Basin Wealth Management

10/01/2024

Ever been to a Mexican restaurant, where they offered free chips and salsa?
Why do you think they offered it to you for free?

If your answer is "because they care about me and my dining experience", you're wrong.

Mexican restaurants offer free chips and salsa (which have very little nutritional value) because they're cheap and easy to make. But more importantly, the high salt content makes makes you thirsty. And the longer you sit and munch on their salty chips, the more likely you are to order high-priced alcohol, which is what they REALLY want to sell you.

It's a pretty good business model for Mexican restaurants. They give away the cheap, easy stuff, so they can double their revenues on the alcohol sales.

Why don't they give away the beef fajitas and T-bone steaks? Easy--because they're expensive and take a lot of time/energy/expertise to prepare. You are expected to pay for the "real" food. And consumers generally don't mind, because the food is better (in terms of taste, quality, preparation time, and nutritional value) than "free" chips & salsa.

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Knowing all that....why do you think your high-priced asset management firm wants to give you "free" financial planning? And how much "nutritional value" do you think it has?

06/18/2024

True story from the WSJ.
Don't let it happen to you.

As millions of Americans build up sizable workplace retirement assets, disputes over who gets the money are on the rise.

10/19/2023

A fabulous piece of advice from one of my favorite financial journalists.

Retirement planning is complicated. Your retirement portfolio shouldn’t be.

08/24/2023

Take two minutes out of your day to check out our enhanced offering!

07/12/2023

This is an absolutely fabulous article by Christine Benz. I agree with this 100%. Recommended reading for anybody with an investment portfolio.

Problem spots in real-world portfolios—and how to fix them.

07/04/2023

Happy 4th y’all 🇺🇸

(Never forget they blew a 13 colony lead)

04/28/2023

Refrigerated butter sucks. Do the right thing and leave it out on the counter.

Trying to spread ice-hard butter can wreck toast, pancakes and waffles, but many people aren’t sure if it’s safe to keep it out of the fridge

03/31/2023

I thought I would opine on today's events. (Not a political statement. Promise.)

Let's say that (hypothetically speaking, of course), I had s*x with a p**n star several years ago. Then my lawyer paid that p**n star to keep quiet. Nothing illegal has happened (yet).

Now, I have to reimburse my lawyer, because he's out $130,000. So I can either send him a 1099 and deduct it as "legal fees" (which makes him pay the tax on it), or I can NOT deduct it, which means that I have to pay the tax on it.

Of course, the lawyer could then turn around and send the p**n star a 1099, and deduct it as "contract labor". Then she would have to pay the taxes on it.

But at the end of the day, you have to send 1099's to your contractors if you want to deduct it. No 1099, no deduction. So this whole mess today could have been avoided by sending a 1099.

Moral of the story: make sure you send a 1099 to your side chick. It may keep you out of jail 18 years later. (That doesn't exactly solve the moral problem of whether it's...uh..."good business" to 1099 a side chick. But that's none of my business.)

03/30/2023

Picking individual stocks is riskier than mutual funds, with a lower expected return. The chances of finding a needle in the haystack are slim. Better to just buy the whole haystack.

If you're in a portfolio of individual stocks, call us and we can help you understand your situation, and understand your alternatives.

Diversification offers better outcomes than stock selection.

03/27/2023

This is why I drive Ford instead of Ferrari.

Peace of mind and simplicity have become much more important than outward shows of success.

03/27/2023

So....what happens to your Facebook (Twitter/Instagram/etc.) account after you die?

What happens to social media accounts when an individual dies? As social media is a growing source of revenue for individuals, from influencers to...

03/20/2023

This will make headlines. But it shouldn't.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday rejected a Republican proposal to prevent pension fund managers from basing investment decisions on factors like climate change, in the first veto of his presidency.