Inflation Proof Your Investment Portfolio with ETF’sWritten by John J. Lah, MBA, CFA
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An easy way to inflation proof your portfolio then would be to replace a portion of your portfolio holdings from domestic equity based securities, such as S&P500 type stocks and traditional bonds, with an Inflation-protected bond ETF and Real Estate or Gold ETFs. Table 1 Inflation Protected Bond ETF: - iShares Lehman TIPS Bond Fund (NYSE:TIP)
Real Estate Index ETF: - Vanguard REIT VIPERs (AMEX:VNQ)
- iShares Cohen & Steers Realty Majors Index Fund (AMEX:ICF)
- iShares Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index Fund (AMEX:IYR)
Gold ETF: - streetTRACKS Gold Shares (NYSE:GLD)
- iShares COMEX Gold Trust (AMEX:IAU)
By adding these alternative asset classes into their portfolio mix, investors will realize not only significant benefits from diversification as these asset classes have a very low correlation with domestic equity and fixed income assets, but protection from risk of inflation as well. For a full listing of Exchange Traded Funds, check out Nasdaq market website at http://quotes.nasdaq.com/asp/ETFsCompare.asp.
Mr. John J. Lah, MBA, CFA is a Principal at Waverly Financial Group (http://www.my-finance.net), a no commissions, no product sales, Fee-Only financial advisory firm located in Ellicott City, MD, specializing in portfolio management with Exchange Traded Funds. Mr. Lah received his MBA from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA and is a CFA charter holder.
| | How to Maximize your Home Business Tax Deductions for 2005Written by Daegan Smith
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Go beyond usual deductions: This year look beyond good ol’ mortgage interest deduction to save some more. Consider medical and dental expenses, sales tax and personal property tax, education expense, damage cause by disaster or theft and miscellaneous expenses. Miscellaneous would include job search expenses, investment expenses like brokerage fees, safety deposit boxes and subscriptions to investment publications. Also included in miscellaneous is..Believe it or not… expenses of filing your taxes! This is still not over: add depreciation on your computer and cell phones used for business purposes.Entertainment and meal expenses: no…this doesn’t include lunch with friend to swap Christmas part ideas. Establishing business purpose of a meeting is crucial for deducting expenses on entertaining. Transport expenses: if you use your own car for getting about on business, you can claim deductions on that too. Take care to religiously note down details like mileage, tolls, parking fees and maintenance costs. A good way of finding out what more you can use for maximising your deduction is to get tax preparation software. A word of caution here: keep ‘creative deductions’ like kid’s allowance, silicone implant etc. out of picture. It is rather difficult to outrun IRS, as they have three years to decide they want to verify your records and can drop in for a surprise audit. Maximise your tax deductions in 2005 with these tips and see all cash flow back in into your business. Also see: http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/30/pf/saving/willis_tips http://www.bankrate.com/brm/search/story-taxes.asp
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