Personal Finance 101: Budgeting – it doesn’t have to hurt
With the economy as it is and all that’s happening in our country and around the world, most people are looking for ways to save money, cut out waste, spend less, tighten their purse strings -whatever you want to call it. We all are trying to survive on less, to make more money or figure out ways to make what we have go further. I thought this post especially timely as the holiday season is upon us and many of us are wondering how Santa is going to make it all work this year.
There are a couple of basic things involved with managing your personal finances successfully; know how much money is coming in and how much money is going out; then make sure more is coming in then going out. It sounds easy enough but actually requires some careful planning.
A budget plan is a chart that shows you the flow of money in your everyday life. A budget can help you determine where you are overspending as well as help you adjust bad spending habits. Usually by making slight adjustments to your budget, you can create the ability to save more or free up money to make larger payments on your debts or at this time of year, buy presents for your family and friends. YAY for presents & smiles & fun & good food & egg nog!! Oops, I got a little carried away, back to the budgeting plan.
The first thing needed to create a successful budget plan is to know exactly the amount of net cash you have coming in each month. So start by gathering your paystubs, deposit slips, if you have reoccurring monthly bank deposits (alimony or child support pmts, SSA, pensions, etc). It’s a good idea to have either a monthly budget book or even an online planner. Even something as simple as an excel spreadsheet works, but you need something where you can record your expenditures and income. Start by keeping track of all your monthly living expenses and other monthly bills. There’s really no need to spend money on fancy budgeting software – you can go online and Google “budget plans” and you’ll find some great household budgets you can download, copy or print for free that are pretty good and will get you started. You can “tweak” it to fit your own expenses – there’s usually a couple miscellaneous categories already listed anyway. You can even do this on a piece of paper.
I always suggest that you start with the “known” or fixed expenses each month, like car payment(s), rent/house payment, car insurance, medical insurance, etc. and enter those. Then go to your bills that you need to get a 12-month average for, like your utilities. By looking back on your heating bills, phone & electric bills from the last year, you can get an average monthly amount and in many cases the utility companies will let you go on a monthly budget plan if that’s easier for you. If you don’t know or didn’t keep records of those bills for the last 12 months, most utility companies can get you those figures easy enough if you ask, in most cases at no cost to you, or a very minimal fee. Groceries are a little harder to determine as well as eating out so the best way for you to truly set an accurate budget is to track every single expense for at least one full month, usually two months in a row if you’re doing this for the first time or it’s been more than a couple of years since you’ve done a budget. I know it can be a pain in the behind but it helps you to get the most accurate picture of your finances and a place to begin and usually people find out they’re spending a lot more on things they don’t really need or didn’t know they were spending that much money on and it helps tremendously in giving you back control.
The other thing in creating an accurate budget plan is to remember to include all the little things most of us don’t think about, like buying a specialty coffee or latte on the way to work or a few lottery tickets a week or month, garbage pick-up, paper products, a drink or two out with friends, kids or adults lunch money each week. Lunch money can add up real quick as I found out in my house when my 3 daughters were all in 3 different schools and I was shelling out lunch money every morning. When I added it up, I had to add another category to my budget plan since it was over $150 per mth just for them! And yes sometimes I did pack their lunches but that still cost me on average $2-3 per day (about the same as hot lunch) so I still had to plan for and budget that in – and it wasn’t something I thought of at all at first.
You also really need to control your emotions and try not to “impulse buy”. I know…I know sometimes you just have to have that chocolate bar (ladies you know what I’m talkin’ about) or a Friday night beer or two after work, and by no means am I suggesting you cut out all those types of indulgences – after all, you work hard for your money and if you can’t buy a few frivilous fun things to relax or reward yourself once in awhile, then what’s it all for? I agree…but the point here is in order to make sure you have enough money at the end of a given month to be able to do those things while still paying all your bills and saving some money, then you have to first have an idea of what you’re spending and where. Most of the time people find they can save a substantial amount ($100′s per mth sometimes) by cutting out things that they really won’t even miss; like the morning latte. Or….still get a coffee on the way to work if that’s what you really like, but make it a regular for $1.50 instead of a specialty drink at $4. Or if you usually go out to lunch at work and you really enjoy it, try going out only 3 times per wk then pack some of the time. Or eat out where you know you’re likely to have leftovers. That way if it’s an $8 lunch but you can eat the rest the next day, then it now became a $4 lunch or give yourself a weekly “lunch out” budget. It might sound a bit silly but I know for me, as a single mother of 3, at times when things were so very lean, I had to do that to survive or be able to get birthday presents, and I still do the “weekly lunch out” thing – it just makes good sense to me. And none of this is complicated or has negatively impacted my daily life…I’m still feeling “fulfilled” each day whether I pack a sandwich and some fruit from home or got out with friends from work that day.
