Singles have some fiscal advantages
Remember the movie "The Seven Year Itch" starring Marilyn Monroe?
December 4, 2006 - Life after work still needs goals
My wife and I have found that playing "high point-low point" at the end of each day is good for laughs. The object is to agree upon the best part about the day and the worst part about the day.
November 27, 2006 - Statistics illustrate war on middle class
President Bush recently addressed a dinner group of wealthy campaign contributors by congratulating them as the "haves" and the "have mores."
November 20, 2006 - Health care has gone crazy
A good friend mentioned the other day that an operation to repair the rotator cuff in his shoulder cost about $25,000, which was paid mostly by Blue Cross.
November 13, 2006 - Higher taxes are on their way
The Wall Street Journal headline that caught my eye was "Prospect of political gridlock ignites rally."
November 6, 2006 - Learning from big boys' losses
Word came out the other day that Warren Buffet had lost $1 billion investing in foreign currency (betting against the dollar), and that Robert Rubin, our former treasury secretary, had lost a million dollars making the same bet.
October 30, 2006 - Basics are key for financial tips
This month marks the end of another year for this column -- a total of 364 weekly diatribes stretching back over the past seven years. And no, I don't use a ghostwriter. Instead, I have a process.
October 23, 2006 - Employees can have say in 401(k)
Workers of the world, unite! This could be the rallying call for employees who may need to seize control of their 401(k) plans.
October 16, 2006 - Defense budget fraught with waste
Typical of what may stand between us and our Social Security benefits is the F-22 Raptor fighter plane and the dysfunctional political process that inflicts these horrendous costs upon us.
October 9, 2006 - Government debt threatens investing
Let's face it. The Bay Area is absolutely booming. I see it among my client base where everyone is running on all cylinders, and business managers tell me they are unable to hire the additional help they need.
October 2, 2006 - Index funds make investment sense
"You saw it first at Bloomingdale's!" is the great slogan of the New York City retailer that just opened shop in San Francisco. In the same spirit, here's your first glimpse of a cogent explanation of dividend-based index funds. You saw it first in the Contra Costa Times.
September 25, 2006 - A second look at 'The Number'
"The number" -- the amount of money needed to provide a comfortable retirement -- deserves to be revisited after my previous column on the subject several weeks ago. I said at the time that the number was "whatever the wife says it needs to be."
September 18, 2006 - Public should know HP secrets
The Hewlett-Packard obsession with secrecy prompted me to consider one of the worst abuses in corporate America that is picking up steam once again. It is the practice of management teams taking their public companies private.
September 11, 2006 - Fees chip away at 401(k) funds
"The king has no clothes" is the best way to describe the army of investment professionals who flood our mailboxes with newsletter junk mail extolling their expertise as investment gurus.
September 4, 2006 - Beware advice from 'experts'
I once played a small role in producing a movie with Tanya Roberts called "Sheena," a total bomb that Pauline Kael, the film critic, wrote had "some of the finest animal acting she had ever seen in a film."
August 28, 2006 - Questions lead to unwanted answers
My summer vacation in Maine offers an opportunity to schmooze with young professionals that are leading exciting lives. Much of what I learned was instructive but also depressing.
August 21, 2006 - Give your votes to pragmatists
I needed a little pick-me-up after finishing Jared Diamond's "Collapse," a book about failed ancient societies, so I tackled Peter G. Petersen's new book, "Running on Empty."
August 14, 2006 - What would Warren drive?
For the average retired person who drives about 12,000 miles a year, one of these new gas/electric hybrid cars will save roughly $700 a year in gasoline costs. For that savings, you can expect to spend about $3,500 more for the hybrid compared with a conventional car.
August 7, 2006 - Ebber's legacy still haunts MCI
Bernie Ebbers lost the appeal to his conviction and will now spend 25 years behind bars.
July 31, 2006 - Extra insurance can help health
So there I was, enjoying the colonoscopy I had been putting off for about seven years (until age 62). Any enjoyment, however, came from knowing that I was finally getting something accomplished that was foolish to postpone -- especially for a hypochondriac like me.
July 24, 2006 - A 'number' of ways to plan retirement
My analytical golfing buddy, Howard Fuchs, was prompted to wonder what might be a reasonably sized nest egg for a comfortable retirement. The same question has become the obsession of the popular press, and the answer has now entered the lexicon as "The Number." After careful study and tedious calculations, Howard concluded that "The Number" is whatever your wife has decided it needs to be.
July 17, 2006 - Immigration plan waste of money
A recent experience in the trenches of the retirement plan business reminded me of the roach motel ("You can check in, but you can't check out"). In this case, it had to do with the sticky wicket of a company that employed some illegal immigrants.
July 10, 2006 - "Feel-good" ethos proves costly
As my friend and fellow pontificator Steve Anderson once said, "Pontificators don't have to support what they say with facts. They just pontificate."
July 3, 2006 - Retirement tool can ease departure
A skit on vintage Saturday Night Live episodes depicts a couple who insist on staying as dinner guests for an unreasonably long time after a party. In their hilarious efforts to prolong an evening of inebriation, they became known as "The Thing That Wouldn't Leave."
June 26, 2006 - Should you stash money overseas?
Grand Cayman Island, a British protectorate and the Switzerland of the Caribbean, about 100 miles south of Cuba, seems to reek of money, with a population of only 30,000 permanent residents and what seems like a fleet of new Jaguars, Porsches and Ferraris roaring around the narrow streets. My wife and I find our way to this paradise to visit our son, who is in veterinary school there.
June 19, 2006 - Gold looks good next to the dollar
Is gold our new best friend?
