Alexis Akira Toda

Alexis Akira Toda

Mathematical economist

Great Barrington Declaration

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I have just signed the Great Barrington Declaration.

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Tracking cash flow

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In this post, I mentioned that I tracked every single penny of my spending from 2008 to 2022, but I stopped because there was little room left to improve my behavior, and the opportunity cost of keeping track of everything was too high. During this period, I tracked my income and expenditures by manually entering items in an app and using (now discontinued) Mint.com.

Capital One Quicksilver 0% intro APR (3)

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In my post, I mentioned that I have been happy with the Capital One Quicksilver Card because it offered 0% intro APR for 15 months (and the card has no annual fee and gives 1.5% cash back on all purchases).

I referred my wife to open an account, and we both received the referral bonus. But what has been truly great is the targeted deals through Capital One Shopping. We are now remodelling our two bathrooms that are over 20 years old. As my wife has been searching for fixtures, she has started receiving targeted deals from Home Depot, Lowe’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc., often offering 15% cash back. Furthermore, the timing of our remodelling coincided with Black Friday/Cyber Week sales (of course, intentionally), so we often get an additional 20% off from the merchants. Overall, I think we saved a few thousand dollars by optimizing credit card use.

I highly recommend the card to anybody. If you open an account by clicking this link, you will receive an extra sign-up bonus.

Saving taxes through UTMA accounts

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While studying how to legally save on taxes, I realized the following trick.

  1. Transfer appreciated stocks to your child’s UTMA (Uniform Transfers to Minors Act) custodial account.
  2. Sell the stock while keeping the capital gains within $1,350.
  3. Use the fund in whatever way you like.

This procedure completely avoids capital gains tax (15% at my tax bracket). The reason is that the standard deduction for a child is $1,350, so as long as income is below that amount, there is no need to file or pay taxes.

I wish I had known about this trick earlier, but it’s better to learn about it later than never. As I have substantial shares of VTI that I bought in 2010 for $60 per share but are now valued at around $335, I transferred a few shares to my kids’ UTMA accounts and sold them. Turning appreciated stocks into cash is almost alchemy.