Remember to keep all receipts for 2 months and then you can go back and create an accurate budget plan. Then you can pick and choose for yourself where you want to cut things, change things in order to meet your financials goals. Whether it’s saving money for the future (which that’s a topic for another day) or coming up with money for Christmas or birthdays, a vacation fund or maybe it’s just being able to pay all your bills ontime and not feel so stressed. Whatever it is that you want to accomplish, ask yourself ”Do I really need to buy this? Can I cover it in my budget? Is it going to help me with my long term goals? Can I live without it today? We all hope to have discretionary income each month to have fun with but sometimes we have to learn to cut back temporarily (hobbies, entertainment, specialty clothes) to have more in the long run. I hope this helps – maybe even inspires you to get started today and hopefully add a few more presents under your tree this year.
Kimmer
Making Work Pay tax credit
April 1st was implementation day for the Making Work Pay tax credit, and it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), Congress’ most recent effort to “stimulate” our economy, contains this new tax credit, which will affect everyone when filing your individual return. You may be able to take advantage of an income tax credit of as much as $400 ($800 for a married couple) on your personal tax return for the next two years.
The Making Work Pay tax credit served as centerpiece of the tax reduction provisions of the ARRA. President Obama strongly pursued its inclusion in the legislation because it would put money back into the pockets of working people. The annual tax credit (available in 2009 and 2010) is equal to 6.2% of earned income, to a maximum credit of $400 for an individual ($800 for a married couple filing jointly). The Key is “a maximum credit of $400 per working individual”. Dependants have no bearing on this.
Technically, taxpayers will receive the tax credit when they prepare and file their tax returns a year from now for 2009 (and then for 2010 the next year). However, practically speaking, taxpayers that receive wages from employment in 2009 will receive the tax credit in small increments throughout the year. How? The IRS in late February issued a new set of withholding tables structured to informally pay the amount of the tax credit over the course of the year by reducing required withholding amounts on payroll.
The Issue
The new withholding are designed to save employees roughly $10 per week for the rest of the year (40 weeks x $10 = a $400 tax credit). This isn’t working out for a lot of people. Several of my clients have called me because they are having more taken out then the ten dollars, some are even getting as much as forty-three dollars more a week.
This is a problem and will affect refunds and or amount due/s. Why, because you aren’t having as much withheld, and tax tables on your income haven’t changed. Withholdings went down, not income tax on your earnings.
The IRS produced new withholding tables in February and asked employers to implement them by April 1. But, withholding tables are a blunt instrument, unable to precisely assess taxes for everyone’s unique situations. Employers who use the tables don’t know workers’ complete situation, such as whether an employee has a second job or is married to someone who also works. That means some workers will end up with more cash than they’re eligible for under the new credit.
Adjustments may have to be made by individuals to make sure they’re not over- or under-withheld.
Again, the lower withholding may cause some unwanted results for taxpayers with more than one job, two-earner married couples, and high-income taxpayers.
The Fix
The IRS is aware of this issue and warns taxpayers that they (individual taxpayers) are responsible for making sure their withholdings are correct. This means that you are ultimately responsible for making sure you have enough withheld from your checks using your form W-4.
The first thing you can do is make sure your employer has these new tables. The new tables and instructions are found in IRS Publication 15-T. The next thing to do would be to Contact your tax professional and discuss this with them.
If that isn’t a viable option you can contact me I will be glad to help.
Beware, though, because the credit is phased out as your adjusted gross income exceeds $75,000 for individuals ($150,000 for married couples filing jointly). If your income exceeds $95,000 ($190,000 for married couples filing jointly), then you will not be able to receive any benefit from the Making Work Pay tax credit.
Timing is everything, especially with taxes … and tax information.
The IRS has an online calculator that reflects the new stimulus act withholding tables to help you get your amount just right. Armed with your most recent tax return and paycheck stub, you can in 10 minutes or so fill in the required information and get instructions on filling out a new W-4. You should use the calculator now. Then again, later in the year to ensure your assumptions are on track (around the end of October). You can always make a tweak or adjustment with your very final paychecks for the year so you don’t have any penalty or big surprise.