June 12, 2006 - Sacrafice, potential great for Paulson
Leaders from the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs have come to Washington like the "dollar-a-year" men during World War II. CEO Henry Paulson has agreed, after negotiating his own terms, to be the third secretary of the Treasury under the Bush administration. He is said to be a "deficit hawk," which means he can't stand the huge deficit we are currently running.
June 5, 2006 - Time to revisit tolerance for risk
With the market off 5% over the past few weeks, this could be a good time to revisit our tolerance for risk. Those of us who periodically check total values of our retirement accounts have been experiencing a smug sense of satisfaction over the past three years. Our values- assuming if we have stayed the course in stocks and didn’t panic – have returned to the levels reached at the height of the 1990’s boom. The system has worked and we have been rewarded for our patience and staying power.
May 29, 2006 - Vote as if picking a money manager
"Unlike Arnold, I've taken real bullets," said Jackie Speier in a campaign speech recently as she runs for the office of lieutenant governor of California. Speier, as some may recall, was a young government aide gunned down in Guyana while investigating the People's Temple conditions. Speier survived to go on to a life of accomplishment in politics.
May 22, 2006 - Health questions? Querie a caddie
When I asked him about his experience of the British National Health Service last week, my caddie at Saint Andrews golf course in Scotland said, "It's a good system, but it doesn't work."
May 15, 2006 - Mutual fund firms should end conflict
Here's an idea that might put a stop to excessive executive compensation: Let's make it a crime for mutual funds investing in a company to also generate revenue from that company for performing investment advisory or retirement plan administrative services.
May 8, 2006 - Save your way into the millionaire club
Saving a million dollars will support a pretty eccentric personal lifestyle.
May 1, 2006 - Managing taxes boosts 401(k)s
In a Feb. 13 column on Roth 401(k)s, I pointed out that the tax savings generated by the conventional 401(k) -- if invested -- would make up for any advantage of creating tax-free Roth 401(k) proceeds by paying taxes today on the contributions to a Roth.
April 24, 2006 - SEC to shine light on executives' pay
"Excrescence" is the word that comes to mind when I read about the $686 million we stockholders paid to one man -- Lee Raymond, the chief executive of Exxon Mobile -- over the past 13 years.
April 17, 2006 - Debate requires broad solution
The controversy surrounding immigration has me thinking about the ways that our immigration policy affects those of us who are retired or approaching retirement.
April 10, 2006 - 401(k) key to south-of-the-border retirement dream
To attend a family wedding and do some surfing, we flew to Costa Rica last week and landed at the town of Liberia, where the American CIA had built an international-class air facility back in the early 1980s. At that time, the United States needed a substantial airfield in order to secretly supply the Contras with weapons during the civil war in neighboring Nicaragua.
April 3, 2006 - Bush missed mark on Social Security
Joe Kelley stopped by my office recently to interview me for a paper he is writing on Social Security. Joe is a senior at a local high school, headed soon to a top college in California.
March 27, 2006 - Retirement planning woes? The system defies rational thinking.
If you're annoyed at retirement plan results enough to want to sue someone, the fiduciaries of the plan will need to be faced in court. Fiduciaries include the officers of your company as well as the trustees and advisers they have appointed to operate the plan. But, before calling your attorney, let me give you some free legal advice:
March 20, 2006 - Be smart about gloomy forecast
The Bible says, "The lamb will lie down with the lion." "But," Woody Allen would add, "the lamb won't get much sleep."
March 13, 2006 - Monte Carlo concept can help navigate a 'perfect storm'
Television's steady drumbeat of James Bond reruns prompted me to think about Monte Carlo and the value of "perfect storm" simulations used in investment analytics.
March 6, 2006 - Bush panel wants to kill the 401(k)
You can beat them with a stick, but tax cuts for the rich just won't go away.
February 27, 2006 - Secret to investing success found in simple strategies
Resisting temptation is the single most demanding task for the "buy-and-hold diversified re-balancers" that make up the bulk of us successful amateur investors.
February 20, 2006 - Bill may affect drug-price fixing
Groucho Marx once said, "I wouldn't want to join a club that would accept someone like me as a member." I had the same mixed feelings about AARP when, in its eyes, I became a "geezer" at age 50.
February 13, 2006 - Consider your needs before switching to a Roth 401(k)
A guy walks into a bar where he was told there was a talking dog that's an expert on retirement plans.
February 6, 2006 - Rescind unfair drug program
In 1988, Congress voted for a prescription drug benefit to be added to Medicare. A few months later, when the full magnitude of the cost became apparent, they rescinded the vote and the program was relegated to the dustbin of history.
January 30, 2006 - Medical deduction a sound investment
I thought some might be happy to know that my heart scan showed no cholesterol effects after a lifetime of high readings.
January 23, 2006 - Taxpayers pay price for evaders
Struggling with our income tax return is hardly the most pleasant way to spend time, but imagine how annoyed we would be if we knew that every one of us is being overcharged by 25 percent. But this year, someone whose fair share for living in this country is $8,000 will actually be forced to pay $10,000.
January 16, 2006 - Choosing next star always a gamble
A gypsy fortune teller peers into her crystal ball in the New Yorker cartoon while sitting across the table from a somber-looking Labrador retriever. She is saying, "I see a twenty-foot retractable leash in your future."
January 9, 2006 - Market instability looms on horizon
To celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in 1998, my wife and I attended a pension industry conference at the Del Coronado Hotel in San Diego.
January 2, 2006 - 2005 gave people corporate power
If optimism is the opiate of the masses, then I think we as investors have some reasons to expect an exhilarating high in the year ahead.
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