（1）mortgage a big house. 其实大房子的房贷利息，地税虽然可以减少税负，但是收入高到一定程度，AMT kicks in，还是省不了多少。许多deductions, 大房子，etc, get phased-out, ie reduced at higher income. AMT is inevitable. No easy way out. 

（2）一股来说K-1 income 不要交SS tax,这是好处，但K-1不能用来作退休计划，如SEP 或Defined Benefit plan, 类似于出租房收入。而1099收入除了与business 有关的开销可以抵税外，还可以用来设立pension plan,多的可以抵税十几万或几十万(取决于年龄和收入）

（3）have a baby before year end. 如果有dependent care cost (children or parents) 和out of pocket 医疗费用，可以预先存入FSA with pretax money. 

（4）one effective way to handle this for Wall Street big earners is deferred comp. 

（5）如S-Corp, Trust, partnership,最后都pass through 到个人收入上，当然你仔细看K-1，上面也有短期和长期capital gain, tax free interest, qualified dividend, etc.

（6）可以maximize 401K。

（7）慈善捐款，或者捐物折旧。Charity donation 可以抵当年收入的up to 三分之一，剩余的可以carry over. 

似乎没有哪位提到过municipal bond，高收入，富人的必持投资产品。如果您高收入，muni 在您的portfolio中应有一定位置。

IRS publication 936 mortgage interest.  Deduction is independent of AMT.  The upper limit is $1million mortgage interest. 

不太看好solar，除非蓄电有质变的飞跃发展。

But that's precisely it's the reason it is an opportunity. Environmental concerns and political pressure are there. It's just matter of time.

It is still too expensive without feed in tariff now. Just look at how Europeans successfully paid so much on utilities. We should thank US government who didn't commit to CO2 reduction. As consumers. But price of solar panels continue to drop. Things could change. But I agree the storage of energy is more interesting. Just don't know when.

管理层，去看track record. 如果是good business, a mediocre management is OK. If it is a bad business, you need a really good management to make the company good. That is why the management of Exxon is so great in my opinion. Valuation is the most difficult part and need to be justified considering business, management, macro, market, risk, balance sheet, and your time horizon.This is the hardest part and depend on your style and temperament. You can only know by doing. There are no real rules in my opinion. But one rule almost always works, if you hear too many people loving and talking about something, it is probably not a good deal. 

If you heard everybody absolutely hate it or nobody talks about it, and you can feel confident that the company will not go out of business/ bankrupt, it usually is a good deal. Like AMEX when Buffet bought it, Merck had the recall trouble, Baidu 2 years ago, Apple 1.5 year ago etc. Probably oil companies in aggregate today. Many people have visions for 10 years later, then this rule is probably not so applicable to those. 

If you are passionate about buying or selling insurance or everything between, here is your play ground. Chance to make a lot more than selling life insurance. For rest of us, maybe use it to watch the health of the credit market.

 In the event of the airplane crash today, I just want to remind everybody that accident death insurance is cheap. If your company offers it, max it. But try not to get from someone who will try to sell you some other insurance products and offers you to add the accidental death for free.

有了term就不需要AD了。实在想给家人留点，那就买两份。

一般来说，保险的理由是你有责任，比如说，小孩未长大，如果不幸发生，你不希望小孩生活出问题。20年以后，小孩长大成人，你就不需要再抚养他们，就可以不要保险了。

可以单独买。It depends on what kind of coverage you want. The insurance company will try to ask you to consider the worst case but they never tell you the worst case is insurance company going out of business.

LTC is little tricky. No one can protect the future cost of LTC. If the inflation shoots up, your million dollar policy may only last for a few month when you needed. So best thing is to invest your money in the market and real estate. 

A living will might be more important than LTC. Living Will, Health Agent and Power of Attorney should be in place. One could designate spouse as health agent and power of attorney. I doubt anyone else can really act the health agent. or maybe when your child grows up. The worst case is not when you dead, but you are missing or become bananas.

If you designate someone (such as son) as your power of attorney, you could either find a lawyer or DIY and then get notarized. If you choose to DIY, google a template. Its State specific. If you like (especially if it authorize real estate transaction), you may record it in Town Clark office too.

