John Cox

Blogs · @wyome

Tagged personal finance · everything

TaxVox

TaxVox » Blog Archive » About the 47 Percent Who Don’t Pay Federal Income Tax: Mitt, Meet Andrea

Andrea, a home health aide earning $8.40 per hour, exemplifies why Romney's "47 percent" characterization misses the mark: she pays substantial payroll taxes and would owe federal income tax without the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, which are specifically designed to encourage work among the poor rather than enable dependency. The author argues that these tax credits are fundamentally different from entitlements—they reward labor and help workers like Andrea climb out of poverty—while the real tax subsidies disproportionately benefit the wealthy through deductions like mortgage interest, which dwarf the benefits low-income workers receive.

Permalink politicspersonal financeeconomics

www.betterment.com

Welcome to Betterment - The smart, simple way to invest

I can't summarize this as a saved article—it's Betterment's legal disclosures and footer information explaining which entities provide which services (investment advisory, brokerage, banking), how FDIC and SIPC insurance work, and liability disclaimers. There's no argument or report to extract here, just regulatory boilerplate.

Permalink personal finance

www.reddit.com

deadspin.com

What Happens When A 35-Year-Old Man Retakes The SAT?

Drew Magary retakes the SAT as an adult after 19 years to see whether he's become smarter or dumber, completing a practice test under the same conditions he experienced in 1993—bubble sheets, No. 2 pencils, and all. He discovers that the test remains fundamentally unchanged and poorly designed, relying on outdated technology while charging students thousands in test-prep fees, and finds his own performance improved slightly on the verbal section (where he reads constantly) but declined in math (which he never uses). The essay is less an argument for SAT reform than a darkly funny documentation of how pointless and grueling the standardized test experience remains, structured to punish rather than encourage students and designed by people who seem to actively enjoy making teenagers miserable.

Permalink adviceeducationpersonal financehumor

Boing Boing

US college grads' salaries in steep decline - Boing Boing

Economist Michael Mandel documents that real wages for young college graduates (ages 25-34) have declined significantly since the early 2000s—down 19% for men since 2000 and 16% for women since 2003—despite rising tuition costs and increasingly aggressive student loan collection. He raises three critical questions about the causes: whether global competition from international college graduates, declining quality of American graduates, or technological displacement might explain this wage collapse. The disconnect between skyrocketing college costs and deteriorating economic outcomes for degree holders suggests a fundamental problem with the current higher education investment model.

Permalink educationpersonal financeeconomicscareers

Get Rich Slowly

How to Know When to Quit

Seth Godin's concept of "the dip" versus "the cul-de-sac" distinguishes between temporary struggle worth pushing through and genuine dead ends worth abandoning. A cul-de-sac is a true dead end where you've tried solutions and hit immovable obstacles (like a micro-managing boss who won't allow remote work), while a dip is the difficult middle stretch of any worthwhile endeavor that successful people overcome by "leaning in" harder and changing their approach. The piece argues that strategic quitting—based on calm assessment of whether you're making measurable progress and whether your goal is realistically attainable—is smarter than either never quitting or reflexively quitting whenever things get hard.

Permalink productivityadvicepersonal financeentrepreneurship

Paul Krugman Blog

Taxes and the Wealthy - NYTimes.com

This piece argues that while tax rate changes from 1979 to 2005 cannot fully explain rising income inequality, they have significantly amplified it rather than counteracted it, with the wealthy—particularly the very rich—receiving disproportionate tax relief relative to their income gains. The author uses CBO data to refute the claim that the rich are overtaxed, showing instead that tax policy has actively reinforced growing after-tax inequality over this period.

Permalink politicspersonal financeeconomicsyup

Ramsey Solutions

My Total Money Makeover Community Forums - My degree isn't worth the debt!

This is a marketing website for EveryDollar, a zero-based budgeting app that helps users allocate every dollar of income to specific spending categories before the month begins. The platform offers a free version with manual transaction tracking and a premium version ($6.67–$17.99/month) that adds automatic bank connections, debt payoff tools, and coaching. Users report significant benefits including discovering hundreds in extra monthly savings, paying off debt faster, and achieving the psychological win of ending months with money left over.

