moneytalks

It’s tax time and that usually means I put off doing anything tax related until early April. But this my fiance and I wanted to get her taxes done asap because of our new baby born in Jan. 2008, big money back means we wanted to hurry up. Being in a hurry means you go the route that comes the easiest and H&R Block comes to mind when you think of fast and easy. We had no intention of paying for them to rapid refund our money or give any stupid card that charges you fees for every action you take but we wanted a quick electronic file.

We went ahead and made an appointment at a local office and headed in anxious to hear how much money we’d be getting back. (I estimated right around 4K) My fiances taxes are pretty simple. She had a W-2 from a place she worked for half last year and a 1099 Misc from the same place because a large portion went towards her student loans but counted as income. She also had some income from some freelance work she did that came in just over the $600 minimum for what you have to report. She received no records for this income, she got paid through Paypal and we just knew from that how much they paid her.

So it is quite obvious that the lady doing her taxes is an idiot. She kept clicking in and out of screens for no reason, took forever to find a code for the freelance work she did and kept mousing over the entire screen aimlessly in an attempt to buy time to figure out what to do next. It took her over an hour to complete something that could have been done in less than a half an hour.

The time finally came that she told us we were getting $3,200 back, a bit less than what I figured it would be but not bad none the less. The waitress/tax preparer than tells us that we have the honor of paying them… wait for it…. FOUR HUNDRED TWENTY TWO DOLLARS!!! Me and my fiance looked at each other in shock. When we expressed our anger and shock she told us, with a straight face, that we could save some money off our bill. Here it comes, I knew it must have been a mistake. That money must have been with all sorts of extras added in, as we reject the extras we’ll get our bill down around a hundred or so. Than she lays on the news that we could save a whopping $17 by doing our city taxes ourselves. So this moron actually thought that a savings of 17 bucks bringing the total down to $405 would make us change our minds? We got kind of loud calling them thieves and letting them know that I will inform as many people as possible how bad they are. We were told that those were our opinions and to keep them to ourselves. (checking around the internet those are more than just our opinions, they seem to be the “opinions” of quite a few people)

We walked out and I did her taxes online with TurboTax for $50, not to mention we got an extra $200 back then what we would have gotten from H&R Block. They take advantage of the poor who can’t wait for tax returns and are willing to pay anything. Paying $400 in fees isn’t a big deal to a desperate person who will be getting 3 or 4 grand back and those crooks know this. I urge everyone to boycott this place, they are no better than those check cashing/payday loan places.

Boy things have started to go south here with Mr. and Mrs. Moneytalks. Small paychecks from a slumping economy have put us in our worst financial situation in quite a while. I’ve actually taking money out of savings to cover our checking accounts. All of this while the Holidays quickly approach. We’re lucky that our son will only be 11 months old when Christmas time comes so if we can’t get him as much as we would have liked he won’t know the difference. Some people aren’t as lucky though, some people have children old enough to be very disappointed by a lack of Christmas gifts.

Budgets are a part of life but they seem to go out the window when it comes time to buy gifts. As nice as it sounds to splurge and give a great gift to everyone you know it just isn’t realistic.

Don’t be afraid to cut back and go the frugal route, you won’t be the only one this year. Look at clearance racks for clothing. Perhaps you can try second hand stores or Ebay for a good deal? Credit cards may seem like a nice solution but as a lot of know they can add up faster then we realize and then the next thing we know we’re paying off this years gifts until it’s time to buy next presents for next year. Just be smart and stick to a serious budget. The way my account looks my budget will be spent at the dollar store.

I couldn’t believe it when I read it, I nearly fell out of my chair. My heart ached and I mustered up any religious bones in my body to say a prayer. That’s right everybody, I heard that the CEO of Ford Motors, Alan Mulally, had to drive to government hearings about the proposed bailout. Sad but true his private jet appeared to be a bad PR move when begging the tax payers to give you billions in bailout money. Now driving a stylish Ford Fusion hybrid (a car you know he would never drive in real life) Mr. Malally arrived at another hearing with government officials.

On top of all his sorrow he claimed that he would take on a new salary of a mere $1 a year if they have to actually recieve a bailout from the government. Imagine how hungry he and his family will be with him only making a dollar a year. If this happens I will be taking up donations to send this poor man. Or better yet I’ll suggest him start blogging at Today.com where he can double his yearly salary in one day if he wrote two blogs. Perhaps a referal could be on my horizon.

Thanksgiving has passed, Christmas is on its way and with those holidays come the end of the year. As we all know the end of the year means tax time right around the corner. Some of us don’t make enough to worry about making any final actions that will make any real impact on their tax situation.

For those of us lucky enough to make enough that we have that fortunate headache here are some tips. Turbo Tax listed some end of the year advise and they tell people that one thing to do is to donate. It doesn’t even have to be money, clothes, toys, old furniture anything of value that someone could possibly use can be donated with a tax deduction. Another tip is to sell losing stocks. Keep in mind that only $3,000 can be claimed in any one year so any more than that must be carried over to your 2009 taxes. One more little idea is to pay off some bills a little early. Paying these off early can make them eligible to be written off on this years return.

Tax time is no fun for anybody but trying some of these easy ideas could make things a little more bearable.

