taxes

Plant Spiral

Is there someone at the IRS who’s a math lover?

WARNING: This post contains math. I love math. You know this. I think math is one of our world’s ways of expressing beauty. To me, there are few things more pleasing to the eye than a elegant mathematical statement. (People … Read MoreRead More

Bracket

Don’t fear moving to a new tax bracket

Do you know your tax bracket? I’d say a good number of people do. But do you know what happens when you jump up to a new tax bracket? I’d say a good number of people do not. Tax season … Read MoreRead More

Monopoly house

Why the home mortgage interest deduction isn’t as disappointing as I thought

Often when I play board games, I enjoy the process of losing as much as winning. That’s why I love it when people comment on my posts pushing back against my arguments. I don’t consider myself an infallible expert in … Read MoreRead More

Man lying down

Just making sure: Mortgage interest isn’t a reason to hold on to a mortgage

WARNING: This post contains math. “When you have a mortgage, you get a tax deduction for all the mortgage interest you pay. So you shouldn’t pay down your mortgage early, because you’ll lose the tax deduction.” This is one of the … Read MoreRead More

Why the home mortgage interest deduction is a disappointment

UPDATE: I originally made a math error below, and have corrected it. Apologies. UPDATE #2: I have another take on this. “Oh you’ve got a mortgage now!” goes Conventional Wisdom. “Now your taxes will be lower because you’ll be able to … Read MoreRead More

Which is better, a tax credit or a tax deduction?

  WARNING: This post contains math. This is one of those posts that is a challenge to write. Since everyone is in different places and with different levels of financial literacy, I can’t expect everyone to have the same level … Read MoreRead More

Why I like the Roth IRA (though it’s not why people think)

  So I hope you’ve done your taxes for the year. I used a certain online program to do my taxes, and one of the questions asked was “Did you contribute to an IRA [Individual Retirement Arrangement] this year?” If … Read MoreRead More

Taxes, or the opposite of simplicity

  Each year for me, tax season goes pretty much the same way: I fire up one of the big online hosted tax programs, enter in my info, take the Standard Deduction, get something approximating zero dollars back (I try … Read MoreRead More

Why I pay tolls gladly

  I’ll admit it, I used to avoid tolls. I remember on drives from Philadelphia to points south, there was a toll booth at the Delaware/Maryland border that could be avoided by getting off at the prior exit, paralleling the … Read MoreRead More