The Financial Flipside Podcast

Photo via energepic.com on Pexels     Although recession fears and missed earnings expectations have led to job cuts in some industries, the Great Resignation is still going strong: as of the beginning of June 2022, Americans were still quitting their jobs at record rates, and data from the a global survey by Price Waterhouse Coopers found that up to 20% of workers worldwide were planning to quit their jobs by the end of 2022. Further, the Great Resignation is starting to spread to sectors like academia, which have long been believed to be more stable (however far that belief is from the reality of most of the sector’s workers). With all that in mind, we are back with the second half of our Great Resignation episode. This time around we’re talking about factors that influence quitting, lying flat, labor costs, worker-management relations, and where we go from here. We hope you enjoy! Before we get to the show notes: We have a shiny new home! Come over to catch up on all of those older episodes that we’ve mentioned (like the ones about money or [side] hustle culture), listen to new ones as they’re released, and read articles and blog posts from the intersection of money, society, and everyday life.  Mentioned on the show   Toxic work culture and the Great Resignation (Sloan Review; MIT) Pew Research survey on the reasons that people quit their jobs  On lying flat : Chinese millennials are opting out of a lot of the trappings of “adulthood” (The Daily Beast) The rise of the anti-work movement (BBC Worklife) A Chinese high court has ruled that 9-9-6 culture should be illegal. What does this mean for workers?  (TechCrunch) Cost of labor: what is it?  (Investopedia) The Great Resignation shows that managers need unions, too (New Republic) Bonus content   The Great Resignation is older than the pandemic, and its causes are complex (Harvard Business Review) Why do we work too much? (The New Yorker) Who is Max Weber and what is the Protestant Work Ethic? [BBC 4 ; Video] An episode This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com

Odds are, you know someone who has moved on from their job recently, whether a co-worker, family member, or friend. Maybe you’ve made a similar transition yourself. If so, you may be part of the Great Resignation, a socio-cultural phenomenon that is baffling researchers and reporters, and which is causing no small degree of anxiety among employers. As we explore in this episode, the reasons that people are leaving their jobs are complex and really get to the heart of why we work in the first place. Also in this episode: life updates,  an inside view of what happens when accountants fire their clients, and we’re working doing some home (read: website) renovations. It’s good to be back!   NB: This one got long, so there’s going to be a part two.  Mentioned in the show:    Flipping the News   The Trump organization gets fired by its accountant, who also declared all of the financial statements it prepared for the organization “unreliable” 2 New York District Attorneys working on the Trump fraud investigation in Manhattan have resigned (from the New York Times) The Guardian’s reporting on the SwissLeaks scandal. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has created a hub collecting data pertaining to the scandal by person and country as well as reporting from the international group of organizations and journalists who worked on this story.    Main Event   Why do we work? (from Quartz) Meaning at work is so important that 9 out of 10 people wouldl take a pay cut  to do a job that they find fulfilling (from Harvard Business Review) What is the Great Resignation? (from Texas A&M Today, contains a profile of Anthony C. Klotz and his insights into possible reasons for the Great Resignation) From the Bureau of Labor Statistics: Quit rates (overall and by region and industry)  A couple of articles on long COVID and returning to work (or not)/ the economic distress faced by those struggling with long COVID [Time/The Washington Post]. Also of interest: Ed Yong’s reporting for The Atlantic on how immunocompromised and/or disabled people are being overlooked as things (including offices) open back up. Lack of childcare and the Great Resignation (Washington Post) Research from the Columbia School of Professional Studies finds that misalignment between an employer and their employees’ personal values is increasingly a big deal for workers.  The Black Death and Labor Shortages This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com

