If you are self-employed, you can potentially get both the subsidy tax credit and a deduction for your health care premium under Obamacare, but calculating the numbers can be tricky.
Is Home Mortgage Simple Interest Or Compound Interest?
I had a good chuckle while reading this epic discussion thread on the Bogleheads Investment Forum: Does a home mortgage use Simple or Compound Interest? It sounds a like factual question, as in "Is Miami located to the north or south of Boston?" The answer shouldn’t be ambiguous or subject to opinion or interpretation. You […]
How Much Should You Put Into Flexible Spending Account (FSA)?
My company is doing open enrollment again for next year (for more info on what to choose in open enrollment, see previous posts). I’m not going to make any changes except I have to re-enroll for flexible spending account (FSA). If you use flexible spending account, you should be familiar with the use-it-or-lose-it rule. If […]
TIPS During Deflation
[Updated on Oct. 28, 2008. All yields are real yields, after inflation/deflation adjustments.] While the stock market was in turmoil, the real yields on Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) rose to an attractive level. The real yield on 10-year TIPS broke the magic 3% number, a level that hasn’t been reached for many years. Many […]
401k Loan Double Taxation Myth
I don’t know who started it. Suze Orman certainly helped spread it. She says that you shouldn’t borrow from your 401k (or 403b) plan because you will be double-taxed. I did a Google search and I found this by Suze Orman: “Also, never ever borrow against your 401k plan because you will pay double taxation […]
Imported Spreadsheets to Zoho
I mentioned in another post that I started using Zoho recently. Zoho offers a suite of "office" software online. They have online word processor, spreadsheet, presentation and many other types of software that traditionally resides on a local computer. Having these software online lets me access my documents from anywhere. It also lets me share […]
A Tale of Two Charts
The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices came out for February 2008. They showed a year-over-year decline for most cities. The announcement from Standard & Poor’s came with the following chart: The plunge is quite impressive, isn’t it? Now look at this second chart. What do you see? A long rise followed by a small drop. The […]
RSU Sell To Cover Deconstructed
A breakdown of how sell-to-cover for tax withholding is done for Restricted Stock Units and how to report it on your tax return.
Mortgage Interest and Property Tax Deduction for Homeowners Who Don’t Itemize
The New York Times reported that Senate Democrats and Republicans reached a tentative deal on the new housing bill. Among the various provisions is a federal income tax deduction for property tax paid by taxpayers who don’t itemize deductions. Single taxpayers get a $500 deduction. Married taxpayers filing a joint return get $1,000. [Update: This […]
Restricted Stock Units (RSU) Tax Withholding Choices
Ever since the companies are required to expense employee stock options, more companies started to grant the employees Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) instead of stock options. The first batch of RSUs I received will vest shortly. Unlike non-qualified stock options which are taxed at the time of option exercise, RSUs are taxed at the time […]
More On Missing The 10 Best Days
Blogger Nickel at fivecentnickel.com made some great comments to my post about missing the 10 best days in the stock market. I showed in my post that the probability of missing the best 10 days in 10 years is one in 2.8 billion billion billion. Nickel disagreed. Because the comments require a long response, I’m […]
APR or APY, It Doesn’t Matter
It’s very strange. I see a lot of people reaching my blog when they search for information on converting APR to APY or vice-versa. They end up on my post last year Interest Rate: APY and APR which mentioned two Excel formula: EFFECT which converts APR to APY, and NOMINAL which converts APY to APR. […]