Last week, I ran a TurboTax and H&R Block At Home giveaway. Perhaps many people have filed their taxes already, the giveaway only received moderate response as a total of 17 readers entered the contest. Still, I am glad that five of them can file their taxes, both federal and state, for free [...]
Original Post on The Sun’s Financial Diary
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Ready for a science class? Here’s something a little different. This is a guest post by Mr. Credit Card from www.askmrcreditcard.com. Today, Mr. Credit Card is going to be talking about the difference between regular and premium gasoline and why you may actually be paying more for your gasoline than you think.
Image from Cagle.com
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Angies List is celebrating their 15th year online and is offering a coupon code that can earn you some cash and save your friends some money as well.
If you’ve never heard of the service, a while back I wrote up an Angies List review and also list some angies list coupon codes you can use to [...]
A high interest rate savings account is an essential part of our financial system. With a large amount of money that is currently held in bank accounts, I’d love to get as much return as possible while making sure that the money will be there when we need it in the next few months. Unfortunately, [...]
Original Post on The Sun’s Financial Diary
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If you own mutual funds, it’s quite possible that you are paying more than you need to in mutual fund fees. This is according to Lipper, Inc. a large mutual fund research company. But by understanding what the various fees are that are associated with mutual fund investing, you’ll be able to compare [...]
Raise your hand if you’re ready for spring. That’s what I thought. If you’re like me and many others up here in a cold part of the country you’re probably anxious for March to arrive next week and hopefully bringing warmer weather with it. It seems like it’s been an abnormally long and cold winter, [...]
About the Author: Jeremy is a retirement planning specialist and founder of Generation X Finance and the guide to Financial Planning at About.com. To learn more, follow Jeremy on Twitter.
I have been a customer of TurboTax for a few years already. When I used the software to prepare my own taxes in the past, I always got the PC version, the software that requires installation on my own PC. I know Intuit has been offering the equivalent, online tax preparation software for sometime, but [...]
Original Post on The Sun’s Financial Diary
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Lending Club has a new bonus that’s a fantastic follow up to the great discussion earlier this week on social lending arbitrage. It is this week’s Free Money Friday offer!
Lending Club rolled out a new website, and sent an email to current investors detailing the bonus offer.
I sent an email to Lending Club to get some more information on this bonus program. They confirmed the following details:
There was a link in my email that looked like it was tied to my personal information, so you’ll want to check your email for your own link to make sure you get credit for the bonus. The email was titled “Celebrate our new look with a $150 bonus” if you are looking for it.
Even though the link was personalized, the email did contain the following note:
After I botched the math on the last Lending Club bonus offer, I’m certain the math works out better on this one… even with the service fee! A lower loan amount and the larger bonus will definitely lend itself to some free money.
So if I take a out a $1,000 loan, I pay $22.50 for the 2.25% servicing fee, less than $10 in interest for the first month (assuming great credit which starts at 7.89%), and get a $150 bonus. I net over $100. Right, readers?
This was just the offer I was waiting for to give the social lending arbitrage a try! Now I just need to make sure to apply and get the loan listed before the end of the weekend!
If you aren’t a Lending Club investor yet, you might want to sign up for an account (and get a free $25 Sign Up Bonus) so you’ll be eligible the next time one of these offers shows up.
Written by Madison
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Million Dollar Journey was nominated for the best Canadian personal finance blog in the new Platus Awards. If you have a moment, vote for your favorite blogs here.
Cheapest thing you have ever done @ Canadian Money Forum
Selling Wine – Almost Like Blogging @ Lazy Man and Money
Why are people so bad with money? @ Thicken [...]
This article is by Adam from Money Relationship. Subscribe to his site to get updates about his journey out of $150,000 in debt.
My wife and I got married last July in what turned out to be an amazing day. She looked beautiful, I looked stunning and we had a great time. The last thing on [...]
Post by Frugal Dad
Online tax software is becoming more popular each year for people looking to file their federal income tax returns on their own. Compete, a company that measures website visitors across the Internet, released a report this month that showed 11.5% more consumers visting the category of “Accountancy and Tax Service” sites than the previous year.
All [...]
According to a recent U.S. government study, seventeen million Americans manage their money without the use of a bank account. This means that they have no savings or checking account. Many look down upon this way of life, but it is difficult for me to say it is a bad thing given the [...]
This guest post comes to you from The Digerati Life, a site that covers financial topics that range from which online brokers to choose, to how you can teach your kids about money. The blog is up for a Plutus Award for best career blog… I encourage you to vote for The Digerati Life [...]
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Have you ever wondered how your spending stacks up against your neighbors? Maybe you think you have spending under control but since your friends are telling you exactly what they are spending it’s hard to say for sure. This is the fun thing about Bundle. You can poke around with spending data for all sorts [...]
About the Author: Jeremy is a retirement planning specialist and founder of Generation X Finance and the guide to Financial Planning at About.com. To learn more, follow Jeremy on Twitter.
