I have asked on Twitter for some ideas on the writing I do about personal finance. I am going to ask you again here so I can keep all feedback in one place. Here it goes:
I am looking to write about personal finance topics that can be covered by at least 300 to (preferably) up to 500 words. Audience does NOT live paycheck to paycheck, think Wall Street Journal reader types. I am running out of ideas as the same topics have been covered so much and I like to be, you know, somewhat original in things I do and write about.
I will REALLY appreciate ANY ideas you may have. Be selfish and mention a topic you have been thinking about yourself. Aim is to educate as I leave the entertain part here at TBB 🙂
Excuse the diversion here but I am trying to turn this baby into a sustainable operation so I can keep “letting it all out” following therapist’s orders! Or would you prefer to me do a post with a headline like this? “Lost all your British Airways Avios? Get 50,000 more now, last chance!!!”. Lol.
Fell asleep at halftime of the Michigan State NCAA game, boo! I may live in Ann Arbor Wolverine country but always liked MSU. That Izzo dude is a genius!
Thank you for taking the time to comment and for reading.
Have a great weekend!
TBB
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First!
How about an outline of ways to minimize taxes (including income) when your estate might include significant amounts in an IRA?
How about a recap on airlines’ policies on transferring/losing miles on death? Are there any credit cards that let you transfer miles in your will (link)?
Hold on-that’s it, Buzz. Start writing those WSJ pieces like bowtie writes his blog. Get ten or twenty card links in each piece you write. What’s the WSJ readership-3 or 4 million? You’ll be in the big green by lunch! Man, this answers everything.
Oh how I wish they let me do that 🙂 They are super touchy with the links inside the posts…but they do love links that lead to articles of their own!
The one on the miles and cc’s and death/will may be a good idea for a post from other bloggers.
For people in the too large IRA position who are charitably inclined, are over 70 1/2 years old and don’t really need the money doing the IRA minimum distributions directly to charities is a really good fit.
Many people seem to automatically favor a Roth, so perhaps an article explaining when a traditional IRA is more favorable than a Roth, such as lower or no taxes in retirement due to not having any bills and not needing much money to live on
Or which one to max out (or fund) first. Your 401k or Roth IRA? Assuming your company doesn’t match.
Or Roth401k vs 401k with employer match of 3% for a youngster like me?
Calculation of lease vs buying a car
Tax credits that ppl may not think about
Ins and outs of freelance work (taxes, tips, strategies)
How about a “counterargument” to the one that says you need 80% (or whatever) of your pre-retirement income to live when in retirement. I consider it a bullshit line that brokerages throw out there to keep you scared and keep you investing (with them)
How about a complaint that brokerages are unable to do a comprehensive analysis of all a person’s assets, even if some are at another brokerage? (Yeah, Fidelity has “Full View” but it awful)
How about the fact that brokerage retirement planners never have a way for you to input property values (or almost *any* physical properties) as part of retirement plan.
I did an early retirement, so I could go on and go about the lack of support for people who are considering early retirement….
Here is my finance question…….How in the world is Michael Buffer (Let’s Get Ready To Rumble”) worth $400 million dollars……………….in the words of Yakov Smirnoff, “America, what a country”.
Can you talk about taxes on side businesses for people like me who have been salaried their whole lives but now have to deal with small business tax issues because they got into blogging for some reason?
I second that. I’d venture a guess that a big portion of your audience is bloggers who probably have new issues from blogging businesses arise often. I’m an attorney and always do my own taxes but I’m rapidly seeing that I’m going to need professional advice when 2015 taxes roll around.
Core business strategies, Interesting tax breaks, if the electric/solar/etc tax break is worth it or when it is worth it, College tuituion accounts worth it? or best state college tuition accounts, 501(c) charities worth and not worth donating too.
Pros and cons of reporting more family members on a W2 so you pay less taxes. Then at the end of the year, max out an IRA or 401k to offset any owed amount due to the IRS. Does that idea make sense?
Don’t get into hacking this! It is just not practical and you may end up hurting yourself. Something it may happen that the planned contributions are not possible because, gasp, you blew the money. Calculating all that occupying your mind real estate is time better spent elsewhere. Doing the 401k in the last month requires the cooperation of a very helpful Payroll Dept and they may blow it too. Just have enough withheld or even more and then the tax refund can be used to fund that IRA by April 15. Many experts out there preach not to have a large refund but, as most people are not that disciplined with their cash management, this creates a cushion to ensure they do not have to owe because 1) they get really pissed off 2) they scramble to pay taxes due which could lead to an avalanche of interest and penalties #badnews.
