The 2014 tax filing season is here, and you may be scrambling to gather the correct paperwork—especially if you were disorganized with your record keeping in 2013. To ensure that you’re prepared before you head to your tax pro’s office or open your tax preparation software, review the list below and start collecting your paperwork [...]
There’s a lot to be said for simplicity, especially when it comes to your household budget. Micromanaging your money can get messy, and if you’re not careful, you’ll wind up over-budgeting and driving yourself crazy. Our family keeps a pretty detailed monthly spending plan. We’ve used Quicken software to track it in the past, and [...]
If retirement is on your radar for 2014, it’s important to start preparing to leave the workforce. Retirement is sweet, but it can quickly turn sour if you find yourself bored or, worse yet, on the verge of outliving your retirement savings. To help you ease into retirement, here are three retirement tips you might [...]
Are you starting to feel cramped in your apartment? Are you ready to start a family but not ready for homeownership? Did the housing crash leave you skeptical about buying a home? If so, you might want to consider renting a single-family home. The single-family rental market has exploded since the housing crash—many of these [...]
When I was 18 years old, I got my first new car: a green Toyota Celica. Because I was heading off to college with a one-hour commute, my parents insisted I drive a safe, reliable car, and they gave me $1,000 toward the down payment. They balked at the thought of me driving a car [...]
In many ways, the Internet has made buying a home easier. Instead of relying on a real estate agent to mine the best listings for you, you can simply plug in your search criteria to a national or local real estate listing site to see what’s available in your area. You can also apply for [...]
When I started my first job in the tax department of a national CPA firm, I was surprised to see people paying quite a bit of money for tax preparation. They were paying around $350 for tax services in order to file a tax return with only a simple Schedule A. That may not seem [...]
One of the universal truths about all New Year’s resolutions is everyone seems to find it hard to keep them. While it’s not the end of the world if you don’t stick to your resolutions, there are some that you may want to work extra hard to keep. The seven tax resolutions you should make [...]
Whether they’re on the Internet, the radio, or TV, there are a lot of tax tips floating around. Not surprisingly, many of them aren’t worth following. Many people accept tax advice from all the wrong places rather than spending the money to hire a professional. This is a prescription for disaster—listening to bad advice could [...]
Home financing regulations have become a little more clear. New federal rules—which are intended to prevent the risky loans that sank the housing market—went into effect Jan. 10, and consumers may need to do a bit more work to get a mortgage. The QM rule is designed to ensure that lenders only make loans to [...]
