April 18 came and your taxes were not ready. So you filed a tax extension. Well, you should file an extension, if you haven't already. Form 4868 is one of easier tax forms to fill out and it will give you an extra six months to get your taxes together. Everyone is eligible for a tax extension. The extension gives you until October 17 to file your taxes, but keep in mind if you owe the IRS money; it is still due April 18. Once you've filed an extension, what happens next?
For one, you need to finish preparing your taxes. Keep a detailed order of notes for business, medical, mortgage, and debt expenses. File your taxes sooner than later. Just because the new due date is October 15, doesn't mean wait till then to file.
Form 4868 requires an estimate of how much in taxes you owe. If you don't owe the IRS money or are getting a refund, just be sure to file taxes by October 17. Since you've filed your extensions and you do not owe any money, you won't be hit with any penalties or fees. However, the longer you wait to file, the longer it will take to get a refund.
If you do owe money, if possible pay a portion or the entire amount when you file. If you have already paid taxes through your W-2 or paid taxes each quarter, you might not have to pay as much when you file the extension.
Not paying all the taxes you owe on time can lead to penalties and interest fees. The fees add up depending on how much you owe and how long you haven't paid the tax. Each month you don't pay, a .5 percent penalty is added to the tax. The maximum you can be charged on the late fee is 25 percent of the unpaid tax. On top of the late fee, interest will compound daily on your taxes.
There are several options for payment plans with the IRS. A free 120-day payment agreement is the best option if you can pay off the taxes in four months. Otherwise, an extra $52 is charged for a direct debit agreement or a$105 standard deduction agreement. Paying your taxes sooner than later can avoid more penalties and ruining your credit. You can be sent to jail if you're intentionally not paying your taxes—see Al Capone.
Imagine this: you marry the man of your dreams. You have two beautiful children with another on the way. You spend your days cooking gorgeous, nutritious meals for your family.... from scratch. You get paid to share your daily life and meals with people around the world. But here’s the catch: half of those people hate you. They accuse you of being anti-feminist, regressive, and promoting a right-wing agenda… Are they right?
For Nara Aziza Smith, model turned stay-at-home mother and wife of Lucky Blue Smith, this is her reality. She and her husband appear to live an idyllic life…At least according to their social media presence. Nara documents the elaborate meals she cooks for her family — making everything from cereal to mozzarella from scratch.
But sharing something as simple as your meals can turn someone from a TikTok sensation into a villain in an instant in this fickle social media landscape. Just ask Emily Mariko and her $100 tote bags. The Nara Smith controversy has begun, and people are calling her a toxic TikTok tradwife.
Who Is Nara Smith?
Nara Smith@NaraAzizaSmith via TikTok
Nada Aziza Smith is a model turned lifestyle influencer known for her cooking videos and marriage to model and Tumblr-era heartthrob, Lucky Blue Smith. Together they have two children (a girl named Rumble Honey Smith and a boy called Slim Easy Smith … yes, really) and another on the way.
@naraazizasmith comment your favorite names! #babynames #babynameideas #babygirl #babyboy #pregnancy ♬ original sound - Nara Smith
Nara began documenting her life, which mostly amounts to cooking for her family it seems, on TikTok and has garnered an obsessed cult of followers. From the intricacies of her dishes to the elaborate outfits and glam she wears to cook them, her life seems both simple and unattainable.
Before she was Lucky Blue Smith’s wife, Nara Smith was a model. Then known as Nara Pellman, she was just cutting her teeth in the industry when she met and married her now-husband. Over the past year, her videos have given her millions of followers across Instagram and TikTok. But even if their story is a fairytale, Nara’s content has become the face of the tradwife trend.
She’s known for making food from scratch — as in, making her own mozzarella and milk — and doing so in a full face of makeup in a gorgeous home with a gorgeous husband. But there’s way more to their story than meets the eye.
Lucky Blue Smith and Nara Smith’s Relationship
@naraazizasmith It’s been a while!🫶🏽 #whatieatinaday #fulldayofeating #husband #coupletok #homecooking #fypシ ♬ original sound - Nara Smith
Fellow model Lucky Blue Smith can never catch a break — his relationships and family life are always making headlines.
Before Lucky Blue Smith and Nara were married, he had a child named Gravity Blue with another model and current girlfriend of Joe Jonas, Stormi Henley. The controversy: they started dating when she was 26 and he was 18. Yikes.
But after being essentially groomed, Lucky found love with Nara. Nara is 22 or 23 (the internet isn’t sure), and Lucky is 25 — which is a less toxic age gap but also kind of scary. Like, she got married at 19/20 and had her first child at 20? In the words of many TikTok users, she should be at the club.
