It’s late spring, which means much of the country is experiencing everything from very wet weather to tornadoes. If you own your home, it’s time to make sure it’s weather-worthy. Here are five things you should do every spring to avoid spring home maintenance headaches. Inspect for unwanted house guests. As the weather changes with [...]
One of the great things about having a job is your employer handles all that pesky payroll withholding and reporting stuff. All you have to do each year is file your tax return and claim your refund. When you run your own shop or are self-employed, there’s so much paperwork you barely have time to [...]
The home buyer tax credits that pumped up existing and new home sales are gone. To take advantage of either the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit or the $6,500 long-term home owner tax credit, you must have signed a valid contract by April 30, 2010. You have until June 30, 2010, to close on [...]
Economy got you down? You’re not alone. But here’s the good news: you may be able to save some cash on your car insurance. When insurance companies consider your application for auto insurance or a request to lower your premiums, they look at a variety of factors, including your driving record, your credit score, and [...]
Imagine waking up one morning and finding your home is worth about half what you paid for it the previous month. That’s exactly what happened to homeowners in Southern California in the late 1980s when two naval bases closed and thousands of workers were laid off. Everyone tried to sell at the same time, and [...]
Insurance. It’s pretty much all I’ve known since 1985, when my dad traded dollars for the time I spent assisting him at his seven-year-old insurance business. He paid my college tuition, and I helped out in the office, using carbon copy forms printed via typewriter and sending correspondence via certified mail to guarantee effective dates [...]
The last thing in the world I ever expected to be doing was taxes. After my first tax class ever, in college, I just shook my head. You’d have to be out of your mind to get into this field. It’s like quicksand. The information changes rapidly, sometimes 10 or 12 times a year. Every [...]
