Trust

Over the past 50 years the cost of nursing home care has risen from about $800 per month to over $10,000. The result has been that people looked for ways to avoid this cost and save their assets to pass on to their children. People tried various means to save their assets but the government would look back three years to recapture any assets that were removed from the estate. About 20 years ago this look back period was increased to five years. Any plan must take into account this five-year period. There are three popular approaches to avoid the cost of nursing homes and all three are subject to the five year look back rule, so to be effective they must be done five years in advance of the need for nursing care. The first is to give your house away, normally to your children. This is simple. There are three forms that must be filed at the courthouse. The first is certificate of trust, one for each spouse, then an affidavit of trust signed by both and a quit claim deed or warrantee deed signed by both. The second is a life estate. This is an irrevocable trust that allows the home owners to stay in the home as long as they want and at their deaths the home passes to the beneficiary. The home owner must continue to pay the taxes, insurance and maintenance. The advantage over gifting is that the house will get a stepped-up basis at later sale. For example, if the value of the house at the time the trust is funded is $400,000 and later the value has increased to $600,000 there will be no capital gain. With gifting this is not the case and taxes must be paid on the gain. This should be done by an attorney. The third and best option is a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust. This trust can accept real estate and other assets like cash, stocks, bonds and CD’s. IRA’s and 401k’s can be put in they must be cashed out and the taxes paid first. Term life insurance policies need not go into the trust since they are not counted as accountable assets by Medicaid.

Postpone Iran

Many in the news are questioning why we are where we are with Iran. When Trump was campaigning, he said he would not get into endless wars in the Middle East and in less than one year in office he bombed the nuclear facilities in Iran. This led to negotiations which were on going when Trump once again started bombing Iran. What happened. The talks were going nowhere and the US concluded that Iran was just stalling while they rebuilt their nuclear program and continued building up their missiles and drones. Iran felt safe from any ground invasion because of Trump’s campaign promise. Then on Feb 28, 2026 the US got word that 40 top Iranian leaders were meeting in one room and the opportunity was too great to pass by. Only a month into the invasion, the world is stunned by the size and number of Iran’s military build up and one can only assume that this would continue, until such time as they would only be stopped by an all-out war, much like WW 2. Iran was at a weakened point having lost the safe transfer of weapons through Syria to Hezbollah, the destruction of Hamas in Gaza the weakening of the Houthis and the devastating effects of the sanctions on their economy. The political safe action would be to just let them go and turn the problem over to the next administration.

Credit

The middle-income group, sometimes called the middle class, is shrinking and it is disappearing in two directions. About 20% have moved up while 80% have moved down. Back in the 1950’s there were restraints on spending, both from an income stand point and from a psychological end. These were the children of depression parents who taught them to limit their spending to needs as opposed to wants. The first step out of this was called lay away. Many people today have no idea what this is but you could go to a store and with a small deposit have them set aside your new toaster, for you to pick up later, when you paid for it. The first credit card was Bank America Card, later to be called VISA and this allowed people to purchase items on credit. Initial credit limits were $300 and this allowed for an immediate purchase. The old depression idea of waiting until you had the cash to buy went out the window. Prior to this most of the credit purchases were home mortgages through banks and auto purchases through the car companies like General Motors Acceptance Corporation. For other items people mostly paid cash. With the new credit card, the thinking changed from how much does it cost to how much per month. Before the credit card a family which had $500 of disposable income could only purchase that much but if they had credit cards it was like getting a raise. Something that cost $1,200 was only $50 per month. This allowed businesses to raise prices because consumers were more interested in the monthly payment instead of the total cost. Businesses lowered the monthly payment by extending the loan period. Cars that once were 24-month loans became 72-month loans. People slowly moved from buying what they need to buying what they want. During this time the moms went to work so the family could buy more stuff. The two-income family led to two cars and more eating out. As people moved to suburbia the pressure to keep up with the Joneses increased and there was no going back. In the 50’s homes were small, about 1,200 sq ft and people kept their clothes longer, took fewer and shorter vacations and rarely ate out. By the 1970’s credit cards were all over and during that time businesses began to move manufacturing jobs to countries where costs were lower. Over the next 30 years the US lost 8 million manufacturing jobs and wages for the middle-income workers stagnated. While workers lost out the big corporations made large profits so some people moved up the wage ladder while others slipped behind. In the early 1950s, the typical American household held a modest amount of debt, often less than 2% of their income. Today that figure is 81%. Today the wage gap is larger than ever and one of the reasons why young people look favorably on socialism.

Cash to Iran

The financial aspects of the Iran nuclear deal formulated under Obama in 2015 have now been made clear. First off, the $400 million that was frozen when the Shah was deposed was released. Hostage Release: An initial $400 million was delivered on Jan. 17, 2016, the same day Iran released four American prisoners. While the Obama administration initially stated the incidents were separate, they later acknowledged the payment was used as leverage to ensure the Americans were released $1.3 billion in cash was delivered to Iran is Swiss Franks and Euro’s. To avoid triggering banking regulations related to large, single transactions, the $1.3 billion was divided into 13 separate payments of $99,999,999.99, and one final, smaller payment. There is much speculation that some of this money was used to finance Hamas and Hezbollah but there is no way to follow these dollars as they were comingled with other Iranian assets.

War cost

According to the press the cost of the military incursion to Iran is one billion dollars per day but that needs further explanation. First off, there are fixed costs, whether the military is fighting or not. The additional cost is primarily the cost of munitions and these will be replaced with more efficient equipment, manufactured in US defense plants. The real cost danger is to the lives of the troops, which cannot be replaced.

Canada

The phrase Trump derangement syndrome (TDS) is used to describe certain individuals who are strongly anti Trump but it can be applied to nations. Canada had been controlled by liberals for ten years and as the 2025 elections approached the people were ready for a change. The conservative candidate Poilievre was leading in the polls until Trump made one of his ignorant remarks saying that Canada could be the 51st state and things changed overnight. The liberal candidate took the lead and won handily. The people were so offended by Trump’s remarks that they changed their vote. Nothing in the policy area changed but the emotional response made the difference. This is an example of TDS. Canada remains on the green path pushing net-zero by 2050. While Alberta wants to build a new pipeline to ship oil to China, final approval hinges on overcoming regulatory, environmental and Indigenous opposition. Without this pipeline Canada remains a captive supplier by the US. Canada under former PM Trudeau followed the path of the EU. His plan was to replace fossil fuels with wind and solar and bring in large numbers of immigrants. This cause dissention with the oil producing Albertans and housing prices that put the average Canadian out of the housing market. The new PM will continue these policies. As the emotions subside many Canadians are having second thoughts. Canada's economy is navigating a highly fragile, "on life support" state in early 2026, characterized by sluggish growth, high debt, and contracting output in eight of the last eleven months. While not in a technical recession, the economy is suffering from trade disputes, high unemployment—notably impacting youth—and weak productivity, leading many to feel like they are in a recessionary environment

Iran with a nuke

President Obama made a deal with Iran that limited their production of nuclear weapons but permitted them to proceed after some years. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal, was designed to block Iran's pathways to a nuclear weapon for a set duration, not to allow them to have one, but it did include "sunset provisions" that would lift restrictions on their program after 10 to 15 years Eleven years after this deal was signed, the Iranians say they have 1,000 pounds of 60% enriched uranium. Most feel there was more but some was destroyed when the US bombed their facilities last October.