As my oldest approached 8 years old, I started to consider the idea of giving him an allowance. I did some research and found a wide range of approaches, all with various advantages and disadvantages. Some recommend tying an allowance to completion of chores, while others recommend a fixed allowance. Most recommend an amount based…
Unless you are much wealthier than me, you can’t literally give someone the gift of financial independence. But you can help set them on the path. To start, what do I mean by “Financial Independence”? There are many opinions about what this phrase means, but Wikipedia defines it as having enough income to pay one’s…
Tax gain harvesting is an interesting technique which I only recently learned about. It takes advantage of the 0% federal tax rate on long-term capital gains if your income is below $40,000 (individual) or $80,000 (married). Higher income earners typically pay 15%, but if your 2020 income was impacted by the pandemic you may have…
One of my regular podcasts, The Stacking Benjamins Show, just released their annual boardgame episode. If you’re looking for Holiday gifts, you might find some ideas in this episode (released 11/27/20). Joe, one of the hosts, is a boardgame junky and he discusses 10 boardgames with three other boardgame junkies. Five of them are somewhat…
This Thanksgiving try to remember we live in an amazing world; a world with opportunities unimaginable even a couple generations ago. Despite all the turmoil of 2020, we still have much to be thankful for. However, many of us choose not to see it and instead focus on the negative. I do not want to…
I often wonder what people hope to achieve when they insult their political opponents. I’m not talking about politicians, I’m talking about regular people who insult other regular people because they hold a particular position or support a particular candidate. You’re not going to bring someone over to your side or convince them they are…
The primary reason I started this blog was to get ideas out of my head and into the world. In my head I have solved many of the world’s problems (or so I think), but rarely do these ideas go anywhere. Instead I spend seemingly endless hours obsessing over these ideas as I repeatedly revisit…
Yes, you heard me right. The best thing Trump can do for America is continue to fight the election results all the way to the Supreme Court. Many would argue there is no path to victory and Trump should concede now. While I agree there is virtually no chance Trump’s fight will result in victory,…
Election Day has come and gone and it’s still possible Mike Pence could send himself to the White House. As many of us expected, it’s Wednesday morning and we still don’t know the final outcome of the election. Trump and Biden both have a realistic path to victory and there is a very realistic possibility…
My first three posts explored a possible, though admittedly unlikely, scenario resulting from a tie in the Electoral College. But even if the results on election day indicate a tie, there is a possibility a faithless elector could tip the scales or even provide a third option. While it is possible an elector could throw…