Category: 401k and Personal Finance

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401k and Personal Finance advice and tips uber-and-side-hustle

Tax season

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Uber Driving

Noted this: why the Uber 1099-k includes gross income (google search). The important part is: You report the 1099-K gross amount on your Schedule C, then deduct the fees and commissions as business expenses to ensure you are only taxed on your actual earnings, notes TurboTax and Stride Health. (this is from Google AI overview)

Btw, I am not sure if this is new for this year (tax year 2025). I assume if one has tax professionals do the tax, they will catch it. For those DIYers, or people who don’t drive a lot for Uber, this heads up may be relevant. Personally, I added up all the money I received from Uber (at my bank website), and added them up, before comparing with the tax summary from Uber.

Update 03-07-2026: Filed via Turbo Tax e-file.

Update 03-10-2026: I realized I forgot to expense the Internet (Broadband) cost, as both my wife and I work full time from home. Well, if there is any other significant reason that I need to amend the return, I would include that change as well. Otherwise, I just make a note here for myself – don’t forget to expense it next year.

Update 03-15-2026: both federal and state refunds are in my bank account.

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401k and Personal Finance

Regular 401k vs regular IRA

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我有个老的 401k plan, 要换 plan administrator (custodian), 我离开这家公司有13.5 年了，至少已经换过一次administrator – 昨天 (11/27/2025) 我干脆把它 roll over to IRA 了。*Update 12-01-2025, the money is already in my IRA account. I think partially because it’s inside the same administrator, the speed of moving is quite fast (one or two business days). I initiated on the Thanksgiving day, and the money arrived on Cyber Monday.

An old 401k account notified me recently they are going to change the plan administrator (again), and this is at least the second time they are making a change, and this time around I decided to roll over to my regular IRA instead of following/sticking with them.

Below is the Google search results comparing rollover to IRA or to new employer’s 401k plan. I copied the AI Overview below.

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Rolling over an old 401(k) to an IRA generally provides more investment choices and potentially lower fees, while rolling it into a new employer’s 401(k) is often simpler and consolidates accounts. The best option depends on your priorities, such as investment control versus administrative convenience, so compare the investment options and fees of both your new 401(k) plan and potential IRAs before deciding.

Roll over to an IRA

  • Pros:
    • Greater investment options: IRAs offer a much wider variety of investments, including stocks, bonds, ETFs, and REITs.
    • Potentially lower fees: You can often find an IRA with lower fees by choosing a low-cost brokerage.
    • Flexibility: You can manage your retirement savings separately from your current job.
  • Cons:
    • Potential for more complex management: Managing separate accounts can be more complicated.
    • Fewer creditor protections: IRA protections against creditors can vary by state and may be less robust than those for 401(k)s.
    • No loan options: You cannot take out a loan from an IRA, unlike a 401(k). 

Roll over to a new employer’s 401(k) 

  • Pros:
    • Simplicity: Consolidating your retirement funds into one account is often the easiest administrative option.
  • Cons:
    • Limited investment options: Your new employer’s plan may have a limited selection of investments.
    • Potentially higher fees: The new plan’s fees may be higher than those of an IRA.
    • Less control: Your new employer has control over the plan, including its features and fees. 

Other options 

  • Leave the money in the old plan: You can keep the money in your former employer’s 401(k) as long as the balance is over a certain threshold (typically $5,000). This is a good option if you are happy with the old plan’s performance and fees. (My comments: this is not an option sometimes. Larger employers usually allow this, but smaller employers usually don’t)
  • Cash out: While technically an option, cashing out your 401(k) is generally not recommended as it will result in immediate taxes and potential penalties, and you will lose tax-advantaged growth. 

How to decide

  • Compare your new 401(k) plan with potential IRAs. Look at the investment options, fees, and performance history of each.
  • Consider your retirement goals. If you want a wide range of investment options and control, an IRA may be better. If you prefer simplicity and easy administration, a new 401(k) might be suitable.
  • Consult a financial advisor. For personalized advice based on your specific financial situation, consult a financial advisor. 

