Our consumer price index (CPI) is way up. Our consumption of food, energy, clothing, recreation, education, transportation, toys, cosmetics, etc. makes up 58% of the Consumer Price Index with the housing market making up the other 42% and we know housing is down.  I don’t know if our leaders have gone to the grocery store lately or do a family budget and look at food as a line item but my family does  and what we are seeing is that prices are going up.

Everything is going up as we track our budget whether it’s education, health or life insurance, medical care, or our most precious groceries and water.  Yet the government keeps telling us there’s no inflation. Where are they shopping and are they doing it blindfolded?

The formula is quite simple and no wool pulled over your eyes should be able to keep you from the truth; even if media assists our government in this blindfolding experiment. First, our government borrows money from the Federal Reserve.Then the Federal Reserves says “sure we can help you out” and they loan the government some money. However, the Federal Reserve does not have any ‘real’ money but have control of the monetary system in this country and get the Treasury to fire up the printing presses and manufacture some money; or debt notes if you prefer.

The final stage is is where these dollars (debt notes) are created out of thin air and it gets its value by draining from existing money. Every time this new money or debt notes are manufactured and released, it takes away some of the value of the current money you’re holding; in essence it is stolen.

An example of how this effects you would be; you have $10,000 in a CD or the bank and most prognosticators agree the real effect of inflation is about 9.6%. Some even believe inflation it is running as high as 13%. However, we’ll stay with 9.6% to be conservative; perhaps even naive. So if you have this $10,000 in a CD or bank it would look like this

The Value of $10,000 with 9.6% inflation imposed on it for 5 years.

Ultimately the purchasing power of your savings; never mind the little interest it might acquire as it would have taxes to lessen it out. The purchasing power would be reduced by 36.8% in just five short years. By 2016 you will be left with just $6,323 out of your original $10,000 and have lost $3,677 just by doing nothing. This means things are not always about return which is nice and should be sought in tax-free environment going forward. But equally important is to consistently add to what you have and not lose anything. In other words, you need to protect principal, consistently and regularly add to your pot and try to eliminate as much tax imposed on it as legally possible. This 3 step process is a simple formula for wealth but many will not take advantage as it requires self-discipline and “know-how” on protecting principal and eliminating tax.

We teach seminars on smart money management and how to acquire corporate credit to fund your business aspirations and really succeed in what is now some of the toughest years in our country’s history. You have to ask this question – am I taking the right steps necessary to be able to retire? If you are not you will be working for the rest of your life and never taste true freedom which is to work on your own terms and time frame or choose to not work at all and know your family. Know  your family folks; how many of you can truly say you spend quality time with them and “know” them. I bet the number is resoundingly LOW.

We can help you as it is our life’s mission to reduce retirement poverty in this country and get those on track who will take the ” RED” pill rather than the “BLUE” pill (“ignorance is bliss”) and choose to not stay blindfolded in the dark but wake up.

James Burns

(866) 544-8825 Ext. 1 Office

Life insurance is one of the last great tax-free strategies for an uncertain tomorrow on retirement. Under the tax code we can put money away tax deferred and take that accumulation out tax-free. It gets even better if the policy is linked to one of the indexes like the S&P500 which is the benchmark for all investments and fund managers try to stay on track with it.

You can learn in 3 minutes how this works by going to the link below:

www.taxfreepersonalpension.com

For most people they would be best served to take out a 15, 20 or 30 year term policy and just lock in the rate as young as possible and while you’re in good health. Insurance can be a great vehicle despite what some of the guru financial planners say when they state it is horrible. Do you think a business owner with partners and one dies and they face having the spouse as a new partner appreciates the cost of life insurance? I can tell you they love that because dealing with a spouse or trying to buy them out can go to court and get real costly in a hurry. Business owners need a buy/sell agreement funded with life insurance or they are missing a critical tool for business and acting like novices.

Term Insurance is so costless and can pay to keep your family stable if you go down, it can pay to put your kids through college or it can even absorb the cost to bury your body. I hate to be morbid but your body has to be properly disposed of and you can’t just say “I don’t care when I’m gone.” Why place the financial burden on your family to struggle and try to find a way just to send you off when you can take care of that from $10 to $30 per month.

If you are serious about finding out how much life insurance you need, how much it will cost then we invite you to connect with us and we’ll help you since we have access to over 200 carriers and many have some great prices that will NOT cut into your monthly cash flow and stop you from being responsible.

James Burns

White Diamond Insurance Services, Inc.

