MARCH NEWSLETTER | 2024: It’s Tax Season... And We Have Thoughts... 🌸
Hi friends,
Tax season is upon us! Join us in sending strength and rest to our CPA friends. If you have conflicted feelings about your tax bill: re-read Georgia’s Op-Ed on why Modernist is happy to be taxed, especially for early childhood education.
We’re also sharing thoughts on different types of giving during an election year and why we heart HSAs.
Looking towards spring,
Georgia + Team Modernist
p.s. Did you know that 70% of Americans qualify for free tax filing?
We appreciate Propublica’s reporting on the Free Filing agreement and TurboTax, and their free, fact-checked Tax Guide. Long live independent journalism!
investment insights
As investors, what did we learn last year that we should keep in mind moving forward? No surprises here: experts say stick to the data, because market forecasts are often inconsistent.
Despite the money stories we often tell “Younger adults — Gen Z, millennials, and Gen X — are 34 percent more likely to report losing money to fraud compared with those over 60“ our NY Mag friend Charlotte Cowles’ recently shared her experience with a scam.
Inspired by her story we built a Modernist Cybersecurity Toolkit, with checklists to keep you and your loved ones secure.
Structure Your Wealth Around Your Values: Tax Season Edition
On the blog, we lay out the difference between a 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4).
Quick takeaway: it’s about DIRECT vs. LEGISLATIVE impact.
We’ve been asking ourselves and our clients: do we need a deduction? In an election year, could we donate non-deductible dollars for a policy-level changemaker instead?
We’re also asking ourselves: How did we get from tax as a collective good to today’s anti-tax sentiments? 🤔
In this On Point interview, author Michael Graetz shares how the movement grew from a fringe, racially-coded, anti-tax movement in California to today’s bipartisan sentiments.
Apparently Jerry Falwell accelerated the movement with the moral majority’s backlash against the IRS for efforts to desegregate schools!
Credit: Image credit: rob dobi / Getty Images
modernist TAKES it outside
On a new episode of So Money, Farnoosh and Georgia answer listener questions on:
💰 Custodial accounts vs. 529s when saving for a young person
💰 The viral sensation - why we may love Health Savings Accounts even more than Roths!
💰 The difference between donating to a 501(c)(3) vs a 501(c)(4)
💰 High Yield Savings Accounts—and why we currently like them more than CDs
FUND YOUR HEROES
We love seeing fellow Portland B Corp Thesis agency taking ACTION to revitalize Portland’s downtown areas by launching We Believe in Portland. Our team signed up to Adopt One Block on April 19th, and you can too. We’re excited to help with a collective clean-up and, of course, the after party! 🎉
Get your tickets! 🎟 In the final installment of this season’s Oregon Humanities Consider This, we’ll hear from NYT reporter Eli Saslow.
Based in Portland, his recent work has focused on homelessness, inequality, and opioid addiction in the U.S.
The evening will dig into how these intersecting crises are discussed, and the stories we tell about them. From whose perspective are they told, and for whom?
Good News
A site that was once considered the center of Portland’s Black business district (and was razed in the 1970s for a hospital expansion that was never built) is likely becoming 100+ affordable homes and an incubator for Black businesses!
Song(s) That Are Really About redistribution of wealth
We loved seeing Tracy Chapman back in the news (and on the charts!) after performing her iconic “Fast Car” at the Grammy’s. We revisited another classic that gives us hope for change and a more equitable redistribution of wealth.
Don't you know / Talking about a revolution?
It sounds like a whisper / Poor people gonna rise up / And get their share
Poor people gonna rise up / And take what's theirs