Radical Personal Finance

I'm hosting a special Q&A series this week which is open to the entire listening audience. Today we tackle: What Should I Do With a Large Bonus? How Can I Counsel a Young Lady Who Is Using Her Earnings to Support Her Poor Mother? If you'd like to call in for tomorrow's show, here are the details you need to know. Joshua

On Friday's, we do Q&A for our Patrons! Today, we cover: Should I Use a Whole Life Insurance Policy as My Retirement Bridge? Should I Concentrate All of My Investment Accounts With One Manager? Joshua I forgot to mention at the end of the discussion...if you sign up for a free Personal Capital account with this link, I get a small commission. www.radicalpersonalfinance.com/personalcapital IRS instruction on avoiding the early distribution penalty: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-tax-on-early-distributions Here are the call-in instructions for next week's special call-in shows. httpshttps://twitter.com/JoshuaSheats/status/913854177721376768://twitter.com/JoshuaSheats/status/913854177721376768

I feel like I owe it to you to keep you semi-current on the state of tax policy in the USA. But, it's too early to have any serious details about the current Republican proposals. I thought instead we could have a useful philosophical discussion about taxation. My challenge to you today is to answer these questions, for yourself. Do you believe that a civil government has the moral right to tax an individual's income? Why or why not? Do you believe that the US civil government has the constitutional right to tax an individual's income? If you believe that a civil government does have this right, how much of a person's income can they claim? What's the right number and how would you know? Do you believe that everyone should be required to pay income taxes? Do you believe that some people should be treated differently than others and so be ordered to pay a different rate of income tax than others? Why or why not? If so, how would we determine who should be treated differently and how much of a difference there should be? Do you believe that government tax policy should be used to incentivize certain behaviors or to dis-incentivize other behaviors? If so, how would we know what behaviors should be incentivized and which ones shouldn't? Do you believe that tax policy should be used to give some people special benefits because of certain behaviors? Joshua

Today's question involves a generous financial gift from an in-law. How should this listener handle it to make sure it's a blessing and not a curse? Joshua Support RPF on Patreon: www.radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron

I'm just wrapping up a week and I've been off the mic for all of it due to being sick. Wanted to share with you a short motivational monologue to encourage you to keep pressing forward in the challenges you're facing today. This too shall pass. Joshua

I've been sick most of the past week and am especially struggling with my throat/voice. When Joshua no speak, RPF no happen. (And of course that's a good reminder of the value of disability planning!) So, in light of the Equifax breach, I'll issue this replay for you. If you skipped this episode when it originally aired as Episode 461, don't skip it now. Enjoy. Joshua

Today we tackle the Equifax security breach. This is the most damaging release of personal information ever. And you need to take it seriously. You must assume that you have been affected. At this point, I see no reason to even trust the official Equifax website. Here's why. Clark Howard's excellent credit freeze guide: http://clark.com/personal-finance-credit/credit-freeze-and-thaw-guide/ Another excellent one by the Justin Carroll and Michael Bazzell: https://privacy-training.com/CreditFreeze.pdf I forgot to mention this on the show, but here's a link for those of you who are readers of the resources. The IRS seems to use social media to find people committing tax fraud. Source: http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2017/08/the-irs-is-mining-taxpayer-data-on-social-media-in-violation-of-federal-privacy-law.html The official Equifax response website: www.equifaxsecurity2017.com Why the Equifax breach is possibly the worst leak of personal information ever. What should you do if your data was hacked? The novel I mentioned: True Faith And Allegiance, a Tom Clancy novel by Mark Greaney

I was inspired to do this show by watching a recent conversation thread in the RPF Facebook Group about where to store your emergency fund. I thought it'd be fun to share with you the things I think about with regard to emergency fund storage. Enjoy the show! Joshua www.radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron

Hey Radicals! Thank you to so many of you who have inquired of our health and safety following Hurricane Irma. Here's my personal report for you! Short version: we are well. :) Joshua

I've been busy today preparing for Hurricane Irma here at the Radical Personal Finance Global Headquarters. At the moment, the National Hurricane Center forecasts the eye of the storm to pass squarely over HQ. So, I thought I'd record a podcast and share a few things with you: Based on watching the Hurricane Irma frenzy, I'm convinced that "societal collapse" scenarios are plausible. I learned this at Costco yesterday. I'm also convinced we live in the greatest time to be alive and that there are so many tremendously powerful companies who are laser-focused on serving their customers. I learned this at Costco today. And from reading this article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/inside-story-what-took-keep-texas-grocery-chain-running-chip-cutter The final 20 minutes of the show involves an off-the-cuff discussion of practical hurricane preparation if you decide to stay put through a storm. Gotta run! Lots to do... Joshua