Short Takes: Mortgage Interest Deductions, Garth Turner, and Monthly Payments

1. Rob Carrick reports that the Supreme Court has ruled against the Lipson’s in the mortgage-interest deduction case. The Lipsons were using what could be called a very aggressive version of the Smith manoeuvre.

2. Kelly McParland’s review of Garth Turner’s latest book is hilarious (sadly, the web page with the review has disappeared since the time of writing). I have a hard time throwing away books; it just feels wrong. I made an exception for one of Turner’s books several years ago.

3. BluntMoney has some blunt words about thinking in terms of monthly payments. I particularly liked the advice about cars.

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2009 at 11:38 AM

    I read Garth Turner's blog to get a different view of things, but he does often go to extremes. One of the stranger things is how he keeps talking about stocking up on gold. If everything does shut down you can't eat your gold!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Michael JamesJanuary 9, 2009 at 11:42 AM

    SiliconPrairieBlog: I've always been wary of any commodity like gold. Don't we just keep getter better at mining it cheaper? I suppose that if we've found all the "easy" gold, and there is a strong demand for actual uses of gold (other than just hoarding it), then it may be a good investment. Otherwise, I just don't see the attraction.

    ReplyDelete
  3. geneJanuary 10, 2009 at 5:52 PM

    Wow, yeah, Garth Turner gets roasted pretty bad in that review. My guess, based on your comment about his previous book, is that you feel he deserved it. At any rate, that review won't help him sell books.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Michael JamesJanuary 11, 2009 at 11:31 AM

    Gene: I haven't read Turner's latest book, but the review is consistent with what I remember of a previous book of his.

    ReplyDelete

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