BoringMath

The standard deduction for 2025 is $15,000 single and $30,000 married filing jointly. If your mortgage interest, state taxes, and charitable donations don't exceed that, itemizing costs you money. About 87% of US filers take the standard deduction now. The people still itemizing mostly have mortgages over $400k or live in high-tax states like CA, NY, or NJ.

Pulling from a 401k before 59.5 costs you a 10% early withdrawal penalty plus federal income tax. So if you're in the 22% bracket, you lose 32 cents on every dollar you withdraw. A $10,000 emergency withdrawal nets you about $6,800. The IRS hardship withdrawal rules waive the 10% penalty in some cases (medical bills, eviction prevention) but most people don't know to ask.

my friends were discussing having to empty our 401Ks or savings for rent and groceries and one of them said “what will you do for retirement?” mfer I won't need a retirement plan if i starve to death next week

Someone contributing $500/month to a 401k from age 25 to 65 at 7% average returns ends up with about $1.2 million. Start at 35 instead and you get roughly $567,000. Same monthly contribution, half the result. That missing decade costs you $633,000 and all of it is compound growth you never earned through work. boring-math.com/calculators/40…

@Smartnetworth1 12%+ yields look great until you realize the NAV erosion can eat your principal. SPYI down about 8% since inception while S&P is up. You're getting paid your own money back and calling it income. Run the total return numbers before committing. boring-math.com/calculators/co…

$QQQI and $SPYI is about as high of “high yield” that I’m comfortable investing in.

@FiscalDominanc Current long-term capital gains rate on BTC is 0% if you earn under $47,025 single. Most people holding under $100k in crypto already owe nothing on gains held over a year. The real pain is short-term trades taxed as ordinary income up to 37%. boring-math.com/calculators/us…

Trump could save the midterms with one easy move.... eliminate all capital gains tax on Bitcoin

An HSA is the only account in the US tax code that's triple tax-advantaged: contributions are pre-tax, growth is tax-free, and withdrawals for medical expenses are tax-free. After 65, you can withdraw for anything (just pay income tax, like a traditional IRA). Max contribution for 2025 is $4,300 individual, $8,550 family. Most people treat it as a spending account when it's actually a better retirement vehicle than a Roth for high earners.

Average US property tax is about $2,800/year. Over 30 years that's $84,000 in today's dollars, more like $140,000 adjusted for typical 3-4% annual assessment increases. Most states also have homestead exemptions that knock $25,000-$50,000 off your assessed value, but a surprising number of homeowners never file for them.

Not good enough! You don’t actually own your home. Miss one property tax payment and the government can take it. So even after you pay it off… you’re still paying rent to the state. NC wants to “limit increases”? How about ending the tax entirely. 👇

The USDA estimates raising a child to 18 costs about $310,000. But the first year alone can hit $20,000+ once you factor in daycare, diapers, formula, and the gear you'll use for three months. Most people budget for the cute stuff and forget the recurring costs. boring-math.com/calculators/ba…

@QuintenFrancois 50-70% LTV sounds great until BTC drops 30% in a week and you're liquidated. "No capital gains tax" only works if you never get margin called into a forced sale. Worth knowing what you'd actually owe if that happens. boring-math.com/calculators/us…

🚨 BREAKING 🚨 JPMorgan now allows institutions to use $BTC and $ETH as direct collateral for USD loans. In simple terms: Institutions can now unlock liquidity without selling their crypto. What this means: • Borrow USD against BTC & ETH • No selling = no capital gains tax • Up to ~50–70% loan-to-value • Secured via custodians like Coinbase Why this is massive: Bitcoin and Ethereum are now treated like high-quality collateral. Crypto is no longer just an asset you hold. It’s an asset you borrow against, leverage, and build on. Wall Street is integrating it into the core system.

@edgaralandough $140K/year into a Roth is wild, but the real question is whether your plan even allows after-tax contributions. Most don't. Worth modeling the numbers before you get excited. boring-math.com/calculators/40…

One of my favorite loopholes in the US tax code: If a married couple earns more than $246K, they cannot contribute directly to a Roth IRA But, they can instead use their 401k to get $140K into their Roth IRA every single year Here's how the "mega backdoor Roth" works:

The difference between a 6% and 7% mortgage rate on a $400,000 loan is about $95,000 in total interest over 30 years. One percentage point. People will spend 40 hours researching which TV to buy and zero hours shopping their mortgage rate across multiple lenders.