写遗嘱时候，不管有没有别的亲属在美国，你至少要指定配偶为healthcare 代理人。遗嘱是个人的，不能夫妻合用一份。而且不是说夫妻就天经地义地有资格给对方作一切决定。以前那个佛州脑死亡女子的丈夫就和岳父母为医疗决定打官司。

Morgan Stanly不清楚，但是JP Morgan最近两年调查发现很多中低端客户，所以推出了针对15万，25万，50〜100万的理财计划。而且顺便成为Chase的Private Client。

其实，哪家公司并不最要紧，很多都是reputable 的。最关键是具体的人，it boils down to the specific people you will work with. 这里有一些选择的criteria. 会找机会展开说说。

有朋友介绍说，在Morgan Stanly 可开401k 或其它账户。并得到expert advice, and in house research information.  There is no extra cost to maintain the accounts,  Some account with frequent trading account has a 1.3% annual cost.

账户是哪里都可以开，除401k是公司指定。maintain accounts maybe no extra cost. But to get advice, especially if someone works on your account specifically, it is not going to be free and there is fee involved. 

若你被罚款，一定要去跟IRS争取免罚。利息没余地，但罚金绝大多数可免。

reduce your adjusted gross income by participating in a 401k plan, maximize salary deferral contribution. If you are self-employed, claim on schedule C instead of misc expense on sch A. If you have sizable investment portfolio outside of your tax-deferred accounts, switching to tax-efficient mutual funds, tax exempted bonds to lower your AGI. If you claim standard deduction, try to use itemized deduction even it might be less than standard as standard is not allowed in AMT. one more, when to pay is important . If payment can be delayed to the years that your income fall outside the AMT range. 

For self employed people, can contribute 25% of annual income, up to $53,000, to your SEP retirement account.   那是tax deductible的。和401款比起来，SEP has much higher cap than 401K, up to 25%.SEP has minimum paperwork and cost to maintain. It is just like an IRA account in term s of management. 

DB (defined benefit) plan which is a good vehicle for taking great amount of deduction for self employed people。

只要生效了，保险公司无权再加限制条件。如果有这样的条款，也许应该试另外一家。

DI与职业和收入有关，一般最多能买到目前收入的70%, 最多个月一万元.越是容易disable的职业越贵，如手术科医生。DI的定义也各不相同，有些严有些松，看你要什么。

很多行业的association 都提供disibility insurance,  比如 aicpa, freelancer union等,而且也不贵。

Forbes 建议的策略是hedge with oil 和军工。

hedge with 美国房地产。美国房市的g factor还比较低。离拐点还比较远。

房地产可以作长期的资产配置，股市的cycle太短了，用房地产hedge股市可能不太匹配。

目前股市earnings yield 并未超出历史低位，而相对美国利率却十分吸引人。

所有ira不用一起Roth conversion, 但要一起算conversion ratio, before and after tax contribution, for tax purpose . 

只要是IRA 型的annuity都要加在一起算pro rate，再计算有多少百分比要交税，比较复杂。不仅是传统IRA,就是SEP 和Simple IRA也要加在一起算。401k和pension不算。在annuity中的IRA如果未到期很难convert，可能会有很大的surrender charge。

只要你是开Backdoor Roth, annuity中的IRA就要拿来算，每年要填报一个税表。

scholarship should be tax free.No tax liability for her. If she had a w-2 and tax had been withheld, you file her return for refund purpose. 

You claim her as a dependent on your tax return if your kid has no other incomes, like dividend, interest, distribution etc. 

The scholarship is for qualified  expense, which are tuition , books, supplies,etc. however, room, travel are not qualified. You have to included in your gross income. 

If the scholarship is sourced from NC, she files as NC resident.

In general, if your dependent makes money and your income is decent, it's better to file separate. 

有intern的分开报，收入几千到2万多的都不用交税，0 tax withholding, 还可以拿$1000credit回来，即使不交税。因为交了学费有AOC 之类credit，只有大学四年有这个机会, 不要错过。Hit AMT的家庭孩子单独报没有任何损失，只怕收入太少不够格单独报。Minimal income is $6200 for filing separately.

summer camp 费用小孩13岁以上就不能减税了。住宿非住宿也不一样。

而且父母都有做工才行，如果父母中有一人閒在家裡孩子的Summer camp也是不能deduct的。

不可以。