I heard on the radio an ad from a mattress store. It says for this weekend only, the store will either pay the sales tax on any mattress purchase or give free financing for 24 months. Suppose the price of the mattress is $1,000 and the sales tax is 8% (to make math easier), if […]
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Sell Your RSUs As Soon As They Vest
I heard in a casual conversation that some of my co-workers are holding their RSU shares after the shares are vested. They thought there are some tax advantages in holding the RSU shares. There is no tax advantage whatsoever in holding the RSUs after they vest. RSU stands for Restricted Stock Unit. It’s a form […]
1099 Requirement in Health Care Law Repealed
Small businesses can breathe a sigh of relief. The dreaded 1099 filing requirement added in last year’s health care law is repealed before it has a chance to take effect. Under the health care law, a business is required to issue a 1099 form to all vendors starting in 2012 if the business purchases $600 […]
S&P 500 + Extended Market = Total US Stock Market
My employer informed us our 401k plan added a new index fund to the lineup. It used to have only an S&P 500 index fund. Now it added Fidelity’s Spartan Extended Market Index Fund. 100% of my money in the 401k plan is in the S&P 500 fund because it was the only index fund […]
Prepaid 529 Plans Are Still Safe
Rob Lieber wrote about prepaid 529 plans in his New York Times Your Money column: College Plans You Thought Were Safe. It calls to people’s attention that some prepaid 529 plans are not guaranteed by the states (some are). It questions whether these plans are safe. I hate to be a contrarian again but I […]
Fort Knox Federal Credit Union Changes Terms On Existing CDs
This is not an April Fool’s joke. Ken at DepositAccounts.com reported yesterday that a credit union in Kentucky is reneging the terms on its existing CDs. Fort Knox Federal Credit Union told customers the early withdrawal penalty on their CDs will go up from 3 months to 6 months. The change affects not only new […]
How to Do a Free Wire Transfer
The most commonly used method to transfer money is by ACH. It’s typically an overnight process, although some banks make it slower than others. There’s technically international ACH, but I haven’t seen it offered to consumers. If you need the money transferred sooner or if you are transferring money to a different country, you can […]
DALBAR Study Overstates Investors’ Bad Timing
We just passed the two-year anniversary of a recent stock market bottom. Numerous articles in the newspaper and on the web show investors as a whole are dumb. They took money out of the stock market near the bottom and they are now putting money into the stock market after the market recovered almost to […]
Credit Card Concierge Service: Free and Helpful
Credit card companies keep inflating the status of their cards. 20 years ago a Gold card was something worth bragging about. Now everybody gets at least a Platinum card. Look at the credit cards in your wallet. Chances are you have a Visa Signature or MasterCard World card. These cards come with a free concierge […]
Free File Fillable Forms: Not Directly With IRS
Am I the only holdout who refuses to use online tax software or e-file through a third party? I refuse to give my tax data to anyone except the IRS. Putting my tax data online with a third party is out of the question. I use tax software but only software I install on my […]