Permalink productivityappspersonal financebudget

Freakonomics

Freakonomics » Ten More Reasons You Need to Quit Your Job Right Now!

Altucher argues that most people should quit their jobs because traditional job security no longer exists (the 2008 crisis shattered the myth of climbing a corporate ladder to retirement), and the supposed reasons to stay—saving for a home, college funds, or tolerating a bad boss—are either unnecessary or destructive to wellbeing. Rather than advocating reckless resignation, he emphasizes that departing requires deliberate preparation across physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual dimensions, and recommends a series of posts on building luck, resilience, and entrepreneurial thinking as guides for the transition.

Permalink productivitylifestylepersonal financeentrepreneurship

Lifehacker

Lifehacker

Mozy Drops Unlimited Backups, Introduces New Pricing

Mozy eliminated its unlimited backup plan in favor of tiered pricing (50GB for $6/month or 125GB for $9.99/month, with additional storage at $2 per 20GB), dramatically raising costs for existing users—the author's own backup needs of 226GB would jump from $5/month to $20/month. The piece questions whether this industry shift toward metered plans makes sense given that storage costs actually decrease annually, and suggests readers explore alternatives like Carbonite that still offer unlimited plans.

Permalink productivityprivacypersonal financereviews

Rakuten

Online Coupons | Cash Back

Rakuten is a cashback platform that partners with thousands of retailers to share affiliate commissions with users, offering both cashback rewards (paid quarterly via check or PayPal once you reach $5) and stackable coupon codes found through their website, app, or browser extension. The guide explains how to maximize savings by combining Rakuten's coupons with cashback offers, using coupons on sale items, and paying with cashback credit cards, while also noting that most coupons work online but some can be activated in-store through the app at select retailers. It covers practical details like how to access and redeem codes, terms and exclusions to watch for, and distinguishes Rakuten's digital coupons from other coupon types like manufacturer or Catalina coupons.

Permalink personal financeshoppingbudget

PlannerSearch

FPA Journal - Personal Financial Ratios: An Elegant Road Map to Financial Health and Retirement

This is a directory and informational resource from the Financial Planning Association designed to help people find and understand when to work with a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional. The site emphasizes that CFP® professionals can assist with various financial needs—from setting goals and managing investments to retirement planning and debt elimination—and recommends interviewing multiple planners to find the right fit for your specific situation.

Permalink retirementadvicepersonal finance

frugalist.instantcreditcard.com

www.annualcreditreport.com

AnnualCreditReport

AnnualCreditReport.com is the official government-mandated site where consumers can request one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion). The site emphasizes security by warning users to type the URL directly rather than following email links, and provides alternative methods to request reports during scheduled maintenance windows.

Permalink privacycredit cardspersonal financetools

Due

Wesabe

I don't have an actual article to summarize here. What you've shared is the homepage and editorial standards page of Due, a retirement and personal finance publication. To provide the kind of summary you've requested, I would need the text of a specific article that was saved—for instance, a particular piece about a retirement strategy, investment approach, or financial planning topic. If you could share the actual article content, I'd be happy to summarize it in the format you've described.

Permalink retirementadvicepersonal financeinvestment

www.stevepavlina.com

10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed

# Summary This article distills lessons from 14 years of self-employment into ten common mistakes small business owners make: being selective about customers rather than pursuing everyone, finding the balance between frugal and wasteful spending, avoiding pretense about your business size or capabilities, recognizing that contracts matter less than the relationships behind them, trusting your intuition about people and deals, staying human and informal rather than overly corporate, letting your personality shine through rather than adopting a generic "businesslike" persona, and focusing on genuine value creation rather than just making sales. The final two lessons emphasize that while value creation is essential, you must also continuously optimize your processes to deliver that value cost-effectively and sustainably.

Permalink productivityadvicebusinesspersonal finance