Unlike me, my sister is an actual accountant. When I was talking to her about her taxes a few months ago, my ears perked up when she said she was still itemizing deductions on her federal tax return, even though her itemized deductions were less than her standard deduction. Huh? I thought the equation was… Continue reading Should I Itemize My Deductions When My Standard Deduction is Higher?
I finally filed my 2020 taxes after filing for an extension last May. I hoped for additional tax changes related to the pandemic, making it advantageous to hold off filing. I would have been fine filing in May. As with every tax year, I learned new things, mostly about how I could reduce my taxes… Continue reading Taxes – 2020 Edition
Today is my last day at StartupInc. When I joined four and a half years ago, we were a motley crew of sixteen. Now, we’re nearly 300. I joined shortly after the series A round and watched the company grow through B, C, and D rounds. From my vantage point, the company’s trajectory is solid,… Continue reading A New Gig
We love celebrating Labor Day by going camping. We call it our “not back to school” camp and have been doing it for years. It’s intentionally timed when all the other children across the country are back in school. Less crowds (or none!) and cooler temperatures. My second youngest was born at the tail end… Continue reading September 2021 Update
The FAFSA’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC) for college expenses has two components. I dug previously into the Expected Parental Contribution (EPC) and how to minimize it. Today, we’ll look at the second component, the Expected Student Contribution (ESC). Obviously, the expectation for how much a student contributes to their own education is higher than for… Continue reading Financial Aid: Student’s Contribution
Recently, I was talking with a Maryland resident about 529s, financial aid, and tuition. You know, my favorite subjects. After the conversation, I poked into the costs of attending the University of Maryland and found a surprise: differential tuition. Huh. What is lurking behind this obfuscation? Let’s find out. What Good Is Differential Tuition? In… Continue reading What is differential tuition?
Happy Labor Day! I graduated from graduate school over 16 years ago and got my first “real” job at MegaCorp. I switched jobs in January 2013 to LittleCorp, which was bought within a year by DumpsterFire. Later, in January 2017, I left DumpsterFire for StartupInc, and I’ve been here for over 4 ½ years. Over… Continue reading A Tale of Salary and Inflation
Fridge Temperature Sensor Our main refrigerator has started showing its age by staying slightly ajar when it’s not closed carefully. I’m tired of getting up in the morning and finding it ajar with ice forming on the chiller. With six kids, you can imagine this happens often. This month, I bought temperature sensors for both… Continue reading August 2021 Update
As a parent of a current college student and five more in the near future, I’ve been trying to understand the student aid calculations. Last time, I wrote about how much the parents are expected to pay for their child’s education. The focus of this post is to see what it would take to drive… Continue reading Financial Aid: Minimizing the Parent Contribution
Recently, I scrambled down a rabbit hole as I dug into student financial aid. When I was a college student, I don’t recall putting much effort into understanding the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. All I knew was that I needed to do it to maximize the financial aid I could get… Continue reading Financial Aid: Parents’ Contribution