(949) 231-9979

There used to be the 3-legged stool for retirement but then the company funded pension went way and the last two legs which were only supplemental have been used to fund a lifestyle after work and has become disastrous. The other two legs are Social Security and the 401k plan which was designed to supplement your retirement and can be decent if you get a significant company match but those are going away.   The real key here is that as our deficit rises beyond $14,000,000,000,000 trillion that is a long number isn’t it? As things rise ever second, we know the only solution is to raise taxes and most likely back to the tax brackets of the 1990s where the top was at 39.6%. If you add your state tax, in California it is another 9.3%, your at 48.9% of your income just to taxes to pay this incredible debt down. That means anyone earning $250,000 or more was taxed as this rate and we hear a lot about that $250,000 income today. However a family of 3 or more needs at least that much just to stay above water in their live in various parts of California s housing and goods and services are explosively high. The proposed Obamacare or the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is going to send our taxes to at least these levels. We now have Homeland Security costs, War, underfunded benefits (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid) and this is a recipe of inevitable higher taxes. In 1993 the family filing  jointly and earning $89,000 to $140,000 was taxed at a 31% rate which is just 4% shy of the highest current tax bracket for multi-millionaires and we are destined to go back to such a rate.

All of this legwork does not even account for how things really work on deferred pension plans and few Americans realized how they are going to be taxed on their retirement plans until they arrive at retirement only to be horrified. Millions run out of money and end up work in their eighties in fast food restaurants or as greeters in front of discount department stores.

So here is a break-down of an average person putting away $4,000 per year for 30 years and reaping that huge tax-deductible benefit and how he ends up paying 10x in taxes back to the government.

Break down of taxes on deferred program

This link depicts what it would look like to save $40,800 over the 30 years prior to retirement only to pay $532,800 in taxes over the time from age 65 to 85. As you can see that little savings in tax was no where near what you still end up paying, hence the perception of the deferred plan is snake oil.

How do these numbers stack up

We want people to know you have to start finding some form of tax-free strategy or you’ll be penniless in a few years into retirement and back out looking for work just to make ends meet. Most do not qualify for a ROTH and you can only put away $5,000 per year which takes forever to get any real build up but there are strategies for the small business owner or solo practitioner to use 401k ROTH strategies…this is way too long of a conversation for this article.

There are muni bonds but which municipality do you feel comfortable with? Most of them are running their budgets like a ponzi and robbing Peter to pay Paul. Even though the interest paid on a municipal bond is tax-exempt, a holder can recognize gain or loss that is subject to federal income tax on the sale of such a bond, just as in the case of a taxable bond. I see a little too much risk in these going forward but a few might not be a bad thing. Unfortunately some folks have turned 95% of their wealth holdings into these which could give a whole new meaning to the word “junk bond.”

The last frontier is exploring tax codes to find access to places to build tax-free and we find that in 7702a which is for life insurance. Now contrary to popular opinion, insurance is not all about you dying. In fact it can provide one of the last vehicles to grow money tax deferred and access it tax-free if designed properly. The caveat is that you must fund for a few years and be consistent like anything else in life. Many let their policies lapse and then the cash values go to paying insurance costs rather than being allocated to a savings component linked to one of our stock indexes.  As I’ve shown before, if you understand the equivalent taxable yield, you’ll understand that if you only did 5.5% in return tax-free that is the equivalent of 7.65%, depending on your tax bracket…it could be a little better if your in a higher tax bracket.

The insurance approach also allows you to pass on a death benefit to loved ones and if you don’t have anyone who loves you then think about it as a final expense policy to cover the costs of sending you to the great beyond which can cost anywhere from $15,000 and UP.  You can be covered for disability and terminal illness and have supplemental tax-free retiree income all with one policy. For folks who don’t qualify for ROTH IRA, can’t do the solo 401k ROTH or have already done as much muni bonds as you’re going to risk; the properly structured ‘savings grade’ life insurance policy may provide a unique combative tool to slay the retirement dragon.

Unpoverishingly,

James Burns

Tax Free Now

1. Taxes

2. Inflation

3. Procrastination

4. Expenses

5. Debt

So if we know these five exist that eat away our gains and slow our progress, then we know where not to invest. Debt and procrastination are personal things but the other three can be avoided. The typical vehicle most people use are mutual funds. There are now more mutual funds than there are stocks on the exchanges so one has to ask why. This is because of the tremendous money that is harvested off of them by greedy financial institutions.

How do fund expenses affect you? Well, with the expense ratio, which averages 1.6% per year, sales charges of 0.5%, turnover generated portfolio transactions costs of 0.7% and opportunity costs of 0.3%—when funds hold cash rather than remain fully invested in stocks— the average mutual fund investor loses 3.1% of their investment returns every year just on fees. While this might not seem like much on the surface, costs and fees alone could consume 31% of a 10% market return. Think about that. You could be losing almost a third of your return before it’s even taxed. You’re losing a third of your return just for the cost of maintaining your investment. Add in the 1.5% capital gains tax bill that the average fund investor pays each year and that figure shoots up to 46% of your return being lost to fees and expenses, nearly half of a potential 10% return. When you hear that, don’t you feel like you’re taking one or two steps back instead of going forward?

