Alexis Akira Toda

Alexis Akira Toda

Mathematical economist

On illegal immigrants

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If a person enters my house without my permission, I suppose I have the right to ask them to leave, and if they refuse, I may force them to leave. By analogy, if a person crosses the border into a country without the government’s permission, I suppose the government has the right to ask the person to leave, and if they refuse, they may force them to leave. Therefore, I see no problem with some governments cracking down on illegal immigration and attempts to deport illegal immigrants (although there may be exceptions on an individual basis, for example, children who were taken to the country by their illegal immigrant parents and grew up for quite some time, losing ties to their country of birth). It is just common sense, following from the fundamental principle of a liberal society that honors property rights. A corollary of this argument is that I do not understand why some people (typically the radical left or whatever they are called) organize protests against the crackdown on illegal immigration.

Let me point out that I am an immigrant (of course, legally) to the United States, and I am in favor of immigration because it brings competition, diversity, and other benefits. I would say a large fraction of scientists in the United States are immigrants, and without them, scientific progress will be much slower. Let me also point out that I have nothing personal against illegal immigrants: the lack of legal status is their problem as well as the government’s, not mine. In fact, if an illegal immigrant comes to my house and offers to do some chore (like cleaning the yard or working as an Uber driver) at below minimum wage, I would happily take the offer. After thinking this way, perhaps the radical left organizing protests against the crackdown on illegal immigration is rational. Maybe they consist of small business owners who would like to hire illegal immigrants at below minimum wage. But then they should protest against the minimum wage, not illegal immigration.

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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.