Hot take: My "guaranteed" 8% CD ladder lost me money after inflation and taxes
I locked $10k into a 1-year CD at 8% last year in Phoenix, thinking I was a genius, but after 3.7% inflation and 22% tax bracket I barely broke even. Should I just throw the next $5k into dividend stocks or am I missing something obvious?
Man I read this article the other day about how a lot of those crypto payout systems hide fees in the fine print. It's wild how they'll promote these big numbers but then hit you with transfer fees and conversion costs that eat up everything. Your buddy probably got hit with that stuff same as everyone else. A friend of mine tried a similar thing and ended up with like 15 bucks after gas and time. Just feels like a waste of effort most of the time.