Angel's Advocate Column

Sometimes a Devil’s Advocate just isn’t fighting against conventional wisdom that’s strong enough to stand on its own, so that’s when we bring in an Angel’s Advocate to give the little guy some extra punch. In these columns, we argue on the side of conventional wisdom that may have fallen out of favor or simply finds itself up against too much.


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Adjust Your W-4 Withholdings

by Jim Wang on July 02, 2009
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This is a Angel's Advocate post.

Over two years ago, one of the first Devil’s Advocate posts I wrote was that you shouldn’t adjust with your payroll deductions. Back then, as it is now, conventional personal finance advice told you to adjust your withholding so that you don’t have too much tax withheld from your paycheck.

How do you adjust your withholdings? You adjust your withholding by submitting a W-4 to your company’s HR or payroll department with an updated number of exemptions. To determine how many exemptions you should put down, I would use the IRS Withholding Calculator because recent laws have made numerous “rules of thumb” obsolete.

Now that you know how, let’s talk about why!

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Don’t Check Your Score Every Day

by Jim Wang on June 02, 2009
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This is a Angel's Advocate post.

The conventional wisdom is that you should check your credit reports at least once a year and your score only when you need it. This morning, I argued in a Devil’s Advocate post that services make it easy (and free, in some cases) to check your score all the time so you might as well do it.

This is part two of a two part Devil’s Advocate, Angel’s Advocate article in which I argue both sides of an issue. This is the Angel’s Advocate post, here is the Devil’s Advocate post where I argue you should be monitoring your credit score all the time!

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