9A
STRICTLY BUSINESS/The Charlotte Post
Thursday, March 6, 1997
Goodwin sees better days ahead
Continued from page 8A
for lunch, and these customers
were almost like salesmen for
me and helped by bringing oth
ers and bringing their projects
and events here.
“The way I did things was
almost in a maverick kind of
way. Most men would have fold
ed or had a heart attack doing
it.”
Goodwin’s had his health prob
lems, including a blood pressiu-e
condition which caused him to
close a New Orleans business
and move to Charlotte - with a
$250,000 debt.
He added $30,000 more when
he left Windows on Trade
restaurant and taking a beating
when CityFair closed six months
after he opened two businesses
there.
Renaissance Place has already
been a rocky venture, mainly
due to arrangements to feed res
idents of the retirement and
assisted-hving facility.
But Goodwin’s involvement in
the community has attracted a
growing clientele of regulars.
Renaissance Place has become
a place to network for members
of the city’s African American
community, while an ample
number of whites also visit regu
larly.
Goodwin is a member of the
Charlotte Civic League, NAACP,
Urban League and other local
and state organizations. He also
sponsors youth activities for
Communities in Schools, Best
Friends, Teenage Parenting
Services and The Male Place.
Focus on Leadership gave
Goodwin an Unsung Hero
award and he has outstanding
service awards from TAPS,
National Women of
Achievement and Uptown
Optimist Club.
Goodwin, who graduated from
West Virginia State College in
1968, studied culinary arts and
nutrition at American
University in Washington, D.C.
The Charleston, S.C., native
began his food service career
working in hotels while he in col
lege.
“My intentions are to pay
everybody I owe and hve a life
where I will be able to help oth
ers to not fall into the same con
dition that I have,” Goodwin
said. “I think the one thing I did
wrong was start with no money
and brought debts from CityFair
and Windows on Trade.”
Goodwin said he still has not
reached his ultimate dream.
“My dream is to eventually
own a large cafeteria, another
restaurant similar to Windows,
and convention space large
enough to seat over 1,000 peo
ple,” Goodwin said. “Hopefiilly
this dream will come true.”
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SPECIAL TO THE POST
Would you believe that you can
make exceptional profits on
paper, yet gradually be losing
wealth?
Even though your investments
may appear to be providing com
petitive rates of return, their
“real returns” may be much less.
Real return is what your invest
ment provides after you consider
inflation and taxes.
H. Garrett Thornburg Jr., an
investment adviser managing
more than $5 billion in assets,
illustrates real return with a
hypothetical dollar invested in
the Standard & Poor’s Index of
500 stocks in 1925. Seventy
years later, that dollar would
have grown to about $1,114.
Take out inflation, taxes and
expenses, however, and that dol
lar would now be worth about
$27.
Here’s another way to illus
trate real return: From 1966
through 1995, after deducting
taxes, inflation and expenses,
the S&P 500 provided an aver
age annual return of about 2
percent.
Part of the reason for this is
taxes. When investing in stocks
and mutual funds, you pay taxes
on your dividends. Your tax rate
(along with the inflation rate
and any investment expenses)
must be factored into the divi
dend yield to obtain your real
return each year.
You also owe taxes if you real
ize a gain when you sell the
investment. If your investment’s
value has appreciated, you will
lose up to 28 percent of that
increase to capital gains taxes.
Commissions and annual
expenses also reduce your real
return, and inflation takes a
bite, too. Over the past decade,
inflation has averaged 3.47 per
cent, which is low by historical
standards, but it still has a
major impact on your invest
ment returns.
Whats an investor to do? You
can’t do much about inflation
(that’s the Federal Reserve’s
job), but you may be able to min
imize taxes. If you’re in the 28
percent tax bracket or higher,
you should consider the advan
tages of tax-exempt invest
ments, such as tax-free bonds,
mutual funds and unit invest
ment trusts.
For example, you can find
intermediate-term tax-free
bonds paying about 5.1 percent.
With inflation at about 3 percent
today, your real return (before
expenses) is about 2.1 percent -
by historical standards, an
attractive real return for a con
servative investment.
Tax-deferred vehicles are
another way to reduce current
taxes and improve real returns.
With pension and profit-sharing
plans, 401(k)s and IRAs, you can
invest in higher-paying taxable
investments while sheltering
them from current taxes.
As baby boomers age, increas
es in Medicare, Medicaid and
Social Security seem imminent -
and those increases will likely be
paid for with higher taxes. For
this reason, it will become even
more important for investors to
focus on real returns. Tax-free
investments can be a good way
to achieve higher real returns.