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Again, IRA offers more investment choices (stocks, could be a double edge sword 🗡️), and consolidation of the accounts.

Talking about double edge sword。大概也是2011年到2014年之间，我把两个我做contractor (合同工）时候的小401k都roll over 到我的IRA里去了。当时里面总共大概有三万块钱：结果我炒股，把它变成了一万五还是一万二 :-(。大概到2019年我才回本：考虑通胀和机会成本，实际上还是亏的。所以说这是双刃剑 🙂

IRA 跟 401k 还有两个细微的区别：401k 是可以跟它借钱的，比如买房的时候；另外还有一个55岁时没有early withdrawal penalty 取钱的一种选择 (rule of 55)。IRA 没有这些选择。

Also, refer to my earlier posts on this topic, if you are interested. I changed quite a few employers in last 15 years or so, thus I have this problem.

Last but not least, Thoughts on retirement and retirement accounts

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401k and Personal Finance Music Stocks

Looking at Visa stock $V

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It seems I should have hold on to my $AXP American Express stocks in last few years, as I just look at the 3 main credit card companies in the US, note Visa and Mastercard are pure credit card networks, while American Express is essentially two companies: one is a bank, another one is also a credit card network (and it’s much smaller than Visa and Mastercard in that aspect). Here is their 5 year stock price comparison chart.

Warren Buffett Talks Visa and Mastercard (2018)

Peter Lynch

Also, I need to review this at 6 minutes mark more often: Peter Lynch: Why 1% Investors Don’t Fail. The Charlie Rose interview was done in 1993, I believe. Because they talked about Bill Clinton a lot, and some other clues.

I agree with Peter Lynch re: the 2 points that he raised.

ONE – Grass is greener on neighbor’s yard. In a recent blog post, I talked about a mechanical engineer chasing hot dot com or telecom stocks in 1999 here. I am guilty of this too.

TWO – Applicable to me very well: patience, $AXP is a good example of the stocks I owned but I traded it away too quickly. There are many similar examples. In the old days we have to pay transaction fees, and basically, it’s harder to make money with all the fees. Now, even without fees, we miss the upside of a stock if we don’t have patience (or faith, or confidence) on a stock. I agree with Peter this “quick trading” is similar to gambling 🎰. Update 11-14-2025: USA Today – There’s a reason you’re so hooked on soda. It’s not entirely your fault. While I usually don’t buy into the conspiracy theories, I do believe some of the promotional tactics that’s being used in the business (including Coca Cola and Pepsi) went a bit too far. Yeah, Robinhood App is included too.

Reference: Peter Lynch Wikipedia

Sell the winner and keep the losers

Something I realized that I was doing a lot recently. The initial reason or one common reason I don’t sell stocks was my long position is under water. But as I think more, I sold the winner instead – although I usually made a little bit of money. This strategy if amplified, would be really bad if the losers keep losing, e.g., $LULU, $WSC and previously $LEG and so on. I really need to re-examine my strategy here. It’s not about the monetary loss, but more about the opportunity cost as well as over-diworsify. I think ideally, I want to own 10 or fewer stocks and have time do research on them. Otherwise, it’s just like gambling: which I want to stay away from, and which is also the one reason I am trying to use less Robinhood App.

The reason I was talking about or reflecting here is because over the time I realized that #discipline is the key to investing success. And I need more of that.

More on discipline: I think it probably means I should reduce the number of stocks I own at one time, as well as the screen time on the stock trading apps.

(Update 11-12-2025) This tweet caught my attention.

If you put 2% of your portfolio into something and it became a 10 bagger, I’m not impressed. But if you put 20% in and it became a 10 bagger, that’s real skill. The difference isn’t just in return, it’s in conviction. How much you allocate before the outcome is known says far more about your investment acumen than the result ever will.

