If you’re always putting off filing your taxes until right before April 15, this time it may just pay off a little bit – because here you get some last-minute tax filing tips!

 

In this episode, I interview Certified Public Accountant Lucy Petry on helpful tax filing tips. Lucy is a tax lawyer, professor at the South Texas College of Law, and works with the IRS through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. Additionally, she works on close to a thousand tax returns per year.

 

Key Points in the Podcast:

-Filing for an extension does not exempt you from paying taxes or late penalties

-Making estimated tax payments to the IRS to avoid penalties

-Filing for an extension is probably better than having to file an amendment

-You can import investment trade history records from your brokers to tax filing software

-You can reduce your taxes on investment profits by selling other investments that you’re losing money on (offsetting gains with losses)

-Making IRA contributions will reduce the taxes you owe today

-You can still make 2017 contributions to your IRA up until you file your 2018 return

-Beware of tax fraud and scammers

-Don’t be afraid to find a credentialed tax advisor to help you with your taxes if your financial situation is complicated

-The standard deduction will be doubling next year

 

Lastly, you can subscribe to The Post Money Plan podcast here.

OK, we’ve thought about the economic implications of tariffs, but what about the moral implications?

 

In this episode, I continue to philosophize on tariffs, this time with Libertarian and fellow podcast host Eric Benzenhoefer. Eric is the co-host of the Idea Tank Podcast, where he pontificates on potential business ideas. The continued news about Trump instituting steel and aluminum duties on China force us to evaluate the merit (or lack thereof) of such economic decisions. This time, we go deeper into the moral implications of import/export fees, and by extension – taxes.

 

Key Points in the Podcast:

-Getting into Libertarianism

-The Trump tariff situation

-The 3rd party soda tax

-Policy should be derived from morally based principles, not in-the-moment emotions

-Property rights are inherent to everyone

-Government attempts to manipulate behavior through policies (such as taxes and tariffs)

-The analog between taxation and theft

-The economic inefficiency of tariffs

-The island economy thought exercise

-The Libertarian tax abolitionist movement

-Stepping stones to a more moral society

 

Lastly, you can subscribe to The Post Money Plan podcast here.

They’re taking our money! Therefore we’re going to slap some tariffs on them!

 

In this episode, I philosophize on tariffs with Austrian economist Tom Dickens. Basically, the recent news about Trump instituting steel and aluminum duties on China brings up a lot of questions concerning economic protectionism. As a result, we take the opportunity to take a step back and think about the subject from a non-partisan perspective.

 

Key Points in the Podcast:

-The concept of tariffs and what they’re used for

-How trade restrictions are a net negative to the global economy

-Thought exercises on import/export fees

-Ineffectiveness of market intervention

-Defining economic prosperity

-The U.S. national debt “joke”

-How import/export fees play into geopolitics

 

Lastly, you can subscribe to The Post Money Plan podcast here.

Have you ever been in a company that had workplace toxicity, where you felt like you were being poisoned just by being there?

 

To this end, in this episode I interview Jeana Potter about workplace toxicity. Jeana is the founder of Movelligence Inc., a startup company that provides relocation and move planning products to companies that relocate employees or residents. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Jeana job-hopped from one toxic work environment to the next. Eventually, she decided to take the outcome into her own hands and form her own company to escape the ensconced toxicity.

 

Key Points in the Podcast:

-The societal obligation to conform

-Negligent employers often make employees feel like merely cogs in a giant system

-The toxic work environment equivalency – half way between a high school and a prison

-Toxicity demoralizes, unmotivated employees become unproductive employees

-Objective versus subjective toxicity

-You can avoid being forced into ethically compromising situations

-The value of feeling empowered to take control and create results

 

Lastly, you can subscribe to The Post Money Plan podcast here.

Maybe you’d love to go into entrepreneurship and start a business, but the huge jump from your safe corporate job to completely out on your own sounds like too much to handle at once? Think about starting with a side gig.

 

In this episode, I interview Ashley Enget about converting a side gig into your own self-employment. Ashley is a business coach and strategist that helps women build online service-based businesses. She got fed up with corporate culture and constantly living for the weekend and decided to strike out on her own. Ashley shares her journey going from working in a corporate environment full time, building up her own business on the side, and then eventually leaving the corporate job to pursue her own business full time.

 

 

We touch on:

-Ashley’s path to entrepreneurship

-How many people have an innate entrepreneurial “bug”

-The natural desire to find fulfillment and make an impact through your work

-Finding the right business idea

-How it’s easy to get lost in the details when starting a business

-Planning your personal finances when thinking about entrepreneurship

-Some perks and drawbacks of entrepreneurship

 

Lastly, you can subscribe to The Post Money Plan podcast here.

Have you ever thought about how much you use money and yet how little you know about it? You were taught personal finance in school weren’t you? Or… maybe they forgot to include it in your curriculum. Isn’t it strange that we aren’t taught more about it in school?