Photo by Bruno Figueiredo on Unsplash     Taxes took center stage at the Met Gala recently, when Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) attended the event wearing a white gown with “TAX THE RICH” emblazoned on the back in red. The ensuing discussion was wide ranging, covering everything from the designer’s background to Ocasio-Cortez’s salary and net worth  and the ethics of politicians attending the Met Gala at all. There were even articles that worked the dress into a wider discussion of the Democratic party’s tax plan. Whatever you think about the dress, politicians attending museum galas in general, or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez specifically, the message was clear and called attention to a real issue: the fact that the  amount of tax some of us pay relative to the money we make doesn’t seem to add up. Further driving this point home is the recent release of the Pandora papers, the largest release of offshore financial information in history which shows how wealthy individuals from all over the world store their wealth and set up trusts in places like the Cayman Islands or South Dakota (yes, it turns out that South Dakota is a major tax haven), where it’s less subject to what they view as “unfavorable” taxation. Speaking of taxes  and things that don’t add up, that brings us to the subject of this episode: we’re talking about the tax gap, that is the yawning void between how much tax is owed and how much tax gets paid to the IRS. Where does the tax gap come from (hint: not always where you think)? Why are some people so reluctant to pay their fair share, despite having more than enough money to do so? We also take a detour into dynastic wealth, moral millionaires, and what money does to our brains.  Mentioned on the show:  Millionaires asking billionaires to pay emergency taxes ProPublica’s The Secret IRS Files series of stories on the taxes of the ultra wealthy, including an article about how and why they conducted their reporting.  Abigail Disney on what wealthy families teach their children about holding onto dynastic wealth. How the “famliy fund” loophole make its easier to avoid paying taxes Kelly Phillips Erb talks to Brookings Institute Senior Fellow Steve This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com

Infrastructure touches every aspect of our lives, from the roads we drive on to the water we drink to the electricity powering the laptop I’m using to type these show notes. Because of this, it’s also one of the areas in which the connection between money and everyday life is the clearest: if part of our country’s (or city’s or state’s) infrastructure falls apart, we often end up paying for it in ways both big and small. Building and maintaining a national infrastructure is also really expensive, which raises questions about who pays for it and what’s worth paying for that have led to a lot of political wrangling and debate (To wit, at one point, there were eight infrastructure bills circulating in Congress). In short, infrastructure is the perfect mix of everything we love talking about on the Financial Flipside (taxes, money, everyday life, citizenship, politics), so it seemed ripe for an episode. We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed recording it (NB: LaTarsha was having audio problems this episode, so you may hear a echo or some background noise.).    Also in this episode: a brief discussion of super-wealthy people avoiding taxes--if you want to hear more about tax avoidance and where wealthy people and corporations put their money instead of paying taxes, you’re in luck. We’ll be talking a lot more about it on our upcoming episode, which we’re recording this week (questions? Email us at info@financialflipside.com or send us a DM; were @financeflipside everywhere). Mentioned on the show:      Flipping the News ProPublica’s “The Secret IRS Files” article on tax avoidance among the ultra-wealthy From Truthout: How family funds are used to squirrel away tax-free money   The Main Event   The Week’s satirical ranking of all of the Trump administration’s Infrastructure Weeks The American Society of Civil Engineer’s 2021 Infrastructure Report Card Dueling infrastructure definitions, from Investopedia and from the Boston Review: What is Infrastructure, Anyway?  Why the definition of infrastructure depends on who you ask From the Washington Post: The lingering effects of the Hernando de Soto bridge collapse David Alff on The Hidden Stakes of the Infrastructure Debate Darkness and chaos and This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com

Photo by Lisa Fotios from Pexels   Scarcity was with us long before images of empty store shelves and news stories offering explanations for the absence of yeast or Lysol or Mason jars. In fact, the idea of scarcity has been baked into economics and society to such a degree and for so long (at least in the US; your mileage may vary--L) that we think of everything from toilet paper to money to political power as finite resources to be acquired and closely guarded. On this episode of the Financial Flipside Podcast, we’re talking about scarcity, both the economic concept and how it plays out in our daily lives. Along the way, we’ll discuss sneaker drops, free markets, living wages, human nature, and moments when instinct takes over. We also dedicate our Flipping the News segment to examining the financial aftermath of the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.  As always, we want to hear from you: how have your shopping habits changed over the past year? How about your idea of what it means to have enough? Join the conversation in the pinned post on our Facebook page or by replying to our pinned tweet (@financeflipside). Let us know if you’d be comfortable with our reading your comments on our next episode (we won’t use your name unless you indicate that it’s okay to do so).  Mentioned on the show:    Flipping the News   The Guardian investigates The Club for Growth, billionaire Republican lobbying group that has taken a turn into funding challenges to the 2020 presidential election.  Also from the Guardian: My Pillow meets martial law. From Bloomberg: Citibank, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan pause their political spending in the wake of the attempted coup at the Capitol.  From Axios: Facebook takes a quarter-long break from political donations as well.   The Main Event   The IMF explains supply and demand. From Investopedia: Understanding the scarcity principle.  From Marketwatch.com: Examining pandemic-induced gaps in the supply chain.  This article from Medium’s Marker blog explains what most reporting gets wr This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com