Warren Buffett’s 2 approaches to diversification:

“Very few people have gotten rich on their seventh best idea, but a lot of people have gotten rich on their best idea…”

Deleting the trading apps on my phone?

I actually did it a few times. Last few days I happened to listen to this song – 烟 (许佳豪) – 删了吧『要不你还是把我删了吧，我咬紧牙关命令我发出这句话。』【動態歌詞】 || 何璟昕 (Ayen) – 刪了吧（粵語版）『終於你決定把我刪了吧，如此不上心竟開始應復都無暇，無心的我道出一聲晚安吧 你滿足嗎。』【動態歌詞MV】

Different topic, but same idea. I recall the pre mobile phone days, the life is much simpler, and we don’t have to deal with deleting someone from our WeChat contacts, or text messages and so on. Similar for stock trading too – we only have access to the computer at the brokerage firm, and a lot of people have to share that computer. Unless you really have a lot of money and you will have access to the VIP room at the brokerage firm.

Strategy shift over the years

(Update 11-13-2015) I believe that’s how Warren Buffett did over the years. For example, he did “cigar butt” style of investing, and eventually switched over to Coca Cola, Gillette and American Express “blue chip” types of companies. The recent example is Apple.

I think I need to similar switches for some of my accounts, e.g. the original Robinhood App account.

Plan of attack: I have 27 shares of $V now, and my initial plan is to hold both meaningful number of shares of $V (30?) and $MA (20?), for longer term. That means I will sell some smaller stock positions.

K shaped stock market

I talked about K shaped economy here. Also refer to CNBC – AI stock boom leaves many behind, economist says: ‘It really widens the wealth and income gap’

It seems to me the stock market is also K shaped, in the sense that big tech and AI/semiconductors companies were doing very well in last few years, while the rest of the market, including the rest of the S&P 500 companies were just doing so-so. Per Google AI Overview “how much stock market gain is due to ai”:

Artificial intelligence (AI)-related stocks have been a highly concentrated force in the recent stock market rally, accounting for approximately 75% of the S&P 500’s total returns since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. (Source: Fortune; moneycontrol)

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401k and Personal Finance

New Roth Catch-Up Requirement for certain employees in 2026

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Received below from the HR department of the company I am working for.

New Roth Catch-Up Requirement
Starting January 1, 2026, a new rule under the SECURE 2.0 Act will impact how certain employees can make catch up contributions to the Enterprise Holdings Retirement Savings Plan.


What’s Changing?
If you’re turning age 50 or older in 2026 and your total 2025 FICA wages (Box 3 on your 2025 form W-2) are over $145,000, any catch-up contributions you make in 2026 are required to be after-tax Roth contributions.


What does this mean for you?
If your FICA wages are over $145,000 in 2025, catch-up contributions must be made as after-tax Roth contributions in 2026. This will be done automatically thru our payroll department.
If your FICA wages are $145,000 or less in 2025, this regulation will not apply to you, and no changes will be made to your catch-up contributions.


What are Catch-Up Contributions?
Catch-Up contributions are extra contributions that participants aged 50 and over can make into their retirement plan. Participants 50 and over can contribute $7,500 above the standard limit of $23,500 (for 2025), and participants aged 60 – 63 can contribute $11,250 more than the standard limit (for 2025).
Effective January 1, 2026, catch-up contributions will be automatically made as after-tax Roth contributions for employees whose FICA wages were over $145,000 in 2025.
If you do not want to make Roth catch-up contributions in 2026, you will need to change your 401k contribution rate to 0% before you reach the 2026 standard limit. The IRS has not announced the 2026 standard limit yet; however, it was $23,500 in 2025.


What are Roth Contributions?
Roth contributions are after-tax contributions, which grow tax-free and can be withdrawn tax-free in retirement, as long as five years have passed since your first Roth contribution, and you have attained the age of 59½.


Steps you can take now
• Talk to a financial or tax advisor to understand how this change may affect your retirement strategy.

