Personal Finance in the Real World
Taxes, Retirement, and the Financial Traps No One Warns You About
Most personal finance advice assumes a world without taxes, subsidy phaseouts, benefit penalties, or healthcare landmines. Real life is nothing like that.
This publication explains how U.S. tax law, benefit formulas, healthcare costs, and debt policy actually shape financial outcomes — often in ways that contradict mainstream advice.
Start Here (New Readers)
Not sure where to begin?
Approaching retirement?
➤ Why the 4% Rule Could Ruin Your RetirementStill working?
➤ Why a $20,000 Raise Doesn’t Feel Like a $20,000 RaiseEarly-career or significant student debt?
➤ Should You Save for Retirement or Pay Off Student Loans First?
Tax Policy and the Hidden Architecture of Retirement
These essays examine how America’s tax code and benefit system silently reward, punish, and distort financial behavior over a lifetime.
The Life-Cycle Inconsistency at the Center of U.S. Saving Policy (Paid)
Shows how Social Security taxation, Medicare IRMAA, ACA subsidies, and pre-tax retirement incentives push workers to over-save early and pay for it later. Includes the full academic paper currently under conference review.
Why a $20,000 Raise Doesn’t Feel Like a $20,000 Raise (Free)
Explains how wage gains are quietly erased by taxes, healthcare premiums, loan repayment systems, and benefit phaseouts.
Retirement Mechanics: Withdrawals, Debt, and Survival Math
These posts explain what actually determines retirement success — and why rules of thumb often fail.
Why the 4% Rule Could Ruin Your Retirement (Free)
Shows how fixed withdrawal strategies break once real taxes and real spending are included.
When Mortgage Debt Meets Retirement (Paid)
Explains why retirement tax structure — not investment returns — often determines whether mortgage debt becomes survivable or destructive.
The Sequence of Returns Puzzle (Free)
Explains why market crashes devastate retirees but barely affect workers — and how investing logic reverses across a lifetime.
Capital Protection, Inflation, and Safe Assets
These essays focus on preserving purchasing power when growth is no longer the goal.
Series I Bonds: Practical Guidance, Portfolio Applications, and Policy Pathways (Free)
Explains why I Bonds are one of the strongest consumer tools for inflation protection.
Series I Bonds vs. Bond Funds (Paid)
Compares decades of performance and shows why bond funds often fail precisely when safety matters most.
Early-Career Financial Strategy
Small decisions early grow into large consequences later.
Should You Save for Retirement or Pay Off Student Loans First? (Free)
Explains when debt elimination beats investing.
Health Insurance and Financial Risk
Most people don’t budget for the thing most likely to unravel their plan.
When HDHP Beats Standard: A GEHA Case Study (Free)
Shows why plan design matters more than deductibles.
About the Author
I write about personal finance from a tax-first, policy-aware perspective — focusing on how incentives, retirement systems, and healthcare rules affect real households, not theoretical ones.
My work emphasizes:
retirement taxation and distribution strategy
government benefit design
health-insurance economics
inflation protection
lifetime incentive analysis
Subscriptions
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