Taking what we now know, the best place to avoid expenses would be an index fund but if we buy the index inside a life insurance chassis, then we can eliminate the taxes under the Internal Revenue Code Section 7702 which allows tax-free build-up and tax-free distributions back to yourself because it is characterized as a loan. Now that we’ve eliminated two more destroyers the only one is inflation. As long as you can earn an internal rate or return that out paces the 3% of inflation which is possible when you have the right product you can eliminate all 5 destroyers of wealth and get so much further ahead.

If you want more information look for the book “The 3 Secrets of Wealth” on Amazon or contact the author of this blog.

Save Tax Free Now

Due to the rise in our deficit (paying $1 trillion per year on interest only) we are headed for higher tax brackets. The only way you’ll NOT run out of money is if you have some tax free strategies in your retirement plan. As you can see from the graph, sometimes tax-free is actually more when you consider how much you need to make just to cover the taxes and the haircut it gives your funds. To find your equivalent taxable rate you take the rate of return and divide that by your tax bracket (e.g., 28% etc.) and viola you have your equivalent taxable rate. In the example if you’re earning 4.5% in a tax free vehicle, and are at a 28% tax bracket…you’re earning the equivalent of 6.25% because you’re tax free and that is significant.

I have seen several clients retire on their IRA or 401(k) and they get hammered at ordinary tax rates usually in a higher tax bracket if they’ve been deliberate in being successful. You can always retire poor and live on the system while it is available but I don’t think people set out to do that…at least I hope they’re not going into retirement poverty by choice. Out of 100 people turning 65 right now, only 4 of them will be financially independent and the rest will be reliant on family, charity, government or a large portion are still working. In fact there was an article about octogenarian’s having to go back into the work force because they’ve run out of money. The typical deferral for all those years only lasts 18 to 24 months of your retirement as taxes ravage your income and usually without the tax deductions. Also, if you don’t take the distributions (MRD) by the time you’re 70 1/2 there is a penalty of 50% + the ordinary tax, about 70 to 75% of that distribution is devoured just because you didn’t need it and the government forces you to or they’ll penalize you.

Here are a few thoughts if you don’t want to end up as a greeter for a convenience or department store, you know the places I’m talking about. Also some are working as fast food window servers, tele-marketers, night watch persons, seat attendants at stadiums and I was at a restaurant recently and saw one on one knee with knee pads scrapping gum off the floor and this was not a hobby. Think about how difficult these things really are to do when you slow down and the body and mind don’t function like they used to. You are supposed to be doing other things…my people like to go on trips and send me post cards from exotic places. Some like to volunteer and give back to charity…but no schedule of showing up 8am to 6pm with an hour lunch.

So what do I need to be thinking about? Well, I’m glad you asked because here is the personal inventory:

1. What are my current retirement assets earning?
2. How much are the costs/fees associated with my current investments?
3. Are they tax-free?
4. Do I qualify for ROTH IRA or a self-directed solo-401(k) ROTH since I’m self-employed?
5. Are there any Municipal Bonds I could use?
6. Do I have savings grade life insurance that builds up tax deferred and is accessed tax-free and carries a death benefit and final expense?

Most people do not follow or track their portfolio and know what they’re earning, they just know it is down or up but don’t even know by how much. The old adage of when does a negative -30 + 43 = 0 does not seem to resonate with most and there needs to be more accountability on our future retirees to know what they have and what it is doing. We know one geo-political event like terrorism can knock our market down by 50% and they are trying something every few months. The market was devastated for a long time after 9/11 and many people lost millions over night and never recovered since stocks tanked in March 2003.

Are there any municipalities we can rely on that are not running their budget like a ponzi scheme since they are taking in tax dollars to pay for last year’s expenses and just raising taxes. It is only a matter of time before things catch up with some of these local governments and a scary domino effect starts. While I like real estate there have been some many pirates schlepping that stuff and the only one making money is the pirate because they are buying low and selling really high to unsuspecting people because it is hard to really get into the numbers on a property unless you visit the area and bring in all the factors.

We are running out of time before some of the nastier taxes tucked into the Health Care Reform act take effect as well as The Deficit Reduction Act gets full swing for people to start taking back their retirement and stop the bleeding that will occur on your nest-egg when you start taking out the income at the higher ordinary income rates.

In your service,

James Burns, Esq.

Learn Tax-free now

(949) 231-9979

While incomes have gone up the cost of living has gone up much faster and in California the sales tax on your goods is through the roof. The idea of financial independence may be just an idea but it is supposed to be about replacing your current income so that you’re not working forever. Only a few tools will be reliable enough going forward to get you there. Everyone must simply have some tax-free retirement funds if they are going to survive and tools that might not be subjected to the Mandatory Retirement Distributions (MRDs) which require you to take funds out of your retirement plan whether you need them or not and if you don’t, you are penalized 50% on that distribution + the ordinary tax which usually equals 70%.

