phade

Nobody beats time. Finding that balance is key...if it means seasonal relocation, etc. At some point though, everyone becomes resigned to their fate. It just happens at different times/ages.

8. Set up a 529. Earnings on the popular college savings plans are exempt from income tax, provided you use the proceeds for higher education. These plans are usually a better bet than Coverdell savings plans because (a) there are no income limits on who can participate and ( in some states you get a state income tax break for putting money in. 9. Buy I Bonds. These savings bonds from the U.S. Treasury pay modest interest, but they are inflation-protected. Like all Treasury securities, they pay interest exempt from state income tax. As with most savings bonds, you can defer paying the federal tax until you cash them in. And there's one more goody: If your income is moderate when you cash in and you use proceeds for your kid's college costs, the interest is federally tax-exempt too. The federal exemption begins to phase out at $105,100 of adjusted gross income on a joint return. (For more on using I Bonds for education, click here.) 10. Be a serial remodeler.Suppose you spend $200,000 on a house that needs work. You live in it. You put $80,000 of cash into improvements. You also put in your own labor--$120,000 worth, say. Take your time. Sell the spiffed-up house for $400,000. Your $120,000 profit, representing sweat equity, goes untaxed. In fact, you can pocket $250,000 of gain tax-free (couples, $500,000) from home sales every two years. Vacation homes don't qualify. For more on the home sales exclusion, read IRS Publication No. 523. 11. Use UGMA, in small doses. The Uniform Gift to Minors Act (or, as newly styled, Transfers to Minors Act) lets you set up a bank or investment account for your youngster. The first $950 a year of the child's investment income is tax-exempt. A good choice: a Ginnie Mae fund that throws off a lot of normally taxable income. (Vanguard's is VFIIX; Fidelity's is FGMNX.) The yield on a $20,000 contribution would soak up most of the available exemption. Beware gift taxes that become a problem where one recipient is getting more than $13,000 a year from you (or $26,000 a year from you and your spouse). 12. Rent out your house. If you live in a desirable city--Orlando, San Diego, New York, Vancouver during the Olympics--you can probably rent it out when you're on your two-week vacation. The rental income is pure gravy. Officially the IRS does not count income from renting if the rental is for no more than 14 days. This arrangement does not prevent you from claiming the full year of property taxes and mortgage interest as itemized deductions. Vacation homes qualify. 13. Own munis. You can get a 4% yield on a long-term Treasury bond, fully taxable on your federal return. You can also get 4% on a municipal bond, tax-exempt at the federal level. If you mind losing capital, don't buy bonds from states (like California and Illinois) that are getting crushed by welfare caseloads and public employee unions. Check out your state's Forbes Moocher Index before buying. 14. Collect rebates. Time spent on mail-in rebates is fairly well rewarded, and the resulting cash is tax-free income, assuming the stuff you're buying is for pleasure. (In the eyes of the IRS, the rebate just reduces your cost for the item.) The yield on grocery store coupons is also exempt--but maybe not worth your time. 15. Earn post-Recession capital gains. Do you have any losses on funds or stocks that got killed in the crash? If you haven't already booked them, do so. Sell losers. Use the resulting capital losses to shelter future capital gain income. Aim for that income by investing in growth stocks that don't pay dividends. Examples: Apple ( AAPL - news - people ), Bed Bath & Beyond ( BBBY - news - people ), Intuit ( INTU - news - people ). 16. Give away capital gains. Buy Apple stock for $2,000. Sit on it for years. When it's worth $3,000, give it to a charity you were otherwise going to give $3,000 in cash. The $1,000 gain goes untaxed. You still claim the full $3,000 as a charitable deduction. 17. Collect return of capital dividends. Sun Communities ( SUI - news - people ), a real estate investment trust that owns mobile home parks, paid a $2.52 dividend last year. Of that, only 66 cents was taxable; the balance of $1.86 was considered a "return of capital" because the real estate investment trust used depreciation to shelter some of the income it got. The return-of-capital payout is cash you can spend now without having to declare it as taxable income; it could increase your taxable gain when you sell the shares, but that might be much later or never. A lot of other REITs have distributions that are at least partly sheltered in this way. 18. Be a landlord. Buy a condo or, if you feel like it, a whole apartment building. Put down a lot of cash (about half the purchase price). You'll wind up with a nice income stream that is sheltered by depreciation deductions. Why not borrow to the hilt, like most wheeler-dealers? Because then some complicated rules on "passive losses" will come into play and your depreciation write-offs will mostly go to waste. Here, in rough measure, is how the numbers might work on a $250,000 purchase, of which you finance $100,000. You collect $18,000 a year in rent. You run up $5,000 in operating costs and $5,000 in interest, clearing $8,000. If $30,000 of your purchase price was for the land (non-depreciable) and the balance is spread over 27.5 years, your annual depreciation write-off is $8,000. That means your whole cash income is tax-exempt. Note that the landlord game can be enhanced with the do-it-yourself gambit. To keep your out-of-pocket costs down, be your own rental agent and handyman on the property. In effect, you are earning money for these chores but sheltering that labor income with a depreciation deduction. Taking depreciation now will increase your taxable gain later when you sell the building. But who says you ever have to sell the building? 19. Set up a Health Savings Account. These are like IRAs for health costs. You put money in as a pretax deduction from your paycheck. It compounds tax-free. Provided you eventually use the money for health care, both the principal and the earnings come out tax-free. Not all employers offer them. 20. Earn airline miles. In theory, the free trips you earn for yourself by taking business trips should be treated as taxable income (they are a form of commercial bribery). But the IRS knows that going after airline miles would cause a political firestorm. So it gives them a free ride.