I just hope now you were not kidding 🙂
Great advice about using a tax refund to fund an IRA, but doesn’t that mean you end up with an even larger tax refund? Would funding a Roth be a better choice with the tax refund? This is very timely advice 🙂
I think the IRA vs Roth IRA, sequence of funding 401(ks) and the IRAs and just go off on that tangent sounds like a topic there is great interest. Most importantly I can BS my way up to 500 words 🙂 Ok, seriously now, I have some thoughts about this and I better start writing them down!.
As far as your specific question…it is not the end of the world if you get a little larger refund you know. Every situation is different, we are all different human beings with different situations, (fluctuating) tax brackets, different goals and investment horizons. If you can generalize a bit you can go as far as:
The younger you are the more it makes sense to fund a Roth IRA
The lower your tax rate is in the early years and the higher your tax bracket is…go for a Roth IRA
Future is uncertain. Tax rates will be different when you retire. The prevailing wisdom is that tax rates will be higher in the future. So the tax savings may not be as great as you had estimated/assumed. In fact it is my personal belief that income tax rates may go down instead as some form of VAT/national sales tax system will be instituted as part of a tax reform package (coming but not very soon). So you fund a Roth IRA now (and forego the sizable tax savings of a regular IRA—same concept as the regular and Roth 401ks) only to have the privilege of taking money out of your tax free Roth IRA when income tax rates may be lower than what you paid already (as Roth IRAs are funded with after-tax money)….so you are the sucker!
In most cases, when people make good money it is hard to say no to funding the 401k to the maximum. And when you make a lot of money you are shut out of the Roth anyway so I hope you get to that position soon 😉
Since more people are delaying starting families (I, for one, just gave birth to my second child at 42-I had my first when I was 40) how about a post on how investing in a Roth can make more sense as a tool to save for college rather than a 529.
300-500 words is only enough to give bullshit/trite/hackneyed advice. But then again, that’s 99.99% of all financial advice, so may as well keep it short…
How about fees! I know my wife’s IRA is like 5% thru her work, is that too high? I dunno? Roth v Traditional and which to max first.
5% in fees is…criminal. Or at least should be!
Tell me how I can make money helping a Nigerian Prince move his millions of dollars out of the country.
You can’t but you can help me get out of this foreign country after all my things were stolen. The Embassy wont help, but I am using a friend of yours official email so you know this is legit!
Thank you for all the ideas!
Have some really funny readers with all them Nigerian princes lol.
I am following up with questions/clarifications on selected comments. Be assured I have read them all and will be referring to this page in the future!
How about IRA conversions and recharacterizations? that can be a key tax planning issue. I know it is one I have been using the past couple years.
How about investment opportunies in places like Detroit?
A sort of re-invent a city to fit your own business needs….
maybe a side start-up?? Someone wants to retire early, lots of cash, but needs a hands-on project?
The watch (I think it’s a watch) company that came to Detroit comes to mind?
I guess what I’m going for is this: “So you’ve made a billion dollars. Now what? With that much money comes responsibility; how to invest to turn an unpolished stone into a diamond” etc.
If any of that makes sense (it sounded great in my head).
Or if you’re really looking for creative ideas…
“So you’ve had an item appraised on the Antiques Roadshow. Now what? Know when to hold, sell, or donate to a musuem. Is it your responsibility to share the treasure with the nation or sell for profit??”
I’ve always wondered about the AR guests aftermaths….who sells, who holds, who donates….and why.
Interesting stuff…
If anyone reading this made a billion dollars the first thing I would highly recommend is making an offer to buy TBB I can not refuse! hehe
Thanks to all for the ideas, very grateful. Keep them coming!
Just my 2 cents – Someone who does not live paycheck to paycheck would obviously be flush with funds and would be interested in good investment advice. Hence i would suggest some stock market investment themes like alternative hedge funds catering to say international markets or specialised in growing fields like biotech etc., that could get them higher return with higher risk.
Here are some questions: (1) What annual rate of return should folks be looking for, for their retirement accounts (figure Millennials, so, age 18-34) and (2) Given that millennials jump jobs, what’s the best advice for those with multiple 401(k)s? And how does that fit in with Roth IRAs?