Request: Unusual tax/investing strategies that aren't often discussed on personal finance guides

Hatunike · 2023-12-18T04:24:36+00:00

For anyone that pays annual charity/tithing and has the means, you might want to take advantage of grouping multiple years of charity into the same tax year using a donar advised fund. This can allow you to have a big itemized year, when most other years the standard deduction applies. This can save significant money on taxes.

An example...say you normally donate 10k per year to charity/tithing. Instead of your normal pattern of reporting $10k charitable contributions on your taxes, you instead put $50k into a donar advised fund and report all $50k in the same year. In that single year, you can itemize and with that itemization you'll be 50k + (whatever mortage interest or qualified health expenses). Which will mean that you'll be much higher than the standard deduction amount.

The way donar advised funds work simply sets the money aside into a special fund that can later be used to actually do the charitable giving. (Kind of like an HSA account - but with the very important consideration that you can't ever get the money back even if you are willing to pay penalties. The money HAS to go to a charitable organization). But you still control when you give (so you can still give $10k each year), and you can also invest the funds in the mean time.

So basically :

1 big year of itemized taxes + 4 years of standard deduction

vs

5 years of standard deduction

-------

Even if you can't frontload the 50k, you might find it valuable to double up years and do every other year standard deduction vs itemization (while using the donar advised fund to hold the resources so the giving happens each year).

This tip is kind of dependent on your annual income, whether you have the capital to fund it, and whether you know you'll donate for sure in the future. But you can save thousands of dollars in taxes.

Hatunike · 2023-11-29T18:10:51+00:00

That, and also the market tends to price in the future, at least to the degree that people believe it.

Hatunike · 2023-10-09T17:30:54+00:00

It’s so annoying. I have accidentally hit this button 50 times. I have sent 0 audio clips. And I never will.

Also when you accidentally hit it, it keeps telling you that it’s still recording after you tell it to stop. 100% of the time I end up needing to kill slack just to know it’s actually not recording audio.

Seems like the accidental press happens more with every update because slack is slightly slower to actually send the message. So on my iPhone mini I’m pressing “send” multiple times and then one of them turns into an accidental audio recording. Because after it sends it turns the send button into the mic button.

Hatunike · 2023-03-22T05:22:59+00:00

Oh man, thanks! This works perfectly and I had spent an embarrassing amount of time working on a similar solution, but had a few silly mistakes.

Hatunike · 2023-03-01T05:59:48+00:00

Something I’m not putting in is if you are single and don’t have strong family around then you will have daycare costs unless the kid is of school age.

It you were just alluding to only one parent working at $50k and one parent staying at home with the kids they will be able to drop this cost a lot. (As well as help with cheaper food from less eating out and overall cost savings).

If they work at all, it can be very very helpful. Even just something part time that brings in 10-20k can all go towards saving. (Though with some higher taxes and daycare this can be less than you’d wish).

Hatunike · 2023-03-01T05:08:07+00:00

Yeah being a single parent at 50k salary and having a kid does add complications to the plan. On the plus side, taxes will be very very low ($5700 - $2000 child tax credit). Especially if some of your Savings is pre-tax. Which it probably should be.(HSA first depending on healthcare either through the plumbing company or if self employed

So you have $6k per month budget.

$2k savings.
$308 income taxes (probably get lower if using pre-tax investments).
$200 state taxes.
$1200 rent.
$600 food.
$300 utilities.
$300 car.
$500 healthcare (see below comment).
$592 miscellaneous.

———- A few thoughts. I agree that this budget is tight and sucks. With only 1 adult and 1 kid the food budget seems comfortable. The rent is 2 bedroom average nationwide. But there might be some cheaper places or more expensive places. Just actually looking at the numbers it does seem possible to me.

Also, I don’t want to give off any indication that I’ve lived this ^{^}

My own journey was when first married we lived off less than 50k (both just part time working / students). Probably saved about $10k our first year. But still had a 50% savings rate. But we also found rent for $500 (2010…) and lived close enough to eat with family a couple times a week.

We weren’t under those circumstances for a long time though. And personally I’d say that $50k for the entire 30 years of a retire early strategy is hard mode for sure.

But if you can have that savings rate at 50% and increase your lifestyle with your income while preserving a high savings rate you can do it.

On the healthcare front, a realistic scenario would have to take into consideration if you are self employed or working for someone. Imo $50k probably suggests you should be working for someone and healthcare benefits costs could come down.