1. Get a cash-back credit card. The dollars you get back are tax-free income. Smart shoppers have several cash-back cards in their wallet and whip out the one that maxes their benefits. Among the better deals: Blue Cash card from American Express ( AXP - news - people ), which is good for big spenders, and the Visa offered to Charles Schwab ( SCHW - news - people ) brokerage customers, which gives back 2%. 2. Be a bureaucrat. Borrow to the hilt to go to college, taking advantage of the federal student loan program. Work for the government. Make monthly payments for ten years, then get the balance forgiven. Other workers have to pay for 25 years and the forgiven debt is taxable. But for government workers the loan forgiveness not only occurs much sooner; it is tax-exempt. 3. Be nice to your rich uncle. Inheritances are not subject to income tax. 4. Do it yourself. Mow your own lawn, paint your own house, do your own tax return. That beats hiring pros to do these things and then having to work overtime to cover the bills. Reason: Your overtime pay is taxable, but the money you effectively earn by hiring yourself to do chores is not taxable. 5. Pay off credit cards. Have some spare cash? Invest in your credit card balance. If you were paying 15% interest, this pay-down capital yields 15%, which is (a) way more income than you get on a Treasury bond and ( unlike the Treasury coupon, tax-exempt. 6. Give your kid a Roth IRA. Say Junior makes $3,000 from a summer job, and spends it all on college. You have $3,000 sitting around. Start a Roth IRA for the kid. The limit on what you can put in is his earned income. Tell him to sit on the money for 60 years, until he's 79. At 6%, that $3,000 will turn into $99,000. The $96,000 of profit will be untaxed. If this is money he would have inherited anyway, you have also done him the nice favor of reducing your estate tax by getting $3,000 out of your estate. 7. Have a tag sale. Sweating for eight hours on a yard sale that hauls in $300 beats sweating at a job for eight hours for $300. Reason: Sale proceeds are tax-free, provided you're selling for less than your purchase cost (or, in the case of unwanted gifts, less than both the giver's cost and the gift's value when you got it). You can do even better than this. Put up a sign saying that 100% of the sale's proceeds are going to a well-known local charity. That boosts your take, say, to $500. You were going to give this charity $500 anyway. Then the day at the tag sale table has effectively earned you $500, tax-free. Selling tchotchkes (at a loss) on EBay ( EBAY - news - people ) also yields tax-free income; there, however, a boast about charitable aims might not cut any ice

Let's get the ball rolling and we can go out there together on your better half's farm. Cut some costs and we'd be on the same points schedule for 2014 or 2015 (depending on what zone the farm is in).

I fully expect you to tell me you've been to Iowa hunting at least once and are close to drawing for a second time? Seriously. I'm starting point collection in a month or two when it opens up.

Iowa is obviously whitetail hunting heaven in the lower 48 and has good turkey hunting with some Ok to decent fishing opportunities. The big draw for me is not only the whitetail hunting but the locale...it's central location makes ventures west for elk and mulies realistic without as much travel costs. It's also possible to head to other states known for whitetails (IL, KS, NE, etc.) and again northish for more stuff (Dakotas). Certainly not a metroplis in-state worth much culturally, but it has some places to scratch that itch should it exist. My employment would likely be tied to the cities as I'm not much of a tradesman/farmer. The better half would cringe at Iowa though...she's a rural-type, but I think Iowa would bore her to a degree. At least here, beyond the family component, she has seasons and topography changes. I should have just moved there when I was 20 and said to h@ll with women. I ended up divorcing that bag anyhow...if I only knew then what I know now (not trading in the current one for anything though!).

Family is the only thing really locking me to this state. If I had my druthers now, assuming a legit employment opportunity exists, I'd be gone to any of the following: Ohio Indiana Iowa Kansas Montana Wyoming When I was younger, I was much more fascinated with east coast states...lived in Virginia and Florida, and while some aspects of living standards and what they offer are fantastic....the older I get, the less valuable they become to me. But, the ties that bind are here and I'm going to have major issue pulling the better half away from this state as she's not someone who deals with change of this kind well and cannot step out of a comfort zone.

