Long-time readers will know that I’m a big fan of funding our Roth IRAs through the proverbial backdoor. What I mean by this is circumventing the Roth IRA contribution limits by contributing to a traditional IRA and converting it to a Roth shortly thereafter.
For 2013, the ability to contribute to a Roth IRA phases out [...]

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Every year around this time, I receive messages from readers who are anxious to file file their tax returns. This is especially true if they’re due a refund. And who can blame them? If you’re owed money by the government, you should try to get it back as quickly as possible.
A common question is whether [...]

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Here’s a thought exercise for you…
One of the main reasons to choose a Roth IRA over a traditional IRA is that you can pay taxes now in return for tax-free distributions later. This is also good from the Federal Government’s perspective, as it allows them to collect taxes right now vs. sometime down the road.
In [...]

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This is just a quick note to let you know that, due to the eleventh hour fiscal cliff drama, the IRS will not begin processing individual tax returns until January 30th. From their press release:
Following the January tax law changes made by Congress under the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA), the Internal Revenue Service announced [...]

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Over the past couple of years, you’ve been spoiled. You’ve had an extra 2% in your paychecks thanks to the payroll tax holiday.
Normally, you pay 6.2% in Social Security taxes. But during the past two years, you’ve paid just 4.2%. This was never intended to be a permanent tax break — in fact, it wasn’t [...]

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Well, Congress finally got around to addressing the fiscal cliff, with the Senate passing legislation shortly after midnight and the House expected to vote today or tomorrow.
Thus, while technically went over the cliff, it should be fixed before it really matters. So what did they agree on?
Here’s a quick rundown:

Instead of letting the Bush era [...]

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As we ring in the New Year, people are often inspired to clean up their finances. One popular move is to roll your old 401(k) plan into an IRA. In many cases this is a good decision — but not always.
In a recent article on MarketWatch, Mike Piper of Oblivious Investor fame shared with us [...]

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Does your employer offer a retirement plan such as a 401(k), 403(b), or 457(b)? If so, then you might be interested in knowing that the contribution limits for these account types has increased for 2013.
This means that individuals under age 50 can contribute up to $17,500 to their 401(k) account this coming year, up from [...]

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With just a week to go before the New Year, I thought I’d put together a quick post on IRA contribution limits for 2013. 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, nothing had changed in [...]

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This is kinda cool… Intuit has released a “Military Edition” of TurboTax that’s free (through Feb 14, 2013) for junior enlisted personnel (E-1 to E-5) and discounted for those at higher ranks (E-6 to E-10 and officers).
Junior enlisted personnel will get a free federal and state return. For those at higher ranks, it will cost [...]

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