Earlier this week, I ran across an excellent talk on time management by Randy Pausch. If you’re not familiar with Pausch, he’s a former Carnegie Mellon computer science professor who died of pancreatic cancer this past summer at the age of 47, leaving behind a wife and three young children.
Pausch delivered this talk just over [...]

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Yesterday afternoon, the economic stimulus package was signed into law. After weeks of wrangling and lots of speculation, the final bill included $212B in tax cuts along with $575B in spending. So what’s in it for you? What follows is a rundown of some of the major taxpayer benefits.
“Making Work Pay” Credit
While you won’t be [...]

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While reading the newspaper this weekend, I ran across an article about people renting out rooms and/or taking on roommates to make ends meet. Not surprisingly, the current economic climate has resulted in a major uptick in the number of people looking for roommates. And for good reason… Taking on a roommate not only dramatically [...]

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A reader named Brett recently wrote in to ask for advice on finding a good deal on a new home. He and his wife are in seemingly stable jobs, and they’re looking to buy their first home. In a nutshell, he was wondering how to: (1) tax advantage of the forthcoming homebuyer tax credit, (2) [...]

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Late last week, I mentioned MyFICO Scorewatch in the context of Experian’s decision to stop offering consumer FICO scores. This time around, I thought I’d mention it in it’s own right, as it’s a great way to get a free peek at your credit score thanks to their 30 day free trial.
In case you’re not [...]

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Update: I’ve posted additional details surrounding this credit and how to claim it. Please click through to read: How to Claim the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit.

Okay, details regarding the House/Senate compromise on the economic stimulus package are starting to come out. As I noted yesterday, the Senate’s $15,000 homebuyer tax credit has been stripped from [...]

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Over the past week or so, I’ve heard from several readers who are somewhat confused about refundable vs. non-refundable tax credits and, ultimately, what it means to “pay taxes.” As a quick reminder, tax credits directly reduce your tax liability on a dollar-for-dollar basis. In contrast, tax deductions reduce your taxable income (and thus result [...]

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Breaking news out of Congress… After the Senate inserted a $15,000 tax credit for homebuyers into the economic stimulus package, it appears to have been removed while the House and Senate were reconciling their two versions. From an AP News report:
Working to accommodate the new, lower overall limit of the bill, negotiators effectively wiped out [...]

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I’m a huge fan on online banking. In fact, we opened our first online savings account with ING Direct over five years ago, and we haven’t looked back since.
Sure, we still have a local brick and mortar bank for convenience, but we keep the vast majority of our savings online. Why? Because online banks offer [...]

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In what has become something of an annual ritual, stamp prices will be increasing once again on May 11th. First class letters will be increasing from $0.42 to $0.44 and prices for other services will likewise be adjust upwards. The good news is that the availability of forever stamps means that you won’t have to [...]

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