The idea of pooling money together for investment purposes seems to have started in Europe in the mid-1800s. The first pooled fund in the U.S. was created in 1893 for the faculty and staff ofHarvard University and on March 21, 1924 the first official mutual fund was born. It was called the Massachusetts Investors Trust. It came to life when three Boston securities executives pooled their money together, not knowing how popular and lucrative the funds would become for the financial companies that peddled them.

In recent commentary, insiders have adopted a more skeptical outlook on mutual funds. Richard Rutner, author of The Trouble With Mutual Funds, said in 2002 that “Most investors in mutual funds have no idea what they are invested in, which is the way the industry wants it.”[1] Others have said that mutual funds are troubled because they are rewarded for the amount of money they attract, not the amount of money they earn.[2]

SEC Chairman Arthur levitt, Jr. warned of growing unfairness in the relationship between individual investors and mutual funds in January 2001. Mr. Levitt made the following comment:

“There are a number of instances that, quite frankly, do not honor an investor’s rights. Instances where…hidden costs hurt an investor’s bottom line, where spin and hype mask the true performance of a mutual fund, and where accounting tricks and sleight of hand dresses up a fund’s financial results.” [3]

What most people don’t know is that there are five separate bills that mutual funds charge.[4] The best way to determine if an investment is effective for you or not is to dollarize the benefit or the burden. When you invest in the typical mutual fund (assuming outside of a qualified retirement plan), you face costs that erode your benefit. Chances are you’re not aware of them, they’re not in your prospectus and your broker isn’t going to sit down and tell you about them. The five costs of mutual fund investing are:

1. Tax costs – excessive capital gains from active trading.

2. Transaction costs – the cost of the trades themselves.

3. Opportunity costs – dollars taken out of portfolios for a fund’s safekeeping.

4. Sales charges – both seen and hidden.

5. Expense ratio, or “management fees” – no end to increases in site. This is a calculation based on the operating costs of the fund divided by the average amount of assets under management.

How do fund expenses affect you? Well, with the expense ratio, which averages 1.6% per year, sales charges of 0.5%, turnover generated portfolio transactions costs of 0.7% and opportunity costs of 0.3%—when funds hold cash rather than remain fully invested in stocks— the average mutual fund investor loses 3.1% of their investment returns every year just on fees. While this might not seem like much on the surface, costs and fees alone could consume 31% of a 10% market return. Think about that. You could be losing almost a third of your return before it’s even taxed. You’re losing a third of your return just for the cost of maintaining your investment. Add in the 1.5% capital gains tax bill that the average fund investor pays each year and that figure shoots up to 46% of your return being lost to fees and expenses, nearly half of a potential 10% return.[5] When you hear that, don’t you feel like you’re taking one or two steps back instead of going forward?

According to Richard Rutner, “No one denies that the average mutual fund returns 2% less per year than the stock market returns in general (see below on the breakdown). Yet the mutual fund industry spends billions of shareholder dollars to promote its money managers as experts who can manage investor’s dollars with skill. The vast majority of mutual funds (94% according to a recent five-year survey by Lipper Analytical Services) have underperformed the stock market as a whole.”[6]

James Burns

Retirement Rescue Solutions <click>

As a California business and support for other businesses it is sad to see the mass migration of businesses who can longer afford to stay here in California even after years of operations or founding the company in California. Not since the Jews left Egypt has there been such a mass exodus of people running from the tyrannical clutches of a government out of whack and if the wrong gubernatorial candidate gets in (we don’t have much to work with) it will be hell on earth.

JOBS LEAVING  CALIFORNIA

Abraxis Health, a unit  of Los Angeles-based Abraxis BioScience Inc, opened a new plant that  will create 200 jobs in 2010 — in Phoenix.  This follows the  company’s Phoenixexpansions that occurred in 2007 and  2008.

Alza Corp. In 2007  eliminated about 600 jobs in drug R&D while also exiting its  Mountain View, Calif., HQ.  At the time the company said that  its 1,200-person Vacaville facility will continue to operate.   But the Vacaville Reporter on Oct. 23, 2009 revealed that the plant  is being offered for sale by J&J, its parent company.  It’s  unclear if more layoffs are in the facility’s  future.

American AVK, a producer  of fire hydrants and other water-related  products, moved from  Fresno to Minden, Nevada.

American Racing moved  its auto-wheel production to Mexico, ending most of its 47-year  operation in California.

Apple Computer has  expanded in other states, most recently with a $1 billion facility  planned for North Carolina.

Audix Corporation  relocated from Redwood City, Calif., and to accommodate growth moved  to a 78,000-square-foot facility in Wilson,  Oregon.

