Become a Patron! One of my favorite concepts to tell people about is "affordable luxuries," the things that barely make a dent in your bank account but immediately spark joy: cheap candles, nice towels, or a new filter in your refrigerator. There are times when spending a lot of money will make you a lot happier, and there are times when spending just a buck or two will make … [Read more...] about Cheap lessons
taxes
Education, advice, and evasion
Become a Patron! A few years ago I wrote about one of the curious fixations I observed among the wealthy denizens of the finance industry: the need for "personal finance" education. In this telling, the problems troubling American civilization are not the result of financial deregulation, or corporate consolidation, or employee misclassification, or wage theft, or race and … [Read more...] about Education, advice, and evasion
Five profitable things to do with low-interest loans
Become a Patron! I've written many times about my fondness for low-interest, and especially low-fee, balance transfer and cash advance credit cards, which allow consumers to borrow large — sometimes very large — sums of money for a fixed period of time and pay nothing to the bank if the loan is paid off by the end of the promotional period. This is a form of what I think … [Read more...] about Five profitable things to do with low-interest loans
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