Disclaimer: I m not an attorney or accountant/CPA, and this is not legal or tax advice. Check anything I say here with your own attorney or tax advisor. There are currently nine community property states, and a few others*** that allow the creation of community property. In Washington state, where I live, married couples property earned Continue reading "Older married couples should strongly…
Now that you ve prepped for a 72 hour disaster with water, food, fuel, and meds, consider adding an emergency toilet. You don t want to be flushing all your clean drinking or cleaning water down the drain if the water supply is disrupted for an extended period of time. Dudes can pee outdoors (urine is mostly Continue reading "Make a simple composting toilet for $30"
If you give up your green card or US citizenship, you must pay an exit tax to do so. Read the source of this article for really great in-depth info on the subject: https://www.greenbacktaxservices.com/knowledge-center/exit-taxes-us [The exit tax involves] taxing the unrealized gains on [the person giving up their US personhood s] worldwide assets as if they Continue reading "United States Exit Tax…
Intro to options Strike aka Exercise Price The price at which you have the option but not the obligation to buy the stock at. If this price is BELOW the current fair market price at which you could sell the stock for, your options are in the money . If the current value is BELOW your Continue reading "Intro to employee stock options (ISO vs NSOs and taxation of each)"
If consolidating, choose the let my loan servicer pick my repayment plan option to get the lowest payment out of the four Federal student loan repayment programs. Your interest rate for direct Federal loans will just be the weighted average of your existing loans, which makes sense. Consolidating also ends your grace periods, FYI, so Continue reading "Student loan payoffs, consolidation, and…
If your kids go to a Seattle public high school, they can attend one of the Seattle Colleges tuition-free for the first two years of school. Tuition fees for years 3 and 4 if continuing on for a Bachelor s and not stopping at an Associate s degree are roughly $27,000/year* as of 2026. There are Continue reading "All Seattle public high school students can get the first 2 years of Seattle Colleges…
If you have small business income or other income that you haven t properly withheld taxes for, you need to make estimated tax payments to the IRS to avoid an underwithholding penalty at the end of the year. You are supposed to make these payments quarterly, by the 15th of the 3rd month of the quarter Continue reading "How to pay estimated Federal income taxes to the IRS via Direct Pay"
GRMS bands are fixed channels (frequencies) that can also be accessed via (unlicensed) handheld walkie-talkies (called the FRS , Family Radio System.) GRMS has it s own repeater (longer-range, for our purposes here) channels. Ham radio operators usually will have handsets, such as the Baofeng UV-5R+, that can access these frequencies as well, but you need to Continue reading "How to get your GRMS…
Warning: Last updated 3/26/2026: This information is preliminary and will be updated later as the IRS guidance on Trump Accounts develops. Starting around July 2026, Americans have another tax-advantaged savings account to take advantage of: Trump Accounts, known in the tax code as 530A accounts. If your child was born between 2025 2028, you Continue reading "How to open Trump Accounts (530A) for…
In general, your student should try to fund any education you can t pay for from 529s, income etc from the lowest interest rate loan available to the highest. The ordering below usually matches that, but make sure to compare each source of available financing. FAFSA student loans especially the subsidized ones which don t begin to Continue reading "How to pay for college with student loans: FAFSA…
DISCLAIMER: I am not an accountant or CPA, but here s what I understand about rental taxation. This is NOT tax advice, and you should run anything here by a tax accountant/CPA. There are three important property types of tax treatment out there for landlords and personal homeowners alike to know about. Section 1231 Business Continue reading "Real estate taxation guide for Personal and Rental home…
Disclaimer: I am not a tax preparer / CPA, and this is not tax advice. Check all of this yourself or with your accountant for your particular situation. This is only to illustrate the idea behind this method. If you did a Roth conversion in a year in which you also ended the year with Continue reading "How to get rid of after-tax basis in your Traditional IRA (aka isolating basis )"
Disclaimer: I m not an tax professional/accountant/CPA. This is just a description of how I, as a financial advisor, understand these tax rules to work. It is not tax advice. Consult your own accountant or do your own research before acting! Figuring out your cost basis on sold investments Generally, cost basis is the price you Continue reading "How to figure cost basis for investments"
Click Accounts Lists, then under Your Account , click Account . Scroll down to Manage your Data and hit Request Data : Then click Your Orders : Then check your email and click the link to get your list of orders: For some reason, this process takes days, not seconds like it should, but eventually you ll get your Continue reading "Learn how much you re spending at Amazon"
Everyone should know how to fix a flat tire. If you have an inflated spare, pop that on. If you don t, you MIGHT be able to patch the tire on the side of the road, or even fill it with fix a flat -style goo until you can get a proper repair. To do that, you Continue reading "The flat tire kit you should keep in your car"