References

2026 Retirement Plan Contribution Limits and Catch-Up Rules (Mercer Advisors)

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401k and Personal Finance Stocks

My quick thoughts on the US stock market

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(Update 11-23-2025) YT – 隐枫视野 – 【第448期】AI泡沫崩盘，死得最惨的会是这个巨头

(blog.wenxuecity.com) 我对最近AI泡沫的思考 by lionhill

(fortune.com) Analyst who called the dot-com bubble says Americans are turning a deaf ear to AI warnings—and a worse meltdown than 2008 looms

(Update 11-06-2025) This indicator hasn’t flashed this red since the dot-com bubble

Shiller PE Ratio – Multpl

(Original) It seems to me the US stock market is defying the gravity and common valuation metrics, and going up higher and higher everyday, with the booming of AI.

Personally I tend to agree with Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha and the greatest investor of all time, that the market is overvalued. He sits on the sideline with over $300 billions cash (technically, it’s the 3 month US treasury bonds). And btw, I own some Berkshire Hathaway B shares – my goal, is to own enough of those for my kids college and my own retirement 🙂

I remember the bubble during the dot com days (1999). The Dot-com bubble. And the burst afterwards. In fact I got my 1st job offer on March 2020, and I remember the Nasdaq hit all time high (over 5,000) in that same month. It took many years for Nasdaq come back to that level, after the crash.

I also remember in 1999, when I was a graduate student in Rolla (now Missouri S&T), once I was traveling with an engineer from DayCo. DayCo is the sponsor of our research project. And this engineer has his training and specialty in mechanical engineering, but he was buying some fiber optics or networking companies left and right. That’s what Greenspan (the fed chair then) called Irrational Exuberance: “The phrase was interpreted as a warning that the stock market might be overvalued.” (from Wikipedia)

Another old story or tale is probably around 1929, when the shoe-shining man started to tell the pros what stock to buy. I had a similar experience recently: not from shoe-shine man, but from a friend whom I believe has more limited experience on stocks and markets. The friend is suggesting buy AI stocks, all-in, don’t use the brain 🙂

Personally I felt we are in the melt-up phase. The recent deals around OpenAI all sound quite fishy. And someday the judgment will come (as said in the Bible, or if we put it in the biblical perspective). I just don’t know when. In the mean time, I will sit tight, save some dry powder (cash), and act when that opportunity presents itself.

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401k and Personal Finance

Thoughts on retirement and retirement accounts

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For example, if one can earn meaningful amount of money from the 401k (paper gain) and that amount is equal or bigger than salary, and the person is over 59 and half, can he/she consider retirement? I recall there is a YT video on this – maybe this one by Azul – Research Shows This Is The Perfect Age To Retire (this is an interesting point: see if you can retire the debt including the mortgage before retirement).

Roth Conversion

Vanguard: IRA Roth conversion

Also:

Roth 401k: Roth comparison chart (IRS)

Average Joe and Jane

CBS News Money Watch article below

More Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, putting retirement out of reach, report finds

Left behind retirement accounts? (can I have some, joking)

A new 401(k) rule is coming in 2026 for millions of high-earning Americans — what to know if you’re in this group

Btw, came across this from Medium recently: The Retirement Myth: What Most Americans Really Do After They Stop Working

I loved this comment: “No such thing when it comes to retirees. I see two groups, one that does what you said (and typically dies with as much money in accounts as when they retired) and one that get healthy and stays healthy and gets busy intentionally creating and enjoying life! From what I see it’s about a 70-30 split with 70% ding very little – but the 30% are having a great time!! You have to choose which group to be in before your health choses for you. The Lie of Later: How ‘Future Time Slack’ Is Stealing Your Retirement – now I realized this article is really appliable to everyone, both active workers and retirees.”

My own video

This morning, I also talked about aging, retirement and related topics on my morning walk via YT. Or you can watch from Bilibili (link here) if you are inside China.

