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Should you Front-Load your HSA Contributions?
If your employer allows it, should you front-load your HSA contributions to the maximum HSA contribution levels at the beginning of the year? To answer that, let’s first review what I wrote on whether...
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Safe Withdrawal Rate: how to Calculate how Much you Need to Retire
I’m excited to finally unleash my Safe Withdrawal Rate post as I believe it can be life changing, when used properly. Note that the safe withdrawal rate concept and its application, while awesome, are...
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Retirement Number Predictions Gone Wrong have Consequences
As outlined in my recent Safe Withdrawal Rate post, answering the “How much do I need to retire?” question is critically important for anyone who wants to retire some day. An analytical, numbers based...
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The IRA Contribution Deadline for a Calendar Year is the Tax Deadline
Here’s a personal finance 101 must-know special: the deadline for IRA contributions for a calendar year is the tax deadline for that year. And you can even set up and fund an IRA, for a calendar year,...
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Should you Pay Off your Mortgage Early? I did. Here’s why.
A few years ago, my wife and I paid off our mortgage early. This is the first we’ve broadly shared it. We purchased our home for $185K and made a 25% down payment (effectively allowing us to avoid...
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The HSA Contribution Deadline is at the Tax Deadline Too (with Caveats)
The HSA Contribution Deadline As a follow-up to my IRA contribution deadline post, I wanted to make sure that everyone also knows that the HSA contribution deadline for a calendar year is also at the...
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Trumpcare Fails. ACA Survives. Single-Payer Next?
The health care industry is almost one-fifth of the American economy, and massively restructuring it impacts all of us financially in a huge way. So, I felt it necessary to assess the failure of the...
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How to Optimize, Improve, & Get the Most Out of your Crappy 401K
401K’s “suck”. But only in comparison to what they’ve replaced. And given that they are the standard today, you would be wise to make the most of your 401K, despite suggestions to the contrary. I’ll do...
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Should you Make SEP IRA Contributions as an Employer or Individual?
If you have self-employment income, SEP IRA’s are a great vehicle for turbo-charging your retirement savings while simultaneously reducing your tax obligation. The only downside to SEP IRA’s is that...
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How to File an IRS Tax Extension
When the tax deadline arrives, if you do not file a return on time, it will result in a tax penalty. You can, however, file an IRS tax extension to avoid a late filing penalty, and it’s a whole lot...
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The Role of Luck in Financial Success
Let’s delve into some philosophy, shall we? Have you ever met a very financially successful individual (i.e. a business owner, CEO, or celebrity) and been absolutely dumbfounded as to just how in the...
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Airline Bumping: Your Rights & Compensation Opportunities on Overbooked Flights
The recent “Bumpgate” incident (I prefer “Drag-gate”) from United, in my mind, is not too dissimilar from the situations that have led to Comcast and Epipen (among others) taking advantage of their...
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Trumpcare: Tax Cuts to the Wealthy in Exchange for American Lives
Saddle up, here we go. Let’s cut right to it – the AHCA (aka “Trumpcare”) legislation that Paul Ryan and House Republicans passed last week, at its core, trades the lives of Americans for tax cuts to...
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Conformity & Personal Finance
Conformity can take you a long ways in many areas of your life. That is why we all participate in it – consciously or not. Even if we take pride in our uniqueness, it’s nearly impossible to avoid being...
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Maximum HSA Contributions for 2017 & 2018
The IRS recently published an inflation adjustment increase to the maximum HSA contribution for 2018, and there will be in increase over the maximum HSA contribution for 2017 (also highlighted in this...
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Ally Invest Review (Post TradeKing Migration)
A few years ago, I moved a Traditional and Roth IRA account from ETrade to Ally Invest (formerly known as “TradeKing” at the time, prior to being acquired by Ally Bank). I had long been a fan of...
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The Law of Diminishing Returns & Personal Finance
As human beings, we have the intellectual capacity to recognize that having certain things in our lives can add function, safety, entertainment, comfort, and even happiness at times. For example:...
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Double-Check your Pay Raise! (& Other Automation & Payroll Errors)
As a unionized nurse, Mrs. 20SF has the benefit of receiving scheduled pay raises with each year of additional service. This is especially wonderful in years when inflation and wage increases are...
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What Makes a Country Great? And How Can We Make Ours Better?
In honor of Independence Day and the patriotism that we all feel towards our country, let’s veer off the personal finance path for a moment. For starters, if you have read the Declaration of...
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Cut your Grocery Bill with a Grocery Price List Spreadsheet
Aside from housing, my largest expense category, by far, is groceries. This is partly because I’ve cut everything else to minimalist levels, partly because I have expensive/healthy tastes, and partly...
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