A quick note: This episode was recorded on October 31, 2020, before Election Day or any of the subsequent events surrounding the results or the transition process.   Like many Americans in the run up to the presidential election, we had politics on the brain, and our state of mind is reflected in this episode. After a quick check-in, we dive headlong into a discussion of the strong connection between money and politics in the US. First, in our Flipping the News segment, we examine the New York Times’ report on Trump’s tax documents, with brief digressions for beards, scamming, and the Constitution  along the way. For the Main Event, we move beyond the soon-to-be ex-President’s taxes and business dealings to discuss the role that money has always played in US politics and all of the ways that money influences who holds political power. The Electoral College doesn’t meet until December 14, but even after the new administration takes office on January 20, 2021, huge questions remain: why is it so expensive to run for office? How representative can a democracy possibly be if elected officials are more likely to listen to a corporation than they are to their constituents? If it doesn’t have to be this way, what can we do to ensure that the US actually has a “government of, by, and for the people?”   Mentioned on the show:   The New York Times’ full reporting on Trump’s tax information 18 key takeaways from the full Trump tax documents story for those who’d rather read a digest. (The New York Times) What the emoluments clause of the Constitution says and what that actually means. Ethics experts on the potential problems with Trump’s personal debt. Why Trump’s debt could be a national security risk If the shoe fits… From the Conversation: Trump’s ultra-low tax bill as a consequence of using taxes as an engine of social policy. Speaking of taxes and social policy: More about one of the more unusual ways of using taxes to influence behavior tsar Peter I (The Great)’s beard tax. (Smithsonian Magazine)   The costs of running for president over the last 40 years, visualized (Howmuch.net) Business organizations, including the US Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable are inserting themselves into public conversation about the upcoming election, releasing an This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com

  NB: There were some mic issues in this episode, so you may notices that the audio sounds a little metallic in places. We hope that you'll join us for what we believe is an interesting dive into a complicated topic, sound not withstanding-L   How does one right a wrong, when that wrong forms a crucial part of who you are? How does one right a wrong that you’d rather leave in the past, even while apologizing in the present? Is it possible to address the material consequences of slavery without monetary payments?   The United States has been both wrestling with and dancing around these weighty and other weighty questions surrounding reparations for slavery in some form since the late 18th century. In this episode, we take a look at the history of reparations in the US in particular, examine some of the past and present barriers to reparations,  and discuss what  a national reparations program might look like.  But first, in this episode's Flipping the News segment, we try getting to be bottom of a question that’s on lots of people’s minds lately, namely, what’s going on with the post office? The US Postal Service is a lifeline for many, even when the country isn’t in the middle of a both pandemic that has seen a boom in online shopping  and an election season that might be conducted largely via mail. Given the circumstances and the postal service’s reputation for dependability, it’s no surprise that what appears to be a slowdown in the speed of mail the coincided with the appointment to of a new Postmaster General  and a worrying lack of funding for USPS has resulted in public outcry, a Congressional hearing, and at least twenty threats of lawsuits.     Mentioned on the show:    Flipping the News: Checking the Mail, or what’s wrong with the post office?    From Business Insider: Why the US Postal Service is in a funding crisis, and what that means for the upcoming election   Why the post office is vital for small businesses. (NBC News)   How postal service delays are hurting small businesses, many of whom were already struggling in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic (CNN, Vice, Chicago Tribune)   Bonus: The NY Times set up a system to track the speed of mail delivery in an attempt to confirm that reports of mail slowdowns across the US were/are true.    The Brookings Institution explains how the US Postal Service is governed and funded.     From US Today:The postal service as a lifeline for those in rural areas.    How did a business logistics specialist with no knowledge of the postal service end up running it? Ask the Secretary of the Treasury, writes the NY Times.    The po This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com

