It’s Friday! So let’s get right to our Free Money offer for the week!
American Express is offering a $100 gift card for using the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card.
How to Get Your Gift Card

Open a new American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card and enroll in the Membership Rewards program.
Spend $500 in 3 months [...]

Posted February 6, 2009 in Credit cards by Madison | 2 Comments

Update: The $15,000 home buyer tax credit was eliminated in the compromised bill. It’s now an $8,000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit.
A reader, Keith, left the following comment about the $7500 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit:
I just read that the $7500 home buyer tax credit is going to be jumping up [...]

Posted February 5, 2009 in Hot Topics, Taxes by Madison | 11 Comments

How much money do you have to make to file taxes? That seems to be a popular question these days, especially for people that made less money last year due to the economy.
Income Requirements
For the 2008 tax year, you need to file taxes if your gross income meets the minimum income for your filing status [...]

Posted February 5, 2009 in Taxes by Madison | 5 Comments

Zecco Price Changes
Just as I was exploring my options for a new brokerage, including TradeKing and Sharebuilder, Zecco changed the rules. I was excited to try out Zecco because they used to offer free trades. However, I got this email from Zecco last week:
As of March 1st, 2009, we’re increasing the minimum level of assets [...]

Posted February 4, 2009 in Roundups by Madison | 3 Comments

Five years have passed since I helped my brother-in-law on the path to get out of debt. He’s learned to only spend what his paycheck brings in and is considering buying a house.
Because his credit report was trashed from late payments, collections, and settlements, he wanted me to check into the statute of limitations [...]

Posted February 3, 2009 in Debt by Madison | 3 Comments