OCR Text |
Show swapping is used for other reasons, such as to enhance your income stream, improve credit quality, extend (or shorten) bond maturity or improve call protection. When your swap means selling bonds at a loss, you get the added benefit of a tax loss. Remember, this is a opportunity that disappears at maturity or when the market recovers. Protect Your EALITYites Future Dollars & Sense Gefrfring spoirked Piper Jaffray, These trendy day spas scare me. I feel safer with bubble bath and some mois- ng death-warmed-ov- er ce B. Swearingen Durango, CO Vice President Investments Rodney cialist. This is beginning to sound too Mayo Clinic for me - undergoing treatlitI while in a a turizer. Every once ments from a specialist. I've never had a get tle wild and exfoliate, but thats about beauty treatment but I can imagine it. Modern women though, head to a what itd be like if I asked for one now: Hi! Id like to have one of your beauty spa to be pummcled, salted, wrapped, treatments." I've oiled. Problem is, peeled and got beef recipes calling for the same proceSadly shaking her head and avoiding dure. There's more to a spa than meets eye contact, the aesthetician would give the eye and thats what makes me me her diagnosis. Im sorry, you uneasy. Its like when fast food restau- should have come to see us sooner. rants starting handing out sporks." Theres nothing we can do for you Sure, a spork looks like a spoon, but it's now." Whatever. It wasnt that long ago a spoon with teeth. aestheticians were called beautithese Hot springs are straightforward. Just pools of hot mineral water, you simply cians. Big deal, they updated their climb in and soak. The image with a name change, just like sulfurous stench is even said to be good morticians became funeral directors. for your sinuses. Occasionally a par- Either way, it still comes down to taking and making it look boiled squirrel bobs to the surface, but lifelike. is limited to strictly any real trauma don suit. a to Okay, Ill give them the benefit of a bathing having the tubs started name change, but what the hell is a Then hot raising stakes. Sure, the stench and wildlife Just how paramedical aesthetician? last facial The tubs can a hot but get?! thing I rough problems were eliminated, shoot jets of water at human body parts. want is to be lying on some table in my It wasnt long before people started underwear, my face wrapped in towels, using them like another dherished social and hear someone yell, Paddles! The more daring can get a facial ice breaker, the martini. Mix a hot tub and a martini together, and pretty soon peel, spa lingo for chemical burn. You bathing suits are eliminated as well. know, treat yourself to losing a few layNow youre back to that whole problem ers of skin. If a peeling sounds too of having things bob to the surface. Not much like what you do to fruit, try only that, get a few people in a hot tub facial dermabrasion - cosmetic sandand you cant be sure all those bubbles blasting. You can pay a spa to do this or are just from the water jets . just wait until spring, stand outside and Spas - utilizing the spork concept -- wait for Utah to blow through. Smile, combine the hot spring and hot tub and you can get your teeth polished at experiences, and add body treatments. the same time. Its your call. You can even get stoned. Thats Treatments? Already its sounding way too medical for me. Some spas even right, stoned. To ease those achy musoffer treatments for your psyche. Treat cles, your spa therapist will heap heated my psyche? Thanks, but no thanks. stones upon your prostate carcass. Mines repressed for a reason. Things Hello? Women condemned of witchreally get frightening when I learned the craft in the middle ages were rehabiliattire du jour at most spas is naked. tated" with stones stacked on them Naked is not natural. Thats why babies until they were repented pate. Whats this little jewel of a treatment called, the are born under sheets. Pat Buchanan Special?" Whether you opt for nude or keepThe possibilities arc endless. Get ing your produce safely tucked away in their Fruit of the Looms, your next steamed in a sauna like a clam. How decision is what treatment to undergo. about a salt rub? Theyll rub you down Massage is popular and customarily just like a holiday ham. After that you involves lying on a table, naked under a can get a kelp wrap and lie on your sheet, while a total stranger rubs your table like a human sushi roll. Go to a spa? No way. Ill just take a body. Refresh my memory for me, but doesnt that sound a lot like sex? Okay, hot bath and exfoliate with a squirrel. so maybe you insist on keeping your underwear on, but now it just sounds writer and Chris Westcott, free-lanlike Catholic sex. Other spa favorites are beauty treat- multiple paper cut survivor, lives in Durango with her understanding husments. Beauty treatments are administered by an acsthetician, a beauty spe band and son. S. rpbancorp by Chris Westcott eye-wateri- tax-savi- Avoid the Tax Bite Use Tax-sma- rt