Meta Games receives $150K angel investment
I am still having fun with the
2017 RICP Retirement Income
Literacy Survey http://retirement. theamericancollege.edu/retirement-101/2017retirement-incomeliteracy-quiz ). At least once a week I have a conversation with someone who stops me to discuss something they've learned from taking it. Let's see how you're doing.
Question 22: True or false? The total out-of-pocket medical costs for married couples in retirement is fairly consistent from retiree to retiree.
Answer: (74-percent correct responses) The falsity of this statement seems pretty obvious to me, but then only three quarters of people taking the quiz got the answer. I suppose that might be because people tend to think that Medicare picks up most or all of medical costs for seniors, so there must be across-the-board consistency, right? No, not right. Just like in our younger years, medical expenses in retirement can vary greatly depending on our health coverage. (We're going to ignore variations in health conditions for the moment.) Having comprehensive coverage through a Medicare supplement policy is one way to make out-of-pocket costs predictable, but even with that, there are varying options and costs. Here's my “words to the wise” on the subject: Don't try to figure it all out yourself. Meet with a professional who knows all the ins and outs of Medicare, supplements, etc. and let that person help you to make your best choices. If you don't know where to start, contact me. I can put you in touch with qualified people.
Question 23: What is the proportion of the population that is going to need assistance with activities of daily living (need long-term care) at some point?
Answer: (18-percent correct responses) As much as I've written on this subject, I would think surely the Starkville Daily News readers would score much higher than the average population. The answer is 70 percent! Let that sink in for a moment. Nearly three fourths of ALL of us will need long-term assistance at some point. What I don't understand is why people aren't knocking down my door to protect their families and all they've worked their lives to build. Long-term care insurance is becoming more and more an integral part of financial planning, folks. 70 percent!
Question 24: Nationally, who pays for the majority of long-term care expenses provided in nursing homes – Medicaid, private payment by individuals, Medicare, or insurance purchased by individuals?
Answer: (33-percent correct responses) Of all the questions in this survey, I feel this is one of the most important that people understand. The fact is that Medicaid pays for the majority of institutional care… and Medicaid only pays after the individual has essentially run out of assets. In other words, the majority of those of our dearest citizens who are living in nursing homes are likely to be indigent. They've spent any assets they had on their care prior to arriving in the institution, leaving nothing behind. . (Note that not every nursing home even accepts Medicaid, yet Medicaid still pays a majority of the expenses.) In my opinion, it's not a dignified way to end a life.
Question 25: Nationally, who provides the majority of long-term care services – Family members, nursing homes, assisted living centers, or hospitals?
Answer: (30-percent correct responses) Again, the low rate of correct responses tells me that people just don't know… yet. The majority of care outside an institutional setting is provided by family members. Caring for an elderly or ill family member puts tremendous strain on the caretaker, and often the entire family. This strain is not just emotional, either; typically it's financially, as well. I have more than one client who had to quit work to take care of an elderly parent, and these were not situations where the family could easily give up that income. Again, I don't know why more people don't purchase long-term care insurance.
And speaking of, let's look at the last question for this week.
Question 26: Long-term care insurance is intended to cover… Alzheimer's care, hospital expenses after surgery, emergency room care, or all of the above?
Answer: (42-percent correct responses) The correct answer is the first option. Long-term care insurance is intended to
Starkville video game design company Meta Games' three-year project is about to get a much-needed financial boost.
The company, run by Mississippi State University alumnus Ryan Gilbrech from Slidell, Louisiana, will soon have $150,000 in hand to complete its video game project. The grant comes from the Bulldog Angel Network, a group of angel investors dedicated to supporting businesses run by MSU students, alumni and faculty.
Gilbrech said he and the network were working on the legal aspect of the deal, but he should have the money in hand by the end of the month. He was the first business to pitch to the Bulldog Angel Network on Aug. 15.
“I ended up pitching for $150,000,” Gilbrech said. “It seems like a lot for a video game, but it takes more than you would expect to bring a video game to market.”
Gilbrech said the money would be used to hire artists and animators to help broaden the game and come up
WASHINGTON — By slashing corporate tax rates, the Trump administration said Monday, the average U.S. household will get an estimated $4,000 more a year.
This stunning 5 percent increase was met with skepticism from tax experts and Democratic lawmakers who said the math was flawed. Spread across every U.S. household, the White House analysis claims it would generate "conservatively" an income jump totaling $504 billion, or about $200 billion more than the revenues currently generated by the corporate income tax.
With this new report, the White House is making a populist argument for its proposal to cut the 35 percent corporate tax rate to 20 percent. Trump has pitched his tax plan as supporting the middle class even though the details point to major companies and the wealthy as the biggest winners. Polls suggest that voters generally frown upon the idea of cutting taxes for businesses — essentially rewarding these firms for avoiding taxes by exploiting loopholes and keeping profits overseas.