Surprisingly, many people do not realize that they can still get one last deduction out of 2009 even though their current calendar reads 2010. No, this isn’t fantasy or traffic grasping SEO hype — there really is one way for you to still get another deduction on your 2009 taxes. Ready? Here goes:
If you want [...]
Original Post on The Sun’s Financial Diary
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We were excited this week to be named a finalist in the 2009 Plutus Awards. My Dollar Plan is a finalist in the category for Best Tax Blog!
So far, it’s a fantastic tax season, with the completion of my enrolled agent exams, landing some great new clients for our tax business, and now getting the Plutus nomination!
You can vote in the Plutus awards for My Dollar Plan and all your favorite personal finance websites.
To celebrate the nomination, we put together a special collection of Tax Tips to share with readers. Special thanks to all the readers for sending in great tax questions to keep us on our toes.
The nomination wouldn’t be complete without some great competition. We’re up against some other terrific tax blogs. They’re all great; be sure to check them out if you haven’t yet:
Written by Madison
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1. Pick a bank, any bank
I’ll confess, we have too many bank accounts. Our main chequing account is at one bank. Our RESPs are at another. My RRSPs through work are with one financial institution and my husband’s are with another. It’s too many accounts! I often see worse. Many people I meet with have [...]
If you spend any time working with a small group of people on intense, timeline-driven projects with limited resources you’ve experienced some – or maybe a lot of – tension. You’ve probably also read, with some trepidation, stories of people showing up at the office with an AK-47 dressed all in black. How likely is [...]
If you read brip blap via RSS, you might want to visit the site and see the new theme; if you like it, it’s the frugal theme and if you buy it through that link, you help support brip blap.
workplace violence is an original article from the website brip blap.
Last week our family took our first trip to Disney World. It was a great time, and while I’d like to tell you about all the frugal lessons we learned, honestly, there is little frugal about Disney. We did learn a few tricks that could help shave money off our next trip (and I’ll share [...]
Post by Frugal Dad
How to Keep Your Credit Card Safe Online
Using your credit card to buy something online has become an almost daily habit for most people. Even so, there are many people who are still uncomfortable with submitting their credit card information online. Their fears aren’t completely unfounded. Scams are everywhere and the techniques scammers use are [...]
About the Author: Jeremy is a retirement planning specialist and founder of Generation X Finance and the guide to Financial Planning at About.com. To learn more, follow Jeremy on Twitter.
8 Tips to Keep Your Credit Card Information Safe When Shopping Online
Last year, President Obama finally pushed legislation through Congress that is aimed at protecting American consumers from the unscrupulous practices of credit card companies. This week, the new credit card law finally takes effect.
On Monday, February 22nd, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (the CARD Act, for short) begins guarding credit card users [...]
Original Post on The Sun’s Financial Diary
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We pay lots of attention to income tax returns around here, but they’re not the only tax returns with a tax deadline on April 15th. If you made a significant gift during 2009, you will also need to file a gift tax return.
In 2009 and 2010, the first $13,000 you give to any gift recipient is completely tax-free – this is called the annual exclusion. Spouses can each give $13,000 to a single recipient ($26,000 total), and you can give up to $13,000 to as many people as you want without paying taxes.
In addition, each taxpayer has a “lifetime exemption” of $1,000,000 that applies to all recipients. Once you have used up your $13,000 exclusion in a year, you start drawing against the $1,000,000 exemption. If you eventually gift more than $1,000,000 above your annual exclusion gifts, any additional gifts are subject to gift taxes of as much as 45%.
The following items are not considered gifts:
In addition, contributions to charities are considered gifts but are not subject to taxes – if they are over $13,000, a gift tax return must be filed, but the entire amount can be deducted.
For more on gift taxes, see IRS Publication 950.
You must file a gift tax return using IRS Form 709 no earlier than January 1 of the year after the gift was made and no later than April 15. Each individual must file their own return – there are no joint returns. You must file a gift return for 2009 if:
If you cannot meet the deadline for your gift tax return, you can file an extension using Form 4868.
If you have complex gift issues, or are making a large gift for the first time, it’s a good idea to work with an accountant or tax preparer to make sure you cover all your bases. Finally, if you intend to make significant gifts in the future, consider working with a financial planner to create a gifting strategy that will help you minimize gift taxes over time.
Written by Jill
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When you think of great minds in personal finance you may think of Suze Orman, Dave Ramsey, or Jean Chatzky. You probably don’t think of a dog, but perhaps you should.
A few months ago my dog started doing something I had only read about in children’s books… burying dog biscuits in our yard. [...]
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My last guest post (How I saved 70% off my grocery bill) received many comments in regards to how I was able to find so many high value coupons to reduce your grocery bill. This article details how I was able to receive these high value coupons.
The savings of these coupons is quite high that [...]
