Personal finance for people who want to be great with money — written by the friend who already is.
Bracket management, entity structure, timing moves, and the handful of deductions civilians consistently miss — from a CPA who thinks in twelve-month cycles.
The framework
Most people meet their tax bill in April. That's exactly six months too late. Every dollar of good tax planning lives in the decisions you make before December 31.
Know your marginal rate the way you know your zip code.
Every big financial decision — Roth conversion, capital gain, bonus timing — is a bracket question in disguise.
Sole prop, LLC, S-corp — the right one quietly compounds for a decade.
Wrong at $50k is cheap. Wrong at $250k is a five-figure annual mistake.
The same dollar of income or deduction is worth wildly different amounts in different years.
Accelerate, defer, or bunch. The calendar is a tool, not a constraint.
Every clever position has to survive a bad day at the IRS.
If it only works when nobody's looking, it doesn't work. Aggressive is fine. Fragile is not.
Voices on this desk
Joining soon
The CPA
Fifteen years at the Big Four, then five years running her own practice. Believes most people overpay taxes by five figures without knowing it.
Joining soon
The Tax Strategist
Twenty years structuring tax positions for high earners. Believes most of the good moves happen before December.
On this desk
Jul 14
Issue #6
Not clever. Not aggressive. Just the boring, high-leverage moves most people forget until it's too late.
1 min read
Time-sensitive
Jul 8
Issue #23
Nine moves that only work if you make them before December 31. A seasonal playbook, not a to-do list.
1 min read
Time-sensitive
Jun 30
Issue #7
The multi-year plan that turns a few low-income years into a permanent reduction in lifetime tax.
1 min read
Evergreen
The Desk Reads
Sources we track — not endorsements. The Smart Money reads widely and writes its own take. When a dispatch draws on one specifically, it's cited at the bottom.
Established sources
The only publication that changes the rules.
Policy behind the paperwork.
Practitioner-grade updates.
Retirement-tax crossover.
Bracket management, bunching, conversion strategy.
The most readable tax journalist working.
Technical depth for the Audit-Proof Standard.
Distributional data and policy-shift analysis.
Rising voices
FI + taxes at Office Hours tone.
Retirement Tax Podcast — Steven Jarvis
Plain-English tax moves for regular households.
Real-time expert commentary the day rules change.
Primary & data sources
Every Seasonal Playbook deadline.
IRS annual inflation adjustments
Bracket, deduction, and limit updates each fall.
Follow just this desk
Just the Tax Desk — twelve-month planning, no April scrambles.
The weekly dispatch
The kind of financial advice you'd get from a friend who's already figured it out. No hot takes, no leaderboards, no affiliate hustle.