It's the weekend again, let's talk about something light.
Today I saw that Jensen Huang successfully avoided $8 billion in taxes using policies, and I was curious how he did it, so I searched for information. It turns out that years ago, he placed Nvidia stocks into some specially designed trusts that enjoyed tax benefits from the outset. If the stock price in the trust rises, then only a small amount of tax needs to be paid on the increased portion.
As we all know, Nvidia has been the stock that has risen the most on Earth in recent years. Huang’s move at that time was correct, allowing him to legally avoid taxes amounting to billions of dollars. The U.S. is a country with particularly strict taxation, but the wealthy there still use various clever methods to legally evade taxes.
A few days ago, I did not write about an incident where Buffett planned his estate after his death, allocating 0.5% directly to his three children, each receiving $250 million. The remaining 99.5% will be used to establish a charitable foundation, jointly managed by the three children.
Many readers immediately recognize that a charitable foundation is an old trick of American tycoons, and indeed it is. The U.S. estate tax rate is 40%. Buffett cannot simply let his children inherit the estate, as this would be a disaster for Berkshire and the U.S. stock market, because it means that 40% of Buffett’s stocks would have to be sold on the market. You can imagine what would happen to the U.S. stock market when he passes away.
The best way is to donate all stocks to a charitable foundation. According to regulations, this foundation must allocate 5% each year for charity. As long as the foundation is well-managed, its value increases by more than 5% each year. For example, if you invested in the S&P 500 index over the past 50 years, the compound annual return is 10.34%. So, it is possible that 20 or 30 years later, the size of the foundation would actually grow larger.
Buffett's three children, as fund managers, can decide the direction of the 5% charitable expenditures each year, which is equivalent to inheriting and controlling this huge estate in another form. This is a popular arrangement among wealthy Americans for massive inheritances.
The government is certainly well aware of this situation, but from the perspective of comprehensive game theory, it has not intervened. Because if you pressure estate tax too severely, it will scare rich people away and ultimately lead to capital flight, which is not worth the loss. It is better to have each wealthy person leave behind a charitable foundation managed by a child, with 5% flowing back to society each year, a solution that both the rich and the public can accept.
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Also, last night, there was a comment that many readers asked about, regarding the topics of USD-based and DeFi farming.
First, let me explain USD-based. USD refers to US dollars. Typically, those who are USD-based hold the majority of their positions in dollars and try to hold as little cryptocurrency as possible to avoid losses from price fluctuations. The goal of being USD-based is to earn as many US dollars as possible.
Corresponding to USD-based is cryptocurrency-based, which is usually held by some deeply faithful investors who firmly believe in a long-term bull market over the next 20 to 30 years. Their investment goal is to accumulate as much cryptocurrency as possible.
You may find it difficult to understand the latter, but I have indeed seen quite a few people like this, with 97-98% of their personal assets in cryptocurrency, and even very little in USD. In reality, they rent a house and leave around a hundred thousand for daily expenses, while hoarding wealth worth tens of millions in cryptocurrency. You might think such a wealth configuration is too crazy, but they feel very secure this way. I don't judge right or wrong; I can only say that everyone's understanding will determine the path they take.
As for farming in DeFi, to explain it thoroughly would take around 500,000 to 1,000,000 words, so I will only give a rough explanation. DeFi stands for Decentralized Finance, which translates to decentralized finance.
Specifically, it refers to extracting crypto assets from exchanges onto the blockchain, where there are various financial protocols such as lending, exchanges, staking, re-staking, liquidity pools, options trading, minting tools... When you participate in these protocols with your assets, you will receive various returns. This process is what I call farming, which is essentially investing and managing finances.
The experience of DeFi is a bit like playing a web game, where going to various protocols every day to collect earnings feels like harvesting crops, except what you're collecting isn't game currency but real, cashable money.
The advantage of DeFi is that the returns are higher than traditional finance, but the drawback is that the risks are significant. You must understand that the anonymous network is akin to a jungle society, where 100% of the people who actively talk to you in the community are not good-natured. In my three years of experience, I've encountered 3-4 hacking incidents, and my wallet has been attacked once. I can rationally say that over 95% of people are not suited for this and cannot handle it.
That's all for today, have a pleasant weekend everyone.