We’re back, and we’ve come bearing gifts in the form of retooled format (including a new segment!). Join us as we recap a weird tax season, take a look at the storylines that emerged after the Treasury Department finally released data about who received PPP loans, and wrap up our discussion of economic indicators with a deep dive into the stock market.    Do you have money, tax, or small business questions? Did you come across a finance-related news story that you’d like us to cover? Reach out to us at @financeflipside on all social media or email us: info@financialflipside.com. For questions, be sure to let us know whether or not you’d like us to answer on the show. To continue the conversation, join us over on Facebook in the Financial Flipside Group chat. You can also find videos, blog posts, and more interesting stories from the intersection of money and everyday life on our Twitter and Facebook pages, and on the website. Mentioned in the episode:  Flipping the News   The Journal of Accountancy’s summary of the Paycheck Protection Program loan data.  From the Treasury Department: SBA Paycheck Protection Program Loan Data Fortune magazine’s reporting on members of Congress receiving PPP funds, and The Huffington Post’s From Marketwatch: Over 500,000 businesses got PPP loans but are listed as retaining zero jobs, Treasury Department data showUp to 90% of minority and women owners shut out of Paycheck Protection Program, experts fear From Quartz: PPP data errors show that 98% of exposed names used Bank of America   The Main Event   From Investopedia: The history and current composition  of the Dow Jones Industrial Average  Also from Investopedia: What is the Nasdaq? From The Balance: Understanding the S&P 500  From Equitable Growth: Who benefits from the booming US Stock Market? From Business Insider: 3 charts that show why $6 trillion dollars in coronavirus-induced stock losses won’t immediately impact most Americans.   From the Associated Press: Some small businesses are changing their strategies due to coronarvirus, including holding off on seeking investors.  Everything is Awful, So Why Is the Stock Market Booming? (NY Times) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com

Most of the economic news these days is not great: high unemployment, a drop in GDP that brought the US economy’s longest period of expansion to a screeching halt, and of course, the neverending ups and downs of the stock market. Though media sources have already started reporting on “the coronavirus recession” and we’re all feeling the effects of business closures and supply chain disruptions, we’re not technically in a recession. The reason comes down to how we measure economic performance. On today’s episode, we’ll be talking about economic indicators, what a recession is, and why official definitions don’t always match up with our lived experience. We’ll also be discussing some ways to weather an economic downturn, recession declaration or no. We can’t  promise to alleviate any concerns you may have about the economy or tell you what to expect in the coming months or years, but we’ll try to provide some actions that you can take in the present.      Note: we recorded this podcast in early April, just after the opening of the Paycheck Protection Program and the passage of the CARES Act, so you may hear references to dates that have already come and gone. As of this writing, though, we’re still following the roll out of the second round of the PPP, continued disbursement of EIDL loans and economic impact payments, and like everyone else, trying to be as prepared as we can for what comes next. Mentioned on the show:  The global economy has entered a synchronized slowdown Why are we talking about a recession? Economists weigh in  12 possible causes of a recession  Investopedia: Recession and GDP (definition) What is the difference between a recession and a depression? NBER business cycle tracking and how the NBER defines a recession What is the business cycle?  This is the factor that will be likely to determine if there’s a recession in the US Here's how many recessions the average adult in the US has lived through What is an overheated economy?  How will a recession affect me and what can I do to prepare for it?  How do recessions impact businesses? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com

