Like many people, Jackie Cummings Koski, a member of the BetterInvesting board of directors, is eyeballing her finances as we enter a new year. Unlike most, however, she has a wider audience looking over her shoulder because Jackie’s often interviewed on CNBC for her stock market insights. She was on the cable channel’s Monthly Investment Club on Dec. 29, 2017, to chat about the new tax bill and her favorite stock picks.
Jackie told CNBC she’s prepaid her property taxes for 2018 because she won’t be able to take the deduction if she decides not to itemize her taxes for that year.
“The tax bill will really continue the (market’s) momentum because of a lot of positive things with the tax bill,” she told CNBC. “I was really happy to see the first-in, first-out rule did not stay in the final tax bill. For the first part of the year, I’m pretty bullish.”
The Senate’s version of the tax bill included a FIFO rule, meaning that retail investors selling a stock would have been required to divest their oldest shares of that stock first; this would have restricted the ability of individual investors to manage their portfolio with respect to taxes. This was protested by many investors, including members of BetterInvesting, and did not remain in the new law.
For stocks, Jackie likes what she calls great companies amid a current pullback. Her picks are:
Kroger (ticker: KR)
Nike (NKE)
Altria (MO)
Jackie explained that she felt that Kroger’s stock “really got hit harder than it should have” after the news in June 2017 that Amazon.com was snapping up Whole Foods. Kroger’s long been on her watch list of stocks.
“There’s room for many other players in that space, not just Amazon. … I’m really looking forward to Kroger and Wal-Mart doing pretty good up against Amazon next year,” she said.
Besides being a BetterInvesting board member, Jackie is a director with BetterInvesting’s OKI Tri-State Chapter, which serves parts of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.
About BetterInvesting
BetterInvesting is a national nonprofit organization that has been empowering individual investors since 1951. Founded in Detroit, the association (formerly known as National Association of Investors Corporation) was borne out of the conviction that anyone can become a successful long-term investor by following commonsense investing practices. BetterInvesting has helped more than 5 million people become better, more informed investors by providing webinars, in-person events, easy-to-use online tools for analyzing stocks, a monthly magazine and a community of volunteers and like-minded investors. For more information about BetterInvesting, visit its website at www.betterinvesting.org or call toll free (877) 275-6242.
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