If you don’t have the time to run through the calculator — it involves entering various tax-related figures, including expected credits and the like — there’s another way: Submit a new W-4 filled out the same way as your old form but with one exception: On line 6, add the extra dollar amount to be withheld from each paycheck. See Form W-4 on IRS site (PDF).
The easiest way might be to leave the number of allowances alone, see how much they’re reducing your withholding by and then on line 6 write in that you want them to withhold an extra amount.
But remember: That W-4 stays in effect until you file a new one. If you don’t want the same additional amount to be withheld starting in January, file a new W-4.
There’s a third option: Don’t worry about the credit now, and just wait until you file in 2010 to pay the bill. Not recommended by me unless your checks are exactly $10.00 more per week.
Apportionment Rules for Service-Based Sales
Apportionment Rules for Service-Based Sales
Written By: Cortney Das
When our economy began to shift from manufacturing to service based, the state law had to revise its apportionment rules in order to address this change. The apportionment formula was established in the late 20′s and early 30′s. At this time the economy was dominated by manufacturers and therefore the original rules did not address services. The new rules, however, lack uniformity or clarity thus creating many challenges for taxpayers to comply.
States have employed a variation of two general rules:
A. Cost of Performance Approach
B. Market-Based Sourcing Approach
Cost of Performance Approach
The “cost of performance approach” was introduced by UDITPA. Using this approach, service-based income is sourced to the state in which the “income producing activity” is performed. If the income producing activity is performed in two or more states, this may get complicated.
States that have taken a cost of performance approach have adopted one of three methods for sourcing sales from services. MOST states employ the “all or nothing” concept and attribute the sale to the state in which a greater proportion of the income producing activity is performed than in any other state, based on the “costs of performance.” Other states employ a greater-than-50% test and source the sale to the taxing state if more than 50% of the income-producing activity is performed there. Finally, some states employ the pro-rata cost-of-performance approach in which gross receipts derived from the performance of a service are prorated among multiple states based on the cost of performing the service in each state.
Additional guidance and examples of the terms “income producing activity” or “costs of performance” are provided by MTC Reg. IV.17
Market-Based Source Approach
UDITPA was drafted in 1957. During this time, interstate commerce was rare. Therefore, the cost of performance and the benefit received from a service often occurred in the same state. Today it is standard for service providers and their customers to be located in two different states. The sales factor is intended to measure the taxpayer’s customer base within a given state. The “Cost of Performance” is not an accurate measure of a service company’s customer base (the original intention of the sales factor) therefore more and more states are beginning to adopt the “Market-Based Source Approach.”
The “Market Based Source Approach” attributes the sale of a service to the state in which the benefit is received. In other words, the service income is sourced to the state in which the customer is located. This is similar to the sales factor of manufacturing companies in which sales are sourced to the destination of the sale and not the origin.
The states that have adopted a market-based approach for sales of services include Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Illinois and Michigan were new to this list in 2008 and this list will continue to grow.
Given the non-uniformity of the states, it is necessary for most multistate service companies to gather the data for both methods. This involves determining the costs associated with the activity, as well as the states in which those costs were incurred and the state in which the benefit was received.
To make matters more complicated, Illinois employs a throw-out rule to its factor. If the taxpayer is not taxable in the state in which the services are received, the sale is excluded from both the numerator and the denominator of the sales factor.
While I have attempted to provide a brief overview of the concepts, this area of state law is more profound and always changing. It is as the economy continues to make the shift towards the service-based economy, it is important for corporate taxpayers to understand and apply the related state apportionment concepts and mechanics.
Congratulations to the Dave O. from Vandalia, MI, he is the winner of the autographed copy of The Truth About Paying Fewer Taxes by Kay Bell. Click on the link to buy your copy.
I have received a copy of “Stand up to the IRS” written by Tax Attorney Frederick Daily. After tax season I will be holding another book giveaway to this title. Mr. Daily has generously agreed to sign a copy and send to the winner. Be sure to look for that after tax season. While you are waiting please visit Mr Daily’s web site. The Tax Law Offices of Frederick W. Daily III
Special Thanks to my guest post author, fellow tweeter (Quornball) and tax professional Cortney Das. This is a great post and a greater help to me during the busy season. Thank you.
