I’ve received several comments/e-mails asking about whether Congress has decided to make the first time homebuyer tax credit retroactive. If you saw my previous article, you’ll know that Congress has extended the first time homebuyer credit and added a new $6500 credit for existing homeowners.
Is the homebuyer tax credit retroactive… or not?
From everything that I’ve [...]

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This just in… The House of Representatives has voted to extend — and expand — the first time homebuyer tax credit.
Extending the $8000 credit, adding a $6500 credit
According to the NY Times:
The bill extends an $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers that was due to expire on Nov. 30, making it available to those [...]

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Not quite a year ago, I reported that Congress was considering suspending the required minimum distribution (RMD) requirement for retirees. The reason for this is that the stock market had just collapsed, and they didn’t want retirees being forced to liquidate holdings at the bottom.
While Congress ultimately acted, it was a classic case of too [...]

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Taxes are a huge consideration when planning for retirement. As you’re building up your nest egg, one of the big decisions that you’ll face is whether you should put your money in a traditional, tax-deferred account or a Roth-style account.
Of course, we don’t all face this dilemma. After all, access to Roth IRA accounts is [...]

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Two years ago, our tax preparer suggested we take advantage of tax breaks like IRAs and home ownership. We then looked at our options and started working on our IRAs. Buying a house just for a tax break wasn’t what we wanted, so we paid down our debt and saved some money on the side [...]

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This is a guest post from Mike Piper, author of Investing Made Simple and proprietor of The Oblivious Investor. If you like what you see here, please consider subscribing to his RSS feed.
The Roth IRA vs. Traditional IRA question gets a lot of press, and that makes sense. By choosing correctly, you can significantly reduce [...]

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Do you have a Flexible Spending Account (FSA)? We do, and we love it. Every year, my employer lets us set aside up to $5k in pre-tax dollars to pay for healthcare expenses that aren’t covered by insurance. This includes co-pays, deductibles, prescriptions, orthodontia, vision care, etc.
Well… The Senate Finance Committee has just approved healthcare [...]

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States across the country are hurting. High unemployment numbers and reduced corporate profits have gutted tax revenue. At the same time, every state besides Vermont has a law requiring a balanced budget. As such, state governments are getting desperate to make ends meet.
A recent article in Forbes highlighted the lengths to which some states are [...]

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Remember back in February when I first talked about the $15,000 homebuyer tax credit? Well… It seems that Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA), the original sponsor of that bill, is back at it again.
In addition to increasing the maximum tax credit from $8,000 to $15,000 (with a max of 10% of the home’s purchase), Isakson’s proposal [...]

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Did you know that you can convert directly from mutual funds to exchange traded funds (ETFs) without incurring taxes? I didn’t. I’ve been operating under the impression that selling the mutual fund shares would be a taxable event.
What I didn’t realize is that, at least with Vanguard equity funds, the conversion of conventional shares [...]

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