Below you'll find a list of all posts from February, 2020
I have always been a saver, influenced by both nature and nurture. Growing up in the 1970s, my father took my brother, sister and I to the local McDonald’s where he promptly ordered one large chocolate shake and 3 small cups. I had no idea this was not what everyone did until a pair of cousins visiting from out of …
A highlight of raising kids is that (based on my n of 2) they’ve turned out to be warped in precisely the ways I am when it comes to their sense of humor. It’s akin to living as an expatriate and improbably encountering someone who speaks your native language in an adopted country far from home. You feel understood in …
My poor word choice in a recent post about changing the beneficiary of a child’s overfunded 529 plan to an unborn grandchild regrettably created more confusion than it alleviated. To atone, here is a simplified summary and a couple of case studies illustrating how changing the beneficiary of a 529 incurs tax liability. Can you create an account for an …
Yet another nugget gleaned from reading Mike Piper’s Oblivious Investor blog was his link to an explanation describing what I’ve always regarded as one of the more impressive magic tricks in investing: How can big brokerages afford to eliminate trading fees on stocks and ETFs which have historically been the mainstay of their revenue generation? The article in question, by …
Everyone has guilty pleasures they cannot resist…wine, women…mine are economics podcasts, specifically the wonderfully nerdy Planet Money from NPR. I was listening to a an episode recently that introduced me to a concept I’d never heard of before: escheat. The word dates to the 1300s, and derives from an old French term meaning to fall – in this case, referring …
I’m reading up on real estate these days, with the objective of identifying small multi-family units to invest in. The more I read, the more interesting it gets. Occasionally I’d like to put out posts that collect my thoughts as I go, as a guide post to others who might share this interest. Real estate involves assessing multiple variables and …
The first time I heard medicine referred to as a hobby, it was by my cousin, a corporate attorney who had met her husband while he was still a medical student. He moved into her place for his final year of medical school, then she continued to support him as they started a family during his residency and then a …