14 Most Fuel Efficient Cars
When you buy a car, what is most important to you: purchase price, cost of ownership (regular maintenance, repairs, insurance, MPG, depreciation), utility, performance (how fast and how well it handles), safety, image or the green factor? Maybe you consider them all, but some prioritize the list differently. Strangely, many people do little research and… Read More »
How to Help Others Financially
Most financial articles are self-help so I thought it might be good idea to discuss how to help others. I suspect most people can’t fix their own finances without some kind of help from someone else. Yes, ultimately it is still up to each individual person to apply financial wisdom, but they need your help…. Read More »
Homeowner Who Foreclosed, Other Personal Finance Headlines
Interesting articles worth checking out: Homeowners qualifying for new mortgage after short sale. Auto purchasing and the various fine print costly add-ons. Estate planning: Naming a trustee for your trust, and living wills. Roth IRA escape hatch, for those that already converted, but now regret it. Buyers are Back After Foreclosure. They didn’t have to… Read More »
Student Loan Articles
Here are a few very good and interesting student loan and college finance articles I’ve run across you might be interested to read: You Paid for College How? How Not to Blow it Financial Aid The Minuses of Parental Plus Loans
Are the Educated Smarter With Finances & Debt?
A new study shows that prior to the current economic crisis, it was the highly educated people that were more inclined to have unmanageable levels of debt. The percentage of Americans with more than 40% of their income going to debt payments increased from under 15% in 1991 to 27% in 2008. You would think… Read More »
Debt Collector Fraud in the News
Over the last 4 years we have seem an epidemic of people that have been late on their monthly debt repayments. Many of these borrowers have never been late on payments before, however during the recession people often have to deal with multiple problems. It used to be common that someone just had to work… Read More »
Is Black Friday the Best Time to Shop?
I ran across a great article in the Wall Street Journal today, The Myth of the Black Friday Deal compared prices of certain items over the term of a year, and many items actually cost more during the Holiday season than during other times. People lining up to buy ‘door busters’ of limited quantity may… Read More »
As Stocks Head Higher So Do Risks
The stock market is up this year 16.4%, so there might be some rationale for reducing one’s portfolio exposure to stocks, contends Daniel Roe of Budros, Ruhlin and Roe the largest financial planning firm in my hometown Columbus Ohio, as reported in the Wall Street Journal today’s article “As stocks head higher so do risks.”… Read More »
Rules for Tax Deductions, Reporting and Privacy of contributions to Charities and Political Groups
There are many regulations regarding the reporting requirements, privacy and income tax deductibility of cash donations to organizations. Here is a brief list of some of the rules for cash gifts: Non-Profit charities 501(c)3 institutions include schools, churches, universities, hospitals and politically titled groups with a main emphasis of education. Deductions for contributions are limited to… Read More »
Are we headed into another recession in 2013?
What is a recession? Technically a recession occurs when business cycles retract, evidenced by down consecutive quarters of GDP, or a 12 month 1.5% or more rise in unemployment. When did the recession end? The most recent recession officially started December 2007 and ended June of 2009. Did the US recession really end yet, what… Read More »