PS:

(YT, audio only) Charlie Munger No. 1 investment tips for those over 50

(YT, Holy Schmidt!) 6 SECRETS Retirees Should NEVER Disclose

I’m 81 and live in my RV for half the year. I didn’t save enough for retirement, so I stay afloat by ‘work camping’ and DoorDash driving. (I read it from Yahoo and it didn’t have paywall)

Americans are living longer, but many are making a costly mistake about old age (CBS News)

You can live healthy to 100, author says, Here’s the secret (Yahoo)

(YT) This 104 old’s life advice will blow your mind

(CNBC) This is the ‘biggest mistake’ you can make with your IRA, attorney says

(Update 11-14-2025 Yahoo Finance) Health & wealth check-up: How a financial adviser can help

(Update 11-18-2025 YT) How Do I Pay For Health Insurance if I Retire Early

(Update 12-31-2025 CNBC) Rule expands penalty-free early 401(k) withdrawals — but new use ‘might not be practical,’ advisor says. Let me quote some below:

If you reach your 65th birthday, you have about a 70% chance of needing some form of long-term care services and support, according to a 2020 estimate from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. On average, women who require care need it longer — 3.7 years, versus 2.2 years for men. While a third of 65-year-olds will never need long-term care, 20% will end up requiring it for more than five years...

For example, the cost of a home health aide reached an annual median cost of $77,792 last year, up 3% from 2023, according to the 2024 Cost of Care survey conducted by Genworth Financial. The national annual median cost of a semiprivate room in a nursing home rose to $111,325, up 7% from 2023. For a private room, the median yearly cost climbed 9% to $127,750.

(Update 02-17-2026) You need $2 million to retire and ‘almost no one is close,’ BlackRock CEO warns, a problem that Gen X will make ‘harder and nastier’

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401k and Personal Finance advice and tips Life Life Tips Software development

When should I retire

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The best time is now; the second-best time is tomorrow. –anonymous

After 25 years career I finally got an office with windows

Career

Per my age and typical stereotype, I think I am expected to wind down my career in the software field now (my LinkedIn profile here). I understand career is more than a LinkedIn profile or a resume, but here in the USA IT IS one of those things that MATTER, in addition to title, experience and compensation history. Useless or but fun fact: I started my LinkedIn profile in 2008, about 17 years ago.

US companies are mostly snobs, in my not too humble opinions. I mean CEOs or the higher ups, not the average Jane and Joe. Doesn’t matter whatever they say publicly – their mission is making money for the owners, not for employees. This is quite obvious from the recent high-profile layoffs such as Amazon laying off 14,000 back-office people/white collar workers last week.

And I have my favorite quote related to that topic too. When questions by reporters why he took $55 million exit package in 2002, when he was forced out, former CEO of EDS, Electronic Data Systems, Dick Brown famously said: I have an expensive wife. I know I know, I don’t have expensive wife. But I also have two daughters who like to buy things. Or should I ass that they have good taste? 🙂

Sorry a bit off topic 🙂 Last month (Oct 2025) I passed 25 years’ work anniversary in the USA. I started working here on Oct 2nd, 2000. A lot has changed since I started working here. I have seen quite a bit of industry underwent paradigm shift. From the Internet bubble (web 1.0) burst to web 2.0 (remember delicious, Flickr and digg.com?). And now we have web 3.0 and more. My career wise, I changed from working in the CAD software to mostly enterprise web applications, with a bit of consulting and iOS dev in between.

I don’t want to be forced out

I have seen coworkers who are about 50 years old, being laid off, at multiple places. Some of them were caught off guard. I was much younger or a bit younger then. Now I am at that age. And I don’t want to be in their shoes. I have literally seen grownups crying when they got laid off.

Also, right now I felt I can still do some meaningful work. If the time comes that I feel I cannot contribute in a meaningful way, I will just quit.

Re: AI, we all know the AI is causing a lot of disruptions and anxiety among IT/software workers nowadays. But I also believe at least for now, my job is not impacted. And if I can learn those AI tools and they can actually help me doing my job.

