Although a year away, your 2021 tax planning should have already started.

Amidst all the pandemic news and 2020 election drama, many might have missed that the IRS also quietly published new 2021 tax rates in late October and a there are plenty of changes that will impact taxpayers in 2021. While it’s more than a year away (these changes are for 2021 returns filed by taxpayers in 2022), there are a few changes that you should know about. 

Small Businesses Optimism

The National Federation of Independent Business was founded in 1943 and is the largest small business association in the U.S. The NFIB collects data from small and independent businesses and publishes their Small Business Economic Trends data on the second Tuesday of each month. The Index is a composite of 10 components based on expectations for: employment, capital outlays, inventories, the economy, sales, inventory, job openings, credit, growth and earnings.

This year looks to be a record year for capital gain distributions.

When an investor sells a stock for more than the purchase price, the investor experiences a capital gain (it is simpler to call it a profit, but let’s stick to some technical terms for a minute). For example, if you bought Amazon at $2,000 back in July of 2019 and sold it for $3,000 in November of 2020, the capital gain would be $1,000.

High annual 401(k) fees hurt your investment returns every single year

Remember when 401(k) sounded like something only a chemist knew about? Now we all receive 401(k) statements routinely – including information about fees. Here’s what to do if the fees rise.

Recent surveys have indicated that many of us are rethinking our retirement plans because of COVID-19. In fact, one survey from the nonprofit group Life Happens suggests that a whopping 43% of Americans say they plan to postpone and continue working past their retirement date because of COVID.

Did you miss the second fastest bear-market recovery of the past 50 years?

Yes, COVID-19 has reshaped consumer habits and the retail industry, but...

• The U.S. stock markets did not erase last week’s losses, but did turn in some very healthy positive numbers for investors

• NASDAQ led the way with a gain of 3.7%, followed by the smaller-cap Russell 2000’s gain of 2.2%, the 1.9% return for the S&P 500 and the 1.0% move for the DJIA

• Most of the 11 S&P 500 sectors ended the week in positive territory, as only 3 were negative with the Utilities sector losing 2.4% and the Energy and Real Estate sectors each losing less than 1%

• Health Care led the other 8 sectors with a 3.1% return on the week, followed by Information Technology (up 2.8%) and Consumer Staples (up 2.4%)

• The markets started the week lower, but on Tuesday the Commerce Department delivered a jolt of great news when it was announced that Retail Sales leapt 17.7% in May, far exceeding expectations

• Initial jobless claims for the week remained uncomfortably high at 1.5 million

• WTI crude futures jumped 10% on the week and ended just shy of $40/barrel

• The 2-year Treasury yield increased to 0.19% and the 10-year yield ended the week where it started

• The U.S. Dollar Index gained 0.4%

Top economic developments

• The major U.S. stock markets had a good week, driven by the larger tech-stocks but also by the Energy sector

• NASDAQ rocketed to a gain of 6%, pushing its YTD return into positive territory and further distancing it from the YTD returns of the S&P 500 and the DJIA

• The smaller-cap Russell 2000 performed very well, leaping 5.5% on the week, followed by the 3.5% gain of the S&P 500 and the 2.6% gain in the DJIA

• Most of the economic news this week leaned toward the negative, but the markets kept looking past the negative headlines as states began to selectively open back up for business

What incredible times we are living through right now.  About six weeks ago here in the United States all seemed quiet, and the economy strong.  Of course, there are always problems but, by comparison to today, things were positive…and now that seems like a long time ago.