Money Today That Matters Tomorrow
In this blog I mainly write about topics related to saving, making and spending money. But I don’t write often enough about giving away money. Especially to people less fortunate than most. This was highlighted to me recently when I was at a downtown 7-Eleven where a number of people …
The Premium Tax Credit (PTC) allows you offset the monthly premium costs of health care plans purchased via official exchanges or government health insurance marketplaces. For nearly 5 million households, the PTC completely offsets their monthly premium (free health insurance!). Another 10 million benefit with reduced health care premiums. The PTC …
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a program administered by Social Security that provides monthly payments to significantly disabled adults, children and seniors over 65 with low income and limited resources. To be eligible for SSI, a person must be 65 or older, blind, or have a medical condition that prevents …
April 15th 2014, or the 2013 tax filing due date, is not that far away. Which means its time to do some serious tax planning so that by year end you maximize your income while minimizing your taxes dues when filing in 2014. But first, the official rates and tables …
According to an analysis conducted by two former census bureau officials median income for the average American is still around 6 percent lower (after adjusting for inflation) than when the recession began. So if you feel poorer today than you did a few years ago you are not alone. The …
From a long term trend perspective, despite a few recessions along the way, the American economy based on GDP data, has been growing consistently bigger. Coupled with the stock market reaching new long term highs one may argue that America has found its groove again and that we are back …
With the Fed’s aggressive actions in raising rates to tackle inflation, economists are predicting that rates will continue rising for the remainder of the year. This is based on the dramatic rise of the 10 year Treasury yield over the last month to which mortgage rates are loosely tied. The …
The IRS allows all taxpayers to deduct the total qualified unreimbursed medical care expenses for the year that exceeds 7.5% of their adjusted gross income (AGI), found on line 11 of Tax Form 1040. [Prior year updates] You are only allowed to deduct your medical/dental expenses if the total paid …
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has issued a very useful and timely bulletin around the rights of consumers and agencies when it comes to debt collection practices in context of laws enacted under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. For the millions of Americans dealing with …
[Updated November 2013] Without an extension to the 2009 stimulus funding for the Food Stamp/SNAP program, millions of Americans who rely on this program are going to see a cut in their benefits. The overall cut to the the program is around $5 billon dollars with the CBPP estimating the …
After a volatile year of trading I have decided to streamline and simplifying my longer term investing strategy. In a nutshell this means going from holding a bunch of stocks, sector ETFs and mutual funds to just holding three low-cost index funds that provide the diversification and exposure I need. …
Government sponsored/owned entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have announced that they will no longer be purchasing certain mortgages as directed by their regulator and in compliance with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) qualified mortgage (QM) and Ability-to-Repay (ATR) requirements. This is effective from Jan 10, 2014 and covers …
Of late I have been reflecting on my investing performance over the last decade. While I have made some money on “winning” stocks, I have probably lost much more on duds. In fact as I looked at my portfolio I still own many of these dud stocks, hoping for some …
Thanks to recent announcements by the Federal Reserve around cutting back on buy back programs interest rates have been rising, with the forecast for even higher rates by year end. Based on the latest rates have been rising consistently of late with the 30-year fixed rate averaging over 4.1%. That’s up from …