Passing the week. . .

Posted by Bruce Mc on Sep 21, 2008 in Opinions, Week in review | 4 comments

            I missed my rounds last Sunday playing around with WordPress plug-ins, so I was up early Monday catching up. The second story I read was a real smile for me. After reading how the government was about to make new changes (not going to write about as I’ll wait until they happen, if they do).

            Anyway, 45 jars of spaghetti sauce later… is a great little piece on saving money. Those of you who want the math, she saved just over $85.00. I have a mid size car and that fills my car up for a month.

            I want to make sure you all know I have added two more blogs to my blog roll.  IRS – Hitman and Taxable Talk. I came across both from Alltop.com. They are worth the read. If you haven’t been over yet please stop by and let them know I sent you. All so look for them to join the guest extravaganza that I am throwing. (Did you miss that too? I mentioned it on Friday. – well, keep reading I bring it up again here in this post.)

            Have you been wondering about house prices? Andy from $aving to Invest has a post that tells how it looks with the rest of the world. Click the chart and get a look at things on his post House Prices decline around the world.

            Also from Andy Another Inevitable Government (AIG) Billion Dollar Bailout I mention this not for the great content but because I liked the funny musical video parodying the current calamities. If you haven’t seen this, watch the whole thing. If you’re into the money thing this is great.

            Energy Tax Incentives Act of 2008 is covered by Kay Bell at Don’t Mess With Taxes. I never miss her blog, If you are a daily reader of Don’t Mess With Taxes; you understand why she is so well known.

            New to my blog roll the IRS – Hitman tells you that IRS Debt: Your Most Important Debt. It is a thoughtful read.

            PFBloggers.com Group Writing Project. This month they selected to discuss their personal experiences with loans. I haven’t read the others post, but I found Kevin’s part on his blog No Dept Plan to be very informative. Be sure to check it out at Group Writing Project: Loans. Thanks Kevin.

            For those of you still battling the heat, Penelope at Our Fourpence Worth has some great ideas to help you combat it in her post 10 Days Without Air Conditioning and Counting! Plus Tips for Staying Cool. I am happy to say I learned something that my wife and I plan on trying next time it gets hot here. (third from the bottom)

            Joe Kristan gives us some WORDS TO REMEMBER over at the Tax Update Blog. Oh by the way Joe, been thinking of coming back to Iowa. Maybe. Or it has been talked about in passing. I was up there Wednesday and realized that it is nice to be somewhere truly familiar.

            Is it me or is the down turn of economy every where?

            So have you heard about the Fed buying up/bailing out AIG? (check above, 4^th paragraph) for a bit more detail and a lot more fun with make sure to check out TAXGIRLs post Federal Government Plays Superman, Puffs Out Chest and Swears to Save the Country.

            TaxProf blog shares IRS Issues Publication 950, Introduction to Estate and Gift Taxes released on Sept 16, Here is the What’s New section. But need to give credit, I didn’t know. Thanks for the heads up. Make sure to read the changes, and check out his post 2009 Tax Tables.

            Wall Street Journal Says Inflation Factor Means Most Taxpayers Will Get Relief in 2009 is a must read from Peter at The Tax Lawyers Blog. Not Much Peter but need to know information.

            Form 1040, Schedule A, Line 19: The Measure of a Man’s Compassion? Is a whole lot Peter and I agree with him 100% in that “The entries on a man’s tax return tell us very little about either the quality or degree of his empathy”.

            Did you know Bird Flippers More Likely to Cheat on Taxes? Peter over at The Tax Lawyer’s Blog gives us a brief on the subject and mentions a cheater he may have found on I-95.

            One of the non tax blogs I frequent (daily when time permits) is $aving to Invest. I know a lot of you have seen this in my blog roll. I like to credit a majority of my blogs “success” (if that is what it is, “success”) to the author, Andy. He writes periodically on what I call “How to blog” articles/posts. From his writings I work to make adjustments to this blog. Granted I for the most part am doing my own thing, but still I have learned much from these posts from Andy. I long windedly bring this up because he has written a great post about rss count/feed counts/subscriber counts called Looking Past the Subscriber Count. It is very informative included with a poll to see your thoughts.

Does it matter to you how many readers a blog has? Or do you choose your blogs by your own gauge of “do you like it”. This blog has three ways to subscribe if you chose to do so. Two at the right (one at the top and one near the end after the ads), and an rss link at the bottom.

Thank you Russ Fox of TAXABLE TALK for the kind words in “Another New Tax Blog”, and for including me in his “blogroll”. Check out Russ’s blog when you get a chance

CGM Focus: A Perfect Example of Why Chasing Returns is Foolish. I had never heard of this until I read this post from Kevin at No Debt Plan. I was amazed by the entire article. If you are an investor you need to read this. (From reading his blog you need to tune in next week too.) He points out something I tell everyone “what goes up must go down” so to me, do your homework.

Like Kay Bell of Don’t Mess With Taxes, I to received an email that stated “both presidential candidates’ tax plans will reduce millions of taxpayers’ liability to zero or less. The percentage of U.S. residents who wouldn’t have to pay taxes under either a Barack Obama or John McCain Administration would be 44 percent or 43 percent, respectively.” This is interesting but I’ll leave it for you to read at her site in her post 44% of U.S. taxpayers could owe $0. TWTP furthers this conversation in his post FROM THE “I COULDN’T HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF” FILE.  Both are write on the mark and frankly I have nothing I could add to inform you more. Go read their post. For those of you interested the email came from The Tax Foundation. At least mine did.

Joe Kristan of The Tax Update Blog reminds those who gamble about GAMBLING WITH THE STANDARD DEDUCTION. Remember, claim your winnings “above the line” while your losses are reported “below the line”, in your itemized deductions.

For those of you still trying to consider a candidate, there are two posts over at the Tax Policy Blog from the The Tax Foundation that are great informative reads. Whose Tax Plan Would Do More For “Middle Class”? Obama or McCain and Whose Tax Plan Would Do More For “Middle Class”? Obama or McCain are both written by Gerald Prante. Well done.

The Tax Lawyer’s Blog gives us a few more of those Crazy Tax Deductions. I think these are some of the better ones.

            In closing I want to thank everyone for mentioning my guest blog series “Mistakes Made When Choosing A Paid Tax Preparer!”and inviting your readers to summit their thoughts. I am getting some really good post and there proves to be a lot of good information on this in the coming post/guest post.

As for a list of those participating, I’ll not publish one. I am still receiving entries and have entries promised that aren’t received as of yet. When the series ends I will post a list then of those who participate/d.

I wish to think everyone in advance for all the great information we are providing everyone.

Also if you haven’t heard, I want to invite any and all guest post on this subject, I only have five more things toward this and there is so much more. I want to hear from everyone, bloggers or just readers with their own input. Let’s see what you see that I am missing.

If you have some words of wisdom on this, I want to share it with everyone, if it is something we have covered so what, I am looking for others to tell what they know or have learned about finding a paid preparer.