However, some people find this aspirational. And here lies the core of some of the Nara Smith controversy: is there a wrong and right way for a woman to act? Or are there certain pitfalls of youth that TikTok users are begging their younger counterparts not to fall into?
Is Nara Smith Mormon?
@naraazizasmith hi to everyone that‘s new or has been here since the beginning🫶🏽 #grwm #makeup #fypシ #chattygrwm #gettoknowme ♬ Chopin Nocturne No. 2 Piano Mono - moshimo sound design
Another interesting facet of their relationship: the Mormonism. Lucky Blue Smith was raised Mormon in Utah. Therefore, people are asking: Is Nara Smith Mormon, too? The answer: yes! She converted to Mormonism when the pair got married in February 2020.
This adds another layer to the Nara Smith controversy. Mormon mommy bloggers come under fire all the time for the values promoted in their content. Their communities have been called cultish, toxic, and regressive. No surprise that many #TradTok influencers are advocates for TradTok. Their Mormonism isn’t the problem itself … mostly. It’s the correlation between their religion and their prescriptive definitions of gender roles. Specifically, that women should be submissive, servile, and focused on having and rearing children. At least, this is the dominant viewpoint on TikTok.
Beyond their religion, the agency of conservative, regressive values and Mormonism should give viewers pause for concern. At the very least, it should be a reminder that what works best for her life and her belief system might not be aspirational for all of us.
The problem isn’t Nara Smith or any of these other TradTok creators — it’s the ecosystem of influencers who promote a glamorized version of a lifestyle that, in practice for most people, is not just unattainable — but potentially dangerous.
The Problem with this “How to Be a Trad Wife” Content
Some might say there’s no problem with the uptick in TradWife content — and perhaps that could be true in a vacuum. However, things are pretty dire right now. Roe v Wade was overturned, leading to a ripple effect of dangerous policies, ignorant legislation, and disappearing protections for women. Add that to the recession and the fact that it’s harder for female entrepreneurs to make a living, and you get a less glamorous picture of girlhood than Barbie or the TradTok girls have shown you.
In this regressive landscape, the return to traditional values and gender roles has echoes of Trumpism and other conservative ideologies. So it’s no surprise — really — that it’s getting increasingly popular now.
At the heart of the Tradwife trend is a desire most of us can resonate with — not having to worry. It’s also why the Cottagecore and Old Money trends took off the way they did. People want to escape their pedestrian woes and either disappear to some remote farmland somewhere or fly away on a private jet, Succession style — or both.
Instead of juggling tasks and responsibilities, the Tradwife isn’t worried about the bills or working a boring job like the rest of us. According to her, she’s got it all figured out. But by ceding responsibility to some guy, the tradwife also often gives up her agency. Here are just a few of the reasons why the #Tradwife trend is so problematic.
It assumes housework is not work.
When you watch Nara Smith make her decadent dishes from scratch, you see an abbreviated version. What passes in 30 seconds on TikTok is the culmination of hours of cooking that we don’t see. Not to mention the cleaning up, the childcare, the general house maintenance, and family management. These things aren’t the peaceful life free of responsibility that TradTok is showing you. It’s a job. And the people you see on TikTok likely have hired or family help to make it all happen, and keep the house clean.
The cost of living crisis means most couples can’t live on a single salary
If you want to sell your soul for a traditional life, you have to do so with someone who can afford to support you and themselves. And, like many creators, some kids, too. To be able to support a full family and the assistance mentioned above, you would need a partner who makes a lot of money — and those are few and far between. Even so-called stable and lucrative jobs like tech and finance have been vanishing by the minute.
Plus, statistically, people are most likely to marry someone in their social class. That means that the men who can afford to support these lifestyles will likely end up with women who have money themselves, too. And if these are many of the women on TradTok, then you shouldn’t compare your lives to theirs. You’ll find yourself very disappointed.
It often leaves women with no security or safety net
Whether women come into these relationships with or without money of their own, the most dangerous facet of the TradWife trend is how it advocates women to control their money. Which is to say, it encourages women to give up control of their money. However, this is catastrophic for women who entrust a partner who mismanages their money or divorces them and leaves them without any resources. However you decide to treat your finances in your relationship, one person should not have complete visibility over them. You should know what’s going on in your bank accounts, and have a safety net set aside if nothing else.
The Tradwife vs Feminist Discourse
Of course, whenever you raise these concerns on TradTok, the comments will crucify you for being a bad feminist or elitist. “Not everyone wants to be a girlboss,” they say. And for Generation Z, that’s certainly true. While Millenials were raised with inflated expectations of themselves and the world around them, Gen Z inherited a very bleak career landscape. While many Millenials came of age during the 2009 financial crisis, shattering their lofty dreams, Gen Z started entering the workforce during the pandemic.
