With just a few days left before the New Year, I thought I’d put together a quick post on IRA contribution limits for 2012. As a reminder, contribution limits have been indexed to inflation since 2008, and can increase in $500 increments (as necessary). As you can see from the table below, however, nothing has [...]
Archive for December 2011
What are the 2012 Traditional and Roth IRA Contribution Limits?
Written by Nickel - 14 Comments
Published on December 30th, 2011 - 14 Comments
Filed under: Retirement, Saving & Investing, Taxes
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Filed under: Retirement, Saving & Investing, Taxes
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Mobile Banking Security
Written by Lisa White - 2 Comments
When is the last time you were inside your bank? It’s probably been awhile. With ATMs and online banking, and mobile banking, there’s rarely ever a need to visit a teller.
And with the growing number of banking apps, we can virtually carry our banks in our pockets and purses. But at what cost?
Mobile banking grew [...]
Published on December 29th, 2011 - 2 Comments
Filed under: Banking
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Filed under: Banking
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Chase Freedom Reward Categories for 2012 – Plus a $200 Bonus
Written by Nickel - 5 Comments
With New Year’s Day nearly upon us, it’s time to think about signing up for the next round of bonus categories on your rewards credit card.
As you may recall, most cash back credit cards have moved to a base 1% level of earnings with rotating bonus categories, and you need to sign up for these [...]
Published on December 28th, 2011 - 5 Comments
Filed under: Credit Cards
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Filed under: Credit Cards
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Tips for Returning Unwanted Gifts
Written by Nickel - Leave a Comment
With Christmas in the rearview mirror, it’s time to deal with the aftermath. Did you love your gifts? Or did some of them miss the mark? While it’s the thought that counts, you may be thinking about returning or exchanging one or more of your gifts.
With that in mind, I wanted to share a few [...]
Published on December 28th, 2011 - Leave a Comment
Filed under: Consumer
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Filed under: Consumer
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Quit Quashing the Quirky: Support Small Businesses
Written by Jeffrey Steele - 6 Comments
Years ago, I was assigned to write a series of Chicago Tribune articles set in Princeton, IL, the historic Bureau County seat that grew up along U.S. Rt. 6, about two hours west of Chicago, and an hour east of the Quad Cities.
After I wrapped interviews one day, the Princeton Chamber of Commerce director winked [...]
Published on December 27th, 2011 - 6 Comments
Filed under: Miscellany
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Filed under: Miscellany
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Save Money by Asking for Discounts
Written by Nickel - 11 Comments
Last night I saved $228 (plus tax) with a 10 minute phone call. How? Easy. I called our DSL provider and asked for a discount.
While poking around on their website, I noticed that they were offering their 6 Mbps DSL service (our current level) at a promo rate of $19.99/month for new customers. Given that [...]
Published on December 23rd, 2011 - 11 Comments
Filed under: Frugality
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Filed under: Frugality
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Intuit Promises to Add Lion Support for Quicken 2007
Written by Nickel - One Comment
Here’s a bit of good — albeit very overdue — news for those of you who have been waiting for Intuit to fix the Quicken 2007/Lion situation…
As you may know, Quicken for Mac 2007 does not currently work on Apple’s latest operating system, Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion). I understand the frustration this may have [...]
Published on December 22nd, 2011 - One Comment
Filed under: Miscellany
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Filed under: Miscellany
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Cash Gifts vs. Gift Cards: Pros and Cons
Written by Lisa White - 5 Comments
Cold, hard cash… Or glittery gift cards? It’s an ongoing conundrum every holiday season. If you’re like me and you have a particularly challenging list of friends and relatives to buy for, this is the burning question.
For those looking to choose one or the other, consider the pros and cons of both.
Gift card pros
Today, it’s [...]
Published on December 22nd, 2011 - 5 Comments
Filed under: Miscellany
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Filed under: Miscellany
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Buying Long Term Care Insurance
Written by Nickel - 5 Comments
As a follow up to my recent post about the high cost of elder care, I wanted to spend a bit of time talking about long term care (LTC) insurance. In general terms, LTC coverage applies to individuals who are not actually sick, but are not able to perform the basic “activities of daily living,” [...]
Published on December 21st, 2011 - 5 Comments
Filed under: Insurance
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Filed under: Insurance
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Discover More Card $150 Signup Bonus
Written by Nickel - 3 Comments
This is just a quick note to let you know that the Discover More card is currently offering a $150 signup bonus. It’s been over a year since I last wrote about a Discover signup bonus, and this one is twice as rich as the last one.
To qualify for the bonus, you need to apply [...]
Published on December 20th, 2011 - 3 Comments
Filed under: Credit Cards
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Filed under: Credit Cards
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