I’m a huge NBA fan. The Cavs are my team seeing as how I’m from Cleveland. Being a Cavs fan I hear a lot about 2010, that is the year that Lebron James becomes a free agent and he is supposedly going to New York to play ball in the biggest market in the country. Of course he wants to play there, it’s New York City and this is only Cleveland Ohio. Of course a big star would only play in a major market. I think it is more like this, “of course the NBA would only want their biggest star in their biggest money making cities”.

When the referee was caught for fixing games it came as no shock to me. I’ve claimed that the game was fixed for quite a while now so I was more shocked that they are claiming that only one ref was fixing games. David Stern, the commissioner of the NBA, has made a point to give the big markets special treatment.

L.A., New York, Chicago, Boston and New Jersey seem to be the teams that are getting the big pushes. Meanwhile teams like Memphis and Philly, Charlotte and OKC are struggling to sell out half the arena. Only caring about the cities that have multi million person populations gives the heart of the league, the small markets, the short end of the stick. The fans AKA the ones who give the players, owners and league all that money are the ones suffering. The Spurs winning all those championships was the worst nightmare for Stern considering that they only play in San Antonio. Boston and the Lakers in last years finals was the dream but that dream will be for not if all the smaller market teams fold. My advise to Stern is to quit having your refs cheat for all the big city teams and try embracing the T-Wolfs and the Cavs. Try embracing all those teams and encouraging big name players to play and stay in those cities or else you’ll be watching a basketball league that only has 4 teams in it.

It is quickly approaching, the day all retailers wait for all year long. It is known to them and to most as black Friday. It is known as black Friday because, as most of you already know, it is when most stores go from the red and into the black. The busiest shopping day of the year, the day people line up outside of Best Buy at 5 0′clock the day before in order to get that mega deal. I’ve been checking out the black Friday websites to see what there is to see and there are quite a few good deals out there this year. A nice central location to find deals at all the stores is bfads.net, I tend to like this one the best out of all your options. This year I’ve seen a lot of things that caught my eye from Blu-Ray disk players for just over a hundred dollars to 1080P TVs for under a grand with some nice laptops and digital cameras thrown into the mix. Honestly, unless you’re willing to spend half a day and a full night in the cold you won’t see any of these great deals, but there are still sales that day. Your best bet is to probably stay home and wait out the large crowds.

That is right, I said that there is no such thing as the once beloved Payless shoe store. That wonderful place that you could go for a cheap pair of shoes. One of the best places for non leather dress shoes for us vegans who wear no leather. The place was probably the holy grail to mothers who needed to put shoes on the feet of their children without breaking the bank.

 Well, to carry on with the wonderful tradition of saving money of footwear myself the little lady and the baby headed out to a local mall and went straight for where the Payless once was. When we got there there we saw that yellow sign everybody is used to seeing. We saw the brightly lit store that had rows of shoes sorted by size. One row being men’s and the rest of the store being overtaken by the women’s. Anyways we walked in and found that although some store has stolen the name Payless shoes, the idea of paying less for shoes is long gone. The boots I ended up buying were nearly $50! Now I’m well aware that there are some boots in Macy’s and other high end stores that are up near a couple hundred dollars. So comparing the two leaves you loving the 50 bucks you have to spend. But compared to the old days when you didn’t have to spend over 20 or 30 dollars leaves you wondering where the real Payless shoe store has gone.

I just got an email offering a nice online savings account with E Trade. This deal is not the big money deal like the $150 National City offer but this is solid and requires almost nothing to qualify. It is quite simple, click here to apply for a new E Trade account funded by new money and you’re in. The money will be added to your account within 30 days. On top of this they have an interest rate of 3.30% which is 8X the national average.

As I often point out, a lot of bank deals have some kind of catch that makes them undesirable unless you are going to fully commit to a new bank. With this you can deposit a dollar and get your money. But to be honest the interest you’d earn is more than you could earn with most CD rates now a days, so making this a primary savings account is not a bad idea. Good offer, I suggest taking full advantage of this one.

We’ve all seen those commercials, you know the ones about how much car repairs are. The ones that scare you into thinking that a new transmission will cost you right around $3,000 and that the average car repair will cost well over a grand. These commercials are there to sell you these extended warranties for when your car takes that inevitable slow ride to the median of the freeway.

Before you pick up your I-Phone or jump on your laptop to buy one of these policies that are going to save you thousands here are a few tips and suggestions for you to think about. First thing make sure that the warranty does not have a deductible or if it does make sure it is not for each part. That’s right some of these warranties charge you for every single part that is replaced on your car. Next, make sure there is a 100% back guarantee within 30 to 60 days as long as no claims have been made. Make sure it is transferable if or when you sell your car. Look for the ones that have towing, rentals and other extra amenities.

These are just a few things to look for if you do indeed find that one of these warranties are for you. I’ve yet to make up my mind about them. Whether they are worth it or not is up to you to decide but hopefully these hints give you something to look at if you make the choice to look into one.

At one time not too long ago CD rates made it worth while to invest in one. Then as we all know the failing economy and bank failures made those interest rates drop like a rock. With news of the bailout and other things we did see a brief increase in interest rates. But when I say brief I really mean brief. We’ve now seen the bottom drop out with a 5 year rate averaging out at 3.90% which means you could find basic savings accounts and money markets where your money is at least liquid not tied up for months or years. There are really no good investment roads to take right now so we are in a vulnerable time. Hopefully the change of the tide in our government will start to see a turn for the everyday person. Perhaps the future is brighter but we may have to wait a minute for it to brighten up.