The Idea behind the term "Black Friday"
This is kind of a “passing the week . . .” post but first I wanted to put a collection of history tidbits and info out there for you. At the end or after you’ll find a links to a few post of interest.
The idea behind the term “Black Friday” is that this is the day in which retail stores have enough sales to put them “in the black” – an accounting expression that alludes to the practice of recording losses in red and profits in black.
So where did the term “Black Friday” come from?
In 1975 the shopping craze that followed Thanksgiving turned into Black Friday, in reference to the hectic crowds and horrendous traffic. Despite a slipping economy shoppers still came out in full force that year and caused several newspapers to call the day ‘Black Friday’, and thus the tradition began.
The earliest uses of “Black Friday” come from or reference Philadelphia and refer to the heavy traffic on that day, an implicit comparison to the extremely stressful and chaotic experience of Black Tuesday (the 1929 stock-market crash). The earliest known reference to “Black Friday” (in this sense), refers to Black Friday 1965 and makes the Philadelphia origin explicit:
JANUARY 1966 — “Black Friday” is the name which the Philadelphia Police Department has given to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. It is not a term of endearment to them. “Black Friday” officially opens the Christmas shopping season in center city, and it usually brings massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to closing.
The term Black Friday began to get wider exposure around 1975, as shown by two newspaper articles from November 29, 1975, both datelined from Philadelphia. The first reference is in an article entitled “Army vs. Navy: A Dimming Splendor,” in The New York Times:
“Philadelphia police and bus drivers call it “Black Friday” – that day each year between Thanksgiving Day and the Army-Navy game. It is the busiest shopping and traffic day of the year in the Bicentennial City as the Christmas list is checked off and the Eastern college football season nears conclusion.”
The derivation is also clear in an Associated Press article entitled “Folks on Buying Spree Despite Down Economy,” which ran in the Titusville Herald on the same day:
Store aisles were jammed. Escalators were nonstop people. It was the first day of the Christmas shopping season and despite the economy, folks here went on a buying spree. … “That’s why the bus drivers and cab drivers call today ‘Black Friday,’” a sales manager at Gimbels said as she watched a traffic cop trying to control a crowd of jaywalkers. “They think in terms of headaches it gives them.”
It is an Accounting practice:
Look up in the red, in the black in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Many merchants objected to the use of a negative term to refer to one of the most important shopping days in the year. By the early 1980s, an alternative theory began to be circulated: that retailers traditionally operated at a financial loss for most of the year (January through November) and made their profit during the holiday season, beginning on the day after Thanksgiving. When this would be recorded in the financial records, once-common accounting practices would use red ink to show negative amounts and black ink to show positive amounts. Black Friday, under this theory, is the beginning of the period where retailers would no longer have losses (the red) and instead take in the year’s profits (the black). The earliest known use, found by Bonnie Taylor-Blake, is from 1981, and presents the “black ink” theory as one of several competing possibilities.
The day after Thanksgiving in the United States. Retailers generally see an upward spike in sales and consider this to be the start of the holiday shopping season.
Historically Black Fridays have never been good events. History has shown many ‘Black’ days, most with dire consequences.
1. A day of stock market catastrophe. Originally, September 24, 1869, was deemed Black Friday. The crash was sparked by gold speculators, including Jay Gould and James Fist, who attempted to corner the gold market. The attempt failed and the gold market collapsed, causing the stock market to plummet.
2. The term “black” has been used to describe other disastrous days in financial markets. For example, on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the market fell precipitously, signaling the start of the Great Depression.
3. Black Friday in January 1939 refers to Australia’s day of horrible and devastating fires.
4. The largest one-day drop in stock market history occurred on Black Monday, October 19, 1987, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted more than 22%.
So what happened this time around? With the economy the way it is many are concerned. Businesses wondering about their sales (many make 30% of their income during this month) and the rest wondering about the economy.
Well I am currently working for a Toy distributor (I even worked yesterday) and the rumor from the “big boss” is that their stores reported higher sales Friday than in past “Black Fridays”.
Early data show strong Black Friday
Shoppers, clerks say ‘Black Friday’ crowds seem lighter
taxguy has a few mentions this week (and I would like to point out, it is “taxguy” not Taxguy, or Tax Guy or whatever else has been put out just plain and simple, no caps one word taxguy. Why? The same reason I guess a parent names a child Elizabeth and demands people call her Elizabeth and not Lisa, or Beth.)
