Taxes

Over the years, I’ve been given a couple of simple but profound pieces of financial advice. A man I looked up to told me that tax loopholes are illegal, but if something is in the IRS code it’s there to be used and if it applies to me… use...

It’s only taken Congress 34 years, but the threshold for claiming a medical expense deduction has finally been made permanent. For 2021 and forevermore, medical expenses above 7.5% of Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) is the law of the land if you itemize on your federal tax return and your...

Let’s update some two-thousand-year-old tax advice—Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but don’t give him more than that. Today, tax deductions and credits help determine how much Caesar gets. As an old guy told me a long time ago, “If it’s in the IRS code, it’s there to...

Hey! It’s just an IRA. What is there to know? You put money in and it’s a tax deduction, you get to take it out after 59 ½ without paying a penalty, and at 72 the IRS makes you take some out. What else could there be? In reality, there’s...

Identity theft is one of the major plagues of modern society costing its victims billions of dollars and untold man hours to recover from it. In 2020, 1.4 million Americans were successfully attacked, which translates into a victim every 3 seconds.  That’s more than double the number from the...

In 1983, the United States changed the rules of engagement when it unveiled the first Stealth Aircraft—the F-117 Nighthawk. The goal was to make a plane that was undetectable to the enemy. The new design didn’t make it completely invisible to radar, but it made detection much more difficult. It’s...

It’s one of the most obscure taxes in the IRS code, but it can be one of the most devastating at a time when you can least afford it. It’s called the Widow’s Penalty Tax—a stealth tax you never see coming—that can cause a widow or widower to struggle...

Like most people, I don’t want to pay more taxes than necessary. That common-sense approach to money began when I got my first job at the age of 13. I was paid $1.50/hour, slightly above the $1.30 minimum wage. I calculated exactly how much my first paycheck would be....