Now, Gen Z is more likely to have a side hustle or freelance to earn additional income. Yet, most of them do not feel hopeful about their financial future. This is because they are not going above and beyond for the sake of girlbossing — not for the most part, anyway. But rather, it’s become so hard to just get by that Gen Z have to supplement their own income just to survive.
Burnt out in their early twenties, of course this is a generation that dreams of lounging around the house with no responsibility. Of course, we never want to look at a bill again. But the TradTok solution of signing your life away to a man helps no one — not even yourself in the long run.
TradTok advocates say that real feminism is about letting women have choices — and say that if they do choose, women can choose to be traditional. While this is true, the type of lifestyle they advocate for strips women of their agency, which is the real cornerstone of feminism.
If women want to stay at home, bake like Nara Smith, perform housework, and do other non-career-related paths, let them eat cake! However, they should only do so if they have the security to plan for their future and financial visibility.
So yes, I’ll keep watching Nara Smith’s TikToks. But I do so hoping she has her own bank account. And I don’t wish I was her — if anything, I wish I was those kids!
But the easy access to TikTok financial advice also promises to help young people actually understand their finances and avoid the many potential pitfalls of being young. After all, we don’t learn personal finance advice in school — even those who study finance as a career aren’t taught about personal finance.
What is FinTok? Why does Gen Z love FinTok?
A 2022 survey by the National Endowment for Financial Education revealed that only 14% of adults claimed to have access to financial education in high school. As a result, young people entering the workforce or trying to take the next steps in their lives and careers, find themselves not knowing how to make their salaries work for them. TikTok democratizes the best financial tips. No gatekeeping, just unfiltered advice. But not all of it is worth taking.
Betterment found that, in 2023, 65% of Gen Z and 55% of millennials get financial advice from social media. These generations have inherited an unpredictable and, frankly, disappointing economy where the benchmarks for success seem further away than ever. The retirement age is slowly getting pushed back, the weight of student loans feels like an inescapable burden, and the American dream of owning a house? Forget about it. Plus the looming threat of climate change and/or societal collapse makes young people wonder if there will even be a future to save for.
In the words of Timothee Chalamet: “It's tough to be alive now. I think societal collapse is in the air — it smells like it.”
Navigating the world of personal finance as a college student or early professional in this landscape seems daunting. It’s much more tempting to throw your hands up and focus on enjoying the moment rather than saving for a future that’s not promised. This might sound morbid, but Gen Z is having fun with it. Hence the rise of trends like “I can get my money back but I’ll never be young again,” or the ubiquity of “girl math” and little treats. While these impulses aren’t bad, when they’re paired with an avoidant relationship to your money, they can spiral into potentially ruinous circumstances. You don’t want to “little treat” yourself into mountains of credit card debt.
That’s why having a baseline understanding of personal finance is a crucial step toward financial independence. Don’t let the arrogant finance bro in your life tell you that you need to be day-trading stocks or investing in crypto. But also, don’t fall into the trap of avoiding looking at your bank account. Finance TikTok, aka FinTok, can offer valuable insights via personal finance videos if you approach it with a healthy dose of skepticism.
What is the benefit of FinTok?
I like to think of FinTok as a launch point. Buzzwords like “HYSA” and “S&P 500” (we’ll get to those later) are quick tips that are most useful when paired with in-depth financial education. Whether you head online to read articles about the concepts TikTok feeds you — and find out which ones might just be MLMs — or you turn to audiobooks and podcasts (anything but Dave Ramsay, PLEASE), FinTok helps demystify your money in an accessible, unintimidating way.
TikTok finance advice also focuses on small steps you can make now to help set you up for your future. Instead of fear-mongering and telling you to cut out all pleasure until you have $100k in the bank, TikTok financial advice often revolves around tips that take less than an hour to complete but can ear you tens of thousands in the long run — seriously.
FinTok can also help you create financial goals. Instead of the generic “save more” New Year’s resolution, many creators are making trackers and teaching you how to use tools to get super clear on what your financial life could look like. And since Gen Z values freedom and autonomy more than any other generation, many of these creators are factoring that into their work. Instead of saving for traditional goalposts, they’re teaching you how to travel for free or how to afford designer items without going broke. With goals ranging from paying off student loans and building an emergency fund to dipping toes into the world of investments, FinTok has created a subculture where young people can find creators who have achieved the goals they want to and learn directly from them.