Apria Healthcare Group  of Lake Forest is shifting jobs from California to Overland Park,  Kansas, a K.C. Suburb.

Assurant Inc. Cut 325  jobs in Orange County and consolidated positions in Georgia, Ohio and South Carolina.

Automobile Club of  Southern California placed 1,100 jobs in  Texas.

Barefoot Motors, a small  ”green” manufacturer, moved from Sonoma and will grow inAshland,  Oregon.

Bazz Houston Co.,  Located in Garden Grove, has slowly been building a workforce of  about 35 people in Tijuana.  In early 2010 the company  said it expects to move more jobs toMexico, citing cost and  regulatory difficulties in Southern  California.

Beckman Coulter, a  biomedical test equipment manufacturer headquartered in Brea,  relocated part of its Palo Alto facilities to Indianapolis, Indiana,  two years ago.  In early 2010, it’s making a  multimillion-dollar investment to expand and create up to 100 new  jobs inIndiana.  The company said the area offers a “favorable business environment and lower total cost of operations, plus a  local work force with strong skills in both engineering and  manufacturing.”

Bild Industries Inc.,  which specializes in business news, directories and market reports,  moved to Post Falls, Idaho, from Van Nuys, a part of the San  Fernando Valley in Los  Angeles.

Bill Miller Engineering,  Ltd., suffering under the “hostile business climate” in  Californiaand Los Angeles County, moved from Harbor City to Carson  City, Nevada.

BMC Select has conducted  an unusual relocation.  The company, which had shifted its  headquarters from Idaho to San Francisco, relocated its H.Q. Back to  Boise in January 2010.  The building materials distributor said  that regaining its footing in Boise retained access to high-quality  employees while reducing wage and occupancy  costs.

BPI Labs, which  formulates, manufactures, and fills personal care products for the  health and beauty industry, relocated from Sacramento to   Evanston, Wyoming, a move the company’s owner called “very  successful . . .  It felt good and weï¿?ve never looked  back.

Buck Knives after 62  years in San Diego moved to Post Falls,  Idaho.

CalPortland Cement has  announced in late 2009 closure of its Riverside County plant because  of new environmental regulations from a state law (AB 32).  The  company’s CEO wrote, “A cement plant cannot be picked up and moved,  but the  next new plant probably wonï¿?t be built in California  meaning more good, high paying manufacturing jobs will be lost to  Nevada or China or  somewhere.”

California Casualty  Group left San Mateo for Colorado, cutting operating costs to remain  competitive.

CalStar Products Inc.,  headquartered in Newark, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay Area, in  January 2010 was awarded $2.44 million in federal clean energy tax  credits.  The company said in the future it expects to build  additional plants in the Mississippi Valley and the East  Coast.  In late 2009 CalStar opened a plant in Caledonia,  Wisconsin.

Checks-To-Go moved to  Utah where workers’ comp rates helped make the troubled company  healthier.

Chivaroli &  Associates, a healthcare-related insurance service based in Westlake  Village,Calif., moved a regional office to Spokane,  Washington.

CoreSite, A Carlyle  Company, is delaying a Santa Clara project while it expands its data  center in Reston, Virginia.

Creators Syndicate may  flee L.A. because it operates like a Banana  Republic.

Creel Printing Left  Costa Mesa for Las Vegas and So Cal loses 60 more  jobs.

Dassault Falcon looked  at building an aircraft services facility in Riverside County but  instead located in Reno.

DaVita Inc., moved its  HQ from Los Angeles to Denver; expects to see millions of dollars in  savings over time.

Dennyï¿?s Corp., ï¿? the  large restaurant chain ï¿? once had its headquarters in La Mirada,  later in Irvine, Calif, and then moved to Spartanburg, South  Carolina.  In fairness, I note the move occurred in the early  1990′s.  However it’s noteworthy because the company was  founded in California and its growth over time created HQ jobs in  another state.

Digital Domain, the  Academy-Award-winning visual effects studio based in Venice, Calif,  placed new studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Port   St. Lucie, Florida, which combined will have about 500  employees.  The facilities will allow the company to reduce  costs while continuing to deliver cutting-edge  work.

Ditech, headquartered in  Costa Mesa, announced in January 2010 a 269-job cut and is moving  most activities to the GMAC Financial Services (parent company)  headquarters in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.  In 2007, Ditech  relocated some workers from Costa Mesa toPhoenix.  A once  robust Costa Mesa facility employing hundreds will be down to 20 or  30 workers.

DuPont Fabros Technology  suspended a $270 million Santa Clara data center project in favor of  one in Ashburn, Virginia.

eBay, based in San Jose,  will create 450 jobs in Draper, Utah, in a new $334 million  operations, customer support and data  center.

