I’m sitting at home watching an NFL pre-season game. Growing up in Texas, football was a big part of my high-school life, even though I’m a little embarrassed to say I don’t always understand the game… Every time I watch what amounts to a bunch of people mostly my age or younger beating each other […]
It’s Free Money Friday! Time to get another category of cash back squared away: cell phone service! I got my American Express SimplyCash card a long time ago, before it closed to new applicants. The good news… it’s open to new applicants again and offers 5% cash back on wireless services and office supplies. It’s […]
Fresh off a new parking lot fender bender (thank goodness no one was hurt!), it’s time to drill down on the money aspect of the damage. Even though I carry insurance, it’s always better to step back and look at the math to determine the best way to proceed financially. For small fender benders, it’s […]
A lot of what we do is plan for retirement by accumulating money. However, there’s some planning that goes into the decumulation phase too. And it’s where one of my favorite retirement planning calculators excels: the Optimal Retirement Planner (ORP). There’s a lot of advice floating around to access your taxable accounts first, then your […]
Here’s a quick Free Money offer from Chase for opening a new checking account. But, you’ll have to act fast, the $125 offer expires today! Thanks to Keerthi for submitting this deal. How to Get Your $125 Bonus Open a new Chase Total Checking account with a $100 minimum deposit by August 15, 2011. Within […]
Obviously, it’s already a long week with the market swinging wildly each day: back to back stock market slides, a rally, another slide, another rally, and another slide. And based on the way investors are reacting to every piece of news lately, it seems likely that the volatility will continue for awhile. Some people have […]
I have recently taken a lot of interest in our annual Social Security Estimated Benefits statements we receive around our birthdays each year. For one, it’s exciting to keep a rolling tally of how much I have earned, and to (hopefully) see my earnings to continue to increase. Also, it’s nice to see a tangible, […]
Getting out of debt is not an easy task – first, you have to make the commitment to stop incurring new debt. Then, you need to create a plan to pay off existing debts in some logical order. This all assumes that you have the income to cover your expenses, and the willpower to keep […]
46.4% of Households Will Pay No Federal Income Tax for 2011 In 2011, almost half of the households won’t pay any federal income tax. This chart strictly reflects federal income tax; it excludes states taxes and payroll taxes, including social security taxes. In addition, it’s people legally paying zero income tax, not those who aren’t […]
The travel deals continue, this time with a Free Money Friday offer from Continental and Chase. This is very similar to our United deal from last week, except that this one is a limited time offer. How to Get Your 40k Miles Apply for the Continental OnePass Plus Card. Earn 25,000 bonus miles after first […]
