About a year or so ago I noticed a cliche spreading among a certain set of prominent investors and money managers: that a key obstacle to success among young people today is a lack of personal finance erudition. Today's entry in the genre came from Ben Carlson at Ritholtz Wealth Management, who wrote: "I wish high schools and colleges would teach personal finance. They could … [Read more...] about So-called “personal finance education” is a distraction
Marco Rubio wants to end retirement security for you and everyone you know and love
It's often pointed out that Americans are the only people in the developed world who don't have access to guaranteed paid leave from their jobs to care for themselves and their families. But that's not exactly right: while we don't have a nationwide paid family leave program, lots of people in America do have access to paid family leave. According to the National … [Read more...] about Marco Rubio wants to end retirement security for you and everyone you know and love
Why I like tax-free internal compounding, and why you might (and might not)
Last month I wrote about a range of available non-retirement investment accounts and broke down some advantages and disadvantages of each. When it came to 529 college savings accounts, reader flyernick had some objections to my math: "On one hand, you’re arguing that at withdrawal, you get to exempt $12000 in gains because of the std. deduction. Then you compare that, 'In a … [Read more...] about Why I like tax-free internal compounding, and why you might (and might not)
Differences between non-retirement investment options
If you're in the right mood, there's something a little bit depressing about the subject of investing: how boring it is. An easy way to think about this is that if you make the maximum contribution to a 401(k) and IRA every year, for 20 years, at the end of that 20 years, you'll be rich. How rich you'll be depends on a lot of factors, but the fact you'll be rich doesn't depend … [Read more...] about Differences between non-retirement investment options
The rhetorical confusion between the administrative and regulatory states
On the occasion of a new Federalist Society nominee to the Supreme Court, I thought it'd be worth explaining a set of issues that are going to repeatedly come before the Court in the coming decades, and explain a confusing set of terms that arises from those issues. The "Administrative" Procedure Act is about regulation, not administration The Administrative Procedure Act … [Read more...] about The rhetorical confusion between the administrative and regulatory states