Market Musings Blog

Below is the step-by-step process to learn how to upload & download documents to & from ModestSpark:

Once signed in to ModestSpark, you will be directed to your main Portfolio Summary, which may look similar to this:
Using the navigation menu on the top bar of the webpage, you can click your name to reveal a drop-down menu with options to view your Holdings, Statements, and Documents. Clicking on Documents will take you to your Document Center.
Once in the Document Center, you can securely upload and download documents, statements, or forms to us at Cascade. To download a document from your Document Center, click the download button (blue circle pictured right). To upload to your Document Center, click the Upload Document button at the top-right corner or bottom left (circled in orange).
An Upload Document menu will pop up – Under Select File: click the green button + to navigate to the file you want to upload. Adding a description will help you and Cascade identify the file content on the Document Center. Otherwise, once your file is selected, click the blue Upload button to complete the process. We will receive an email notifying us of the available document to retrieve.
You can also access our newsletters by clicking the Shared Documents tab and then selecting the download button to save your copy of our newsletter!

Today’s topic is an updated version of our previous posts about online safety. As cybercrime evolves, so do user tactics; we’re here to bring new ideas to your online protection strategies. So let’s dive in:

1. Think of email as a newspaper. You should assume it is neither confidential nor private. Never put in an email anything that you wouldn’t feel comfortable publicizing to the general public.
2. Clean out your email inbox and trash regularly. Leaving old emails that you do not recognize in your system can open the door to hackers. If you have time, eliminate contacts you don’t recognize. Keep your system clean – it will work better, too.
3. When you create a password for your email, use a nonsensical phrase – research has shown that’s more effective than almost any other form of password. Here’s an example: for!blendmychanges8. The good news is that if you use a phrase, you don’t have to change your passwords as often – every few months will do.
4. Don’t use the same password for your bank and brokerage accounts as you use for buying stuff at Nordstrom.com. In fact, try not to repeat passwords at all.
5. Another option is to use a password manager. That will take care of more than just your email password. Examples include LastPass and Bitwarden.
6. Use two-factor authorization every chance you can. Some services are not set up for 2FA; if they should be, write to them and tell them so!
7. Remember your in-home internet. Make sure you use a robust password for access to your own system. My home internet didn’t allow password customization, so I changed out the modem for one that did. Do not give out your home internet password without changing it immediately afterward.
8. Never, ever send confidential information via email without either using a password on the file, truncating account numbers and/or SS numbers, or redacting brokerage company names, etc. A safer way to deliver documents is via a secure portal.
9. If your advisors – accountants, lawyers, recordkeepers, etc – do not provide secure portals, insist that they set one up.
10. I don’t use social media, but it goes without saying – keep those accounts as private as you can, Don’t post information you wouldn’t be comfortable giving out to your whole neighborhood.
11. Always log out of services you are not using. Do not just close the browser window, because this can leave you logged in to your bank account, email account, and so forth.
12. Never use a public internet connection to perform any confidential task. You can mitigate the dangers of a public connection by using a virtual private network, but some services may not work with a VPN. It’s best to keep personal business on your own internet connection.
13. Keep your computer and phone locked down – requiring a password or biometrics to open them, and physically, too, especially when traveling. Don’t leave a device near a window, on a car seat, or any other place that might tempt a thief.
14. Recycle old hardware – printers, tablets, phones, computers – with a reputable firm. Do not keep these around if they’re not in use. Many older bits of hardware utilize unsupported versions of software that offer an easy entree to a hacker. And of course, always update your software on the machines you do use. Never use outdated software!
15. “Claim” any online accounts that you have been provided. Social Security has encouraged participants to manage their accounts online. If you do not set up a username/password for your own SS account, then anyone who finds your SSN can “claim” your online account and re-route, stop, or start payments. Ditto with your bank and brokerage online accounts. Set them up, even if you don’t plan to use them.

Believe it or not, these fifteen tips are barely scratching the surface of “best practices”. If some of these items seem too technical, it might be time to find someone to help with your home technology. A safe system will perform better, and you might just sleep better at night.

No matter who we tax, or how high or low we set tax rates, federal tax receipts barely budge when measured against the entire economy. This fact flies in the face of political arguments about tax rates: who should pay their fair share, whether corporate taxes are too high or too low, or how to handle federal deficits. This chart shows federal tax receipts as a percent of the US’s gross domestic product – which is our entire economic output.

For tax historians, a few facts stand out:

1. The Trump administration passed a tax package in 2017; rates have not changed since then. This was widely perceived to be a tax cut. Yet tax receipts have reached the very highest edge of the long-term range since the 1940s.
2. In the 1970s, the top marginal rate was 70%. Did that help? No. Tax receipts as a percent of GDP were never more than 18% that decade and were frequently lower.
3. Tax rates declined in 1982. The marginal rate dropped to 50%. (For reference, today’s top federal rate is 39.6%.) Tax receipts hugged the 17% line all decade.
4. In the mid to late 1940s, the highest marginal rate was over 90%, and the federal government had changed income brackets so that rate kicked in at $200k, instead of $2 million. The economy peaked right around 1945, and from then on, “tax the rich, more” resulted in an ever-decreasing take as a percent of GDP – despite the end of WWII.
5. The shaded grey vertical lines represent recessions. Around nearly every recession – no matter what the tax rate – the Fed’s take declines. One of the worst outcomes ever for tax receipts was the recession of 2008-2009. Throughout that period, the highest marginal rate was 35% – it never changed.
6. Below, tax receipts are compared to budget deficits. This chart speaks for itself. Despite the highest receipts ever, our budget deficits are also higher than ever.

Lessons are two-fold: first, we haven’t found an optimal tax rate yet, in all these years of trying. Second, recessions matter – far more than tax rates.