Allan Rolnick's (taxcoach) Blog

  Much like a natural disaster, the coronavirus took the world by storm and forced everyone to seek “shelter at home” and to change their daily habits in an effort to “flatten the curve”. This meant shutting down businesses and within a week, millions of Americans found themselves out of a job. B...

 Life comes at you fast. Two months ago, the Dow was flirting with 30,000, unemployment was at 3.5%, and the economy was looking forward to spring with the rest of us. Today, of course, we've put the economy in a medically-induced coma. People who are trapped at home with cranky partners and chil...

A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about the great toilet paper shortage of 2020. It gave us a great opportunity to indulge in the sort of lowbrow humor that made MAD magazine such a hit with 10-year-old boys. The problem turns out to be simple. Toilet paper makers produce two separate products for ...

  COVID-19 turned the world upside down. With most of the country shut down, businesses closed, and people forced to “stay-at-home” in order to keep everyone safe, it was just a matter of time before the IRS postponed tax day. On March 21, 2020, the IRS announced that they’d be delaying the tax f...

 Our calendar is full of "Hallmark holidays": meaningless commemorations and celebrations, usually created by marketers and publicists. Just this month, there's National Talk Like Shakespeare Day, National Hug a Plumber Day, and National Wear Pajamas to Work Day. (That last one may not feel like ...

  Coronavirus has turned millions of Americans who used to laugh at the doomsday preppers on National Geographic into converts. Your neighborhood supermarket is working overtime to keep shelves stocked as panicked shoppers rush to settle in for stay-at-home orders. And the first item to disappea...

 Millions of us who are staying at home in this time of coronavirus are discovering to our dismay just how much the clown car of halfwits, freaks, and grotesques of "reality TV" has taken over our living rooms. The endless parade of bachelors, teen moms, real housewives, and Kardashians have slow...

 The Cambridge Dictionary defines "digging your own grave" to mean doing "something that causes you harm, sometimes serious harm." Kids who don't do their homework, politicians who cut popular spending programs, and people who overshare on social media all dig their own grave in one way or anothe...

    If you're like most Americans, coronavirus quarantines and "social distancing" mean you're going to spend a lot of time in front of your TV binging on Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime, and Disney+. If you're working from home, you'll spend more time listening to your favorite music on Pandora or Sp...

    When talented musicians join forces, they epitomize Aristotle’s maxim: “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Collaboration is the essence of music, and even the most technically proficient soloists benefit from an ensemble framing and highlighting their skills. You can’t whistle ...