After some time off, a move (L), and a partial pivot  to  video (J), the Financial Flipside Podcast is back!For our first episode of 2020, we thought it would be a good idea to talk about a goal that heads up so many of our lists of New Year’s resolutions: getting organized. Specifically, we’re talking about business systems, those combinations of processes, workflows, and tools that we use to do everything from monitoring cash flow to training employees to literally keeping the lights on.  Listen in for a discussion of our adventures in systematizing, processes vs. workflows, app addiction, and establishing good working relationships between systems and tech.  Oh, and we also shout out some of the tools that help us save time and effort at work. As always, we want to hear from you: What has your experience with creating systems been like? If you find yourself in a perpetual state of “getting organized,” what are some of the barriers keeping you from taking the next step? If you’ve managed to implement and stick with a set of systems, let us know your secrets:  are there tools or methods that have worked particularly well for you? We’re @financeflipside on all social media. Also, if  you haven’t done so already, we hope you’ll subscribe —we’re on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, or anywhere else you get your podcasts! To catch up on back episodes of the podcast, head over to our website. Finally, if you’re looking to a place to engage in some post- or between- show #RealMoneyTalk, join us in our Facebook Group, the Financial Flipside Group chat. It’s a closed group to allow us to speak freely, but you can find it by searching on Facebook and join by answering a couple of quick questions. You can also contact us via Messenger.    Mentioned on the show:  The term tech stack comes from software development, and refers to the coding frameworks or programming languages used to build an app or website Our hunger for snappy jargon and tendency to use tech as a benchmark for other industries being what it is, there are now more than 4 million search results for “tech stack” that don’t mention programming at all, and advice about constructing tech stacks for marketing, human resources, and launching a startup. Techsmartboss.com Why companies of all sizes need project management.  The 6 biggest benefits of using a CRM in your business This article from Harvard Business Review explains why it’s a good idea to write down your company’s unwritten rules.  From Tallyfy: What is the difference between a process and a workflow?  Business Mapping’s list of 12 key business systems.   Recommended Reading:  The Process Street Blog (full disclosure: we use Process Street, but we’re not being compensated for saying nice thin This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com

Today we’re giving you a peek behind the scenes with an episode about one of our favorite pre-show topics: college sports [note: we’re both dyed-in-the-wool Duke fans. What can we say? The idea of your college as “the mother of your soul” definitely holds for us when it comes to sports loyalties]. This is perhaps the best and the worst time for a discussion about the economics of college sports: on the one hand, basketball and football seasons are underway; on the other, things are moving so fast that we need to use part of the show notes for a news update.  In a move that will likely not surprise you once you’ve listened to the episode, the NCAA Board of Governors made a unanimous decision to extend the right to receive compensation for the use of their names, images, and likenesses  to all college athletes, an about-face from its earlier promise to contest California’s Fair Pay to Play Act. Of course, the NCAA is still a (non-profit) business, so this decision isn’t necessarily an indication of its newfound “wokeness.” They’re still obsessed with “student-athletes,” recruitment outcomes, and using amateurism as a barrier to further discussions about paying athletes, but the NCAA is at least paying lip service to a desire to move with the tide of history. More importantly, college athletes will get to reap some of the financial benefits of the enormous amount of time, energy, and effort they’ve put into playing the sports of their choosing. We definitely plan to keep an eye on this story as the NCAA rolls out its plan.    Now that that’s out of the way, we hope you’ll enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it. In addition to the fallout from the Fair Pay to Play Act, we discuss revenue sharing, Zion Williamson’s impact on the stock market, the history of NCAA vs. athlete lawsuits, position stacking, and what happens when a city hosts a college sports tournament. James also pours one out for EA Sports’s NCAA Basketball and Football franchises. There’s also a sports-related update from our Black Capitalism episode.    Mentioned on the show: Is that your king? We discuss the products of Jay-Z’s “social justice and music” partnership with the NFL, namely image rehabilitation for the League, a free concert, and a clothing line in a pear tree. Oh, and backlash. Lots of backlash. Both Colin Kaepernick  and Eric Reid came forward to criticize the partnership and Jay-Z’s subsequent comments about needing to move on from protests and focus on “actionable items”. The response hasn't all been negative: there are also people who support the partnership for various reasons,  including Cardi B, DJ Khaled, and former NFL player Marcellus Wiley. Both Wiley’s barbed (and, I’d argue, misguided-LaTarsha) comments about Kaepernick and his partner, Ness This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com

