Olivia acceptances:
Only major school rejection: UC-Berkeley. Olivia would have been applying as an out-of-state student.
March 26, 2024
Hi, Olivia,
Your soccer note tonight hit me
like a ton of bricks. I was overwhelmed with sadness; I re-lived a
decade of memories in the blink of an eye.
Your grandmother and I
were with you from your first days with Kiki in Belmont / Boston. And
then the transition from Massachusetts to Texas. Year after year after
year of driving you to soccer practice and going to so many games in all
kinds of weather and to see the pinnacle of success last year when, as a
junior, you were named (a) captain of the team and took your team to
state.
With public school soccer, club soccer, and ODP soccer,
we drove you to so many practice fields and soccer stadiums. So many of
my most wonderful memories are of our longer trips to practice fields,
like Rockwell (ODP) about 45 minutes east of here. I got to learn the
geography of Texas by taking you to soccer events and Arianna to
water-polo practice and tournaments. I remember so many little things
about all those trips, I think you would be surprised.
I did not
know you had a game tonight. I was upset that we were not there, but
grammy said it was an “away-game” and instead we went to watch Sophia
play her game in Oak Grove Park. I remarked to Sophia on the way through
Grapevine that the trip out to Oak Grove brought back so many memories
of driving you to the same soccer field for practice and for games.
Little did I know that while remembering those trips, you were playing
what would be your last game.
And, then watching Sophia play.
Oh, my goodness, she looked just like you and played just like you when
you were her age. Sophia has said many times she learned so much from
watching you; she was always so appreciative of the time you spent with
her teaching her soccer. And, wow, she looked just like you tonight.
You
mentioned you were the only one to score a PK point tonight in your
last game. Ironically, Sophia also scored the only point for her team,
in a game, her team also lost. Sophia was so thrilled with scoring that
only point, winning/losing that game did not matter.
You brought
us years — a decade —of wonderful memories through soccer. It’s going
to take me a long time to get over my sadness.
Papa
I finally figured out the annual gift maximum.
This is simply amazing.
In 2024, the maximum is $18,000 per-person,
As a couple, May and I can give up to $36,000 each year to as many individual people as we want, and we don’t have to file that information with the IRS.
If we gift $40,000 to Sophia, then we need to file with the IRS but the $2,000 is only taxed after we die and only if it exceeds the lifetime limit, which is $13.61 million per person.
On top of that, certain gifts are completely exempt.
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The Gift Tax
I've done a lot of surfing on the web looking for information regarding the "gift tax."
I was absolutely amazed that I couldn't find any discussion regarding the "gift tax."
But this is what it seems to be.
In a sense there are two parts to the gift tax, but it starts with the "death tax."
The "death tax": after one dies, the estate, up to some amount, is tax free to the heirs of the estate. That seems easy and straightforward. I'm sure there's more to it than that, but for purposes of this discussion, that's all one needs to know.
The problem is that rich folks could game the system and give their money away while they were alive, to make sure their estate was less than the threshold / the "exclusion."
Currently, the exclusion is $13.61 million.
To prevent folks from gaming the system, the federal government set a limit on how much money could be given away as a gift on an annual basis, to dovetail with the annual tax.
If one gives away, each year, less than the annual maximum, the taxpayer does not have to inform the government of any tax and no taxes are due.
The gift tax is one donor, one recipient. The single donor can be a single individual or a married couple. The current annual limit is $18,000. It is much like a "standard deduction" which minimizes the need to itemize one's gift over the year for most folks.
A single person can give any other person, as of 2024, $18,000 without filing any form and without paying any taxes. Gift taxes are paid by the donor, not the recipient. Money given as a gift is not considered income. A couple can give any other person, as of 2024, $36,000 without filing any form or paying any taxes on that gift.
The government figures that in the course of normal human behavior folks will give money to others in the course of the tax year. Obviously there has to be some sanity with regard to how much can be given away without being taxed; and, the figure had to be high enough to preclude folks from having to keep detailed records on giving money to others.
The amount has to be reasonable. And in this case, some would argue it's quite generous. Others might argue it's not generous enough. Doesn't matter. In 2024, the amount is $18,000 per individual, $36,000 for a married couple.
After that, it gets tricky. but this is what confuses folks. It appears that the annual limit simply applies to whether one has to file the gift tax information with the IRS or not. It has nothing to do with actually paying the tax.
This took awhile to figure out.
There are two IRS forms with regard to gift taxes. There is Form 706 and Form 709.
Form 706 is filed by the executor of the deceased, and, I assume, is filed only once, on the death of the taxpayer.
Form 709 is filed by the donor while alive for gifts exceeding the annual limit even if no tax is required due to the lifetime exemption. Only one Form 709 is filed each year.
Gifting for a "529" has a special provision allowing one to jump-start a 529 contribution:
If one knows one's estate will be well below the $13 million exemption, it seems one could easily give more than the annual limit every year. But I don't know how that works, and the Form 709 is not helpful.
Some folks have asked about Apple which is in a rough spell right now.
Whether to hold, sell, buy -- very different ways to think about this based on one's situation.
For me it all depends on one's reason for having AAPL in one's portfolio in the first place, and one's time horizon.
My time horizon is a rolling 30 years -- that is, every day, when I wake up, my time horizon for my portfolio is 30 years. If I live to 89 years of age, my time horizon will still be 30 years. I will never see the money in this portfolio. It will end up -- 100% of it -- in my estate for the grandchildren.
So, the only question I ask, is this: if I were 30 years old and planned to invest money into a portfolio for my retirement 30 years from now, would I buy AAPL as part of a diversified portfolio?