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How to determine filing status
Continued from page 8A
tain tax benefits, such as the
earned income credit and the
Individual Retirement Account
deduction for non-working
spouses, cannot be claimed
when you file separately.
Unmarried taxpayers
For tax filing purposes, you
can qualify for head of house
hold status if you’re unmarried
or legally separated as of the
end of 1996 and you paid more
than half the cost of maintain
ing your own home, which was
also the home for more than
Retirement
half the yeeu- of a child, grand
child, parent, or other relative
whom you can claim as a
dependent. (If the relative is a
parent, head of household sta
tus can apply if you paid more
than half the cost of maintain
ing your parent’s home or
expenses of a facility caring for
your parent, and the parent
qualifies as a dependent.)
A lower tax rate schedule
applies to heads of household
versus single filers. However, if
you are unmarried or legally
separated from your spouse
and you are not eligible to file
as ahead of household or a
qualifying widow(er) with a
dependent child, you must file
as a single taxpayer. When a
spouse dies, the surviving
spouse generally is eligible to
file a joint return with the
deceased spouse for the year. A
special fiUng break allows some
widows and widowers to file a
joint return for two years after
a spouse’s death.
You qualify if during the year,
you furnished more than half
the cost of maintaining a home
for a dependent child. After two
years of filing as a qualifying
widow(er), you may be eligible
to file as a head of household if
you continue to maintain a
home for your dependent child.
)
CPAs recommend that you
carefully evaluate your filing
options and estimate your tax
liability under each status for
which you are qualified to
determine which is most
advantageous.
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plans
Continued from page 8A
This allows you to put away up
to 15 percent of your firm’s net
income. A Keogh is more comph-
cated to administer than an
SEP, but it’s stiU a good choice.
Finally, consider parking
$2,000 a year in an IRA. You
may be able to write off the con
tributions, and your money
grows in a tax-deferred accoimt.
Investing in stocks
If you are willing to ride out
price fluctuations over time,
stock investing can give your
retirement savings a real boost.
That's because, in the long haul,
stocks outperform all other
investments, and, over time, are
less risky than fixed-income
investments.
The allocation of your funds
should match your ability to
withstand market ups and
downs over the period between
now and retirement. Younger
investors might keep seventy
percent of their portfolio in
stocks, while investors in their
50s might want to trim back
gradually until, at retirement,
about 60 percent of their portfo
lio is in stocks. Review your
holdings each year to make sure
the allocation still fits your
needs. With each adjustment,
youll automatically buy low and
sell high.
Charles Ross is host of the
nationally syndicated radio
show, “Your Personal Finance”
and author of “Your
CommonSense Guide to
Personal Financial Planning.”
WAKE FOREST
UNIVERSITY
Babcock Graduate
School o/Management
CHARLOTTE
MBA PROGRAM
Wake Forest University offers an evening MBA
program in Charlotte designed for experienced
professionals. Join us for an
Information Session
Tuesday evening, March 11
5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
(Formal remarks begin at 6:00 p.m.)
Wednesday morning, March 26
7:30 - 9:00 a.m.
(Formal remarks begin at 7:45 a.m.)
One Morrocroft Centre
6805 Morrison Blvd., Suite 150
Information on our weekend
executive program in "Winston-Salem
will also be available.
For more information about Wake Forest's MBA programs,
call (704) 365-1717 or contact us at http://wuiw.mba.wfu.edu.
You Are Invited to Attend a
FederallCitylCounty Purchasing
Expo and Luncheon
sponsored hy the
City of Charlotte and the Metrolina
Minority Supplier Development Council
Wednesday, March 12, 1997
Expo 10:00 am - 11:30 am
Luncheon 11:45 am - 1:30 pm
Featured Speaker: Parks Helms
Meeklenhurg County Commission Chairman
University Hilton
8629 J.M. Keynes Drive, Charlotte, NC
Cost: $15 per person
This expo will be an excellent opportunity for CMSDC
minority businesses to network with representatives from North
and South Carolina. Exhibitors and Corporate Representatives
have been asked to bring bid opportunities and information on
HOW TO DO BUSINESS.
Cities that have responded include: Spartanburg, Greensboro, Fayetteville,
Winston-Salem, High Point, Henderson and Raleigh.
Agencies responding include, but are not limited to: Guilford County Schools,
Durham Public Schools, Charleston County Procurement and
Cleveland County Board of Education.
For Further Information Call:
Malcolm Graham, 536-2884.