In which we finally get around to recording an episode about Black capitalism. This is a long one, and we have a lot of… thoughts, and feelings. So many feelings. Listen in as we talk about Jay-Z's NFL partnership, Reconstruction, economic anxiety, Booker T. Washington, shadow economies, entrepreneurship, space travel, Kamala Harris’s student loan proposal, self-sufficiency vs. self determination, and much more. Capitalism alone is a complex topic, as is Black people's relationship with it. Consider this episode a way of laying the groundwork for discussions that we will likely return to off and on in future episodes.    Mentioned on the show A note before the show notes proper: Yes, it’s Dooboyz and not Doobwah. We regret the misstatement, which can be charged to late-in the-day fatigue. Speaking of both W.E.B Du Bois and economics, if you have some free time, it’s well worth checking out his painted data visualizations of Black American life in 1900. You can also read more about them here .   On with the show notes... On Jay-Z's Nipsey Hussle Eulogy Mehrsa Baradan’s The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap and the origins of black capitalism. You can also read an adapted excerpt here and a longer review that discusses Baradan’s conclusions about the origins and perpetuation of the racial wealth gap here.  Opportunity Zones and their (mis)uses.  From the Atlanta Black Star: 20th century Black land ownership and land loss From the Atlantic Van Newkirk II’s investigation of the dispossession of Black landowners in the present An 1867 sharecropper contract, with some useful historical context From PBS: The connection between sharecropping and slavery From the Nation: exploring the legal loophole that often leads to Black landowners losing their land Indigenous and black scholars talk about settler identity for Vice LaTarsha’s not alone: writer Adele Thomas talks about her complicated relationship with land as a Black American On the National Negro Business Leagues Booker This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com

As of May 2019, the average price of a new house in the US was $377,200, a price that will buy you, on average, an apartment’s worth of space for every member of your household. Alongside expanding house sizes and the proliferation of luxury condos is a stark reality: the United States, like many other places in the world, is in the throes of a housing crisis. While there is plenty of physical housing to be had, very little of it is affordable , especially when one takes into account that most people’s wages have remained relatively flat. For example, as of June 2019, there is not a single place in the US or Puerto Rico where a minimum wage job would allow a person to afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment.    Despite what looks like a bleak housing picture, people, especially in the United States, remain invested in home ownership, even if staying in their homes means stretching their salaries or spending hours commuting each week. Why are Americans obsessed with home ownership?  Does the idea of one’s house as a source of wealth hold up? Is HGTV ruining the way we think about real estate? What are the ways out of our current mess? We take on these questions and more in this episode.    How HGTV has changed the way we view real estate and our own homes: 1, 2 Millennial homeowners get real about how they were able to afford a home. In which the Brookings Institution decides that everything is (mostly) fine as far as (middle-class) housing goes.  Charting the rise of housing costs in the US Views from the Six: Nearly 40% of Toronto’s homes aren’t occupied by the people who live in them, instead serving as rental properties, investments, or second homes.  HUD explains the cost-burden index, or why we use 30% as a benchmark when budgeting for housing.  Explaining the housing crisis. If visuals work better for you, here’s a breakdown in three handy graphics. How zoning laws have come to define what makes a family  What is gentrification, anyway? How is it different from a This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com

The first tax season after the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was full of surprises. When the IRS published its weekly filing statistics during the last week of tax season , the numbers confirmed what many taxpayers were shocked to see when they finished their returns: namely, that tax refunds were both smaller and a bit harder to come by. The number of refunds decreased by 1.9%, while their size decreased by 1.3% (or about $36--this is a correction from the $55 reported on the show). In this episode we talk about what happened and why, our national love affair with tax refunds, corporate tax avoidance, and why the IRS isn’t pursuing as many investigations despite new data that reveals that more people are cheating on their taxes.   Summary Intro: smaller refunds, unexpected bills JH’s notes from the field: an accountant’s-eye view of tax season How do we explain these changes? Tax refunds: why do we expect them? What are the benefits and drawbacks of receiving one? The number of people and businesses cheating on their taxes has increased, but not much is being done about it--why? Speaking of tax avoidance: how do large corporations manage to pay $0 in corporate taxes. How does tax avoidance affect the economy, and what are we going to do about it? What can individuals and business owners who received unpleasant surprises on their tax returns this year do to prevent the same thing from happening next year?   Links:   From the US Department of the Treasury: How much did the US government collect and spend in 2018?   Fiscal Year 2020 Federal Spending   A recent survey found that most Americans were uninformed about the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act   The Tax Policy Center has published a guide that explains how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act changed individual taxes. They also published their own look back at tax season. The truth about tax refunds for individuals (and for businesses).   Here is another outline of tax law changes, this time for businesses. Tax Day used to be a party at the post office   Large corporations like Amazon, Nextflix, and Salesforce paid $0 in corporate taxes this year. This article from Forbes explains why.< This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com