 

In this episode, I interview Rick Brennan about personal finance in school, the education system, and how students are taught. I discuss with Rick current shortfalls in the education system and how personal finance is insufficiently taught to students.

 

Rick was a middle school teacher for 13 years who saw success integrating games into the learning experience in the class room. Today, Rick is the CEO of Histrionix Learning, a teacher owned instructional design company that provides STEAM-powered programs, games and professional development workshops that treat students as creators, teachers as designers and education as experience.

 

We touch on:

-Rick’s background in teaching and founding of Histrionix

-The value of education and knowledge

-The danger of ignorance in a democracy

-How to make education stimulating for students

-Using gameplay to enhance the learning experience

-Problems with traditional education

-The value in providing empowerment and agency to students

-The potential of designing dynamic experiences for students based on what their skills and interests are

 

Lastly, you can subscribe to The Post Money Plan podcast here.

The XIV ETN has officially terminated. Investors lost about 95% of their initial investment. Was this a one-off event or do we need to be taking a closer look at ETF risks and other Exchange Traded Products?

 

In this episode, I continue the discussion with my Wall Street friend George, moving the discussion into the risks of Exchange Traded Products. George is part of the next generation Wall Streeters otherwise known as ‘quants’; a brainy sort inclined towards the application of higher math in the finance world. He studied physics and math in school before jumping into an investment bank and then the buy-side as a fixed income analyst at a very large bond fund. We delve into the risks of Exchange Traded Products and what you should be on guard against when investing in them.

 

We touch on:

-Explaining what XIV was

-Clarifying the difference between ETF’s (Exchange Traded Funds) and ETN’s (Exchange Traded Notes)

-Hidden risk factors of Exchange Traded Products

-Liquidity risk

-Synthetic asset risk

-Default risk

-Tracking error risk

-Exotic risks

 

Lastly, you can subscribe to The Post Money Plan podcast here.

Last week, the stock market had two days where it dropped 4% in one day. What happened and why? Has something changed in the economy? Do you need to check your 401(k)?

 

In this episode, I consult my Wall Street friend George McWilliams on his inside opinion on the big stock market moves. George is part of the next generation Wall Streeters otherwise known as ‘quants’; a brainy sort inclined towards the application of higher math in the finance world. He studied physics and math in school before jumping into an investment bank and then the buy-side as a fixed income analyst at a very large bond fund. We discuss the stock market move and the big culprit behind the move.

 

We touch on:

-What happened in the markets last week

-The value of having a long-term investing view over a short-term view

-The ironic opportunity to buy “at a discount” and get more aggressive when the market falls

-The natural tendency to get more defensive when the market falls

-How volatility spiked very quickly and drove market fear and selling

-What the VIX volatility index is

-The build-up of popularity in a trade betting against volatility

-How the short volatility trade worked and how it contributed to the mini-crash

 

Lastly, you can subscribe to The Post Money Plan podcast here.

What is social justice and equity in the global economy? Moreover, what constitutes fair working conditions? These are questions that really impact us as consumers.

 

In this episode, I interview Anna Rohwer, a fellow alum of Eastern University, about social justice in the global economy and the economic perspective of social responsibility in the marketplace. To explain, Anna has a passion for the less privileged and studied globalization and development at the University of Manchester. Thus, she uses her knowledge of global labor conditions to make conscientious choices as a consumer.

 

We touch on:

-How the Bible addresses money

-What role we can take as individual consumers in the economy

-Being conscientious and intentional as a consumer

-Determining where to draw the line on ethical/unethical consumption

-How slavery, indentured servitude, and oppressive employment still exist in various forms today

-The potential and risk for technology and automation to reduce the demand for oppressive employment conditions

-Creating equity in economic opportunity for people from different geographical and socioeconomic backgrounds

-How most corporate profit accrues to the top

-The barriers to entry to entrepreneurship that disincentives regular people from becoming an entrepreneur

-Using your money and your voice to advocate for social justice in the economy

 

Lastly, you can subscribe to The Post Money Plan podcast here.

What is social justice and equity in the global economy? Moreover, what constitutes fair working conditions? These are questions that really impact us as consumers.

 

In this episode, I interview Anna Rohwer, a fellow alum of Eastern University, about social justice in the global economy and the economic perspective of social responsibility in the marketplace. Anna has a passion for the less privileged and studied globalization and development at the University of Manchester. Thus, she uses her knowledge of global labor conditions to make conscientious choices as a consumer.

 

We touch on:

-Anna’s background in global supply chains and view on social justice

-The role of morality in economics

-How the Gospel impacts every area of life

-People have cognitive dissonance because they believe one way and act another

-Pairing an economic system with the Gospel

-How morals are integral to economics, but that no economic system will be perfect with imperfect people

-Global labor standards and accountability for multinational corporations

-How economic development organically improves labor standards

-How society needs heart change much more than legal change

 

Lastly, you can subscribe to The Post Money Plan podcast here.