How much money is enough

One problem is most of us don’t know the answer to “how much money is enough?”. Or my favorite answer is “a little bit more” (it’s both a joke and also has some truth to it).

But seriously I need to think about this question as the date of retirement is approaching, either I want to face it or not. Some of the things I am thinking about regarding this topic.

1. My retirement is probably going to be different from my parents’ retirement. They have a more traditional retirement. My dad has a pension, and I don’t. And they stopped working completely when they retire. I think I will likely do some work (not too strenuous), for example, I will manage my 401k and IRAs, as well as doing other things I like to do (music, walking outside, does that include swimming??? 🙂 And some social life too (not drinking at the bar, I mean probably I am good enough, I can play music at the bar, again just for fun, not for money 🙂

Do I continue to mow my lawns? If I am health enough and feel like it. If not, I can either outsource it or sell the house and move to a townhouse or condo. Note selling the house will be a joint decision not solely mine.

2. I will probably have some hobbies and some travel. But probably equally important, I need to manage my 401k and IRAs, making sure they have decent return and will last. This is also something my parents don’t do. Sorry I am getting repetitive here – signs of my age and the need to retire 🙂

Still TBD as of 11-03-2025 (JIRA board doesn’t look good in terms of velocity 🙂

I need to calculate how much my 401k and IRAs were earning in last 3 5 or 10 years or so. If the total earnings (capital gain + dividend) are approaching my take home pay of my day job, that will be a good sign. Obviously, I need to fact into my financial obligations: the big-ticket item will be my kid’s college costs, and it will also be a big unknown because the US higher education industry is very similar to the US healthcare industry in terms of price transparency 🙂 You may read more about the college cost here as I learned last year. Note that’s applicable for the American students only (I assume US citizens and permanent residents, not sure about the children of visa holders), and not for the international students. Consult an expert on this topic, if applicable.

3. When applicable, I am thinking some side hustles including but not limiting to Uber or eBay to make some money and have something to do.

Cannot counting on that for meaningful amount of money though – ideally main income stream should come from investments, as said in this old saying “if you don’t make money when you sleep, you will work until you die.” I for one definitely don’t want to work until I die.

PS:

(YT 油管）75-Year-Olds Share Their Biggest Regret at 55

(YT 油管）Ayen何璟昕 – 時間不等你【粵語新歌】 [Official Music Video]

(Old blog post from yours truly, originally written about 20 years ago) Monday is not my favorite day

YT Shorts: Early retirees shares truth about early retirement

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401k and Personal Finance

My Plan for my old daughter’s 529 Plan

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I don’t have a lot of money in the 529 plan. And all is in the Vanguard S&P 500 index fund (Vanguard 500 Index Option).

I am thinking, if/when the S&P 500 index bounces back to the previous high (6,147.43), I am going to start convert some of S&P 500 index fund into Vanguard High Yield Corporate Option (something similar to this, I think). I will do it in the increment of 5% or 10%.

Here is 5 year chart comparison between the two Vanguard funds (stock vs bond). And the max comparison: bond start from 05/17/85; stocks from 11/03/00.

I also googled – is there a period bond performed better than stock. And some more readings for me.

How often do bonds outperform stocks?

How Often Do Long-Term Bonds Beat Stocks?

7 Reasons Not to Use a 100% Stock Portfolio

This will be a good exercise for me in terms of withdrawing from an account: converting from stocks to cash over the time etc.

(Update 05-16-2025) I did one percent conversion today, from S&P to high yield bond fund. Was 100% S&P, after today it should be 99% S&P, 1% bond.

Before and after

(05-27-2025) 98% vs 2% now

(06-18-2025) 97% vs 3% as the market close on 06-20-25. I submitted the request a bit late and didn’t make it to Wednesday’s cutoff, and Thursday 6/19 is Juneteenth holiday and no stock market in the USA.

