Money Crashers: 4 new articles

In the past two days, a whole bunch of my backlogged articles that have been sitting on Money Crashers' back burner have popped to the front. Here's a quick rundown of what you can now find on the site to inform and entertain you:

12 Best Financial Podcasts About Money, Business & Investing in 2020

Money Crashers already had articles about the best personal finance books and TV shows, but none about the most modern medium for learning about financial topics, podcasts. This piece remedies that, providing a roundup of the 12 most useful podcasts for learning about a variety of topics: general personal finance, business, investing, and FIRE (for Financial Independence Retire Early).

Podcasts are handy because you can listen to them hands-free while you're doing something else, like driving or doing laundry. I personally like to turn one on every day while I shower. When I started this piece, I didn't have one for every day of the week, so I took advantage of the research process to explore several and discovered two new favorites, "Planet Money" and its shorter sister podcast, "The Indicator," which are now part of my regular rotation. (I liked the one episode of the Tim Ferris Podcast I listened to as well, but it's far too long for me to tune in every week.)

10 Inexpensive Yet Romantic Valentine’s Day Date Ideas

Money Crashers has evidently learned its lesson since the time it published one of my holiday articles a mere three days before Christmas, when Hanukkah was already over. It's now fast-tracking all pieces that are time-sensitive, which means this roundup of tips for inexpensive Valentine's Day dates is actually out in plenty of time for Valentine's Day. It counters the advertisers' messages about what a romantic date "should" be (a lavish dinner at a four-star restaurant, a weekend getaway at a charming B&B, a hot-air balloon ride) with budget-friendly options for dining and entertainment, whether you're looking for a night out on the town or a cozy evening at home.

10 Ways to Enjoy a Romantic Weekend Getaway for Less

Continuing in the romantic vein, this article on romantic weekend getaways had been in the pipeline since last August, but the impending arrival of Valentine's Day finally gave Money Crashers and incentive to push it out of the "to edit" folder where it had been languishing for months. So if you've been thinking this year's Valentine's Day weekend would be a nice opportunity for a romantic getaway with your partner, but you just don't think you can afford it, this article comes right on time for you. It explains how you can plan the weekend getaway of your dreams on a tighter budget by thinking outside the box about where you go, how you get there, and what you do while you’re away.

Estate & Inheritance Tax – Threshold, Rates & Calculating How Much You Owe

And now for something completely unromantic: estate and inheritance taxes. As the old saying goes, nothing's certain except death and taxes, and nobody likes either one. However, the combination of the two — estate and inheritance taxes — is easier to avoid than most people realize. Both the federal estate tax and state inheritance and estate taxes (in the states that have them) are steeply progressive, hitting only the richest of the rich. And even for them, it's possible to minimize the tax with careful planning. Here, I explain in detail how the federal estate tax works, what is and isn't included, the difference between an estate tax and an inheritance tax, which states have each kind, and how to plan ahead so that taxes will hit your heirs as lightly as possible. (Personally, I'm on board with the 50 percent of Americans who think the estate tax has already been cut too much and we really need to push it back up a bit — but I'm willing to concede that until the government gets around to doing that, there's no reason to make your heirs pay more than they actually have to.)