Personal Finance Advice

I recently became one of the 9 million people to become victim to identity theft this year in the United States. Much of what I have learned in the last few weeks I share to spark outrage at what is becoming more and more common and also to share what you can and should be [...]

I have noticed something really strange when it comes to dentists. I generally find that I am unwilling to pay $30,000 for a car when I can find a perfectly good one for much and I am not as concerned with brand names as I am about just being clothed and warm. However, [...]

I think almost every week I hear someone who makes over $70k a year mention their wonderful student loan interest tax deduction. It’s time to take a few minutes to educate the masses about the student loan interest. Plain and simple, if you make a good wage you will not qualify for the student loan [...]

Something has struck me as very odd over the years. I have mostly lived my life with great disdain for car dealers. As someone who was well taught how to shop for used cars from private parties, I never really considered going to the dealership for an overpriced car as an option.
My husband, on [...]

I personally deal mostly with taxes in my professional capacity of an accountant. However, I have also come across a lot of the ins-and-outs when it comes to 401(k) plans as I used to audit 401(k) plans for large companies, and currently am involved in the setup, administration of, and accounting for 401(k) plans for [...]

Something has been bugging me about IRAs lately. Most of the time I read an article or discussion about Traditional IRAs, as opposed to ROTH IRAs, I see that it is a pretty common assumption that income tax rates will be lower when one retires. Every time I see any mention of tax rates most [...]

The state of California recently reviewed a sample of state tax returns which claimed large mortgage interest deductions and found that 75% of the tax returns had claimed excessive interest deductions. There are rules that limit how much interest you can deduct for your mortgage and other monies borrowed against your house. However, historically, only [...]

On May 25, President Bush signed a bill that included a minimum wage increase as well as a few tax provisions.
Federal Minimum Wage Increased: The federal minimum wage will increase to $7.25/ hour over the next two years. The federal minimum wage has been at $5.15/hour since 1997. Under the new law, it will increase [...]

Before you throw out your unwanted gift cards, keep in mind that there are many ways you can get a little something in return for them. Below are five things that you can do with unused gift cards:
Sell on eBay Generally, gifts cards sell on eBay for 70% - 95% of the gift card’s value. [...]

I keep reading general financial advice and disagreeing as it applies to me. Obviously, every one has a unique financial situation. Overall, it is better to get financial advice tailored toward your own situation. But over and over I notice that financial advice does not really apply to my case simply because I am young. [...]

When talking about taxes, the issue of tax bracket often comes up and it’s an important factor in deciding what tax options are best for your situation. The problem is that the average person probably doesn’t know which tax bracket they are in. Knowing your tax bracket can be useful when trying to make decisions [...]

Even though I live a relatively frugal lifestyle, I enjoy nice things. The ironic thing is that if we purchased things like the average American, there is no way we could enjoy these nicer things. But by taking a few steps it’s possible to have your cake and eat it too.
The main ingredient [...]

According to a study done recently by brookings.org, low-income families in higher cost of living areas had less debt (including mortgages) than their poor counterparts in areas with lower costs of living. There was a very clear inverse relationship here between debt and cost of living, which seems to be counter-intuitive.
Though the researchers noted [...]

Just when you think the tax code couldn’t get more complicated, we approach 2010, when a multitude of taxes are waived and taxpayers are given large breaks (e.g. estate taxes repealed in 2010). There is one newer tax provision, however, that I have not heard discussed much at all is very lucrative for middle income [...]

No doubt you have heard of the Two-Income Trap. I think a major issue that is often overlooked with the Two-Income Trap are taxes. I come from a situation where when it came down to having kids and wanting a spouse home, we never saw much of a loss going down to one income because [...]

I have been searching the web for months, looking for ways to measure my financial progress, and have come up pretty empty handed. By merely looking at my peers and neighbors there is no doubt we are far ahead of the curve. On the other hand, when compared to some people in the financial forums [...]

I’ve been noticing a lot of confusion on the kiddie tax rules lately so figured it was time to break it down. Too many parents are deciding not to put a token amount of money in their kids’ name in fear of the “kiddie tax” when in reality this tax should only hit you [...]

Hanging around the frugal online personal finance communities I see the general advice to buy the cheapest house you can afford. I disagree with this pretty heavily. We moved to a lower cost of living area in our early 20s because it was frankly the only way we could have the lifestyle we [...]

When shopping for a used car you can take two very different routes. In my younger years with much less cash I always bought used from a private party. But you can also find some pretty good deals at the dealer as well.
When shopping for a used car you could start with your newspaper, or [...]

If you have ever been in a brick and mortar store and wished for the convenience of online price comparisons when deciding on a purchase, there is a service out there that tries to bring just that to your cell phone. The service is called Frucall. As long as you have a cell phone, you [...]