Just a quick post today to highlight what could be the biggest change for the finances of retired people in a generation … eliminating Federal income taxes on Social Security. After seemingly not mentioning it since the election, Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters yesterday that it is a key part of the budget negotiations that GOP leaders in the House, Senate, and White House … Continue reading No Tax on Social Security?
The news has been full of economic policy proposals from our two major candidates. I’ll tell you that I’ve been reading them with interest, but cannot make sense out of either of them. They are both promising big economic windfalls to their favored protected classes and paying very little attention to the country’s current $35T debt (123% of GDP, up from just 56% in 2000). … Continue reading Confusing Candidates
Well, today is Income Tax Day 2024. We came home from snowbirding three weeks ago and rushed to get our paperwork to the accountant so that they could get the forms properly filled out by 4/15 this year. We successfully filed them on Saturday. We didn’t pay much in taxes for 2023 as we usually do, since we mostly lived off cash we had in … Continue reading Income Tax Day 2024
We had quite the “to-do” list when we got back to Minnesota from our Winter Summerland adventures in Florida last month. We don’t usually keep a list, but we had an unusual number of important things to get done. We got our bills paid (a few a bit late), helped our son move into the new townhouse, helped my father-in-law with estate documents, decluttered/organized a … Continue reading To-Do’s and Taxes
We didn’t cash in any stock or appreciated assets in 2021, which kept our income pretty low. We just had some dividend income and I earned some pay from board work. Mostly, we just lived off of savings. Our accountant pointed out that married couples with income less than $80K pay 0% long-term capital gains tax. I hadn’t paid attention to that before, so we … Continue reading Capital Gains Wrinkle
During the Democratic National Convention two weeks ago, news slipped out that Joe Biden was developing a new tax plan that would rollback benefits for 401K plans. He even had his Economic Advisor speak to it at a panel event at the convention. Like many ‘progressive’ initiatives, this one involves reducing or eliminating 401K tax benefits from higher income households and transferring that benefit to … Continue reading Keeping Up With Election Proposals – Taxing 401Ks
After seeing the details of Biden’s big tax increase proposal and reading that there is a legitimate chance that Democrats will win the White House and both houses of Congress this November, I figured it would be a good time to accelerate some MegaCorp stock option sales that I could otherwise stretch out to July 2022. I made my big stock move of the decade … Continue reading Cashing In Before The Election
On Sunday’s CBS 60 Minutes, they reported that 82% of likely voters are more disgusted than excited for the election. Regardless of your politics, neither candidate gets high marks for trustworthiness and there is a lack of confidence that the country is heading in the right direction. On this day before Election Day, I thought I would comment on the four key things that will … Continue reading What The New President and Congress Need To Address
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