Where there is opportunity, there are people to take advantage of it. Unfortunately scammers take advantage of opportunity to the detriment of others. Opportunity to a scammer is when a person is vulnerable, overly hopeful of finding help, and so eager to get out of their current situation that they fail to fully research any […]
You pay taxes based on your income. But before that income is calculated, the IRS allows you to reduce it based on exemptions. What is a tax exemption? A standard amount of money (defined each year by the IRS) that is not taxed. For tax year 2014, the personal exemption amount is $3,950. That means […]
Reporting savings bonds on your tax return usually follows a standard course of action, you get a savings bond, hold it for multiple years, then redeem it and report it on your taxes in the year of redemption. But did you know there’s another way to report the savings bonds interest, which could potentially save […]
We haven’t talked about our favorite financial apps since about this time last year. Because there’s a new crop of tablet and smartphone users each year after the holidays (like my Uncle, who couldn’t wait to get his new Kindle Fire) it’s time to add to our lists of financial apps to check out and […]
After Discover More rolled out the recent no fee 0% balance transfer a reader, Mark, and I had a great discussion about using the offer to extract money. Mark is planning to use the balance transfer for arbitrage (he’s considering purchasing CDs or investing in a stable bond fund) but wanted to know how to […]
Government savings bonds have a special place in my heart. My grandpa often tells stories about using payroll deduction to buy bonds when he was a civil service employee in the 60s and 70s. As he tells it, you could buy 1/3 of a bond for $6.25, and receive a bond for $18.75 every third […]
Wouldn’t it be nice if managing your money came with an instruction manual? Not one of those manuals that is written in four languages and have schematics that only an engineer can understand but an easy to follow, step by step guide that tells you what to do every step of the way. That book […]
We’re expanding! And we’re adding more staff writers to the team at My Dollar Plan! Since you, the readers are who we write for in the first place, I like to offer up the positions to you first! If you love personal finance, it’s a fun way to fulfill your passion. Here are the official […]
Time to get your finances in order for the new year! You know which ones I’m talking about… the finances that were neglected during the holiday season. If your new years resolutions are financially based this year this list will come in handy as a springboard to get started. And even if you didn’t dedicate […]
Happy New Year! It’s time to shuffle our wallets around to take advantage of 1st quarter 2012 cash rewards credit cards bonuses. Since many credit cards now offer cash back on a rotating quarterly schedule, we have to reorganize each quarter to make sure we get the best cash back. You know how it works: […]
