- The Finance Gourmet

Is Patreon Taxable Income?

January 6, 2023February 15, 2022 by Finance Gourmet

Patreon is a website that allows people to contribute funds to support the work of artists and creators. When you get money, do you have to pay taxes on Patreon? If so, what are the Patreon taxes for creators? Is Patreon tax deductible? Let’s start from the beginning. Is Patreon taxable? What Is Patreon Income? Patreon is deliberately misspelled, likely because patron.com was already taken and whoever owned it wanted too much money for it. A patron, as in patron of the arts, is (or was) a person who supports artists or art causes. The most famous patrons of all time were the Medici family, who supported numerous artists, including Leonardo da Vinci. The idea behind the website is arguably similar. The Patreon website allows people to support “creators” by pledging a certain payment per month. In exchange, the creator may (but is not obligated to) offer various “rewards” for said contributions. The question is are Patreon payments considered taxable income for income tax filing purposes. Is Patreon Tax Deductible? Most Patreon Contributions Not Tax Deductible Let’s start with the easier question. No matter how much you like artists, and no matter how much supporting them feels like a charitable donation, …

Why Invest In Dividend Stocks

August 23, 2021 by Finance Gourmet

Why should I invest in dividend stocks? What Are Dividend Stocks? At the most basic level, dividend stocks are stocks that pay dividends. A dividend is a cash payment made by a company to shareholders. Dividends are set by the corporation’s board of directors. Why Invest In Dividend Stocks for Portfolios There are a lot of different reasons to invest in stocks. For many people, the purpose of investing in stocks is the capital appreciation that occurs over time. This is especially true for long-term investors constructing well diversified portfolios. Other investors invest in stocks in order to generate income. Dividend stocks pay a regular cash dividend to investors who own shares of the company’s stock. Putting together a portfolio of companies that pay dividends can generate income that investors can use for any purpose. Check out my Credit Karma review Get Paid To Invest For me, the best reason to invest in dividend stocks is to get paid while investing. Remember, for long-term goals like retirement, or college planning, a well diversified portfolio tailored to your risk tolerance is the best investing strategy. For investing beyond long-term goals, or for additional investing, dividend investing is a clever way to …

What To Do If You Win $400 Million Powerball

February 22, 2017 by Finance Gourmet

There are Powerball jackpots, and then there are POWERBALL JACKPOTS. Tonight’s Powerball jackpot is at $403 million (annuity), and $243.9 million (cash), which according to news reports is the 10th largest jackpot of all time. Every wonder what you should do if you win Powerball? The truth is that with a jackpot this large, you’d have to mess up pretty bad for it to be much of an issue. Smaller jackpots can be trickier, if you are trying to live the rest of your life without ever having to work again, AND live a larger than life lifestyle. Choose Annuity or Cash There are two options to choose from if you win the Powerball jackpot. Contrary to popular belief, the value of both choices is the same. The actual jackpot is $243.9 million in both cases. However, if you choose the annuity, the lottery invests that $243.9 million on your behalf, and then sends you 30 checks over the next 29 years. The difference between the announced annuity amount is nothing more than the interest that builds up over those 29 years of payouts. Hypothetically speaking, if you were able to invest the money in the same way that the lottery …

Budgeting Extra Money vs Extra Income

May 12, 2015 by Finance Gourmet

As a former financial planner in Denver, I get involved in a lot of interesting personal finance discussions. Recently, a writing colleague was remarking on the difference between getting money one time, and having a new stream of money. In particular, he noticed that while the latter should be better, the former is actually the more fun of the two. Psychology of Money One of the interesting things about money is that it is so concrete a mathematical concept, and yet, so nebulous as an actual artifact in our lives. On the first hand, money is easily understood as an exact match of mathematical numbers. For any decision, a spreadsheet-type answer is easily obtained. Higher interest rates are better for savings, worse for borrowing. Saving more is better than spending more, and so on. However, the reality is that the higher interest rate from an online bank that is less convenient and useful might not actually be better. And, is having an extra $5,000 in the bank really better than having spent a week seeing the great museums in Italy? Which brings us to the freelance writer‘s incongruous concept of steady income versus unreliable, extra income. Most people have a steady …