Nobody at Social Security Is Counting Your Hours. That Is Not the Same as Being Safe.
I wrote recently about the 45-hour rule and what the side-hustle guides leave out: How Self-Employment Can Cost You Social Security Before Full Retirement Age. That piece worked from Social Security’s public pages. This one works from the regulations underneath them. Three things turned up that are true in the primary sources and wrong or […]
Before You Ask AI About Your Money, Ask This One Question First
You’ve been chewing on something for a week. Maybe it’s whether to convert part of your IRA to a Roth this year. Maybe someone at a cookout mentioned a stock and you can’t stop thinking about it. So you open ChatGPT, or Gemini, or whatever’s already on your phone, and you type the question out. […]
Hobby or Business? The Rule That Decides Whether You Can Deduct Anything
Quick Answer The IRS draws a hard line between a hobby and a business, and in 2026, that line costs real money. If your side activity is a business, you can deduct your expenses against your income. If it’s a hobby, you report every dollar you earn and deduct nothing. There is no middle ground. […]
The 1099-K Threshold for 2026 Is $20,000, Not $600 (Here’s Why Your AI Assistant Says Otherwise)
Quick Answer: For the 2026 tax year, a payment platform or online marketplace is only required to send you a Form 1099-K, a tax form reporting the gross payments you received through that platform, if BOTH of these are true: your gross payments exceed $20,000 AND your transactions exceed 200. Both conditions must be met. […]
Rank and Rent Is Sold as Passive Income. Nobody Mentions the Phone Calls.
Here is the verdict up front. Rank and rent is a real business model, not a scam, and some people do make money at it. But it is not passive, and the website is not the hard part. The hard part is calling local contractors you have never met and persuading them to pay you […]
How Self-Employment Can Cost You Social Security Before Full Retirement Age
Social Security has a worked example sitting on its own website. It is worth reading before you start anything. A man the agency calls John Smith retires from his job at 62 on June 30, 2026. He has earned $37,000 that year. On October 5 he starts his own business. He works at least 15 […]
Is Income Team X Legit? What I Could and Couldn’t Verify
I ran Income Team X through the same six-point method I used on Project Apollo AI. Here is what I could verify, what I could not, and why the seller’s own pages disagree about the money.
Is Project Apollo AI Legit? What I Could and Couldn’t Verify
Short answer: I ran my six-point check on Project Apollo AI and could not verify who owns it, how it actually pays, or a single one of its income claims. What I could verify is a structural problem that makes the rest almost beside the point: buyers report a refund window of 60 days and […]
How to Check If an AI Income Program Is Real: A 6-Point Method
If you’re looking at an AI income program and trying to decide whether to pay for it, here’s the short answer: you can settle most of it yourself in about fifteen minutes, for free, before you spend a dollar. Three questions do most of the work. Can you explain in one sentence how the program […]
AI and Your Taxes When You’re Self-Employed: What’s Safe, and What Gets You an IRS Notice
Part 2 of a plain-English series on using AI safely for the money decisions that actually matter. If you work for yourself — freelance, contract, a little side income, a small business — tax time hits different. There’s no employer quietly handling withholding for you. You’re tracking your own expenses, guessing at quarterly payments, and […]