I have no desire to oversee a website where folks work out their anger issues by posting snarky political comments. But lately, that anger has been on full display, and we all know why. Love him or hate him, Donald Trump clearly elicits strong emotions.
But here’s the thing: Those strong emotions may be justified—but they’re hard to justify on financial grounds, just as they were hard to justify during the Biden presidency. Consider:

The unemployment rate was 4.1% when Biden left office,

Every few decades or more often our federal tax system has a major upheaval. After I got my accounting degree in 1977 my first two jobs were working in state government auditing focused on matters internal to the function of the government. I still feel I learned a lot during those jobs but it was not a good fit for me.
In the early 1980’s I entered the world of public accounting which to a large extent is broken into two segments.

I’m  not so good in the genre of Rapper or hip hop singers, but I don’t let that deter me when my mind is in tune with a good word puzzle.  Yes, I’m hooked on the NYT word game Connections.
Chances are you played or, at least heard of the New York Times “cult”puzzles.  Over the past few years, Wordle became a staple  as part of millions of peoples daily routine, and I highly recommend the addictive Connections as a new challenge for word puzzle aficionados and word mavens.

I cannot think of a better cure for my occasional insomnia than to stare at my electronic 2024 checkbook and analyze our spending for the prior year.
I’m looking for how much money came in, and how much came out to pay bills and buy stuff, and how much went back into savings and investments.
Social Security and two dinky pensions are what I refer to as our spending benchmark. In an ideal world our spending will never exceed the benchmark.

As an AARP volunteer Tax Aide for a second tax season, I completed about 100 returns and reviewed many others prepared by other volunteers. I volunteer two days a week from February 1 to April 14 at two different senior centers and continue to make observations based my clients’ tax situations.
The Tax Aide program is free and not limited to seniors or AARP members. Even though most clients are retired seniors, we can serve all ages and incomes.

Our earliest days as independent fledgling adults, working our first job, living in our own place, are hard to forget. I still recall my first apartments in surprising detail. As I now watch my daughter live through her own such experiences, these memories are flooding back.
Mine are mostly happy, as I lived and worked through the first part of my lifetime happiness smile curve. There were a few rare exceptions. Buying my first car was one of them.

I have an irrevocable trust with my brother as my co-trustee. I would like to replace him with my son. Is there a simple way to do that, or should I contact an attorney?

Reading various social media sites it strikes me how uninformed so many people are about money and economics. No, I’m not being a snob. I make no claim to expertise on either subject, but I do make an effort to obtain a basic understanding and check facts before I comment or initiate a post. 
Billionaires and the wealthy are frequent targets. Did you know billionaires pay lower taxes than middle class taxpayers? They pay only 8% according to some sources or that’s what many people choose to believe.

Hi, my name is David, and I am a newsaholic! There I’ve said it. Admitting you have an addiction is the first step to recovery, right?
All my life I have been addicted to reading the news. I like to be informed about the goings on locally, nationally, and internationally. I think it is a way for me to lower my anxiety. Over the past 8-9 years however things have changed.
What does this have to do with taking care of my mother in law?

IT’S BEEN AN UNUSUAL year—to say the least—for investment markets. After rising earlier in the year, U.S. stocks and bonds have dropped in recent weeks. Market leaders like Apple and Nvidia have been among the hardest hit. The U.S. dollar has also dropped, helping boost the value of international shares, and gold has continued to hit new all-time highs, despite inflation cooling.
What can we learn from all this? I see seven lessons.
1.

I’m not expecting readers to answer all eight of the thorny questions listed below. But I’d love to hear your thoughts on one or two.

What in your past or about your personality explains your investment risk tolerance?
What uses of money—giving it away, saving it, specific purchases—bring you the greatest joy?
Would you be okay financially if U.S. stocks had a 0% total return over the next 10 years?
If you’re still working, what would it take for you to leave the workforce with a sense of satisfaction?

I met with a Vice President of Fisher Investments, a very large and very well-advertised fee-only investment advisory firm, to see if they would be a good fit to manage my portfolio. It turns out they weren’t, and after they asked why, this was my reply:
Frank,
Thanks for taking the time to meet with me to explain how Fisher Investments works.
I respect you for asking for feedback. And since you asked:
1. I’m not a fan of the fee structure:
-Its size: Paying you $70,000 a year to manage my portfolio seems like an awful lot of money.

I’ve recently observed cases where family and friends undertake serious medical interventions with not the best outcomes. These interventions seem well intentioned to rehab issues, but I now wonder if they sometimes are a money grab when potentially better health outcomes might exist. In fairness to the Doctors, we want instant and complete resolution to sometimes niggling health issues – many caused by our own lifestyles or basic aging.
Here are a few observations:

My uncle had his prostate removed in his late 70’s,

For many, perhaps most of us, taxes are pretty simple, especially with the higher standard deduction.
So, did you prepare your own taxes, use a free tax preparation service, an accountant or fee base tax preparer?
Did you directly download 1099s for investments from your record keeper as opposed to manual entry?
Why did you make the choice you did? We’re you satisfied with results?
I have used TurboTax for several years. It works for me,

One option per the IRS –
Pay online and click on extension. Taxpayers simply pay what they owe using an online payment option, then click on extension as the reason for the payment. The taxpayer will receive a confirmation number of their extension for their records. There’s no need to file any additional forms.
https://www.irs.gov/payments
The failure to pay penalty is 0.5% per month. The failure to file penalty is 5.0% per month.