The Blue Board

I usually get paid cash from working on boats, but this year I had a W2 from a real job

had to file an extension b/c i didnt get one of my income forms back ... not getting a refund this year thats for sure

Just wait until you have kids. Then you get serious cash back.

Hint: if you have kid in December, you still get as much as if they were born the previous January.

Of course when you move up tax brackets, the IRS isn't as kind.

With my 403b, Roth, TRS, and I-bonds I had well over $30k of tax-deferred space. Not to mention no state income tax in Texas. Being a full-time student as well, my effective tax-rate for '11 was negative...very much so. Took care of this in late January and immediately fully funded my Roth for '12 and bought more I-bonds.

The key is setting up a not for profit charity that the founder runs behind the scenes.

I advise a cash-only business like drug dealing. Just can't be flashy about it.

We just had our first one...only took like $850 off our tax bill

It's not rocket science, people just don't want to save. Our tax system greatly rewards those of us willing to do so. My total expenses(excluding schools costs) were ~$10k for the entire year. Aiming for less this year because I now commute almost exclusively by bike; gas costs so far for the year...$43. And I am done with school FOREVER in July so that frees up another $20k or so a year to invest.

I have a family friend who never made close to 6 figures and retired at 45. Screw working.

Already had a kid, paying for her dental school and then divorcing her cost me well over $100k.

I don't remember anymore how much you get, but ours was always over $1000 per the first year. No, it's not worth what they cost at all. I kind of meant it as a joke to Scoot.

When we added up day care and the such, I would say we got $3 or 4000 per child and that was years ago. The youngest was out of day care almost 3 years ago.

First thing you have to do is get a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the IRS. It takes some work to figure out how to balance your "real year end profits" and "Charitable contributions". Each person could go about it differently and there's no way anyone should divulge how they go about it on a message board. Just know, it can be done and you end up looking like a saint and smelling like a rose.