(06-24-2025) It appears the above exchange did not happen, as I saw the below message from the account:

Exchange your assets
Your last exchange was processed on May 27, 2025. You have performed the two exchanges that are permitted in this calendar year per IRS regulations. You will be allowed to exchange again on Jan 1, 2026.

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401k and Personal Finance

Say bye to Robinhood Gold, for now

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Today I decided to pull the plug on Robonhood Gold. I joined the Gold last year to take advantage of the 3% match of Roth IRA, which is $240 for $8,000 worth of IRA. But in last few years, I am increasingly tired of their gimmicky, including but not limited to the expansion to Cryptos (remember they did the countdown around the new year, and give away Dogecoin and bitcoin), and now I started to appreciate what Charlie Munger said about them (a casino).

Full disclosure: I participated in one of the countdown and received 18.67 units of Dogecoin, worth $3.40 today, down $2.55 from the day I received it (I think it was 12/31/2024). Personally I am with Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger re: cryptos, and I think they are poos.

I will probably pull out my money when there is no fees associated with the withdrawal. Also note I am a very early customer of Robinhood back in year 2015 when they were brand new, and I do appreciate their zero transaction fee revolution to the brokerage industry. But it seems now they are the bad guys: which is not uncommon – somewhat reminds me of this blog post, and this video: I recall Mearsheimer commented the youth will be corrupted when they rose to the power.

Tariff impact in the USA

(The Guardian) From peppercorns to plastic forks: US businesses that rely on Chinese products reel from Trump tariffs

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401k and Personal Finance uber-and-side-hustle

Turbo Tax Desktop and doing tax for eBay and Uber

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Chinese version (translated by Google) is here: 谷歌翻译的中文版在这里。

Turbo Tax web vs Desktop

I switched from Turbo Tax Web version to Desktop version in last 4 years. The main reason is the latter is cheaper (if we consider both the state and tax). It’s probably $40 to $50 cheaper. Before the switch I used the web version for 20 years. I was happy with the web version for the most part: had one or two minor glitches during 20 years journey. One glitch was on me: it was quite a few years ago, 15 to 20 years ago, when I was working for my 1st employer then. That year I purchased the Turbo Tax state (online version) too, and I also purchased the audit defense. But the stupid program allowed me to put in a negative number for the income in the state tax form, and state rejected the tax filing out of box. It was not too difficult to fix that – zero out the number did the trick if my memory is correct. But after that I decided for the state filing I would just use the online PDF form (with calculation capability), and mail in the tax form to the Jeff City instead.

Also, once I made a bad mistake. I installed the desktop version on my personal laptop MacBook Pro 16 inch Intel. And it crashed on me, and I didn’t have backup copy for the Turbo Tax filing file after filing. I recall from my past experience, Turbo Tax usually started from last year’s return, and at one time I was quite worried. Later luckily I was able to find out the actual e-filing from Uncle Sam’s website. Nowadays I store the Turbo Tax filing file on the cloud – feel a bit safer than my local desktop or laptop 🙂

Last tip for Turbo Tax Web: one can always use it for free (without filing), so for example, if you do it manually (say on paper, or via Excel), you can still use Turbo Tax Web, solely for calculation, comparison or verification purpose.

Retailer (where I buy the Turbo Tax software)

I think I paid about $82 for premier at Amazon.com this year. Today (02-02-2025) I saw Costco U city has $15 instant rebate on the top of that ($82). So next year I may buy from Costco instead of Amazon. For Amazon I download the software from their website: used to be Amazon, this year it’s Intuit the company behind Turbo Tax. I expect buying from Costco will be similar.

Do we want Audit Defense?

I got it last year – and I plan to continue to get it this year.

Some notes for me this year

eBay sent me a 1099-K. New for me this year. I am in the process of itemize the cost. This is more tedious than I thought initially. Here is some guidelines from Turbo Tax, btw. I may end up doing it as business too (see Uber below).

(Update 02-24-2025) I did more reading, mainly from

A Tax Filing Factsheet for eBay Sellers (Turbo Tax) and What to do with Form 1099-K (IRS). I decided to go with the Schedule C route (Below Uber is similar).

