Workingman’s Blues
Allan Rolnick, CPA Turn the dial on the Wayback Machine to September 5, 1882. Most Americans work 12 hours per day, seven days per week, often in physically demanding jobs under unsafe conditions. “Helicopter parenting” doesn’t exist yet because the kids are working in factories, farms, and mines. A group of 10,000 men risk their […]
If I Had a Hammer
Allan Rolnick, CPA When you hear the name Abraham Maslow, you probably think of his hierarchy of needs: a pyramid, starting with a base of life-sustaining fundamentals like air, food, and water at the bottom, progressing upward through shelter and security, love and belonging, self-esteem, and finally an aspirational triangle of self-actualization at the top. […]
Notebooks, and Knapsacks, and Knickknacks, Oh My!
Allan Rolnick, CPA Summer 2023 has been a long one for millions of parents across America. Record-high temperatures have kept kids indoors. Some camps had to close due to the extreme heat. And that left armies of sweaty little malcontents barking like circus seals for ice cream and shade. The only good news is that […]
Goal!
Allan Rolnick, CPA Sports fans love when new stars join their teams. Sometimes it’s a promising rookie called up to the majors, like Elly de la Cruz lighting a fire under the moribund Cincinnati Reds. Sometimes it’s a mid-career trade, like Justin Verlander taking the Houston Astros to the World Series. And sometimes it’s a […]
Holiday Road
Allan Rolnick, CPA Forty years ago—July 29, to be precise—Clark Griswold loaded his wife Ellen and children Rusty and Audrey into their brand-new Wagon Queen Family Truckster and set out on the great American road trip. National Lampoon’s Vacation saw the Griswolds touring the highways and byways from Chicago to Walley World, with hijinks, shenanigans, […]
My Deduction Was This Big
Allan Rolnick, CPA Today’s millennials and Generation Z have hit some speed bumps on their path toward financial independence—the dotcom crash of 1999, the Great Recession of 2007-08, and the Covid pandemic among them. Many seek whatever security they can find in traditional employment, then launch a side gig. Some of those side gigs feel […]
Planning Lessons
Allan Rolnick, CPA Why did the rocket scientists who designed the space shuttle choose to make its solid rocket boosters smaller than they really wanted? Because those boosters would have to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site and pass through a tunnel that was barely wider than a standard gauge […]
Unintended Consequences
Allan Rolnick, CPA Last week, we celebrated the 247th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence—a milestone of human imagination and courage. The 56 men who mutually pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor wound up launching the world’s greatest experiment in democracy. And they hoped Independence Day would become something special. John Adams […]
AI Fails to Predict… The Future?
Allan Rolnick, CPA If you had “Russian uprising” and “Titanic-related disaster” on your 2023 bingo card, congratulations! You’re either a time traveler from the Edwardian Era or very, very prescient. But the news is full of stories that could never have happened 100 years ago. Crypto prices are inching back up, despite the fact that […]
Tax Whac-a-Mole
Allan Rolnick, CPA Our beloved internal revenue code currently runs 4,968 pages. That’s a lot of fingers and toes! But you can reduce the whole exercise to three simple steps. First, Washington writes the rules to ensure that Uncle Sam collects an “appropriate” amount of tax from the income we earn. (Reasonable people can disagree […]
