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CategoryYou can pay someone to harvest capital losses for you, but why would you?
A current fad in the world of personal finance and investing is so-called “tax-loss harvesting.” If you’re not familiar with the concept, tax-loss harvesting refers to the perfec..
Money is fungible, but only if you funge it
Back in October, over at the Saverocity Observation Deck podcast Joe Cheung interviewed Noah from Money Metagame and they discussed a post Noah wrote last year asking the questio..
Why should retirement savings be financed out of current income?
If there are two axioms that financial graybeards treat as indisputable, they are:
Americans don’t save enough money for retirement;
and the government needs to do more to encou..
Market capitalization doesn’t matter because share prices don’t matter
There is a tendency in financial journalism to refer to a company’s market capitalization as what the company is “worth,” or its “value.” This tendency is most pronounced when pe..
Free Business Idea: Mailstream, Your Home Away From Home
There are lots of people who enjoy their jobs, who find that their jobs give their life meaning, or who think that wage labor is the natural order of the universe
Quick hits: hijinks booking Mileage Plan awards on Virgin America
In the last few months I’ve written a couple posts about booking award travel on Virgin America, with Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles and with HawaiianMiles, mentioning a few ..
The boring reason you might take out student loans while getting a free education
Last week I wrote about the simple path anyone can follow in order to go to college for free (and explained why I think almost no one takes it).Some commenters objected
An investment strategy doesn’t work just because you, personally, find out about it
One of the most important things you can learn as you study finance and investing is that the markets do not care about you. This is, on the one hand, terrific news:
Why I make $18,500 every year
While the income tax code is packed full of adjustments and credits for “reservists, performing artists, and
fee-basis government officials” and those engaging in “domestic produ..
Interesting Starwood and Marriott stacking opportunities
I was chatting yesterday with someone who has had a lot of success with Marriott recently, taking advantage of a number of opportunities that currently intersect due to the merger
Of course there’s going to be a major market selloff. From what level?
Since this is the first bull market during which I’ve been invested in the stock market, it’s been interesting observing my emotions as US stocks have marched steadily higher. My..
You can go to college for free (but you won’t)
This is a subject I’ve written about before on the Saverocity Forum, but now that I’ve got this whole finance blog I can share it with a bigger, smaller, or at
Where is the next crisis hiding?
Capitalism has always been subject to periodic crises. It’s now very fashionable to refer to “Minsky moments,” but you don’t need any training in economic theory to observe that,..
How I think about the Hilton Honors reforms
People are talking about Hilton’s recent announcement that they’ll be eliminating the concept of hotel award categories and charging whatever they think is fair for a free night ..
529 plans are a scam used by the rich to transfer wealth between generations
529 plans are special accounts authorized by their eponymous section of the Internal Revenue Code, “sponsored” by the states and administered, with some exceptions, by Upromise I..
The Federal Reserve wants you to sell everything and start a business (Congress doesn’t)
It’s treated as a platitude that interest rates are at “historically low levels,” that the Federal Reserve has just begun tightening US monetary policy, that it anticipates raisi..
Yes, you should declare all your self-employment income
Between this blog and my travel hacking blog, at least 90% of my income comes from self-employment. I’m not even paid through a partnership or S corporation; I just get deposits ..
Real Life Family Travel: Compromises
I’ve learned a lot over the past eight years, first through traveling with my wife, then with my daughter, and now as a family of four. It’s easy to blog
Maybe just show up to a Global Entry interview without an appointment
I’ve never had a card that offered Global Entry or Precheck fee reimbursement because I don’t pay $450 annual fees, but a generous reader with many, many more such credits
Welcome to Independently Financed
Just what the world needs, another personal finance blog
Personal finance journalism as an industry has a problem: it’s too often directed at the people who need it least. It shou..
What are HawaiianMiles worth?
Hawaiian Airlines is a traditional US carrier that flies between the Hawaiian islands and between Hawaii and the Western United States as well as New York’s JFK airport, and from
Sustainability: value, cost, and risk
When a good deal comes along, especially if it doesn’t have a designated expiration date, folks often talk about whether the deal is “sustainable” or not. The general idea is
Unbonused spend outlook for 2017
Earlier this month I wrote about the BankAmericard Travel Rewards credit card and Bank of America Preferred Rewards Platinum Honors, and favorably compared that combination to so..