Well it’s almost time for you to file your taxes, you did remember to do so right? Something I’ve found a lot of people have confusion around is the concept of tax brackets. Most people understand that tax brackets mean the more money you make, the more taxes you pay, since we have a progressive tax system.
Education
Stretching Your Dollars on Cleaning Products
Cleaning products are some of the most expensive things we keep around our house. A box of laundry detergent could easily be your most expensive purchase. For large families, these costs can really start to add up. So what’s the solution, let things get dirty?
Money Markets, CDs and Savings, What’s the Difference?
Often people ask me where I put my savings, do I use a Savings account? What about CDs and Money Markets? What’s the difference between all of these anyhow?
How to Make Budgeting a Habit
Almost every time I talk to someone about BudgetSimple, I get a similar reaction “Oh wow, I could definitely use that, I can never stick to a budget”. Sticking to a budget seems to be a pretty common thing. You start one often, but keeping to the plan more then a month or two is as difficult as sticking to a diet. I’m sure it’s different for everyone, but I wanted to share how I’ve stuck to a budget for the past ten years.
Taxes – Do It Yourself or Hire a Professional?
It’s that time of year again, by now you should have received all of your W-2’s, 1099’s, and perhaps all manner of other letter-number combination of forms related to taxes. A question I often get, is “Should I hire a professional, or is TurboTax fine?”.
Making Money From The Credit Card Companies
Wait, did you read that right? I can make money from the credit card companies?
Yep. Once you have paid off your debt, and built your emergency fund, it’s time to learn one of the tricks for making more free money, and that is through credit cards.
Should I Put Money Into Savings or Pay Off Credit Cards?
So the new year has started, and you want to get your finances together. A question I get often is, should I build some savings first, or pay off my credit cards first.
Cars Are Your Budget Problem
There’s one thing I’ve found common among people I know who struggle with money problems: Cars. You know these people, maybe you are one of these people, heck I DEFINITELY was one of these people. Modern society gives us guidelines about what percentage of our income should go to a car payment. When you start using BudgetSimple, we even assume that a car payment is part of your budget. But what if it wasn’t?
Time to Think About Taxes
As 2012 has ended, you can now figure out what your tax situation is going to be. If you are like many Americans, and get a fixed salary, and don’t itemize deductions, your taxes are usually going to be pretty straight forward.
While you are waiting for your W-2 to arrive (it legally has to be sent out in January), you can take your last pay stub of December and figure out a rough idea of whether you’ll be getting a refund or owing taxes. Your last pay stub should have everything you’ll need, including gross income, taxes withheld for the year, etc
The Yearly Financial Checkup
The start of the year is a great time to set goals for the next year, but one thing that is important to do is report on the previous year and how you are doing overall. It’s not uncommon for businesses to do end of the year reporting for their shareholders, and in our household we also put together a financial report for our household and have a meeting to discuss. This accomplishes two things: it gives a time for EVERYONE to see the current financial situation (so they understand WHY we can’t afford that new fancy whatever), and also it lets you have a discussion about everyones goals and how realistically they can be achieved.
