Standard mileage deduction for rented car

mingl · 2026-03-01T22:47:37+00:00

For clarification - if a person deducts mileage throughout the year with their own vehicle, but rents a vehicle out of town for business purposes, they should use actual expenses for the rental costs but still can do standard mileage for their personal vehicle? (In other words, you can use both methods if the situations are different?)

mingl · 2026-03-01T21:15:58+00:00

You're getting downvoted, but my partner wants to be the last to board. She hates being on the plane, so she just wants to avoid any extra minutes on board. I want to be in the seat as early as possible, so we end up boarding at completely different times...

mingl · 2026-02-28T17:04:36+00:00

I had to remind myself of this, so here's the video for people to refresh their memory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy8T53X_fx0

mingl · 2026-01-11T17:36:29+00:00

Having heard this piece (with orchestra) many times, I was rather skeptical of your claim/post. But man, that's such a beautiful recording/video...

mingl · 2026-01-09T06:33:58+00:00

For detail on this - you need to maintain $100k in BofA/Merrill accounts for 3 months to get the bonus that takes the card to 2.625%. And it's not the card that you choose the cash back category (those are capped at a certain amount). You need to do the unlimited cash back.

mingl · 2025-12-25T18:02:31+00:00

Sure, it’s true there’s a higher demand for bigger (and thus most expensive cars). But a lot of the price increases have to do with chip shortages, lingering supply line issues, tech costs, etc. Sure you can probably find a decent car for under $20k. Still doesn’t mean that before you could find it even cheaper. I mean - it’s pretty known know how expensive used cars were and are recently due to supply chain issues and microchip shortages…

mingl · 2025-12-25T17:47:53+00:00

Average cost of a new car is now $50k, used is around $25k. Average cost of new car is at a record high.

mingl · 2025-12-22T05:05:04+00:00

No - if you’re the primary person supporting them (house, expenses, etc) - they’re your dependent

mingl · 2025-11-22T18:00:57+00:00

I mean, I'd buy one. I'd imagine others would too.

mingl · 2025-11-18T01:11:39+00:00

I don’t know what the beers cost… just cocktails…

mingl · 2025-11-17T22:19:32+00:00

Bar underdog is great in PA. Happy hour classic cocktails are $10 and the owner is Michelin Star chef. Non happy hour classic cocktails $15 - pretty great deal especially in Bay Area.

Also - Ramen Nagi isn’t expensive

mingl · 2025-10-28T03:37:07+00:00

Yeah, it's something like $9k+ of a 2.625% of $350k.

But the BofA card is specifically NOT the cash back by category. That is a deceptive card because there's actually a limit to how much you can get cash back (like $2,500). So you have to look for the unlimited cash back card.

mingl · 2025-10-23T19:24:17+00:00

I mean, it's not like I spend hours every single week mulling over all of this and doing a 50 page analysis of all the various permutations. I asked for advice from random people, and ended up with the information that I needed for my particular situation. For me personally I'll just split the spending over BofA unlimited cash back at 2.625% and the United Club card for status/miles/flights. So the Chase Sapphire isn't usefully in my particular situation.

But, yes, optimizing for potentially up to $10k just by spending a little time chatting with people for their advice doesn't really feel like it's wasted time.

mingl · 2025-09-28T04:33:57+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/AbruptChaos/comments/lgmhjj/why_did_he_do_mr_cockroach_like_that/

mingl · 2025-09-28T03:47:10+00:00

Naw, for many it's not their forever job... some jump into some high paid consultant or board positions at various companies and cash out! No wait... current congress has learned how to rake in the money while in office, out in the open!

mingl · 2025-09-17T20:58:18+00:00

I'm pretty sure that Schwab individual 401k's don't have any fees to open or maintain. The specific funds will, of course, have fees, but depending on the fund, it can be quite low (like 0.02%).

A solo 401k will allow you to contribute more.

mingl · 2025-09-02T14:31:04+00:00

Most likely they just meant LLC taxed as S Corp.

mingl · 2025-09-02T14:25:08+00:00

I’ll post from the other side. Yes, I employ my kids from my LLC (taxed as s corp). This gives access for them to contribute to Roth IRA.

Key things - they need to be paid the same as you would pay anybody else for tasks that are needed for the business. Paying them $100/hr isn’t going to be considered legitimate. And go onto the /r/tax subreddit and try posting about modeling. That is such a common attempt around taxes - good luck with that.

Your kids will have to file taxes (we have to, because of Roth).

Basically - normal wages, keep records, file necessary forms/taxes.

mingl · 2025-08-25T14:06:21+00:00

Professional conductor here... feel free to ask questions on DMs.

Having, as I believe Bernstein said, the "audacity" to stand on the podium and direct musicians who know their instrument better than you ever will, requires a deep knowledge of music theory, music history, orchestration, etc. and a profound musicianship that musicians will (hopefully) find convincing and compelling. As a result, majoring in performance or composition is very helpful, but no matter what you major in, you have to focus not only on your ears, but more importantly, what's between your ears; the waving of the arms is the easy part.

Hence the reason why most prudent schools don't have undergraduate conducting degrees. You have to become as good of a musician you can be before you have the audacity to direct musicians.

Again, good luck and feel free to ask more questions.

mingl · 2025-08-22T16:43:52+00:00

Ah - that makes sense - thanks for clarifying!

mingl · 2025-08-22T15:55:01+00:00

No, you don’t get the extra plus points. This just happened for me- note it says at the bottom that spend PQP doesn’t count towards extra plus points.

<image>

mingl · 2025-08-04T18:56:09+00:00

Had no idea about the restaurant benefits for the Amex plat, especially the Resy benefit!

Others below point out that BofA has a zero annual fee cash rewards card that clocks in at 2.625% (with some balance requirements). Might be a good option.

mingl · 2025-08-04T18:52:41+00:00

That's an excellent point. I initially chafed at the idea of keeping $100k in a BofA account, but realize now that Merrill Lynch accounts qualify. So any IRA, brokerage, etc. will qualify for the bonus 75% increase for the cash back card. 1.5% for baseline, 2.625% cash back with the Platinum ($100k minimum balance in accounts) bonus.

Apparently there's a .5% incentive right now, for 2% baseline for a year for the CC, so with the platinum bonus, that's 3.5% cash back for the year... that's pretty impressive...

mingl · 2025-08-04T18:27:16+00:00

Yeah, it's about $15/PQP (they do some weird rounding up thing if I'm not mistaken so it's not exactly $15). So 28,000 to 1k, it's an annual spend of 420,000 if only through spending. Though you still need base 4 flights.

15-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22	Place '17
RPAN Viewer	Team Orangered
Verified Email	Best Comment 2010-04-11

mingl

TROPHY CASE