This is a guest post from Darwin of Darwin’s Money. If you like what you see here, please consider subscribing to his RSS feed.
As the economy struggles to recover, 2011 promises to provide opportunistic consumers and businesses with plenty of surprise bonuses. You just need to be ready to take advantage of them! Here are [...]

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The best approach to financial security is to have a beginner’s mentality. By that, I mean that you should approach your finances as if you don’t have any answers.
You might be saying to yourself, “What is Neal talking about? Surely he’s talking about someone else, not me. I never behave like a know-it-all. Especially when [...]

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Many of us are starting 2011 with every intention of reaching big financial milestones such as getting out of debt, saving up for a house, or getting serious about retirement. For many couples, however, it might be hard to reach your goals if you’re depending on two incomes to support your lifestyle.
It is possible to [...]

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In the past few days, I’ve heard from several readers who noted that their federal income tax withholding has increased in 2011 despite the fact that 2011 income tax rates will be unchanged from 2010.
This situation has been made more confusing by the so-called Payroll Tax Holiday, which knocks 2% off your Social Security taxes. [...]

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While you don’t have to wait for January to start working on your finances, this is often a great time to try a new approach. If you’re thinking of making some changes, you may be wondering where to start. Here are some ideas for optimizing your finances.
Clean up your bank accounts
If you have multiple bank [...]

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If you are considering starting your own business, now is a great time to do so. If you want to become a millionaire, owning your business is probably the best way to get there.
While it’s true that the economy is growing very slowly and people are slow to spend money, now is the time to [...]

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It’s frightening to be out of work at any age, but it can be terrifying if you’re in your mid-50’s and unemployed.
This is especially true if you are tapping into your emergency savings, or facing other financial hardships. But if you are in that age range and out of a job right now, or can’t [...]

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With the 2010 elections now behind us, I thought it would be interesting to run a quick poll about one of the most talked about subjects – jobs. It seems that campaign ads this year either focused on a personal attack aimed at tearing down the opposing candidate, or they talked about jobs.
While there are [...]

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Even though the economy is challenging, you might be looking to change your career. Maybe you’ve even thought about opening your own business.
I’m with you. But tread carefully.
Common wisdom can be both helpful and dangerous.
For example, it tells us that most small businesses fail because they don’t have enough cash flow or are under-capitalized.
That’s true [...]

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It occurred to me recently that I can use my character flaws to make much smarter life choices going forward – financial and otherwise. More importantly, so can you.
The thought popped into my head while my wife and I were on vacation in New York. (Side note – the vacation was debt free!)
While there, we [...]

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