If the answer is "yes," then there are only two questions that remain, "at what price" and "what percent of the diversified portfolio is invested in AAPL?"
Under those conditions, if I want AAPL in my diversified portfolio, would I pay $170 for it now or wait to see if it might drop to $160?
I re-balance my portfolio every so often -- sector allotment. This is for new money, not the actual total portfolio. Only for new money.
So, years ago, my energy sector was about 50% of my portfolio. Big mistake and I learned a lot from that.
Two years ago, I worked hard at re-balancing my portfolio, decreasing percentage of energy and increasing tech.
Two years ago, I was not adding any new tech to my portfolio. That changed. I started adding 40% of any new investment money I got into tech. I completely quit adding new energy.
In my "tech" bucket I have seven companies (seven ticker symbols).
Now that my portfolio is re-balanced -- it took two years -- and tech has gotten so expensive, I am putting no new money into tech (with one exception).
In my "energy" bucket I am interested in only two companies in which to put new money.
So, back to "tech."
At such high prices, I am putting no new money into tech with one exception: AAPL. Under $185 I definitely buy more AAPL. Again, not all "new" investment money but a percentage based on my allotment rules.
This is an example. This was my allotment breakdown for "new money" back in January. I am in the process of updating the sectors based on how high tech is right now.
I will definitely remove SNAP; that was a one-time trade which I have since sold.
Change from January, 2024: I will move AAPL to at 10%, new money. (As of January, 2024, I was adding no new AAPL, but with AAPL this low and other tech so high, I will move AAPL to the tech sector and that will be part of new money for tech stocks.)
UNP will likely be removed; DE has been removed. Percent new money will increase for CAT.
This only has to do with the question of AAPL, whether to buy, hold, or sell.
This is subject to change on a daily basis but this gives you an idea how I approach personal investing that is not managed by professionals.
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The Bigger Question
Why is the financial advisor calling a client to advise selling AAPL after it plummets 9%. Why didn't the advisor call the client to advise selling AAPL when it was climbing faster than usual? One can't time the market, but one can certainly point out to a client when things are moving too high too quickly.
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Another Observation
Brokers should be optimists / buy side, not pessimists / sell side.
Brokers often call to advise selling a particular stock when it's dropping or when it has become too "overweighted" in one's portfolio.
In fact, the broker / financial advisor needs to be watching for buying opportunities, and then call their clients, tell them they've found a great buying opportunity and if they have cash they should consider buying it. If they don't have cash, the clients should consider harvesting tax losses to raise cash to take advantage of the buying opportunity, and if there are no good choices for harvesting tax losses, then the broker should suggest possible shares to sell to raise cash to pay for this buying opportunity. But just to call to advise selling on background noise seems the wrong way to do it.
Following a jiu-jitsu tournament two weeks ago, a day later, Sophia spiked a fever of 105°F but no other complaints. I thought it was a viral illness that would last three days and then back to normal. By the end of the week, Friday, she was no longer drinking or eating. She saw her pediatrician, but no explanation. High fever for several days and yet no source. Responded nicely to Tylenol.
Monday she saw the pediatrician again. By now she was coughing a bit (no big deal) and urine showed possible UTI but Sophia had no complaints. But with a week of no eating and almost no liquid, she was mostly just sleeping.
Finally, the next day, Tuesday, earlier this past week, we took her to children's emergency room in Ft Worth.
Long, long story short, she weighed 69 pounds and could barely walk. Her weight at the tournament a week earlier was 79 pounds.
Chest x-ray, a ton of blood work, an abdominal ultrasound which suggested a possible kidney tumor or abscess. A CT scan followed: no tumor and no abscess, but severe bilateral kidney infections.
After admission for IV fluids and medication, her blood work came back positive for influenza B (which is epidemic among elementary kids this year here in Texas and explained her coughing which was getting worse) and infectious mono (EB virus which explained her profound lethargy). No idea what caused the kidney infections but a google search said rarely influenza B can cause pyelonephritis.
Three days in the hospital. Discharged Thursday.
Once she gains her weight and energy back she should be okay. She probably won't go full days to school next week, but we will see.
She did not test positive for Covid. Apparently when Covid arrived there "was no room at the inn" for any more viruses so the Covid virus moved on.
Olivia is a high school senior this year. One of mom and dad's great-grandchildren.
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Soccer
Grapevine, TX, girls soccer homecoming this past week:
It was 2 - 0 at the half. Final, 8 - 0.
The
Grapevine girls soccer team took Texas state championship last year;
Olivia was a junior last year, and the first-ever junior to be named one
of four captains on the team. That needs to be fact-checked, but right.
or wrong, it was a big deal last year and a surprise she took a
captain's spot from a senior. No hard feelings. That player was a
captain of her club team (separate from high school soccer.)
Olivia is one of four captains on the teams and as the first junior captain (last year) is the senior captain this year of the four (it that makes sense). She is probably the third best player on the team and as captain-player-coach, she is probably the best member of the team. She is a defensive player and doesn't see a lot of action which frustrates her but the coach puts her where he needs her. In the homecoming game, when the score was 6 - 0, the coach moved Olivia and the best player on the team, both defensive players, to striker positions. We didn't know it at the time, but the coach wanted the four team captains to all have a chance to score.
Two
captains had scored earlier; now the third captain, not Olivia, scored.
Three of four captains scored. With a minute or so left in the game,
Olivia scored -- all four team captains scored. In the last homecoming
game they would play for their high school.
As incredible as that was, it was even more incredible that the photographer caught Olivia's scoring shot.
In
the photo below, Olivia is #23. Note how high she jumped, to kick the
ball, which you can see just behind the player with the yellow bib and
headed toward the goal.
