Personal Finance Advice

If you haven’t heard, the government is devising an “economic stimulus package” to jump start the economy. While the details aren’t yet final, it appears that the majority of American workers and retirees will be getting some rebate money from Uncle Sam. The latest figures to be tossed around are $1,000 per couple, $500 per [...]

Before money existed, people exchanged goods and services through bartering. Even after money became the logical solution to the problem of finding someone who could offer what you wanted and wanted what you had to offer, bartering remained a viable alternative way to do business. Today, as the Internet has enabled more would-be barterers to [...]

I recently stumbled upon the idea of a different tax system that some are advocating our country change to called The Fair Tax. I don’t know if my head has been in the sand about this or if many other people have never heard of it as well. It was an interesting concept to me [...]

When it comes to how much money the government keeps out of your paycheck, there are often a lot of questions. You don’t want to be giving the government a free loan of your hard earned money, but at the same time, you don’t want to owe a lot of taxes when April 15 rolls [...]

One basic fundraising rule is to tell potential donors what’s in it for them. It sounds strange that charities would appeal to donors’ sense of self-interest rather than to their sense of charity, but that’s what they do, albeit subtly, so as not to suggest that donors are selfish. While I believe that people can [...]

I understand the argument behind the advice of putting at least a 20% down payment on a house purchase. No one wants to pay private mortgage insurance and the idea of getting two different loans to avoid it isn’t that great either. I imagine if you are a previous homeowner and have some equity from [...]

By David John Marotta and Beth Anderson Nedelisky The average college student graduates with almost $20,000 in student loans. While this is a daunting sum, it is still possible to build wealth even while paying off student debt. But earning the degree and paying for the degree require two different kinds of smarts. In fact, [...]

By David John Marotta Putting all of your retirement eggs in one basket is easy to carry, but risky. Most workers are putting all their retirement assets in the basket of their employer’s retirement plan. They are depending on one employer and two dozen eggs (funds) to hatch and maintain their lifestyle, independence and dignity [...]

By David John Marotta and Beth Anderson Nedelisky Income-shifting is one of several tax planning tools families have used to lower their tax bill. Historically, parents could save a bundle by transferring highly appreciated investments to their children who are in lower tax brackets. However, this year, Congress has made income-shifting a dream of the [...]

A few weeks ago, I discovered a hardware store receipt among some papers my in-laws had given us. Because my father-in-law works in maintenance, I called them to see if he needed the receipt for reimbursement from his job. No, my mother-in-law told me, it wasn’t a work expense; it was the receipt for their [...]

You’ve probably heard before that it doesn’t always make sense for both adults in a household to work because the second spouse’s income is all taxed at the marginal rate. When childcare costs are factored in, there can be little-to-no financial motivation for both parents to work. But did you know that taking a full-time [...]

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 [...]

There is a story making it’s way around about a waitress that received a $10,000 tip and what a wonderful gesture it was. No doubt about it, except that because of the way it was given, the waitress is going to have to pay taxes to the IRS for it. Granted, if the person giving [...]

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 [...]

Here’s a question. You don’t have a whole lot of money and I want you to save more. So I create a plan where for every dollar you save, I will take away $2.60 worth of benefits from you. How likely are you to want to save money? That is exactly what a new study [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]