An 866% Return and Debating Taxes

Posted by Madison on October 29, 2008

Andrew Lahde

Did you hear about Andrew Lahde? He was a hedge fund manager until about two weeks ago. His fund was only a year old and returned 866%. He bet against the sub prime collapse. And now he’s calling it quits.

Obviously, it’s nothing that any of us can repeat, but there is an incredible lesson: walk away when you are on top. Here is his rather unusual goodbye letter.

Tax Debate

When I asked Do You Report All Your Income? I had no idea that so many of you were so passionate about not paying taxes! Check out the comments for a very interesting debate.

A couple links from the comments that you might find interesting:

More on taxes:

Announcements

The $50 Sign Up Bonus from TradeKing has been extended until November 30. In addition, TradeKing is offering free investment webinars.

Great news for Canadian readers. Here’s a rundown of companies offering the Upcoming Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSA).

By the Numbers





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Comments to An 866% Return and Debating Taxes

  1. I read Andrew Lahde letter and I would not say that I am surprised by its tone. He is essentially saying this, “I got rich off of rich idiots and I’m calling it quits because life is too short to work for rich idiots anymore.” Then there was something or another about the environment and such but I think that has a lot to do with him not liking rich, privileged idiots than it has to do with anything else.

    Steward


  2. He took a huge risk and made a boatload of money off other people’s misfortunes. Let us see now what he does with the rest of his time, money, and life.

    Doctor S


  3. The Money article about $250,000-plus and taxed to high heaven is laughable. These folks supposedly “They have little left over for either extravagant living or, in many cases, saving for an affluent retirement.” That’s because most of them are paying tens of thousands of dollars for private school or college and/or for retirement. (One couple puts more in retirement than I net in a year after taxes.) That’s a choice they have because they are rich–to pay $50,000 cash for college per year for instance or $15000 for high school. They ARE living extravagantly if they just realized they’ve made a particular choice–education in this case–rather than say cars. (and the one house that’s mentioned is nearly 6x as expensive as mine–that’s extravagant as well.) Most have two incomes and little kids–I bet they are paying high day care costs. No one mentions the cars they drive (bet it’s a minimum of 2 per family and new ones).

    Cry me a river. What a lame article/photo shoot. Let’s hear from the people who truly have problems, like those making less than 50 or 60 thousand.

    AnnMarie


  4. Adam Smith was a Scotsman, not an “American philosopher” as this bitter man says.

    Faaez


  5. I totally agree with AnnMarie. Are you kidding with this article? Do you think that all of us making $50K are not working or trying hard? This is the problem with our economy. People think they need all of these things, ie. private school, day care, new cars, eating out etc. Wow, sorry you have to get fast food, those of at $50K don’t do that, my car is 8 years old and we only have one. My husband works 50 hours a week and I stay home so we don’t have day care costs. My kids don’t go to preschool because I can teach them just as well at home and save hundreds a month. We don’t have cable/satelite because the local library has tons of dvds, books etc and it is free. I would love for my kids to do dance, soccer etc. but that would cost a couple hundred a month and we just can’t do it. If you are hurting financially at $200k and over then you are doing something wrong! Try sitting down with someone over 80, or from another country and show them your monthly expenses and they would probably laugh at you and what you spend your money on.

    Kathy


  6. @ AnnMarie & Kathy: Wasn’t that article amazing, and unbelievably sad? I had the same reaction that both of you did. How on earth can they possibly be making that much and be strapped for cash? It’s all about choices.

    I applaud both of you for making careful decisions about your money and spending in the right way for your family. Now if only we could teach everyone else to do the same.

    Madison



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