One of my colleagues at work asked if he could buy one of the Presidential $1 coins off of me. His daughter lost a tooth, and she had requested that he ask the Tooth Fairy for “one of the new gold dollars.” My colleague, not 100% sure he could get hold of the tooth fairy … Read more
A good chunk of us will be getting either a tax refund, or a tax rebate, or both. These could run thousands of dollars each. Chump change for some of us, a substantial sum for some of us, a downright windfall for some of us. Whatever the magnitude, it’s extra money rolling in. It shows … Read more
Lazy Man and Money posted a reader’s question over in the MBN Forums asking for help: Do you have an Excel spreadsheet somewhere in these archives I can’t find one so I could try doing IRS tax prep on the computer? Usually (for 20+ years) I’ve hand-tallied, every little receipt on yellow line paper & … Read more
I’ve made it one of my goals this year to track my expenses better. Budgeting using The Force worked when I was single, but throw a wife and a kid in the mix, the cushion that makes this kind of “budgeting” work goes away. I found that we weren’t getting as far ahead as I’d … Read more
Starbucks is beginning to test $1 “short” cups of drip coffee with free refills in Seattle. Other chains are offering good alternatives at lower prices, so Starbucks might be feeling out the market to avoid getting beaned by the competition. Pricey drinks are of course a favorite example of David Bach, author of The Automatic … Read more
Most of you won’t know Mrs. McHale. You might know her if you went to CFA around the mid-1980s (a high school that was converted to a middle school in the region south of the Finger Lakes in New York State). If you do know her (or recognize the names Mr. L’Amoreaux, Mr. Baker, or … Read more
A few months ago I went to meet with a financial planner that works with my parents. The meeting was nearly two hours and we discussed a number of topics. One word that the financial planner used a number of times was discipline. Getting control over personal financial matters doesn’t happen by itself. As I’ve … Read more
It’s only a week and a half into the new year, so there’s not much time lost if you haven’t. If you use your vehicle for business, moving, or charity work, you can claim an itemized deduction of a certain amount per mile driven if you don’t otherwise deduct your actual vehicle expenses. There are … Read more