EDMO Distributors, Inc.,  a world-wide wholesaler of aircraft avionics, test equipment, and  pilot supplies, moved its HQ from Valencia, Calif., to Spokane  Valley, Wash.  Since, it has built a larger headquarters in the  city’s  Mirabeau Point community complex.

Edwards Lifesciences  based in Irvine will expand with 1,000 employees not in California but in Draper, Utah.

EMRISE Corp. completed  its HQ move from Rancho Cucamonga to Eatontown, NJ, in May  2009.  The company said the move “will result in additional  annualized cost savings of approximately $1 million and facilitate  improvements in operating efficiency”. . . . The cost savings  associated with relocating our corporate headquarters will start  immediately. . . The aggregate total of these expense reductions  will increase our profitability and cash flow in this and succeeding  years and, over time, substantially improve our ability to further  reduce our long term debt.

Facebook, based in Palo  Alto, will expand in a major way in Oregon by locating a custom data  center in Prineville.  It will be a 147,000-square-foot  facility costing $180 million and will employ 200 workers during  construction and another 35 full-time once operating in  2011.

FallLine Corporation  Left Huntington Beach, where they were being “hammered” with  multiple governmental regulatory fees, for Reno,  Nevada.

Fidelity National  Financial left Santa Barbara for Florida, spurred by California’s  ”oppressive” business environment.

First American Corp.,  based in Santa Ana, will open a call center in March 2010 not in  California but in Phoenix, where it expects to employ about 400  people within two years.

Fluor Corp. moved its  global headquarters from Aliso Viejo to Irving, Texas, with about  100 employees asked to relocate while the company planned to hire  the same number there.  In 2006, when Fluor moved into its new  headquarters building, a company statement said: “The official  dedication had a decidedly Texas theme” as a horseshoe was raised on  the building, a time-honored Texas  tradition.

Foxconn Electronics, a  large contract electronics maker, moved some of its Fullerton operations to Dallas.

Fox Family moved its  farming operations to Cookeville, TN.  All employees moved with  the firm.

Fuel System Solutions  moved its headquarters from Santa Ana to New  York.

Gregg Industries, owned  by Neenah Enterprises Inc., in Wisconsin, closed a 300-employee  foundry in El Monte foundry under pressure from the South Coast Air  Quality Management District to make $5 million in upgrades.   The  company didnï¿?t want to make the investment in the  difficult economic climate so it decided instead to leave the  state.

Helix Wind Inc. may move  its research and development, engineering, and testing departments  from San Diego to “more supportive”  Oregon.

Hewlett-Packard, HQ’d in  Palo Alto, at various times has moved jobs to Tennessee and  Texas.

Hilton Hotels Corp. in  2009 is moving from its longtime corporate H.Q. in Beverly Hills to  a new office in Tysons Corner,  Virginia.

Hino Motor Manufacturing  USA moved from California to Williamstown, West Virginia, in 2007,  where it now employs about 100 workers. The company has growth plans  to “Raise Hinoï¿?s presence from medium-heavy/heavy-duty trucks to all  ranges of trucks” and an aggressive program to improve fuel economy  and emissions.  The company builds trucks under its own brand  and also manufactures Toyota-branded vehicles.

Intel Corporation, HQï¿?d  in Santa Clara, has chosen to expand operations in neighboring  states

Intuit of Mountain View  created a customer support office (110 people) not in Californiabut  in Colorado because of lower operating  costs.

Intuit placed a data  center near Quincy, Washington.

Intuit also located  Innovative Merchant Solutions LLC in Las Vegas as part of a $1.8  million investment in Nevada.

J.C. Penney closed it  Sacramento call center and moved the work to five out-of-state  centers.

Kimmie Candy Co., a  manufacturer that was started in 1999, moved from Sacramento to  Nevada in 2005.  ”I really don’t have a lot of regrets about  moving up to Reno,” said owner Joe Dutra.

Klaussner Home  Furnishings in closing its La Mirada manufacturing  plant will  maintain its NC and Iowa  operations.

Knight Protective  Industries moved to Oregon “where 4-day work weeks were permitted by  the state” and wanted by the employees.

Kulicke & Soffa  Industries Inc. announced in February 2010 that it is  closing  its Irvineplant, laying off 56 people, and will shift the work to  Malaysia and Singapore. The facility had been owned by Orthodyne  Electronics  Corp., which Kulicke & Soffa bought in 2008.

LCF Enterprises, which  makes specialized high-end amplifiers used by researchers, medical  professionals and others, moved from Camarillo, Calif., to Post  Falls, Idaho.

Lennox Hearth Products  Inc., in Orange, Calif., will lay off 71 workers and by March 2010  will transfer the jobs to Nashville and Union City, Tennessee, “to  reduce costs and increase operating  efficiencies.”