These influencers, often in their 20s or early 30s, share their financial journeys, tips, and pitfalls in a relatable context. Drawing from their lived experiences, popular creators are often self-made millionaires at 30 or savvy savers in their mid-20s. This phenomenon underscores a shift in the traditional paradigm of financial education. It also creates the problem of many creators spouting whatever nonsense that comes to their head — some of it even dubiously legal. So while you shouldn’t start necessarily start house-hacking like the unethical landlords of TikTok or writing off expenses you don’t qualify for on your taxes, TikTok is a great place to get beginner financial advice.
Surprisingly good financial basics popular on TikTok
TikTok helps you acknowledge the gaps in your financial knowledge. After all, you don’t know what you don’t know. Geared for basics and quick tips, the best TikTok financial advice helps you build a solid financial foundation. Lots of accounts end up saying the same thing because the basics are the basics. They’re pretty universal, and when they work, they work. So before you do anything else, try these tips.
Here is some of the best TikTok financial advice to guide your journey:
Budgeting doesn’t have to be boring:
TikTokers are rebranding the budget. Instead of telling you to skip out on everything that makes your life worth living, they are telling you that budgeting is just having a “spending plan” for your money. Think of it this way: most people know about how much money they have coming in, but most people don’t know where it goes. A budget comes in to help you plan how much money you want to allocate to your groceries and how much you want to spend on fun categories like eating out, getting coffee, and shopping. Without the shame of spending on fun and by breaking the stigma of budgeting, you can make a plan to live your life while still setting aside some savings.
Monthly (or weekly) money resets:
TikTok loves a reset. I binge the productive Sunday reset content while rotting in my bed on weekends. But one habit I have implemented is the money reset where I sit down, review my finances, and make a plan for the next month. This one goes hand in hand with budgeting. I review my budget against my purchases, see where I stuck to my guidelines, and make adjustments if necessary. It keeps me accountable and lowkey it gets me excited about reaching my goals. Current savings goal: save up for a luxury wellness vacation this summer.
@breakyourbudget 2023 is the year of financial consistency & routines #personalfinance
Sinking Funds:
I used to save all my money in one big savings account. It was connected to my checking account and I would dip into it more often than I like to admit. However, TikTok taught me about the concept of sinking funds or savings buckets. For example, many of us have different savings goals. We want to save for travel, but we also want to have some rainy-day cash in the bank. All of that money shouldn’t just be lumped together. Sinking funds help you visualize where your money is going. I set up direct deposit transfers to each of my sinking funds from every paycheck so I’m saving for my next holiday in a separate bucket as my pet insurance. They also help make big goals feel more achievable. For example, my goal for my travel sinking fund is $2000. I gave myself 20 weeks and each Friday, I automatically transfer $100 into the account. That way, I don’t spiral into credit card debt when it’s time to book my trip. Another pro tip: use an online bank separate from your checking account to store your sinking funds so it’s harder to dip into on a whim.
Emergency Fund:
Your most important savings account is an Emergency Fund aka a rainy day fund. An emergency fund provides a financial safety net that everyone should have. TikTokers harp on this one for a reason. It’s the difference between living paycheck to paycheck and being financially secure. Most Americans couldn’t cover a $1000 emergency. And in this economy, people lose their jobs in an instant. The pandemic taught us that. Aim to save at least three to six months of living expenses — which includes things like your rent, your grocery budget, and necessary bills, especially if you have dependents — and keep it in a high-yield savings account.
High Yield Saving Accounts (HYSA):
A HYSA is your savings account, but better. Big banks have no incentive to offer you rewards for opening a savings account with them. Smaller banks, usually digital banks, want to convert customers and they do it by offering interest on your savings account. Most big banks give you about 0.01% interest. Meanwhile, you could be earning up to 5% interest just for moving your money to a new bank. And if you have a $10,000 emergency fund earning $500 interest for doing nothing, that adds up.
@deeperthanmoney No but like I NEED to know, do you have a HYSA???? if not comment “me” below and I will send you a link to a free training!!!
Making Investing Easy:
While investing might sound complex, robo-investing makes it easy. Many new platforms allow you to auto-invest in index funds and ETFs depending on your goals and risk tolerance. You can start with as little as $1. If this still sounds scary, TikTokers can help you understand the merits of investing early and wisely — just don’t take individual stock advice from random people on the internet.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become overwhelmingly popular in the past few years. The world has leaned full-force into technology and entrusted AI with, well, everything. You can see AI commercials, AI-powered statistics during sports games, and there was even a whole writer’s strike over the AI Invasion of storytelling and Hollywood.
As I’ve watched tens of thousands of layoffs happen across the country – thanks to Artificial Intelligence – I was admittedly hesitant to start using the software. Did I really want to stoop that low and succumb to the enemy? Sadly, yes.
