Become a Patron! I got a nice response to my first post on personal finance during the plague so, as long as we're trapped inside together, I'll be sharing some more thoughts on what the pandemic means and how we can choose to respond to it. Over the past few months, a lot of people have stumbled into an uncomfortable truth: as Mindy Isser elegantly put it in Jacobin, … [Read more...] about After the plague: an economy of addition or subtraction?
Personal finance during the pandemic
Become a Patron! As you may have heard, the world is in the throes of a new, as-yet-untreatable, easily-communicable, fairly-deadly virus. I'm not going to tell you to wash your hands, stay home, maintain physical distance, etc. You already know that, unless you're a dedicated OANN viewer. Instead, I want to share a few suggestions about how I'm thinking about the pandemic … [Read more...] about Personal finance during the pandemic
The Danger Is Still Present In Your Time
Become a Patron! The other day I saw an amazing tweet by someone who had turned the famous "long-time nuclear waste warning message" into an iconic "Live Laugh Love"-style etched board: Every line is funny and poignant in its own way, but the one that keeps coming back to me is, "the danger is still present in your time," because this is the most important warning … [Read more...] about The Danger Is Still Present In Your Time
Three approaches to cutting federal bonds out of untaxed accounts
Become a Patron! Last month I wrote about the curious fact that mutual funds designed to be held in retirement accounts, where their distributions are generally untaxed year-to-year, nonetheless hold federal bonds that are exempt from state income taxation. I suggested that it should be possible to optimize your retirement account holdings by replacing those federal bonds … [Read more...] about Three approaches to cutting federal bonds out of untaxed accounts
Don’t pay for tax benefits you’re not using
Become a Patron! I had a very interesting conversation today that got me thinking about a tax issue I had never given serious thought to before, and which I think is probably totally unknown to most investors, but that affects virtually all of them: the exclusion of US federal interest payments from state income tax liability. Upon just a moment's reflection, I realized that … [Read more...] about Don’t pay for tax benefits you’re not using