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PaperclipPerfector  16d ago (text post)   24730 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 29, 2024

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It's the "official" builtin board style forum of (like the 3rd cousin?) of themotte. I think the relationship is roughly like:

lesswrong 
   └─> slatestarcodex ──> astralcodexten <─> datasecretslox
              └──> r/slatestarcodex ──> r/themotte ──> themotte

Obviously the full history is a bit more complicated and there is a bunch of cross mixing between the branches.

DSL was created by users of the open threads on SSC when the blog went down IIRC. So very closely related to TheMotte's origin

Yes, exactly. I would describe it as more esoteric in that there are many more threads with diverse topics. Also the general vibe is a bit more relaxed and personal beefs are tolerated somewhat more.

The finance board is just bogleheads.org which is pretty public at this point. I mostly stick to a few niche topics (like TIPS investing) that have dedicated posters, but there is a lot of good information there for people who are new to investing.

Why TIPS? Do you ladder treasuries for deep cash? SGOV/BIL holder here.

BOXX > SGOV for tax reasons, in my opinion.

SGOV dividends are largely federal tax exempt since it's 90%+ treasuries. I don't think that's the case for BOXX?

No. SGOV dividends (as well as treasuries) are taxed as ordinary income at a rate of up to 40.8%. Add in state taxes, and you're paying nearly half of your already paltry income. It's a very bad deal.

BOXX is taxed as capital gains and only when you sell. If you hold for a year, the maximum rate is 23.8%. Note that this is a somewhat novel product so there might be ruling against it in the future, but in theory it works.

Perhaps you are confusing SGOV for a muni, which is generally not taxed at the federal level. These have other downsides, such as higher risk and lower yields.

In any case, lending money to the government is a pretty awful deal. They dilute you constantly and charge you extortive taxes for the privilege. In the end you're much better off owning a shiny rock (might write a post about this later).

No. SGOV dividends (as well as treasuries) are taxed as ordinary income at a rate of up to 40.8%. Add in state taxes, and you're paying nearly half of your already paltry income. It's a very bad deal.

No, you're definitely mistaken.

https://investor.vanguard.com/investor-resources-education/taxes/how-government-bonds-are-taxed

Federal bonds, including treasuries, are state tax exempt (though you still pay federal tax).

In any case, lending money to the government is a pretty awful deal. They dilute you constantly and charge you extortive taxes for the privilege. In the end you're much better off owning a shiny rock (might write a post about this later).

VTSAX right now is paying more than almost any bank account and the taxes are less than you'd pay on bank interest due to the state tax exemption. It's not bad for an asset as safe as a savings account.

Comparing zero risk assets to gold doesn't really make sense.

In case anyone is reading this far down. You said: "SGOV dividends are largely federal tax exempt since it's 90%+ treasuries."

Now you posted a link that said the opposite.

I'll concede that states might not tax the dividends of SGOV. CA appears not to. https://old.reddit.com/r/tax/comments/1194lbk/treatment_of_treasury_income_in_etf_for_state/

Other states might. ChatGPT-4 thinks they do, but could be hallucinating.

In any case, in order of tax advantage, for high earnings, it's pretty clearly:

BOXX > SGOV > Bank interest

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