"President Trump complains about fake news — this fake math is as bad as any of the so-called fake news he has complained about," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat. "This deliberate manipulation of numbers and facts could lead to messing up the good economy the president inherited."
The analysis by Kevin Hassett, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said that the considerably lower rate would spur more investment by companies, which with more characters.
“Three-dimensional animators have a very specific skill set, and they are in high demand,” Gilbrech said.
An avid gamer, Gilbrech came up wit the idea for the game in 2014 after graduating from MSU with a degree in biomedical engineering. With his family's support, he began seriously creating the game while pursuing a master of business administration at MSU. He said he heard about the MSU College of Business Entrepreneurship Center while pursuing his undergraduate and began working out of the eCenter.
”I knew really nothing about making video games,” Gilbrech said. "I knew the basics of coding. I didn't know how to draw. I didn't know how to animate, and I didn't know much about business since I got an engineering degree.”
Over the next year and a half, he worked on the game while living off his savings and pursuing his MBA. He said an initial playable version of the game was completed in March. Tentatively, the game will be available on Steam by mid-2018.
Gilbrech said the currently unnamed would then boost hiring and worker productivity. The average income gains from the reduced rate would range from $4,000 to as high as $9,000, the administration said. Those figures, however, rely on research arguing that workers — rather than investors — would primarily benefit from the lower corporate rates.
"I would expect to see an immediate jump in wage growth," Hassett said in a phone call with reporters, saying that the salary gains would also come in part from companies bringing back profits held overseas to avoid the relatively high U.S. tax rates.
Separate studies, including a 2012 Treasury Department analysis, found that the vast majority of any savings would go to investors, making it unlikely to push up wages as much as the administration has argued. The administration game was influenced heavily by a Nintendo classic.
“The game itself feels a lot like Nintendo's Super Smash Brothers games,” Gilbrech said. “It's just a fun beat ‘em up party game.”
The game will initially only be available on PC, but Gilbrech hopes to expand to consoles at a later date. He plans to create more games after the current project is complete.
The Bulldog Angel Network began operating in late May, and consists of investors across the country. President Wade Patterson came up with the idea for the network after working with the MSU eCenter.
“This is a logical next step,” Patterson said.
Patterson said each investor was free to invest their money as they saw best, and emphasized the network was not an investment fund.
Patterson holds a degree in electrical engineering from MSU, and has served as president and CEO of Synapse Wireless Corporation and Intergraph' Corporation's worldwide computer business. removed the 2012 analysis from the Treasury Department's website after releasing its tax framework last month with Republican congressional leaders.
Outside economists said the income growth projected by Hassett appears to assume that workers appear to bear more than 100 percent of the burden of U.S. corporate taxes — a mathematical impossibility.
Jason Furman, Hassett's predecessor under President Barack Obama, said on Twitter that the numbers in the report suggest that workers bear 250 percent of the costs.
Mark Mazur, director of the non-partisan Tax Policy Center, called the estimated income gains "absurd."
"You'd have to have a tsunami of corporate capital coming into the United States — we've never seen that," Mazur said.
Stocks surged after Trump's election last year on the prospect of business tax cuts, but wage gains have been relatively tepid. The higher stock prices touted by Trump are a possible sign that investors would reap most of the benefits from lower corporate rates, although Hassett said he expects an increase in wages if the tax overhaul is passed.
For individuals and families, the Trump plan would reduce the number of tax brackets to three from seven and double the standard deduction. But it would also remove the personal exemption and possibly much of the deduction for state and local taxes — changes that could possibly increase taxes for many families. A preliminary analysis by the Tax Policy Center estimated that the proposal would cut business taxes by $2.65 trillion over a decade while increasing the tax burden on families and individuals by $471 billion.
provide a funding vehicle for custodial and semi-skilled nursing care, which is generally not covered by Medicare and other health insurance. Custodial care for someone with Alzheimer's is one common example of when benefits would be paid out. Long-term care insurance reduces the burden on family members and helps make sure that the retiree is less likely to end up spending down all of their resources at the end of their life. It also, in most cases, gives the family more options for where and how care is provided. I've seen long-term care insurance create so many more options, and provide the elderly person the ability to have choices, choices which otherwise wouldn't exist.
Until next time!Until next time!!. Barbara Runnels Coats, FICF, Modern Woodmen of America Financial Representative. Tax issues can be complex. Please consult your tax professional before making a decision. Medicare supplement insurance is underwritten and issued by independent third party carriers and brokered through MWAGIA, Inc., a subsidiary of Modern Woodmen of America.”