Guess what? If you’re single and your adjusted gross income (AGI) is $25k or less ($50k for married couples), then you’re entitled to a credit of 10-50% on up to $2,000 in contributions to qualified retirement savings plans. Eligible plans include 401(k) and 403(b) plans as well as traditional and Roth IRAs. This credit comes [...]

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There’s been a lot of talk recently about taking advantage of 0% balance transfer credit card offers. When it comes to getting rid of credit card debt, the utility of these balance transfer offers is pretty obvious — simply tranfer balances from higher-rate cards to a 0% credit card and save a ton on interest [...]

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This past year we donated a ton of stuff to Goodwill. For starters, we moved. On top of that, we’re done having kids, and they’re growing fast. Thus, we had lots of stuff to clear before, during, and after the move. Right after our moving sale, I hauled several loads of stuff to the Goodwill [...]

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I noted the other day that I was waffling about how to handle our tax prep this year… Do it myself again, or hire a pro? Well, I ended up deciding to split the difference this year, and do it both ways.
Over the weekend, I fired up Turbo Tax and hunkered down to figure things [...]

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Here are some of my favorite FiveCentNickel (subscribe) posts from one year ago this past week:
» Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps
» HSBC Account Opening Process Complete
» Five Red Flags That Might Trigger an IRS Audit
» Online Bank Contact and Routing Information
And this is what was happening over at Raising4Boys (subscribe) over the same period:
» Otitis Media, [...]

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I was just digging through my stats and thought I’d give a shout out to the sites that have referred the most visitors to FiveCentNickel over the past four weeks. Note that I’ve trimmed this down to just weblogs, so things like search engines (which are a huge contributor to traffic here) and the NY [...]

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Hmmm… This is interesting. Remember the telephone tax credit that I wrote about the other day? Well, it seems that people have been abusing it and asking for way too much money back. According to IRS commissioner Mark Everson:
“While the vast majority of taxpayers are claiming the telephone tax refund correctly, we are seeing some [...]

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Here’s a quick look at some of the articles that caught my eye over the past week…

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Australia Screws in Compact Fluorescent Lights Nationwide
“Trumpeting it as a ‘world first,’ the Australian government is mandating a nationwide phase out of inefficient, old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs in favor of compact fluorescent bulbs by 2010.”
(tags: energy)

MP3 Patents In Upheaval After Verdict
“Microsoft was ordered by a federal jury yesterday to pay $1.52 billion in a patent [...]

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FiveCentNickel participated in three carnivals this week. Here they are along with my posts that were included in each.
The Carnival of Personal Finance included “Always (Always!) Double-Check Your Medical Bills.”
The Best of Me Symphony included “How to Protect Yourself Against Identity Theft.” Also included was “How to Take Responsibility When You’re Four” from raising4boys.com.
The Carnival [...]

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