Long-form, practitioner-grade explainers on personal finance, international tax, salary, investing, and how to read SEC and Companies House filings. Each guide cites primary sources, includes a worked example, and is reviewed by a named human before publication.
A practitioner-grade walkthrough of the 2026 US federal income tax: brackets, the standard deduction, the OBBBA senior bonus, the Child Tax Credit, FICA, and how to read your bracket from any income.
Steven Nguyen · 6 min read · Last reviewed Apr 27, 2026
How tax residency is actually determined, the substantial presence test, the 183-day myth, treaty tie-breakers, and the four common mistakes that turn a tax-optimized lifestyle into a tax-disaster lifestyle.
Steven Nguyen · 7 min read · Last reviewed Apr 27, 2026
Why bilateral tax treaties exist, the OECD Model and where it shows up in real treaties, the savings clause that traps US citizens, treaty tie-breakers, and how to read a treaty article in 10 minutes.
Steven Nguyen · 7 min read · Last reviewed Apr 27, 2026
Why your paycheck is smaller than your offer letter. A practitioner-grade walkthrough of pre-tax deductions, federal income tax, FICA, state withholding, and post-tax deductions in 2026.
Steven Nguyen · 6 min read · Last reviewed Apr 27, 2026
Where Numbeo, Mercer, and OECD PPP indices come from, what they actually measure, why two cities ranked similarly can feel completely different, and how to use indices without letting them mislead you.
Steven Nguyen · 7 min read · Last reviewed Apr 27, 2026
What the Trinity Study actually says, why the 4% rule is a heuristic and not a guarantee, the difference between Lean / Regular / Fat / Coast / Barista FIRE, and the assumptions you should question before pulling the trigger.
Steven Nguyen · 6 min read · Last reviewed Apr 27, 2026
The math behind the traditional vs Roth choice, the priority order most US savers should follow, and the situations where the conventional advice flips.
Steven Nguyen · 6 min read · Last reviewed Apr 27, 2026
How fixed-rate mortgage payments split between principal and interest, why early payments are mostly interest, and how an extra monthly payment can save you years and tens of thousands.
Steven Nguyen · 7 min read · Last reviewed Apr 27, 2026
How dividends actually flow from a company to a shareholder, qualified vs ordinary tax treatment, the math of dividend reinvestment plans, and why high-yield is often a value trap.
Steven Nguyen · 8 min read · Last reviewed Apr 27, 2026
What each section of a 10-K actually contains, the parts that matter most, where management hides bad news, and how to extract a company's real story in 30 minutes.
Steven Nguyen · 7 min read · Last reviewed Apr 27, 2026
Everything Form 4 actually tells you, the transaction codes that distinguish a real signal from a routine grant, the 10b5-1 plan loophole, and how to spot meaningful insider activity in a sea of noise.
Steven Nguyen · 6 min read · Last reviewed Apr 27, 2026
How to read a proxy statement, the Summary Compensation Table that headline figures come from, the difference between target and realized pay, the say-on-pay vote, and what to look for in the Compensation Discussion and Analysis.
Steven Nguyen · 7 min read · Last reviewed Apr 27, 2026
How to read 5%+ beneficial ownership filings, the difference between 13D (active intent) and 13G (passive), the 10-day filing rule, and what the ownership tables and footnotes reveal about activists, hedge funds, and index trackers.
Steven Nguyen · 7 min read · Last reviewed Apr 27, 2026
How to use Companies House, what filings every UK company must make, the Persons with Significant Control register, the difference between abbreviated and full accounts, and how UK transparency stacks up against the US.
Steven Nguyen · 7 min read · Last reviewed Apr 27, 2026
How the STOCK Act of 2012 made US Congressional trading disclosures public, what the periodic transaction reports contain (and what they hide via amount ranges), the late-filing problem, and how to read the data honestly.
Steven Nguyen · 7 min read · Last reviewed Apr 27, 2026