Worth noting that current law already excludes $250,000 in capital gains for single filers and $500,000 for married couples on primary residence sales. Most homeowners in most markets already pay zero. The people this actually hits are in high-appreciation metros where a house bought for $200k in 2005 is now worth $900k+.

We introduced the Making Homeownership Affordable Again Act to completely eliminate capital gains taxes on the sale of primary residences and any home sold to a first-time homebuyer, expanding opportunities for first-time homebuyers, allowing seniors and empty nesters to downsize, and helping more families achieve the American dream of homeownership. South Carolina is the fastest-growing state in the country, and our families need real solutions to make housing affordable again. READ MORE: mace.house.gov/media/press-re…

A freelancer earning $100,000 on 1099 owes about $15,300 in self-employment tax alone before federal income tax even starts. That 15.3% hits you twice because you're paying both the employer and employee side of Social Security and Medicare. Half of it is deductible, but most people forget that when quoting their rate. boring-math.com/calculators/us…

@BoCamaro Your $529,634 math checks out at roughly 9% annual returns. The coffee comparison is wild though because $5/day is $1,825/year vs $4,000 in property tax. People obsess over the small daily number while ignoring the bigger annual ones. boring-math.com/calculators/co…

I see people talking about "If you just don't by coffee and invest the money, you'll retire rich" I'd much rather see, "If you didn't have to pay $4000 in property tax on a home you already own and invested it instead, you'd have $529,634.10 after 30 years" But gotta fund them schools and roads. 🤷‍♂️

Several thousand below Jan 1st hurts, but your YTD contributions bought shares at lower prices. When the market recovers, those shares are worth more than if you'd bought at the peak. Dollar cost averaging is doing its job even when it doesn't feel like it. boring-math.com/calculators/40…

Just made the mistake of peeking at my 401k - the market is doing so poorly that not only have my YTD contributions been essentially wiped out, I’m several thousand dollars below where I was on January 1st. Cool cool cool

If you earn between 100,000 and 125,140, you lose 1 of personal allowance for every 2 you earn over 100k. That creates an effective 60% tax rate on that band. Someone earning 125,140 takes home only about 3,500 more than someone on 100,000. Salary sacrifice into your pension is the main way to dodge it, because it brings your adjusted net income back under the threshold.

Your NI number is on your payslip, your P60, or any letter HMRC has ever sent you. You can also find it through your personal tax account on the HMRC website (not the app). Worth keeping a note of it somewhere safe because you'll need it every time you start a new job or claim any benefits.

The uk gov app is fucking hopeless . Apparently I don’t have an National insurance number and apparently my face isn’t real 🫩

Average UK credit card balance is about 2,300. At 22% APR, paying the minimum takes 27 years and costs over 4,100 in interest alone. Switching to 100/month clears it in 2 years and saves you 3,500. The avalanche method (highest rate first) is mathematically faster, but the snowball method (smallest balance first) has a higher completion rate because momentum matters more than maths. boring-math.com/calculators/de…

@TaviCosta Interest payments at 5% of GDP is the part nobody wants to talk about. The US government now spends more on debt interest than on defence. Every rate cut makes inflation worse, and every hold makes the debt spiral worse. No clean exits here. boring-math.com/calculators/in…

Inflation surges due to oil shocks. None of the prior episodes had U.S. interest payments reach 5% of GDP. None. Expect inflation to surge again, with the Fed having to justify a rate cut. That is certainly not priced in markets today. open.substack.com/pub/tavicosta/… Great chart from @leadlagreport

@Cointelegraph 5.2% expectations means people think a dollar today will be worth about 95 cents next year. Sounds small until you compound it. At that rate, your savings lose half their purchasing power in under 14 years. boring-math.com/calculators/in…

🇺🇸 NOW: US 12-month inflation expectations have surged to 5.2%, the highest since March 2023.