Midweek Roundup - Winter Weather Edition

Written by Nickel - 3 Comments

Here I sit in the dining room with my laptop. The weather forecast has been calling for freezing rain, and as I look out the window I can see it starting to fall. They’re predicting snow overnight, and it’s conceivable that the local schools will be closed tomorrow - we don’t get much snow around here, so people don’t really know how to deal with it.

Anyway, here are some interesting articles for you to check out…

Jim at pfBlueprint put together a nice rundown of the 2008 federal income tax brackets. Unless I’m mistaken, the overall rate structure looks to be the same, though the cutoffs have moved. They’ve also increased things like personal and dependent exemptions and standard deductions, changed the phaseout limits for a variety of things, including Roth IRAs (though we’ll still be ineligible), and bumped the 415(c) limit from $45,000 to $46,000.

Jeremy talked about 401(k) debit cards. I’ve actually never heard about this, but having read about it just now, I have to agree with Jeremy that this is a decidedly bad idea. It essentially turns your 401(k) into what can only be termed a RELOC (retirement equity line of credit). Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Jonathan put together a nice piece on the value of saving more vs. earning more. I actually ran a poll asking which was more important when it comes to improving your bottom line, and spending less came out on top.

Published on January 16th, 2008 - 3 Comments
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About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!

Comments (scroll down to add your own):

A little freezing rain here tonight, too, but it doesn’t look like it will change over to snow. I doubt schools would be closed, but even if they were I would have to go in to work. Our boss wouldn’t call work off if we were in the eye of a hurricane!
Comment by Frugal Dad — Jan 16th 2008 @ 10:38 pm
It’s cold here in Seattle…and by Seattle cold I mean in the 30’s : ). We had some crazy snow and ice here Monday, but it’s calmed down since then.
Comment by DebtKid — Jan 16th 2008 @ 11:48 pm
401k debit cards? Could we get any crazier?

This society is wallowing in rampant consumerism, unable to get above a 2 percent savings rate and they’re making 401k debit cards? :big sigh, shaking head:

Oh, sleet and ice predicted tonight for us. Just great.

Hope you all have a wonderful day in spite of the weather.
Comment by Ron@TheWisdomJournal — Jan 17th 2008 @ 8:14 am