The costliest mistake: hedging inflation before checking the tax bill The costliest mistake I’m seeing right now: hedging inflation the loud way, gold here, broad commodities there, then getting clipped on April 15th. If tariffs pop and price levels grind higher (and, yes, tariff chatter is louder this year), a 7% pre-tax “hedge” that nets 4% after taxes isn’t a hedge; it’s a headache. The leak isn’t performance. It’s after-tax performance. Quick reality check, because the tax code isn’t shy about this stuff. Under current U.S. federal rules (2025): Most commodity funds that hold futures are taxed under Section 1256’s…

What tax pros wish everyone knew about card rewards Here’s the thing almost everyone misses about card rewards: for tax purposes, most of what you earn from swiping is treated like a discount, not income. That’s not a quirky loophole, it’s a long-standing IRS view. IRS Announcement 2002-18 says rewards earned by spending are purchase price adjustments (rebates), which means not taxable. If your 2% cash back knocks $20 off what you effectively paid for groceries, the IRS treats it like… you paid $20 less for groceries. Boring, but super helpful. Where people get tripped up, myself included years ago…

Wall Street’s not-so-secret retirement tax edge isn’t a hot stock tip, it’s timing. The biggest retirement wins usually come from how you sequence income across accounts and years, not from squeezing an extra 50 bps out of a dividend ETF. Sounds boring until you realize the difference between paying 0%, 15%, or 22% on the next dollar can be a five-figure swing over a decade. And right now, Q4 2025, timing matters because the calendar is doing half the work for you or against you. Here’s the plain-English setup. 2025 is the last full year before many individual tax cuts…