A 2013 Tax Weekend Roundup

Let’s start this week with an exciting milestone in my life. My first radio interview has now made it to a Podcast. My daughter thinks this makes me famous, but I told her I’m famous only in my own mind. Last September, I attended the annual Financial Bloggers’ Conference, and one day at lunch I happened to be sitting next to Gerri Detweiler, She is an author, speaker, credit expert, and radio host of Talk Credit Radio. She asked me all the right questions, inviting me to tell her about my most recent accomplishment, helping a reader avoid $90K in taxes due to some very bad advice she received regarding an inherited IRA. I wrote about the situation at my Rothmania site in an article “Let’s Kill All the Lawyers” and this story prompted an invitation to her show soon after. The podcast Inherited IRA Tax Tips is available through her web site, and while the subject is, admittedly, a bit dry, the lessons you learn might save you a nice chunk of money down the road.

Michael Kitces brought an older article of his to my attention, Why Saving In A Roth (Or Any) IRA Might Be A Bad Idea For Young People After All. I’m keeping an open mind, and appreciate when some very intelligent bloggers offer a completely differ spin that makes me stop and think a bit.

Five Cent Nickel hosted a guest post from William Cowie, Meet Jim, my millionaire next door. The title is a reference of course to Dr Thomas Stanley’s series of books which included The Millionaire Next Door, and my favorite, Stop Acting Rich. Some of us have neighbors that are just that, millionaires next door, others are simply keeping up with the Joneses.

The Free Financial Advisor took a bit of a shot at others in Bad Advice? Here’s Some From Top Money Gurus. In this article we’re shown five bits of advice that seem to fall a bit short. The classic ‘bad advice’ I’ve disagreed with for years is the David’s debt snowball. Paying off that stack of $1000 card with the 6% rate so you feel better about finally getting to the 24% card that you owe $10K on. Not the advice I’d offer.

Strangely, the One Percenter tells us, “I Don’t Recognize U.S. Coins.” And then I saw the image of the nickel he posted, and I’m not sure I’ve seen one myself. I was aware of the quarters showing scenes from each state. Those seem to have started a decade ago. But I do get the point, I agree, we use less and less cash, favoring a charge card for even small, quick purchases.

On a personal note, I finished our taxes today. They were nearly done a month or so ago, but no rush, there was a chance some form would come to me late, or my wife would find a receipt from a charity tucked away (instead of handing it to me to put in the tax folder!) Are your taxes all done? If not, will you be finished by Monday night? If you need extra time, you can file for a six month extension with the IRS. Remember, this is just an extension to get the final return sent in, not extra time to pay what’s due. Take your best shot at the return with the information you have, and pay at least what you expect the bill will be.