Issue #4: Dr. Tax-O-Sphere, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Tax Code including pictures of your favorite tax bloggers.
Macho Macho tax blogs describes a site that shows you the chances in a blog (of a blog) if the author is male. As Joe points out it isn’t very accurate as it shows a few females bloggers ( including “Taxgirl”) as being “manly”. Although I question the overall findings, I found it interesting the score taxguy was given.
Friday inspiration: Facing an ugly reality and making changes. A mess I am in and trying to fix. An interview that I am now grateful I participated in and would encourage others to take part in this. The questions are pretty basic for everyone, if you can answer them, please respond to the request that is at the end of the post/interview.
And the Nominees for 2008 Twelve Blogs of Christmas are -
Okay enough about taxguy. . .
What the government should be doing during a recession
Tax Tips, Rates and Brackets for 2009 Returns
Russia to Cut Corporate Taxes, Washington Dithers
A Little Straight Talk
Another “stimulus”? did the last one even make a dent? Help in the slightest bit? If it did I missed it. Honestly, I can’t help but shake my head. I just don’t get the logic.
Before I get to the specific steps you should take, let’s talk for a moment about the big picture.
The President and Congress encouraged millions of Americans to SPEND, and yet many of these very same Americans were/are already over their heads in debt with an average credit card balance of more than $9000!
Good thinking.:bomb:
Let’s continue one of the very reasons that our country is in such poor economic shape. In fact, don’t wait. Spend it now and pay it back later — with interest, of course! The current government thought that spending the rebate dough was a vote of confidence for our economy’s future. Wake up, Congress! Smell the damn coffee and join the rest of us in the real world.
I believe it’s irresponsible for our government to encourage us all to spend, spend and spend more without even a mention of paying down debt or, actually saving some money for the tough times I think are still ahead. While I question just how effective this whole band-aid approach will be, if the government wants to put a little extra money in our pockets, we’ll take it, right?
But…I want you to be smart about what you do with it.
If you’re in great shape financially and don’t have any debt to pay down, college educations to fund, cars to buy, etc., by all means – spend it! Enjoy yourself. That’s just not the reality for most of us. We can use this money to do some serious good.
So what exactly should you do with extra money? Here are suggestions for the smartest ways to put it to good and meaningful use:
Pay down your credit card balance as much as possible. Think about this. If you’re part of a couple with $10,000 in credit card debt and you apply your $1,200 right to that balance, you’re paying off more than 10% in one fell swoop. That’s huge! And it will save you a ton of money in interest over time. You’ll be in much better shape financially than if you spend that money.
Get ahead on your mortgage payment. This is especially true if you have one of those adjustable-rate mortgages that caused the whole sub-prime crisis. If you are in danger of not being able to make your payments, don’t even consider any other option for this rebate.
Start a family emergency fund. I recommend that you have at least six months’ worth of expenses set aside. This is more important than ever now when the economy is struggling, people are losing jobs, and so on. The situation is only going to get worse in my opinion.
Add a few dollars to your IRA. You get a double bang for the buck. You get a tax break and you’re saving for your retirement. When you’re retired and sitting at your beach house sipping a glass of fine wine, you’ll look back and be glad you made decisions along the way to save for your retirement and not rush out to buy that big-screen HDTV.
Invest in your career. If you are at all concerned about your job in the current economy, spend some of this money on training or courses to help you keep your job or make you more marketable if you need to find one.
Start or add to a 529 savings plan to help pay for your children’s (or grandchildren’s) college education. There’s no better investment in our future! Saving for college can be confusing, so be sure to check out all additional information.
Passing the week. . .
Some points I think need thought about:
Many economists believe and are expecting that the financial crisis, the worst in seven decades, will produce the country’s worst recession since the 1981-1982 downturn.
The retail sales report showed that sales at general merchandise stores, the category that includes big chains such as Wal-Mart Stores, and other department stores, fell 0.4%, while sales at specialty clothing stores were down a bigger 1.4%.
Sales at furniture stores dropped 2.5%, with sales at appliance stores and sport goods stores also showing declines.
One of the few areas to show an increase was the category that includes restaurants and bars, which posted a small 0.3% gain.
‘09 is going to be a very bad year for economic activity and is starting to dawn on people and they are starting to digest just how bad it’s going to be.
The Commerce Department reported that retail sales plunged by the largest amount on record in October as consumers cut back on spending in the wake of the financial crisis.
