The 2022 federal tax brackets have been announced which includes annual inflation adjustments. How important is it to know your tax bracket? It’s important to know so you can plan accordingly and strategize your financial goals. Are you paying too much in taxes? Are you paying too little? Or are you paying just enough? Here’s a breakdown of the 2022 federal tax brackets. For tax year 2022, the top tax rate remains 37% for individual single taxpayers with incomes greater…
One of the financial moves I support is contributing to a retirement account such as the 401K. Especially if your employer offers a matching contribution, that’s free money to you. I’ve contributed to my retirement account since my first job and contributed the maximum amount. In 2021, the maximum contribution was $19,500. In 2022, the IRS set the 401K contribution limits to $20,500, an increase of $1,000. If you’re of the age 50 and over, you can add $6,500 as…
Historically I have been focused on pre-tax retirement accounts for the past 20+ years. I’m slowly leaning towards focusing on post-tax retirement accounts because of tax reasons. Most of all my retirement funds are in pre-tax accounts. I’m worried about the tax implications later on so I decided to explore Roth conversions and I just completed my first Roth conversion. When it comes to retirement accounts, there are two major ones: pre-tax and post-tax. Pre-tax accounts are those accounts like…
Our parents are our role models. We learn so much from them. We pass down traditions generation to generation. We consider them wise and experienced. However, there may be things that our parents did that we should avoid ourselves. Learning what not to do from our parents can help us make better decisions and minimize financial burden. Invest My parents didn’t invest much. They were the type to work their job and put their money into regular savings accounts. Back…
Living a life with just the things you need…living minimally. One area to consider when pursuing financial independence or if you’re just trying to get a hold of your financial stability is to try to live minimally. Living minimally doesn’t mean you have to live like a monk. Living minimally is being aware of your needs and wants. How to live minimally depends on you and what your definition of minimal is. Now that I’m older and a little wiser…
Prior to COVID, did you feel like you could barely keep up with life? I had a 3 hour roundtrip commute to work. I had kids activities I had to take them to. My To-Do list kept getting longer and longer each week. I barely had time for myself. I felt like I was barely keeping up. After working from home due to COVID, it gave me so much of my time back. Luckily, I had a job where I…
While I’m on my journey to early retirement, the two things I still have to seriously consider is healthcare and my kids college. Do I have enough to support the costs of healthcare for my family and be able to support my children through college? My daughter is about to go into high school and I’ve been exposed to a number of programs that are being offered that I’m very excited about that can help her get an early start…
I hate when things break and more importantly I hate it when it costs me money to fix or replace. When you hear the word “warranty” you might be thinking of big ticket items like a car, refrigerator, maybe a computer, or television. I’m writing this to let you know that many things you buy probably have some warranty on it. When things break don’t forget about the warranty. Don’t just go start replacing things or fixing things on your…
This is a second update to this article. I wrote in a previous article about apps that will give you cash for your receipts. I wanted to give an update because I started using yet another app to help me build my cash rewards because receipts are as good as money. Receipt Hog Receipt Hog is an app where you take a picture of a receipt and upload it in their app. You earn credits and when you reach a…
The housing market is on fire right now. You might have heard that there’s a housing shortage. Along with that, interest rates are at record lows and there’s a push for remote working. With all those factors combined, people are selling high, buying high, and willing to pay more to get a home. In my neighborhood, homes for sale don’t stay on the market long and people are selling at a high price. This triggered a discussion between my wife…