Lyn-Tron, Inc., a  supplier of electronic hardware, moved from Los Angeles to Spokane,  Wash.  Their website has a rather California(ish)  statement:  ”Our commitment is to maintain a manufacturing  environment that is progressive and safe, where our employees are  able to achieve their personal objectives, thereby adding to their  quality of life and to the community in which they  live.”

Mariah Power, a “green”  manufacturer of small wind turbines, moved from California toNevada  and in 2009 teamed up with another company to begin production in  Manistee,Michigan.

Maxwell America, a  boating equipment maker, in February 2010 closed its Santa Ana offices and moved them to Hanover, Md.  One reason given was  the  indirect impact ofCalifornia environmental regulations.  A company official said  over the years many  Californiaboat builders relocated to the Midwest and East where  they don’t face the same restrictions.

MiaSolé, based in the  Silicon Valley, was reported in January 2010 to be planning a  500,000-square-foot plant, which could be one of the largest solar  factories in the United States. The location is not near its  in Santa Clara headquarters but in the Atlanta, Georgia, area where  its workforce eventually could exceed 1,000. The news came one  week after MiaSolé received $101.8 million in federal tax  credits.

MotorVac Technologies  announced in February 2010 that it’s leaving Santa Ana forOntario,  Canada.  MotorVac’s CEO said he “really fought hard  to keep MotorVac here, but unfortunately the numbers didnï¿?t  support it.  ”The move cuts costs because it’s new owner,  UView, has its own plant with excess capacity in Canada.  And  the general cost of doing business in California is much more  expensive.

Nissan North America  moved its Los Angeles headquarters to Nashville,  Tenn.

Northrop Grumman by 2011  will relocate its Los Angeles H.Q. to the Washington, DCmetro  area.  It’s the last major aerospace company to leave Southern  California, the birthplace of the aerospace  industry.

One2Believe, a specialty  religious-toy maker, left California for East Aurora, New  York.

Patmont Motor Werks,  Inc., (GoPed manufacturer), after being hit by California regulators  for hundreds of thousands of dollars in small fines even though his  company has a stellar safety record, moved to  Nevada.

Paragon Relocation  Resources moved from Rancho Santa Margarita to Irving,  Texas.

Pixel Magic,  headquartered in Toluca Lake, Calif., (Los Angeles metro area), is  locating a studio in Lafayette, Louisiana, where it will create 40  new jobs between 2010 and 2013.  The company, which provides  digital effects for motion pictures and television, said the  Louisianapeople they were in contact with have an immediate  understanding of technology and data  handling.

Plastic Model  Engineering, Inc., a custom plastic injection molder and mold  manufacturer, moved from Sylmar, Calif., to the “Inland Northwest,”  notably Post Falls,Idaho.

Precor will stop  manufacturing fitness machines in California and re-open in North  Carolina.

Premier Inc.,the largest  healthcare alliance in the nation, will move its HQ from San Diego  to Charlotte, involving an investment of $17.7 million and adding  300 jobs in North Carolina.  The announcement was made Oct. 14,  2009.

Pro Cal of South Gate,  in Los Angeles County, a unit of Myers  Industries, expanded  itsSparks, Nev., operations to become the companyï¿?s primary  West Coast production and distribution facility.  Pro Cal is  a  plastics  manufacturer of nursery containers and a big  recycler.

Race Track Chaplaincy of  America started 2010 by shifting its headquarters from Los Angeles  to Lexington, Kentucky.  The non-profit group said it had  wanted to relocate from the Hollywood Park Race Track for several  reasons, one of which is the significant cost of doing business on  the West Coast.

Red Truck Fire &  Safety Company left Fresno for Minden, Nevada in 2007 because of  Californiaï¿?s myriad fees and regulations that meant “death by  thousand cuts.”

SAIC will move its  headquarters east, from San Diego to McLean, Virgina, which the  Washington Post called “Another Coup for Area.”  The  announcement was made Sept. 24, 2009; it is unclear how many  employees will move east in 2009 and  2010.

Scale Computing, a  data-storage developer and manufacturer, is leaving Silicon Valley  for Indiana.

Schott Solar Inc. will  close its sales and customer service office in Roseville and will  relocate the office to Albuquerque,  NM.

SimpleTech transferred  its manufacturing work from Santa Ana to Asia more than a year  ago.

Smiley Industries, an  aerospace manufacturer, moved to Phoenix, where productivity  improved.

Solaicx, based in the  Silicon Valley, said in early 2010 that it will expand its  manufacturing plant in Portland, Oregon.  Solaicx received  $18.2 million in federal tax credits as part of Washington’s efforts  to advance green energy.

SolarWorld, a maker of  solar technology founded in Camarillo, consolidated manufacturing in  Oregon after that state offered property tax abatement and business  energy tax credits. The company will employ about  1,000 in Oregon by 2011

Special Devices Inc.,  brought 250 jobs to Mesa, Arizona, from Moorpark,  Calif.