In my personal opinion, this approach is better than the other Form 8949 approach as implicitly suggested by the Turbo Tax.

Uber driving is also new to me. didn’t send me 1099-K as I didn’t meet their income threshold of $5,000. I mainly followed this Turbo Tax knowledge article as well the Turbo Tax Desktop Premier for this. I took the mileage standard deduction: used the online miles. And I used the tax summary from Uber (available in the Uber Driver App go to Account => Tax Doc) for the online mileages. Overall I am quite happy with the milage deduction (business expense, schedule C).

Summary for reporting taxes for eBay and Uber: again this is new to me. I learned two things: 1) Schedule C for business expense, reporting etc; 2) Refer to IRS website and their document as needed. In the past I mostly rely on Turbo Tax, or google. This time around I still use google, but Google pointed me to the IRS website. It’s good.

Keep things in perspective on Uber driving: the number one priority is always your (driver) safety, passenger safety and overall happiness. Money or tax saving for that matter, should not be a priority compared to the things I just mentioned. It’s more like icing on the cake. The cake itself better to be good – otherwise say if there are too many lemons among passengers, I will quit. This should be applicable to many things in life too, your day job, your other side gigs, and so on. I know I probably say it from somewhat privileged view point – as I do have some savings that allow to me “don’t have to work” for a while, if needed. Again keep things in perspective, I have worked in the USA for almost 25 years. I am at a stage of winding down my day job (career for some more career minded people, no judgement from yours truly here). At the same time, I am thinking about what I want to do after my retirement from my day job. Hint: I posted some plan here. But again, this is subject to change without any notice – the main stakeholders I need to notify is my wife and kids. I want to make sure they are comfortable, and can still splurge as they choose so.

Stocks: one of my favorite topics :-). For my 2 small regular brokerage accounts anyway: one again I traded too much and don’t have much gain to show for. So that’s my main lesson – I need to stick to the winners and hopefully stay away from the losers all together 🙂 Majority of my money (401k, HSA and 529 plans) are in S&P 500 index funds or equivalent. I do have two IRA accounts too: and I trade stocks there, and I am very pleased to announce that my luck there is better than the “2 small regular brokerage accounts” 🙂

State filing is included in the Turbo Tax desktop. One thing I noticed is 529 plan can save some state income taxes. (02-25-2025) Just realized the e-filing for the state is $25 or $40 extra. I decided to file via paper to save that money. (Update 03-04-2025) I sent the state filing tax via USPS mail. The postage is about $3.43 + printing cost which is about 8 cents x 42 pages = $3.36. Total is about $6.79 which is a bit cheaper than about $20 e-filing via Turbo Tax ($25 plus $5 off offer from couple of my Chase CC).

Some Odds and Ends

Probably more than 20 years ago, I recall my big boss has an Excel spreadsheet for tax filing, and he offered to co-workers. I didn’t take the offer. I think it may be a cheaper and better option, but I already fell into the Turbo Tax rabbit hole.

There is a common American saying: only death and taxes are certain 🙂

Other Choices

FreeTaxUSA.com

HR Block

TaxSlayer

Full Disclosure:

Not tax advice. Please consult a professorial tax advisor (an accountant, or a CPA) as needed.

I don’t receive any compensation from Turbo Tax. And I don’t have Inuit $INTU individual stock right now (02-26-2025). The reason I say individual stock is I do have S&P 500 index fund, and I assume $INTU is in the S&P 500.

(Update 03-04-2025) YT: Mass IRS Layoffs — How It Affects Your Tax Refund & Audits! by ClearValue Tax

(Update 03-05-2025) The Tennessean: 2025 tax season off to slow start amid federal layoffs, hiring freeze. Will refunds be affected? What to know

(Update 03-11-2025) Filed and accepted on Tue, Feb 25 – I just saw refund money hit the bank via DD 🙂 Total is about 2 weeks.