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> No one ever taught me to save, so I had to learn budgeting and finance management on my own while I was in college. Just in case nobody has pointed this out

> No one ever taught me to save, so I had to learn budgeting and finance management on my own while I was in college. Just in case nobody has pointed this out to you yet, if you're in the US, how you use the tax system can make an enormous difference in your personal wealth and your generational wealth. Learning how to invest in tax-advantaged ways (backdoor 401k, tax loss harvesting, real estate transfers, trusts, donation funds, etc) is extremely complicated, but it is possible to deep dive enough to understand how it applies to you. The US incentivizes a lot of risk taking and keeps an elite class by requiring obscure knowledge about tax laws. Most of it is "buy, borrow, die" with a lot of nuance to do it optimally. US Dollars are losing value faster than ever, so saving in a bank is not a valid strategy. Optimally, all dollars should be invested in assets immediately, ideally assets you can easily borrow against at a low rate as you need dollars. The whole system is crazy. For really rich people, "life insurance" is the money they borrow against while they're alive, "living trusts" are how they pass money along to their heirs when they're dead, and "investments" are things they will never sell.

perl4ever 5y ago
> Learning how to invest in tax-advantaged ways (backdoor 401k, tax loss harvesting, real estate transfers, trusts, donation funds, etc) is extremely complicated I strongly disagree with this advice; middle class people trying to imitate rich people with trusts and financial advisors and so on are just letting leeches siphon off their money with fees. Tax exempt investments are easy to find, they just pay less than taxable investments. If you're not in the top tax bracket, you're playing yourself. Inheritance taxes only apply to the extremely rich anymore. Avoiding probate with a trust or something does not mean avoiding taxes. >Most of it is "buy, borrow, die" with a lot of nuance to do it optimally Oh, yeah, it's easy, step 1 is buy something, wait till it goes up. If it doesn't go up, don't buy it.
- ixacto 5y ago
  The federal estate tax exemption is still high, but state estate taxes are much lower, like a million to a million and a half. Anyone who has a decent 401k + house will have that on the east/west coasts. I had to help my folks make a trust so we don’t get double estate taxation last summer.

perl4ever 5y ago

> Learning how to invest in tax-advantaged ways (backdoor 401k, tax loss harvesting, real estate transfers, trusts, donation funds, etc) is extremely complicated I strongly disagree with this advice; middle class people trying to imitate rich people with trusts and financial advisors and so on are just letting leeches siphon off their money with fees. Tax exempt investments are easy to find, they just pay less than taxable investments. If you're not in the top tax bracket, you're playing yourself. Inheritance taxes only apply to the extremely rich anymore. Avoiding probate with a trust or something does not mean avoiding taxes. >Most of it is "buy, borrow, die" with a lot of nuance to do it optimally Oh, yeah, it's easy, step 1 is buy something, wait till it goes up. If it doesn't go up, don't buy it.

ixacto 5y ago
The federal estate tax exemption is still high, but state estate taxes are much lower, like a million to a million and a half. Anyone who has a decent 401k + house will have that on the east/west coasts. I had to help my folks make a trust so we don’t get double estate taxation last summer.