February 28, 2006
I just ran across an article that talks about how much money Howard Stern makes from his gig with Sirius Satellite Radio… $93,000 per hour! But do you want to know what’s really amazing? That’s just a tiny fraction of the $705,000 that Oprah Winfrey will take home for an hour of work under her agreement with XM Radio. To be fair, Stern works a heck of a lot more hours (4 hours/day, 5 days/week) than Oprah (a weekly half hour show), so his annual take is considerably higher. But when you break it down to an hourly wage, poor little Howard takes in just over 10% of what Oprah earns.
[Source: MSN/Money]
February 27, 2006
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the least crashworthy cars of 2006 are:
– Hyundai Elantra
– Nissan Sentra
– Kia Optima
– Suzuki Forenza
– Mazda6
– Toyota Corolla
These cars, which sport an average base price of just $15,323, received ratings of ‘poor’ for both side and rear impact tests. But that’s not to say that pricey cars are necessarily safer… After all, the Jaguar X-Type sedan and the Infiniti G35 and M models received one ‘poor’ rating apiece — enough to raise concern, but not enough to make the list.
[Source: MSN/Money]
After a successful first week with the budgeting poll (results here), I’m pleased to announce Money Poll #2. This week’s topic is coupons. As before, I thought I’d say a few words about how we do things around here before jumping into the poll. [more]
In case you’re not able to avoid an audit by avoiding the red flags that I talked about earlier, CNN/Money has some tips for dealing with an audit once it happens.
1. Choose your battles — Before you decide to fight back, make sure it’s worth it.
2. Don’t delay — If you receive a notice form the IRS that you owe them money, file an appeal within 30 days. If not, the government could seize your property in lieu of payment.
3. Seek advocacy — Consider enlisting the help of the IRS Taxpayers Advocate Office.
4. Negotiate — If you can’t pay what you owe, negotiate an incremental payment plan. If you’re in bad enough shape, it’s even possible that you’ll be able to reach a compromise on the amount that you owe.
5. Go to court — There’s a reason that this one is listed last… But if all else fails, you can always got to U.S. Tax Court, and you won’t have to pay the contested amount until after your case has been heard.
[Source: CNN/Money]
February 26, 2006
The Carnival of Personal Finance is up at the MoneyBlogNetwork. Lots of good stuff this week, so go check it out.
It’s that time again… Here’s a look at what caught my eye over the past week on the MoneyBlogNetwork and beyond… [more]
February 24, 2006
A commenter on my post summarizing the HSBC account opening process mentioned that he got started about a week after we did, and that he had already received his $25 account opening bonus. Thus, I logged in and checked our account… Sure enough, the bonus was credited to our account shortly after I wrote that last post, meaning that the entire process is now complete. All in all, it took twenty days from the day we applied to receive all of the paperwork as well as the bonus (although we had access to our account considerably earlier than that).
Well, the first Money Poll was a great success with 187 responses as of this writing. Thanks to all who participated. The question of the week was “Do you make/follow a budget?” As I stated in the original poll post, we tend to pay ourselves first and then let the chips fall where they may. So how does everyone else do it? [more]
February 23, 2006
I often find myself digging around for custmer service contact information, ABA routing numbers, etc. for the various online savings banks, so I thought that I would try to consolidate that information here, in a single post. For starters, I’ve pulled together the information for Emigrant Direct, ING Direct ($25 account opening bonus) and HSBC Direct. If you have similar information for other banks, please let me know and I’ll put it up. [more]
Just in the nick of time… Last night I ran across an article that details five supposed red flags for triggering an IRS audit. The truth is, the formula for identifying which returns to audit remains a mystery, so it’s hard to say what the most important factors really are. But it’s still worth a glance, especially with April 15th drawing ever closer… [more]
