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 perfectly true observation that up to $3,000 in capital losses can be deducted from ordinary income each year, and it's one of the biggest selling points of "robo advisors," the automated investing … [Read more...] about You can pay someone to harvest capital losses for you, but why would you?
Archives for February 2017
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 encourage retirement savings. With respect to the first axiom, we're treated to serious-looking charts about the "retirement savings gap" and told how few people are taking advantage of … [Read more...] about Why should retirement savings be financed out of current income?
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 people describe a private company raising capital, for example describing Uber as "worth" $62.5 billion. These valuations are arrived at by comparing the price paid to the share of the … [Read more...] about Market capitalization doesn’t matter because share prices don’t matter
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 and that it's their duty to be employed by somebody else. On the one hand, I'm not in the business of judging other people's priorities. On the other hand, the obsession with "employment," with laboring … [Read more...] about Free Business Idea: Mailstream, Your Home Away From Home
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 to the fact that in passing I mentioned the benefits of the income-based repayment option for loans made directly by the federal government, claiming that an education paid for with such loans … [Read more...] about The boring reason you might take out student loans while getting a free education