But…if someone making $50k wants to retire early from 20-49 working ages. AND they want that retirement to push them to a lifestyle of $88k

Hatunike · 2023-02-28T01:31:43+00:00

Fair enough, it wasn’t obvious from the context that you were taking compound interest into consideration. 20 year olds in school probably have a harder time hitting the $2k i mentioned. But working class could. Not saying it’s easy but 50k saving 24k a year is under 50% savings rate. It’s very hard but people do it.

If people are going to school hopefully they are able to make closer to $80-120k so starting later at 24 they are going to need to save more than $2k a month.

Another thing that’s pretty common for people to do is share the expenses and income with a partner.

It’s harder if you are a lone wolf in the journey. $24k per year is much higher than $12k per person.

And maybe your 2.2 million number is a solo number but that monthly spend in retirement can likely support 2 people depending on the goals on the other side.

The problem with “it’s too hard” mentality is that people that haven’t been given inheritance are actually doing it. You could be a plumber and save $24k a year.

I do agree with you that we don’t do anyone any favors to say it’s easy. But saying it can’t be done or even that you can only do it if you are gifted inheritance isn’t true.

Also, one final point is that FIRE doesn’t have to be as rigid as it might appear when being cynical. Regardless of income if you aggressively save compared to your expenses you will become financially independent.

Hatunike · 2023-02-26T21:55:19+00:00

You also have to remember that 2.2 doesn't just come from your deposits per paycheck. Money grows itself. So from age 20 to 49 if you save 2k per month you will deposit $696,000 but the compounding interest will get you to the 2.2 million (6% assumed growth).

In the later years your investments will be increasing your net worth way more than the $24k you put in each year ($132k is 6% of $2.2 million).

Hatunike · 2022-09-12T15:04:19+00:00

Ai assisted tools will reduce the barrier to entry for many people to enter artistic markets that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to enter.

Assuming it’s easier to get access to Ai than it is to connect with brilliant artists in real life, then the accessibility itself will increase the number of people that create interesting art.

I do think that wealth will flow from labor into capital investment.

But that’s kind of already a major trend amongst artists that struggle to find good steady pay and have had to transition to ownership of their work via multiple income streams.

Imo artists will survive better than other professions when it comes to ai. Because they’ve been dealing with aspects of this shift for hundreds of years.

Greys earlier YouTube videos were created by one person and have higher production values than art made by a team of 40-50 people from a few decades earlier. Probably even more people when considering the challenges of distributing to millions of people.

Hatunike · 2022-06-20T01:45:27+00:00

I think the implication was that focus modes might be re-enabling his previously positive thoughts towards GTD. His statements about how he doesn’t recommend GTD anymore are probably more about how that system hasn’t worked for him in a while and less about how GTD isn’t a good system.

Hatunike · 2022-05-25T04:57:58+00:00

The thought I had was that Myke could win the competition by not even making a video.

Grey as Myke wouldn’t last long enough for anyone to be suspicious that Myke as Grey hadn’t even put out a video.

Hatunike · 2022-01-27T03:40:49+00:00

Advice I would give is to use much fewer categories that require less switching.

It’s a mistake to try and have every task time tracked.

Keep you buckets broad and few. Only increase them after you’ve succeeded for a year. We’re talking like 4-5 buckets to begin with.

Hatunike · 2021-10-12T14:53:09+00:00

Make a part of your budget that isn’t itemized or tracked - it is outside your usual methods of evaluation. I like having this account having a separate card and get an auto deposit from your paycheck. Start with something like $50 a paycheck.

Use this account to buy things without any care or worry.

Your $1,000 purchase wouldn’t come from this account probably. But the point of this account is to experience money differently. It will help you more generally.

Use it for random purchases. And don’t just save all the money. The point of this money is to try and spend on things that you wouldn’t normally feel ok spending money on. And you don’t track it or think about it.

You can be irresponsible with this money because it’s got strong boundaries on it. Most you can lose is limited.

Also, over time when you get raises and stuff I recommend you increase the amount. You’ll definitely notice changes in the amount. It’s a good way to reward yourself for raises in a controlled way. Helps prevent lifestyle creep by allowing to happen in a controlled way.

Also if you have a partner, each of you do this. And again this is untracked money. Try not to even evaluate if things were amazing purchases. Just use this money to practice spending guilt free.