On December 22, 2018, the US government entered what was to become the longest shutdown in the country’s history, when the  President refused to sign off on a Congressional budget that didn’t include a requested $5 billion in funding for a border wall. The government temporarily reopened 35 days later, but not before damaging the economy and pushing many federal employees and people who rely on government funding social programs to the edge of their own fiscal cliffs.   How and why do shutdowns happen? What, if anything, did we learn from this experience? What can we do to prepare if the temporary funding lapses on February 15th without a budget in place? In this episode: “savings crises,” conference committees, grocery store negotiations, and only slightly less ire about borders than in our economics of immigration episode.   Speaking of which, if you’ve missed any of our previous episodes, you can find them on Apple Podcasts , Google Play, Stitcher., or on our website. Questions? Comments? You can email us at info@financialflipside.com or find us @financeflipside on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Mentioned on the show:   How the US government is funded, in one infographic A brief history of government shutdowns Shutdown stories The impact of the shutdown on government workers What the shutdown revealed about federal workers’ finances Government workers aren’t the only Americans living paycheck to paycheck Speaking of work, business leaders love automation, but they don’t want the public to think so. For many, the road to financial recovery post shutdown will not be a short one The US economy lost $11 billion dollars during the shutdown The gap between the rich and poor continues to grow Post shutdown plans abound, including having the president give weekly economic impact briefings during future shutdowns, ensuring back pay for contractors, and a bill that proposes a means to get rid of shutdowns altogether. Shutdown navigation tips for This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com

As the year draws to a close, a lot of us carving out time between holiday parties and wrapping up projects to make a few New Year’s resolutions. After writing or typing out our lists, we roar into the new year with the best of intentions, armed with gym memberships, apps, and new gadgets. Yet, by the end of 2019, more than 90% of us will have abandoned our resolutio until December, when the whole cycle starts again. In this habit-forming episode, we talk about goal setting: why we succeed, why we fail, and some strategies for making your 2019 resolutions ones we’ll keep. Because we’re a money and finance podcast, and because financial resolutions are incredibly common (one poll taken at the beginning of the year found that saving money was tied with diet and exercise changes for the most popular resolution), we also discuss some things to do to get your finances ready for 2019.   Mentioned on the show:   94% of millennials plan to make financial resolutions 77% of us can work on a resolution for a week, but only 8% of us can sustain that effort until the end of the year Why you should stop setting easy goals How long does it take to form a new habit? From CPA Practice Advisor: year-end advice from CPAs 10 essential things for small business owners to do before the end of the year And 10 more: https://succeedasyourownboss.com/10-things-to-do-to-get-your-business-ready-for-2019/ Should you incorporate your business at the end or beginning of the year? How working backwards can help you set achievable goals Setting goals that drive your business forward A scientific guide to achieving and setting goals 18 tricks to make new habits stick This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com

Facebook, Twitter, Airbnb, and Lyft all began life as startups, and their success has meant that the romance of rapid growth and multi-million dollar exits has permeated not only the world of business but almost every aspect of our daily lives. Popular business magazines draw readers in with breathless company profiles and promises that the morning routine or management style of this or that founder could  transform your business too. Away from the office, television shows like Silicon Valley  and Shark Tank have turned coding marathons and venture capital pitches into appointment viewing.   Where does our collective fascination leave businesses that don’t follow the startup model? Is there any real difference between startups and small businesses? What can startups and small business learn from each other? These are just some of the questions we tackle in this episode. Enjoy!   As always, we want to hear from you: tell us about your startup dreams, adventures in building a strong business culture, or even your favorite (or least favorite) entrepreneurship-entertainment. We’re on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook  @financeflipside, or you can email us at info@financeflipside.com   Mentioned on the show:   Growly.io’s history of startups Are you running a startup or a small business? What’s the difference? When does a business stop being a startup? Homogeneity and diversity in tech startups Flat vs. hierarchical business structures 5 startup founders discuss company culture The myth of flat hierarchy in startups (opinion) Do You Know Where Your Money Is? 3 Tips to Get Your Startup’s Finances in Order Accounting 101 for Startups [video] 5 reasons why small business owners shouldn’t ignore marketing 101 ways to market your small business and 40 more ideas for small businesses on a budget. Startup writer and entrepreneur John Westerberg argues that most entrepreneurs should focus on building small businesses instead of startups This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com