Investment Strategies Taxes can take a big bite out of your investment earnings. With federal marginal tax rates as high as 39.6 percent, not including state and local taxes, some investors are losing nearly half of their investment returns to taxes. For example, say you put $5,000 into an investment that pax's 6 percent interest. At the end of one year, you will have earned $300. If youre in the 36 percent federal tax bracket, youll pay $108 in taxes on your earnings, leaving you with 4 1 92 to show for your investment. In other words, taxes will have cut your rate of return from 6 percent to 3.8 percent. And thats before state or local t" Here are five strategies you can use that may help you keep more of your investments earnings. tax-smar- 1. Tax-fr- ee investing investments provide income thats free of federal taxes (and often state and local investtaxes too). Two important tax-fre- e ments are municipal bonds and the Roth IRA. Municipal bonds - when you invest in municipal bonds, the interest you earn is exempt from federal income taxes. And if you buy municipal bonds issued within the state where you live, in most cases, the interest is exempt from city and state taxes. (Some municipal bonds may be subject to state and local taxes andor the alternative minimum tax. Any increase in principal value may be taxable.) Generally, the higher your income tax bracket, the more you can benefit from investing in municipal bonds. Roth IRA - With a Roth IRA, you can withdraw your cami.igs without owing any federal income taxes, as long as youve had your account for five years and meet a qualifying distribution event (such as reaching age Tax-fre- e 2. Bond swapping strategies Bond swapping means that you sell bonds you own and replace them with different bond at a similar price. In addition to creating tax savings bond investing When you put money in a investment, you dont pay taxes on your earnings until you withdraw, usually at when you may Lv in a lower tax retirement bracket. Your earnings may grow' much taster in a investment than they would in a similar-yieldin- g investment that is taxed each war. Variable and taxed ..nnuitics are as are traditional IKAs and manv retirement plans, such as 401 k)s and profit Tax-deferr- ed -- sharing plans. 4. Tax --efficient investing investing involves reducing capital gains taxes. One way of doing this is to follow' a buy and hold" strategy with your equity investments. Under the current tax laws, youll pay a capital gains rate ot just 2d percent on the sale of appreciated assets youve held for more than 1 2 months. You can also consider other tax efficient strategies, such as investing in mutual funds that do relatively little buying and selling and generate fewer capital gains distributions. 5. Gifting and estate planning Gifting and estate planning helps you protect your heirs from having to pay excessive capital gains or estate taxes through gifts to children, life insurance, unified tax credit and charitable gifts. There are several strategies to consider. There are many strategics you can use to take advantage of gifting and estate planning: Use tax-fre- e gifts to your children to reduce your estate size, give appreciated stock to shift income tax or bequeath appreciated assets to your heirs. Help protect your familys security by creating a life insurance trust. Take advantage of the unified tax credit, the ability to transfer up to $675,000 without gift or estate taxes. Make charitable gifts by donating appreciated assets or establishing a charitable remainder trust. Explore all your opportunities rt There arc many other investing A financial available. professional strategics can explain these strategies to you, and help you decide which ones are most appropriate financial goals. for your long-terFor more information about these and other techniques, talk to your financial professional. Also, be sure to consult your tax advisor to help you understand how these tax tips may specifically apply to your financial situation. -- tax-sma- m If you would like more information alxmt tax snuil investing, please contaet me Idr a new, five rcxvl fnvn I f.S. Ham orp filler Jatfray. Rolnev It. Swaringen is Vice lYvshlent with tin: I hirango office of I .S. Haneotp Iivr Jatfray Inc., a full svrviee investment firm tlxiihkd in IS! id Memlvr SIIV, XYSIL, Inc. I '..s. Haneotp fivr Jaffray ikvs nof pnwkkr tax advkv. -- Ntvkhposit investment pnxluets are mV insured ty the IT VC, are not dcfxvits er other Mi&itkis ot oriiaran teed ty the VS Kink National AssexiatUm or its affiliates, and involve investment risks, inclikhnx pyssilVe i , the principal amount invested. Seeunlies pnxlucts and servkvs an olfered llinxish I .S. Hancinp ITxt Jatfray In v.. member SUV and NYSE. Inc., a subsidiary of I .S Haneotp. Brought to you by... U.S. BANCORP PIPER JAFFRAY, INC. OF DURANGO, CO 1199 Main Ave. Suita 201, Durango, CO 9 or (970) 385-694- FI ease visit us at our offices in the Bums Bank building. April 7, 2000 - Cross Currents 15 |