Personal Finance Advice

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 [...]

A huge financial challenge which many working couples face is the cost of child care. If the only reason that both parents are working is for the extra money the second income provides, you may want to take some time to see if the second income is really providing as much money to the family [...]

When it’s time to leave a job you have more than the loss of income to think about in regard to your personal finances. You also need decide what you will do with the accumulated money in retirement plans at the company. That is a question that this reader has:
My wife will be retiring [...]

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 [...]

Some good, basic financial advice for both working and stay at home moms in this short clip from CBS News Early Show and financial advisor Ray Martin. There are a lot of working moms out there these days: approximately 70% of moms are in the workforce, but the number has been decreasing in recent years. [...]

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we approach 2010, when a multitude of taxes are waived and taxpayers are given large breaks (e.g. estate taxes repealed in 2010).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’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 [...]

Donating appreciated stock to charity is a very common tax tool for the wealthy. When you donate stock that you have held for more than a year (through direct transfer of the stock to the charity) you get a tax deduction for the fair market value of the stock, on the date of donation. [...]

I came across an interesting online discussion the other day, about how maxing out both a 401k and an IRA was simply a lot of over-saving. The discussion was based on some article about a single adult male who maxed out his 401ks and IRAs every year, and had another $1200/month to invest. His income [...]

Putting Patents On Saving Money: This is an interesting article that totally blew me away. Apparently you can patent ways to save money on taxes and if you create tax savings in a way that someone else has patented, you have to pay that person a royalty.
Spend Every Dime!: Slate argues that the way [...]

In the spirit of political correctness, the IRS long ago did away with the old designations of “husband” and “wife” on individual tax returns, and replaced them with “taxpayer” and “spouse.” The result of this change has led to many headaches for tax practitioners.
It seems that every tax season, inevitably one client will come in [...]

As April 17th approaches, the inevitable question is, “Have you filed your taxes yet?” Hopefully you are all on the ball and if you had a refund due, you filed back around February 1 and if you owed, you are waiting for April 17th, right? Of course the nice thing about e-file is that you [...]

Well, we all know it is that time of year. If you haven’t had your taxes done by now, maybe you are still trying to decide how you will go about getting them done.
I did a recent article on Free File. If you meet all the income and age requirements, and expect to have a [...]

The IRS website and many state government websites can provide information on the status of your income tax refunds. But at the same time, they request very personal information such as your social security number and your income, in order to verify your identity and disclose refund information. If you find yourself at the wrong [...]

Yes, you read that title correctly and I’m still shaking my head a bit. It appears that Turbo Tax has launched a tax rap contest worth $25,000 to the person that can come up with the best Turbo Tax inspired rap. The promo features Vanilla Ice with the title “R U a better rapper than [...]

By now, you’re probably well aware that you can Free File your federal taxes through the IRS Free File program. What hasn’t been discussed a lot is that which of the programs you should choose to do your federal taxes depends on what they charge for the state taxes where you live.
Basically, the IRS has [...]

You’ve probably wondered why your bonuses are so heavily taxed. It’s all in the tax law. There are two methods to determine bonus withholding. One method is called the Percentage Method; the other is the Aggregate Method. Which method is used to tax your bonus is determined at the state level.
The Percentage Method is [...]

There are a number of new tax laws in recent years when it comes to charitable contribution deductions. These are some pretty significant changes, so keep in mind the following as you do your taxes in regard to the cash and non-cash donations you’ve made.
Cash Donations: For cash donations, the big news in 2007 is [...]

So you made it out into the real world and received your first paycheck. Wait a minute…Where did it all go? You were expecting X amount of dollars, but probably received a lot less.
It amazes me how little the average person really understands about the money that comes out of their paycheck for taxes. You [...]