I remember thinking of income taxes as this magic art that only my mother, with her copy of TurboTax, could figure out for me and my siblings. She would buy the software every year and then run our numbers through the program and figure out what we owed. Most years it was nothing or a small (under $50) refund. One year I made the mistake of letting a few venues pay me directly with checks for gigs that the band…
In a recent post from an online financial independence community someone was asking about how the federal EV (electric vehicle) tax credit works to “reduce the price” of new EVs. Officially known as the “Plug-In Electric Drive Vehicle Credit (IRC 30D)”, the way this works is that if you buy a new EV or PHEV (Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle) with a large enough rechargeable battery (over 5 kWh) from a qualified manufacturer, you are able to claim a $7,500 tax…
Back in early 2014 I got really into strength training and nutrition. My wife and I gave the South Beach Diet a try and it worked pretty well for the first few months. The more palpable gain of the experience was piquing my interest in various diets and nutrition beyond just simple calorie counting. This led me to looking up information about the Paleo diet, which brought me to this neat website called Nerd Fitness. Though I never dove into…
As I mentioned in our How We Plan on Reaching FI post, when we started to map out our journey to financial independence, we were basing our calculations of our “stash” as only the money available in our taxable brokerage accounts. This was probably the result of me discovering the prospect of FI through the blog of Mr. Money Mustache and being so feverish with excitement to consume all of the content that I glossed over the fact that we…
In our consumerist Western culture there are striking similarities between the problems that the average person faces regarding both health and personal finance. Thankfully though, the solution to both sets of problems involve the same two core principles – planning and discipline. The following is the shortest possible summary of my feelings on the fitness industry, nutrition, the diet industry, and the health of the average person in today’s America. There is nothing wrong / unhealthy with being a little…
I opened my first bank account at a small local bank as a junior in high school, primarily as a place to deposit paychecks from my first “official” job. I started religiously saving every receipt and at the end of the month I would write down every transaction by hand in the ledger. Later when I was working during college I closed this account and opened one with a more prominent bank with a debit card and access to ATMs….