I think this number more reflects gun hunters stepping into the archery season, honestly. I believe MI had limited inclusion to a degree before that (I may be wrong, but I believe they had a disability allowance).

Interesting report on xbows. The fact that really jumps out to me is the difference in success rates for xbow vs vertical bow hunters. 35-40% vs. 30-35%, with xbows being reliably more successful (5% is huge IMO). The other is that the "youth" angle doesn't fly - Xbow has a lower recruitment rate according to this report - meaning that xbow doesn't recruit the younger hunters. What's that say? Does that mean xbows are easier? More efficient? Other randoms points: 81% of the hunters responding either agreed or strongly agreed that crossbows are easier to use than other types of bows. 83% of respondents agree or strongly agree that it takes less time to become proficient with a crossbow than with other types of bows. 49% of the replies indicated that they agree or strongly agree that they could not hunt deer during the archery season without the crossbow. http://www.upwhiteta... ... _01_25.pdf

Pulled the cam from behind the house. I was skeptical on the soak because I inadvertently bought zinc chloride batteries instead of alkalines. But, the thing was chugging away with pics when I got there. I can say three things for sure after the soak: Pros: Great daytime pic quality for its MP and price. The sensor flat out rocks. I mean, it's possibly the best sensor I have ever seen, honestly. Cons: Nighttime pics stink unless you are within 20 feet. It's not a cam that's going to give enough detail beyond that due to the MP night shots and the poor illumination reach. Initially, I though the poor battery choice should be considered, but the pics mimic what others have on other forums. I think this cam is a good buy for a close-range deer trail if you are looking for cheap black flash (more like very low glow). Good for feeders up close, too, should it be legal in your area. Will be very good for turkey - this cam flat out doesn't miss a trigger and will pic up 60-70 feet.

Grow, I would make sure you leave cams open if you brought them inside. Ive started to support the theory that cams have less issues when left out year round. Most sub reconyx cams do not have coated interals.

Predator camo posted a cool youtube vid of a white deer shedding its rack. definitely worth a watch.

The GT500 is a little more in line with a modern day Pure, but it's far from a super agressive bow. If you are having creep problems with these bows, I hate to break it to you, you are probably over-bowed. I can understand creep issues on single cams, etc. But these style of cams by design are very creep-"resistant". Also, having a bow that is 29" and you should have a 30" isn't a great way to judge a bow....a bow that fits your DL is the best way to judge it. A longer DL loop isn't changing the DL - just your anchor point. My Zs are not as agressive speed wise, but once I roll those babies over - it's a cakewalk in a tree stand. Such an easy draw and hold.

The reason you see that is because 95% of the people who have incorrect DL have TOO LONG of a DL. Release and loops do not affect DL. They affect your anchor point.

I can't say I have ever heard of using draw weight as a catalyst to determine draw length for compound. Determine draw length first imo.

FYI, Primos and Bushnell are run by the same company now.

He didn't ask if you thought they were cool, lol. It's all good, nobody's getting worked up over it.

Wow, real nice work. Rest of that room makes much more sense now. I thought she might have you trained when you noted a 36" tv, but once I saw the kitchen...I knew she had you trained....lol. Quality work indeed.

I own quite a few guns, but the one that I always seem to enjoy the most taking out and shooting or hunting with, is the single shot .410. Don't know why...it just is. I'd say it's worthy of being legal, but using it within its performance range goes without saying - the same goes for any firearm, really.

Actually grow and I butt heads a ton. But, I digress. I think she just got under your skin this time around, and all she did was mention legality, which I still think was relevant to the thread as it was pretty general about "seeing" the product. Whatever floats the boat, right?

I am sure if there is any validity to the story, it'll be picked up by the publications at some point. Supposedly the area the buck was taken in was in a QDM co-op. To me, that seems fishy as that means too many people likley knew about the buck for it to be a secret. I guess we'll see.

I have an 18 year old kid at college...and a three week old. Here I was thinking I was going to reclaim space....Nope! Western - do you have sheds to display? Would fit well on the ledges there.

Rumors seems to float around every single year that a deer has been shot that tops the Hanson buck. Well, it's happening again. Rumors are starting to circulate of a muzzleloader buck taken in MI near the IN and Ohio border was taken this season and it is scoring significantly higher than the Hanson buck. Hunter has kept it under wraps well, but is now shopping the whole deal...story, pics, and rack. Normally I wouldn't post such nonsense, but the news has started to spread through reputable people based off of first-hand experience of seeing the buck. Hope to hear more about it, if it is indeed true.

No. States that went to shorter seasons learned that it had barely any impact on harvest numbers. Most deer are shot opening weekend or day. Personally the start of the season is much more important, but the shorter season tends to result in better pressure mgmt.

Grow is on fire today. Glad I'm not in the line of fire. I wonder how popular these will end up being. But, that's probably outside of the thread's scope, too.