DM Bites - On eggs and orchids

1. On eggs:

2. It’s hard to tax the ultra rich when you fire the specialists who look carefully at the tax returns of the ultra rich. From ProPublica:
   
   “Nershi had worked as a general engineer for the Internal Revenue Service for about nine months. He was one of hundreds of specialists inside the IRS who used their technical expertise — Nershi’s background is in chemical and nuclear engineering — to audit byzantine tax returns filed by large corporations and wealthy individuals. Until recently, the IRS had a shortage of these experts, and many complex tax returns went unscrutinized. With the help of people like Nershi, the IRS could recoup millions and sometimes more than a billion dollars on a single tax return. But on Feb. 20, three months shy of finishing his probationary period and becoming a full-time employee, the IRS fired him.”

3. The “biggest barrier to building wealth”?

4. The average cost of owning a dog.

5. “When we’re able to stop the cycle of impressing others and spending money in an effort to assuage the frustrations we feel, true liberation can take hold in our lives. Identifying whether every dollar we spend is for a need or a want enables us to craft a life that’s focused on living out our priorities—not the priorities of anyone else or of society at large—but the priorities that matter most to us.” — Elizabeth Willard Thames

My orchids are in bloom! I thought they were “too hard” to figure out until my sister-in-law coached me on how to keep them happy. Et voilà! If you need help making sense of your personal finances, I can help!

More from me soon, I promise!

-Bethel