If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. I’ve seen people AI generate images of their future children, friends using AI to write 1000 word essays, and Temu’s AI Super Bowl ads…so I decided to use it for a week myself.
I may not be AI’s biggest fan, but I do think it can be a helpful tool when used correctly. It can shake up writer’s block, help build outlines, and restructure weak or wordy sentences.
Would I recommend using AI in place of writing your entire essay? No. But it can add some spice.
But with great power comes great responsibility. With AI, you can manipulate almost any voice or photo so it morphs into something else entirely. For a long time on TikTok, my FYP was flooded with AI-generated Frank Sinatra singing Billie Eilish songs.
And you may be thinking, what’s the harm in Ole Blue Eyes singing some Billie? Nothing, but imagine what will happen as we approach the 2024 Presidential Election.
@my.worldo Frank Sinatra (AI cover) - TV (Billie Eilish) | #goviral #billieeilish #franksinatra #tv #song #aicover #lyrics #lyricsvideo #music #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #explore ♬ original sound - 🎶 | 🎧
The usage of AI can convince anyone of anything. Right now, it’s very prevalent in the music industry. People have profited off deep-faked songs by posting them on TikTok and social media platforms…and the originating artists just had to sit there while the fakers pocketed the cash.
@gma Grammy-winning rapper Bad Bunny took to social media to express his frustration over a viral song that uses the technology to recreate his voice. #badbunny #reggaeton #music #latinmusic #ai #artificialintelligence ♬ original sound - Good Morning America
Artists and producers alike have major concerns about how AI might affect the music industry moving forward…despite being a potential money-maker for record labels, it could devalue the original work of human artists.
Deep-Faking Images and AI
When Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce started publicly dating, memes would swirl about Swift’s attendance of Chiefs games. Many football fans were outraged about Swift being shown during coverage of the games…but it went too far when social media users posted deep-faked pornographic images of Swift at a Chiefs game.
Circulation on social media got so bad that X was forced to temporarily block users from searching Taylor Swift in an effort to remove the image from the platform. However, people quickly figured out that searching “Taylor Swift” with quotation marks still provided all posts mentioning her.
Thanks to an AI platform that generates a photo from any sentence you write, there were dozens of deep-faked images of Swift circulating. Whether they were sexually explicit, degrading, or violent, these nonconsensual photos posed a greater threat from AI than ever imagined.
The UK-based Internet Watch Foundation has warned government officials about the growing threat of deepfaked AI images. The technology makes it easy to create potentially harmful images that look very real. But that’s not the only AI issue musicians are facing.
Is This A Real Song…Or Is It AI?
@aiden_kenway How the VIRAL AI Drake Song “Heart On My Sleeve” was Made 🫨🚨 #AI #Drake ♬ original sound - aiden_kenway
Back in April of 2023, a fake collab by Drake and The Weeknd called “Heart On My Sleeve” went viral. The song was the soundtrack of hundreds of TikToks and Instagram Reels, just for people to realize it wasn’t real.
More recently, upon Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny’s split, another AI-generated TikTok song went viral. This time, with a pitchy Bad Bunny singing “I miss you” and lamenting the end of their relationship.
There are countless examples: Taylor Swift singing about football stars Travis Kelce and Brock Purdy with lyrics like “ So happy my Travvy made it to the big game.” Egregious, outlandish songs that garner a ton of engagement for random spam accounts.
@princesstaylor_1989 SO HAPPY THAT MY TRAVY MADE IT TO THE BIG GAME 🏈 // #taylorswift #taylor #swiftie #swifttok #fyp #foryoupage #fyppppppppppppppppppppppp ♬ style - ella
It’s not merely stealing and exploiting an artist’s voice…but the fact that online users now have a tool that can totally rip off a song within seconds. What used to be a magnificent art form is now a dangerous mess.
Not only does it infringe on artist’s rights and copyright, but it means that anyone can “record” a song with Drake’s voice and make money off it. This shook the industry so badly that Universal Music Group’s stock fell close to 20% from February to May of 2023.
But what Lucian Grainge – chairman of UMG and father-in-law of It-Girl Sofia Richie – wants everyone to lean into AI. Don’t be afraid of the process, but be prepared for when it comes. He tells The New Yorker,
“The things that make me apprehensive are when people can’t see around the corners and the bends. Technology has served the industry very well. From sheet music to upright pianos to big bands and the huge CBS radio network in the U.S. that was going to destroy fledging shellac sales. In the eighties, Linn drum machines, 808s, the Fairlight synthesizer—we’ve always been served very well.”
