November 16, 2009 – 5:04 pm
With the holidays approaching, many Americans will find themselves on airplanes en route to family and friends. And with air travel come the constant frustrations of long lines and baggage fines.
Some of our elected representatives have decided to take a closer look at the now-ubiquitous baggage fines (or fees, depending on how you see it).
Congress [...]
November 9, 2009 – 2:25 pm
Regular readers of personal-finance blogs are well-aware that they should have a Roth IRA, a type of retirement account funded by after-tax dollars that lets your savings grow tax-free. With all their money-saving benefits, Roth IRAs seem to be as popular a topic on money blogs as avoiding the ubiquitous $4 latte.
Even still, most young [...]
September 28, 2009 – 5:04 pm
Pamela Anderson has been famous for her, well, physical assets for decades, but it turns out she isn’t as well endowed in the financial department.
According to People magazine, Los Angeles County records show she owes more than $1.1 million to creditors:
According to the documents, five different construction companies have filed liens against her home, the [...]
September 25, 2009 – 12:37 pm
On Tuesday, I blogged about one group’s state-by-state national scorecard of financial health (released this week), and it got me thinking: Why do more people not just move to where the jobs are? It seems like a no-brainer if you live in an economically depressed area to simply go somewhere with better opportunities.
Of course, there are [...]
September 8, 2009 – 12:41 pm
Most people believe owning a home is the American dream, right? Not necessarily. The idea that you’re just throwing your money away by renting is no longer the rule — in fact, over the past few years, many more people have thrown their money away by buying.
The government offers several financial incentives to homeownership. From [...]
August 4, 2009 – 11:46 am
If your household budget is dreading the damage that back-to-school shopping will wreak this month, you’ll be happy to know there may be a tax-free shopping day coming to a state near you. Time your trip to the mall right and you can save sales tax on clothing, shoes, school supplies, electronics, books, and more.
Here’s [...]
Whether you’re starting a new job or moving to another state, it can be hard to set up a budget when you don’t know how much of your paycheck you get to take home after taxes and deductions.
PaycheckCity.com’s Net Pay Calculator takes the guesswork out. It’s a particularly useful tool if, for example, your job [...]
April 15th has come and gone, but taxes are still very much in the news these days. The passage of a new $3.5 trillion budget (and the projected $1.75 trillion deficit) has a lot of people talking about the taxes we’ll need to pay all of this money back. In that vein, I was checking [...]
For a Capitol Hill staffer who has $70,000 in taxable income, and is paying taxes on a $250,000 property, the yearly tax difference could be substantial.
April 15, 2009 – 10:42 am
If you haven’t filed your tax returns yet, you’re not alone. The IRS is expecting to receive 20 million returns this week, which means about 16% of Americans put it off until the last minute. It’s not too late to file on time, but the midnight deadline is definitely approaching. If you owe the government [...]
