Well, I’m embarrassed to say I learned that the book (and the Broadway show) Les Miserables was not about Bastille Day, but was set some time after. On the other hand, the song by the band Rush was actually about Bastille Day, even though the song itself contained a number of historical inaccuracies. For now, I’m sticking with the imagery from Les Mis. (By the way, July 14th was the actual day, so it was yesterday.) On to this week’s roundup.
My friend, Neal Frankle explains how to Use Income Shifting to Lower Your Taxes. Some interesting ideas how the shifting of income to your loved ones who are in a lower bracket can help your family’s tax burden. Neal explains how hiring family if you are self employed or giving away income producing assets can benefit you.
Kay Bell explained why Home sale profits usually don’t create any tax bills for residential sellers. Check out her article if you’d like to understand why the tax man usually goes away empty handed after most home sales.
At Enemy of Debt, Dr Jason Cabler guest posted the 6 Credit Card Lies We Believe. To be fair, Jason makes some great points. Where we agree, I believe, is that when you divide people into two groups (think “Venn Diagram”) the group who pays in full and has an over 20 year run of having done so, is quite different than those who are floating debt month to month. I agree the debt floaters need a plan to get out of that cycle, and have proven themselves to be the group that should avoid credit cards. On the other hand, the pay-in-full crowd has little to worry about. Jason cites the studies that show those who use credit cards spend (at least) 12% more than those who use cash. I welcome any reader to produce such a study. But only if it is not a contrived one. Handing college kids a $10 bill or a gift card doesn’t extrapolate to a married couple earning 6 figures and managing a $4000 per month budget. In my opinion.
Next, columnist Scott Burns asks It’s 2012: Do You Know Where Your First Million Is? That’s the title of his article, but the real question is, “How much money would you really need to have a choice about working?” Scott offers some very interesting discussion to try to help his readers answer this question.
At Canadian Finance Blog, Alan Schram talked about Alternative Bulk Purchases. He looks at a few items that you might not consider “bulk” but the the savings you may find are just as good. A nice spin on the topic.