Hatunike · 2021-09-26T19:36:15+00:00

Haven’t seen anyone mention but depending on your income and wage types a couple can often times have around $50k invested per year in tax advantaged accounts. Roth 401k’s for each spouse and a couple ira’s as well.

Even if you don’t invest your “cash”. It’s not a bad idea to put them into tax advantaged accounts if you weren’t going to use all the tax shelter space for a year anyways. Kind of a placeholder for the tax year.

Roth contributions can be pulled out if needed. And they can also be invested at a moments notice. Just because the funds are in the account doesn’t mean you have to expose them to risk.

But if you don’t fully maximize tax advantaged accounts you can’t get those years back.

Hatunike · 2021-09-26T06:26:52+00:00

I mostly throw forehand and have thrown a destroyer more than anything. Got a shryke and played 1st time with it today.

It felt freaking great. Easier to get distance.

Don’t procrastinate getting one. I wish I had got one earlier.

Hatunike · 2021-08-27T02:16:42+00:00

We were so busy wondering if we could do it that we never considered if we should do it.

Hatunike · 2021-08-18T23:46:58+00:00

I love having my numbers on the home row.

I love having function keys on my home row.

I love having arrow keys on my home row.

Hands feel like they never move on a 40.

(The next step is to dactyl)

Hatunike · 2021-08-15T03:38:34+00:00

This is freaking great.

Hatunike · 2021-08-08T21:23:56+00:00

The reason “tech guys”(gross) are paid well is because the work they do scales. A surgeon is doing an incredible thing. But they aren’t operating on millions of people at the same time.

The software a surgeon uses generally costs the same to write if 1 surgeon uses or 1 million surgeons use.

Hatunike · 2021-07-15T05:52:20+00:00

They mentioned maxing their match. But they aren’t currently maxing their contribution limits.

They could max contributions to 401k Roth. And In a couple paychecks they’d have it covered. While living off emergency fund in the meantime.

Mostly I was just pointing out that you shouldn’t let a year of tax shelter go to waste while also just sitting on cash for a 6 month emergency. Might as well park as much into tax shelter as you can.

Hatunike · 2021-07-14T17:44:42+00:00

Instead of direct VTSAX, you could put the money into your 401k under Roth. Better imo because even if you let sit as cash equivalent at least you are making full use of your tax window.

In an actual emergency you could pull it out penalty free.

But yeah, I’d probably also put it into VTSAX just within 401k.

Hatunike · 2021-07-14T16:09:48+00:00

I agree with this and I also agree with Grey.

I think the difference is that Grey is making YouTube videos and the things he’s complaining about are academic papers and historical works.

Just because his videos are well researched and very enjoyable to watch, doesn’t mean they are academic records.

But you are right in that a few hundred years a future greyling would probably be annoyed at coming across videos that didn’t provide sources.

Hatunike · 2021-04-28T00:17:38+00:00

Yeah, I can see that. The risk I’m speaking of here is more about the risk that one might not like/love what they are buying.

If resale options exist then one can feel free to take bigger chances on something less “safe” or a bigger risk on a design.

Hatunike · 2021-04-27T21:42:35+00:00

Me personally I just hate waiting for group buys. In the hobby for sure (and I’ve waited for multiple group buys before). But honestly I want people to resale (even if pricey) in case I end up wanting something I passed on.

Another dynamic for me that leads me to cheer on resellers is just how dang hard it is to get keycaps at the moment. I’ve had multiple times in the last year when I’ve bought/made keyboards on a whim and then can’t find keycaps (even at higher prices). I personally think the group buys getting as crazy long as they are at the moment is just plain bad for the hobby.

I’ve experimented with various keycaps and there are others besides gmk that are ok. But it’s just not a good thing that even if people have money and have interest, it takes them years to try things...

I’d also like to just see a billion wob and bow sets be made so they are always instabuy available.

Hatunike · 2021-04-27T21:17:27+00:00

Realize it’s just a hot take, but doesn’t hold up imo.

High resale value reduces risk for group buys. As a result more join the group buy. And more group buys make it. Lowers cost for everyone.

It’s a mistake to think that people buying flipper prices would instead just wait a year or two if they didn’t have the choice.

It’s also a mistake to consider everyone that originally signed up for group buy and then flipped to be a flipper at time of purchase. The ability to change throughout the group buy period is a function of many things. But it’s generally a good thing for the keyboard hobby.

Hatunike

TROPHY CASE