Retail sales fell 2.8% last month, surpassing the old mark of a 2.65% drop in November 2001 in the wake of the terrorist attacks that year.
For the week, the Dow lost 4.99%, the S&P fell 6.20% and the NASDAQ tumbled 7.92%.
The major indexes have fallen dramatically since their highs of October 2007 as the housing and credit crises have taken their toll on the economy. The Dow is down 40% from its closing record of 14,164.53, while the S&P 500 is off 44.2% from its record close of 1,565.15. The NASDAQ is off 46.9% from its then 7 1/12-year high of 2,859.12.
Wall Street’s violent swings in recent weeks are part of the market’s ongoing “bottoming” process, analysts say, in which the market retests the lows hit last month. The market is expected to remain volatile, as evidenced by past recoveries from a bear market.
Kay Bell has some information in her post Treasury chief defends bank loss change. I know we should all be watching this scenario very close. Are you? Personally I am not very happy with how the bailout funds are being used. I still believe this thing passed when it shouldn’t have.
A few other need to read post from Kay, Sunday reading: check cashers and recession talk, and Closer look at bank bailout tax breaks.
Stimulus Package Is Not the Same as Stimulus Check is an informative post from Kelly the Taxgirl. If you are wondering about your next check . . . well I don’t, and neither should you.
Ever want to take A Trip Through the IRS Audit, Appeals and Court Procedures? Well Rob Teuber from The Tax Law Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I like the flow chart he has there.
From my favorite tax blogger we have a great post of IF I HAD MY DRUTHERS – PART II. Part one was for the tax code. Part two is a wish list I am willing to bet most preparers have.
Also from Robert this week, HERE IS A SPECIAL TAX TRICK, WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DO NOT FILE YOUR FEDERAL INCOME TAX RETURN, TO TWIT OR NOT TO TWIT.
Welcome to Twitter Robert, however I must say I am surprised to see you there giving your thoughts on social networking sites. If we are careful, could we talk you into also using a preparation software? Well maybe that is too much. Still, I for one am surprised to see you on Twitter.
Things should get better by 2010 or so says The Economist looking at the GDP. This post from Andy might give you a look at what is to come. I even gave my two cents worth in the comments of this post.
Andy also gives us his Reflections on the Week.
In a recently added blog to my blogroll (A Personal Finance Guide), we are given some pointers to help us Get Out of the Spending Habit to Help Your Finance.
Bluntmoney.com is Looking for more inspiring stories. Have you paid off your debt or otherwise improved your financial life? Are you in the process of doing so? If so, she would love to hear from you.
Patrick over at CashMoneyLife had a great week of post. If you missed them I recommend you go check them out.
Last week/end I enter to win a book and was truly excited to find out that I had won. The contest was held over at Living Almost Large. The book I won you can find out about at Book Review: Birth of Plenty. This week she reviewed Book Review: Investing for Dummies.
I am very anxious to read Birth of Plenty.
Are you living paycheck to paycheck? Robbing Peter to pay Paul when it comes to your bills? If you aren’t sure or you know you are then check out Let’s Dance! Who Knows the “Bill Shuffle”? from Kevin over at No Debt Plan.
Other need to read post from Kevin – How to Financially Prepare for Children?, ING and Virtual Bank Reminders, How to Combat Your Internal Credit Card Debt Excuses, and one that doesn’t sound right but is 10 Great Reasons to Have Credit Card Debt.
Put Your Brain Where Your Money Is: Think to Save is a great post from Penelope Pince over at Pecuniarities. The key is think. Like Penelope, I think 24/7 has to be unhealthy but once or twice a day, think about it. Is there a less expensive way. For the record I have been recently call a “cheep bastard” by the most loved one in my life. This hasn’t always been with me. In fact I used to often spend money just because “shopping makes you feel better”.
Monday over at Wide Open Wallet she has a great post called Not being true to yourself can lead to financial disaster. A lesson learned by many the hard way. Including myself. A great quote from the article “if you live spending every dollar, eventually you need even more.”
New to my blogroll is TaxDollarsAndSense introduced to me from another tax blogger and friend with his mention of Help Yourself by Filing Past Due Tax Returns. As I perused the site I had a great smiling moment when I read IRS Secret Agent. I am hoping to get my yard mowed.
Prepare your taxes on-line With L & R Tax Preparation
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