When talking about taxes, the issue of tax bracket often comes up and it’s an important factor in deciding what tax options are best for your situation. The problem is that the average person probably doesn’t know which tax bracket they are in. Knowing your tax bracket can be useful when trying to make decisions [...]
Even though I live a relatively frugal lifestyle, I enjoy nice things. The ironic thing is that if we purchased things like the average American, there is no way we could enjoy these nicer things. But by taking a few steps it’s possible to have your cake and eat it too. The main ingredient to [...]
According to a study done recently by brookings.org, low-income families in higher cost of living areas had less debt (including mortgages) than their poor counterparts in areas with lower costs of living. There was a very clear inverse relationship here between debt and cost of living, which seems to be counter-intuitive. Though the researchers noted [...]
Just when you think the tax code couldn’t get more complicated, we approach 2010, when a multitude of taxes are waived and taxpayers are given large breaks (e.g. estate taxes repealed in 2010). There is one newer tax provision, however, that I have not heard discussed much at all is very lucrative for middle income [...]
No doubt you have heard of the Two-Income Trap. I think a major issue that is often overlooked with the Two-Income Trap are taxes. I come from a situation where when it came down to having kids and wanting a spouse home, we never saw much of a loss going down to one income because [...]
I have been searching the web for months, looking for ways to measure my financial progress, and have come up pretty empty handed. By merely looking at my peers and neighbors there is no doubt we are far ahead of the curve. On the other hand, when compared to some people in the financial forums [...]
I’ve been noticing a lot of confusion on the kiddie tax rules lately so figured it was time to break it down. Too many parents are deciding not to put a token amount of money in their kids’ name in fear of the “kiddie tax” when in reality this tax should only hit you if [...]
Hanging around the frugal online personal finance communities I see the general advice to buy the cheapest house you can afford. I disagree with this pretty heavily. We moved to a lower cost of living area in our early 20s because it was frankly the only way we could have the lifestyle we wanted to [...]
When shopping for a used car you can take two very different routes. In my younger years with much less cash I always bought used from a private party. But you can also find some pretty good deals at the dealer as well. When shopping for a used car you could start with your newspaper, [...]
If you have ever been in a brick and mortar store and wished for the convenience of online price comparisons when deciding on a purchase, there is a service out there that tries to bring just that to your cell phone. The service is called Frucall. As long as you have a cell phone, you [...]
