When you get your first paycheck from a new job you might be surprised to see how many different deductions reduced your earnings.
You’ll see deductions for Federal income tax, state income tax if your state charges it, and a whole host of acronyms of other taxes.
One of those taxes is social security tax.
We’ve all heard of it, but what exactly is Social Security tax?
Everyone that wants to be audited, please raise your hand.
No one?
Simply mention the phrase “home office tax deduction” and most people instantly think of an audit.
To say there is quite the stigma surrounding taking a home office tax deduction would be an understatement. On one hand, many individuals assume if they claim deductions for using part of their home for business purposes that they will automatically incur the wrath of an IRS audit. On the other hand, being able to write off a bunch of legitimate costs is extremely tempting and could save business owners and their employees a lot of money at tax time.
So should you use the tax deduction from running your business out of your home? What can you claim and what are the risks?
Your credit score is an incredible tool that can build up your life if used properly and tear it down if abused.
The difference between a great credit score and an okay credit score might be the difference in 0.5% interest on a home or auto loan and thousands of extra dollars of interest paid.
If you’re looking to protect your credit score you need to be aware of the difference between a soft credit pull and a hard credit pull. One can damage your credit score while the other is mostly harmless.
Do you know the difference?
Here’s a look at the two types of credit report pulls.
Getting into debt is really easy if someone is willing to give you a credit line. It’s the getting out of debt that is the hard part.
Many financial gurus advise against debt consolidation. There’s the old adage of “You can’t go into debt to get out of debt.”
While consolidating does have its risks, it can be beneficial in helping you turn your finances around.
First let’s look at the positives and negatives of using debt consolidation to helping you get out of debt once and for all.
Facebook’s recent IPO and resulting stock price flop have been all the talk in both financial and general news media as of late. Billions have been made and lost on that single stock alone.
But what exactly is an IPO? And does it really matter to the average investor?
IPO stands for “Initial Public Offering”.
When a private company wants to sell a share of the company to the public in order to raise capital to continue expanding operations it is done through an initial public offering. It is called this because up to this point the private company hasn’t sold a share of the company publicly on the stock market.
In short, an IPO is when a privately held company owned by a few individuals or handful of investors, sells a chunk of the company on the publicly traded stock markets.
I had never heard of Motif Investing when Glen asked me to take a look at them and write up a Motif Investing review. Having done so I’m really glad I’ve been made aware of this investment firm.
This is one of the most unique value propositions I’ve heard of for retail investors in quite some time. If you ever plan to invest for your future retirement I think looking at Motif is a good idea.
Earlier this year a new bill was introduced to Congress called the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012.
The potential legislation has some massive changes for the student loan industry. Is this new student debt legislation a good idea or something that should be shelved by Congress?
The Act would make wide changes to the massive student debt load in the country.
In 2010 total student loan debt exceeded total credit card debt for the first time. The Act is also in response to a poor economy: the idea is that former students are too cash strapped from paying their loans to spend any money in the economy and relieving them of this debt would greatly improve the consumer economy.
I'm Glen Craig - I used to live paycheck-to-paycheck, drowning in credit card debt. I turned that all around and now I build wealth rather than debt.
My goal is to make personal finance easy for you.
