Financial Update

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

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

Another month, another update. A few random comments. Thanks to aggressive tax sheltering in 2016, we’re getting a $8k refund in a few weeks. I filed taxes for free using Turbotax’s Freedom edition (turbotax.intuit.com/taxfreedom/), which is available to those with low incomes who qualify for EITC, etc. What’s nice about this edition is that it … Read more

Another month, another update. Some random thoughts this month. The humbling mathematics of retirement savings. The mathematics of retirement are daunting. In order to retire, you can only withdraw 3-4% of your investments annually. This is known as the safe withdrawal rate. 3% is a more conservative number. 4% is less so. Good discussions on … Read more

Another month, another update. A few anomalous expenditures for November 2016 to point out: $1k for new tires & brakes for car. Cars are expensive. I didn’t fully appreciate it until tracking my spending on this blog. $1k for home gym. I convinced my wife to cancel our YMCA membership ($80/mo) as a result. Break … Read more