'Tis the Season
for Giving

May your charitable
contributions keep pace
with your wealth.

During this holiday season, we at Jalbert Financial Group are especially thankful and are doing our part by giving back to the community in the form of matching grants for two extremely worthwhile local charities: Grace Centers of Hope gracecentersofhope.org and Promise Village promisevillage.com.

Home for
the Holidays…

Russ had the opportunity to spend some quality time with his children and grandchildren in Florida. This was a very special celebration - a close family meeting filled with bonding, growing, loving, and sharing a very special Christmas with each other.

Christmas was celebrated in a way that only a very special, wonderful Grandpa knows how to do, filled to the brim with magical memories that only the most special children on earth could ever have provided.

Fortunately for us all, Christmas isn't just for a day or season - it's all year long. It is wishes being granted and dreams coming true. But most of all, it has to live all year long, deep within the heart, because after all, Christmas is a lifetime affair.


Upcoming Events

Start your year off on the right financial footing with superior advice on your retirement and IRA accounts

What Does 2011 Hold for Your Retirement? more info >>

On January 25 and January 27, learn how to reduce or eliminate unnecessary risk from your portfolio, create guaranteed income that you cannot outlive regardless of market conditions, how to create a tax free income from your IRA's, and much more at these informational events hosted by Russell Jalbert, CFP^®.


Radio Events

Tune In to the Jalbert Financial Forum for Enlightening Financial Advice

Tune in to the Jalbert Financial Forum on WLQV 1500 AM every Saturday 10:00 - 11:00 a.m., WMUZ 103.5 FM every Saturday from 2:00 - 3:00 p.m., and WDTK 1400 AM every Sunday 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. for an entertaining and enlightening hour of financial discussion. Hosts Russ Jalbert, CFP^® and Rich Paul address listeners' questions about investments, taxation and estate planning. You'll hear from special guests and get leading advice from two of the nation's foremost financial advisors. This is a must-listen to program, either live or on podcast.

Opening Thoughts:
'Tis the Season for Giving
Home for the Holidays
Upcoming Events
Radio Events

Good News:
Here's a few bits that I found reported on Yahoo! Finance.

Planning Tips:
It's Official... The Bush Tax Cuts Have A Two-Year Extension

• Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world's largest maker of lab instruments, will acquire Dionex for $2.1 billion to expand its water analysis business in China.
• GE will buy Wellstream, a British oil drilling pipemaker, for $1.3 billion.
• California set up an alliance of state agencies, utilities and automakers aimed at creating a charging network to handle 1 million electric vehicles by 2020.
• Galderma, the Swiss maker of Cetaphil skin creams, will buy Sweden's Q-Med for $1.08 billion.
• U.S. online sales for the first 40 days of the holiday shopping season are about $22 billion, up 12% from last year.
• Fiat, the Italian carmaker which runs Chrysler Group, will invest $1.77 billion to build an assembly plant in Brazil.
• An IBM computer will compete for a $1 million prize against two past champions of the 'Jeopardy' quiz show.
• Twitter has raised $200 million of financing in a deal that values the microblogging company at $3.7 billion.
• Russia will complete the world's longest oil pipeline in 2013 at a cost of $25 billion running 4,070-km from East Siberia to the Pacific Ocean.

It's Official... The Bush Tax Cuts Have A Two-Year Extension 

It's official, our elected officials finally got together (in the 11th hour, of course) and extended the Bush tax cuts for two more years. So those of us in the financial community can at least be comfortable knowing what the tax code will be in 2011.

But what about after that?

The bill just signed says that the Bush tax cuts will be extended through 2012. But if Congress doesn't do anything between now and then, we'll be right back in the same state of confusion that we just went through.

Given that Congress is really good at doing nothing, this is a real possibility.

The other thing you need to be very aware of is that the incoming Congress is very interested in reducing spending and simplifying the tax code. I think we can all agree that a simpler tax code would be well received by almost everyone.

However, you also need to be aware that a simpler tax code also means getting rid of a whole bunch of deductions and credits. This means that while the tax code may end up easier to understand, you'll end up paying more to the IRS when all is said and done.

We'll see what happens. And you can count on me to help you stay on top of every step along the way.