According to a recent Banrkate.com survey  4 in 10 Americans have side hustles, or jobs that they work in addition to their primary source of income. Another survey of 1,000 Americans from CreditLoan.com found that 15% of side hustlers want to start a business of their own. If the legions of breathless articles about side hustling are any indication, we may be nearing a future in which everyone is living their entrepreneurial dreams and working 50 hour weeks. Today’s episode tackles the hows and whys of side jobs, including making friends with fear, adjusting to irregular income, ethical side hustling, and turning your side hustle into a full-time business. Discussed in this episode: The origins of the term “side hustle” and the aestheticization of poverty The dark side of side hustle mania, embodied in Fivver ads Why are millenials so obsessed with side hustles?  This article argues that it’s  (mostly)  the economy, silly. 4 questions to help you work a side job without getting fired How to start a side business while working your day job Tips for building your side business while working full time How to know when it’s time to make the jump to full-time entrepreneurship Time management for side hustlers You may have as many hours in the day as [insert super-accomplished public figure], but research suggests that you should spend some of them away from work. 9 strategies for budgeting with irregular income Fear is the mind killer, but it can also be an entrepreneur’s best friend This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com

The human consequences of the current administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy have been inescapable during this summer’s news cycle. Each day seems to bring with it new stories of parents separated from children, inhumane conditions in detention centers, and the stripping away of previously installed protections for asylum seekers and early childhood arrivals in the United States.As people, we found these stories impossible to ignore. As a show about how finance and economics interact with the rest of our lives, we thought  it important to spend some time thinking about the economics of immigration. Specifically, why does so much of the rhetoric about immigration in the US revolve around money and labor? What do the numbers say? What are the effects of framing discussions about immigration in economic terms? Are there alternatives to this sort of thinking, and what might they be? We do not pretend to offer definitive answers or policy fixes, but we hope that this episode leads you to your own fruitful discussions.   A correction: Switzerland held a referendum about introducing universal basic income in 2016, but it was rejected. At least part of the right-wing opposition to the measure centered on immigrant access to basic income payments.   Mentioned on the show:   The height of deportations in the US? 2012, when 34,000 people were deported each month   The (big) business of immigration enforcement   The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and more about the act’s history   The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, which put a premium on skilled labor and family reunification   2017 Immigration statistics from the American Immigration Council , a nonprofit that bills itself as  “powerful voice in promoting laws, policies, and attitudes that honor our proud history as a nation of immigrants.” It’s worth noting that The Center for Immigration Studies, a “non-partisan, non-profit, research organization” that seeks to “provid[e] immigration policymakers, the academic community, news media, and concerned citizens with reliable information about the social, economic, environmental, security, and fiscal consequences of legal and illegal immigration into the United States.” presents its own set of statistics (2016) that frame immigration in a much less favorable light. This is perhaps in keeping with its tagline, “low-immigration, pro-immigrant” and with its almost exclusively partisan testimonials.   On the sort of work done by immigrants to the US   Federal taxes paid by immigrant households (2014)   State and local taxes paid by undocumented immigrants (2014)   DACA recipients’ tax contributions (2016)   Immigrant imp This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com

Though it can be hard to imagine when you’re landing your first client, applying for a business loan, or opening a second location, there may come a time when you want to or have to stop being a business owner. That said, your business doesn’t have to come to an end because your time as an entrepreneur does (unless you want it to). There are a variety of ways to keep your company going if you step down, all of which require a plan--a succession plan.   In this episode, we talk about what it takes to plan for the continued existence of your business: what you’ll need, who to involve, and how long it takes. We also talk about exit strategies, startup narratives, the potential consequences of short-term thinking, and one thing you can do now to prepare for the future of your business, whatever that looks like.   As always, we want to hear from you: do you have a succession plan? How do you imagine the future of your business?   Mentioned on the show: What is succession planning, anyway? What are the pillars  or steps of a succession plan? The relationship between succession planning and an exit strategy Budgeting for a business transition What happens if I don’t have a succession plan? Also,some family business survival statistics. The E-Myth (book) From emyth.com: How to Build a Business That Doesn’t Depend on You: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 How business valuation can help with succession planning and with choosing the best way to transfer ownership of your company The role of managers in succession planning   Bonus links:   Research on succession planning from the Harvard Business Review The ins and outs of succession planning templates This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit financialflipside.substack.com