Beginnings and endings

November 3, 2004, seems like an opportune time to start this blog.

John Kerry, by no means a perfect candidate for president, just conceded the race to George Bush, and about the only good thing I could think of that might come from this (other than the fact that accountability for all that has happened during the past four years will ultimately be more clear ) is this:

The subject matter of this blog -- the world of financial health, in all its many manifestations, together with all the things that it touches and that touch it -- just got a bit less fuzzy in one particular, because all the tax goodies that Bush put in place over the past four years that were scheduled from the outset to go away during this decade are now probably going to be sticking around.

So planning just got a bit easier in terms of taxes. And that means that one of the important factors in financial health just got a bit more clarified (famous last words . . . ).

So, yes, nearly-vanishingly-low tax rates on capital and relatively high tax rates on labor look like they're going to hold on for at least another four years. So it's time to breathe easier about loading up on dividend-paying stocks and 529 plans, to name but a few.

I will always remember being a young lad, learning that the tax on "unearned income" was lower than the tax on "earned income." I remember thinking that that was upside down.

But what does it mean to be upside down when the world itself is upside down? When you're doing a headstand in yoga class, and the teacher says, "lift your shoulders up," which way do they go?