A blog about things I find useful
frugalprofessor A reader asked if I could make my financial update spreadsheet publicly available. Why not? It’s downloadable here: (link). How I update this every month in 5 minutes using Personal Capital: Extract balance sheet info from PC by carefully selecting relevant numbers, as shown below. Copy (paste special as values) into Sheet 2 at cell … Read more
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches I listened to an interesting podcast on strategies to pay for college (link). Cliff notes version: get kids to take ownership of college costs + get them to apply for grants/scholarships. Random thoughts from me: A more expensive college won’t necessarily lead to better life outcomes, … Read more
Investing/Tax Disclaimers This site is for entertainment purposes only. Nothing I write here or in the comments can be considered advice or guidance for investment decisions or, for that matter, any other decisions. For professional advice, you should always consult an investment advisor (who will charge you a >1% AUM fee) and/or accountant (who will … Read more
Tomorrow, you’ll find my EITC-hacking guest post on GoCurryCracker’s website (link). It’s quite an honor to write a guest post on my favorite blogger’s website. Thanks Jeremy! To the curious CrackerHead arriving to this website, welcome! To me, the great irony of personal finance is that there isn’t really much to say about it. You … Read more
Another month, another update. A few random comments. The first half of property taxes were due in March. $3,500 down the drain. I will not retire in this state. By paying property taxes directly out of pocket we make approximately $150 in interest per year. Not earth shattering, but a small benefit to paying ourselves … Read more
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Tax refund finally came through. I denoted this as “other income”. As expected, EITC hacking / tax optimization proved to be wildly profitable this year. All low/middle income families with several kids should be doing this. I’ve drafted a guest post on the topic on GoCurryCracker which will … Read more