StarKist headquarters is  leaving San Francisco for Pittsburgh, Pa. (Pelosi’s Husband’s  Company)

Stasis Engineering moved  from Sonoma County to West Virginia, a “friendlier business  climate.”

Stata Corp., which  specializes in data analysis and statistical software, moved from  Santa Monica, California to College Station,  Texas.

Tapmatic, a metalworking  firm whose owners were “fed up with the onerous business  environment,” moved from Orange County, California to Post Falls in  northern Idaho.

Teledesic moved to  Washington state in anticipation of better capital  gains.

Telmar Network  Technology Inc., moved from Irvine to Plano, Texas, consolidating  some 150 workers there.

Terremark postponed a  Santa Clara project earlier this year to invest $50 million in a  Culpeper, Va., project.

Terumo Cardiovascular  Systems is moving R&D from Orange County to Ann Arbor,Michigan,  involving 65 jobs and $3.5 million in  investments.

Toyota will stop making  cars in Fremont, will idle 4,700 workers, and move work toCanada  and San Antonio, Texas.

True Games Interactive  Inc., will its H.Q. from Irvine to Austin, Texas, where it expects  to have about 60 workers by the middle of  2010.

TTM Technologies will  leave L.A. & Hayward and move to other states and China to  achieve big cost savings.

Twentieth Century Props  of L.A. has gone out of business as film-making has moved to  lower-cost states

Understand.com <http://understand.com/> moved from the  San Francisco Bay Area to Reno, a loss for California in that the  company is a leader in web-based patient education content and shows  strong growth.  The company was named 2007 Innovator of the  Year by a Northern publication and the company’s founder and  received a media and Reno-Tahoe Young Professionals Network 20 Under  40 award and was selected as a 20/20 Business Visionary by Nevada  Business Magazine.

US Airways is realigning  operations and California is no longer considered part of its  ”core.”  The airline is closing its John Wayne Airport  maintenance station and in early 2010 will redistribute the  mechanics across its system.

US Press shifted work  from Los Angeles and San Diego to Portland, “where union rules were  almost rational.”

USAA Insurance closed  its 625-person Sacramento campus in favor of other  states.

Yahoo opened a data  center in Quincy, Washington, a community that now hopes to land  high-tech manufacturing.

The list will grow as  Sacramento considers more measures that will increase corporate  taxes, increase workers’ comp costs, increase regulatory reporting  requirements (along with higher fines for minor infractions),  increase gasoline and diesel-fuel taxes, increase water rates,  increase electric-power rates, and increase assorted fees that will  cause services to become more  expensive.

Eventually the great golden state will be the highest with unemployment unless they inspire entrepenurism but we know they just tax the heck out of them. The unemployment rate will skyrocket as we are taxed the highest in the union for sales tax on goods and services and basic needs and then the Health Care Reform Act kicks in to put a bite in your profits. The rest of the country just does not understand what it costs for a decent lifestyle in California and in particular Southern California. When i ran the numbers in 2004 a family of 3 needed a minimum of $150,000 just to get by and to be really comfortable you needed closer to $200,000 and then they’ll just tax the living T^%T**^%%^** out of you.

YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID!!  SO VOTE CAUTIOUSLY IF CALIFORNIA IS TO SURVIVE.

As the author of “The 3 Secret Pillars of Wealth” I have identified what I think are seven to eight steps all Americans need to respond to and become accountable to right now. Accountability is when you’re going to get serious about what you’re doing and where you’re going. Jeff Combs, a great coach and trainer says “your word is your bond” and what is your word worth to yourself? Do you constantly procrastinate and fail to examine your finances because your fearful, don’t understand them or you are addicted to poverty consciousness rather than prosperity consciousness? Some people are addicted to struggle so much that they get in their own way of success.

It is shocking how many Americans are not accountable for their own retirement and do not do the things it takes to be financially independent. The Wall Street Journal recounted on how much apathy is out there and there is no room for slip-ups or lackadaisical attitude.

Here are the 7 things you absolutely must be doing to get the type of result you’re looking for which is financial independence in your retirement.

1. Build up cash flows
2. Build an emergency fund
3. Eliminate debt – (bankruptcy, short sale or debt settlement)
4. Rebuild credit if necessary
5. Create an emergency fund (all families need this for unexpected events)
6. Protect what you have (protect your principal from market loss
7. Build a plan for long-term income and savings
8. Have an estate plan in place to care for your affairs

It is very effective to just have steps or a checklist. Some of the most complicated machines (aircraft) and computers are run on systems and they have checklists to keep them functioning optimally. Why avoid this evident fact of how to keep things in order and follow a checklist? Everything you need is in 8 steps to financial freedom. Sure, there is a little bit of work in each step but things are now isolated and broken down into manageable pieces and that is problem solving.

To your success,

James Burns

Wealth Strategies – click here