Why Raising Minimum Wage Doesn’t Hurt Anything

by
Minimum Wage Worker

Recently, several news outlets reported that Vermont is raising its minimum wage and will now become the state with the highest minimum wage in the nation. Seattle is looking to raise its minimum wage to nearly $15 per hour. Before these events dozens of states and cities had already raised their minimum wage above the federal minimum wage of  $7.25 per hour. The Colorado minimum wage is now $8.00 per hour and $4.98 per hour for “tipped” employees. This wage is indexed for inflation, so it will continue to rise as the economy expands. As is often the case, before any of these increases, opponents predicted doom, massive layoffs and closing businesses. In the case of various cities raising their minimum wage higher than the rest of the state, many opponent experts claimed that businesses would flee the cities raising wages. None of that ever happened. Why Higher Minimum Wage Doesn’t Affect Businesses The argument against minimum wage goes something like this: Businesses will flee to areas with lower minimum wages Businesses will fire workers or cut employee hours Businesses will raise prices The economy will suffer The fact is, however, that after all of these states and cities raised the minimum …

Read More

Apple Earnings Dividends and Stock Split

by

Apple is one of those companies that draws more than its fair share of attention. There are both the so-called fanboys, and plenty of haters out there to talk at high volume whenever the company does anything. However, the company is also a key component of the S&P 500 and most NASDAQ indexes. In other words, what Apple does as a publicly traded company matters to your personal finance. Apple 2014 Q2 Earnings You’ve probably seen the news by now. Apple had what many analysts are calling a blockbuster quarter. In particular, analysts were surprised by the increase in Apple’s revenue for the quarter. In a way, this is just further proof that analysts don’t really have any sort of crystal ball that regular investors don’t. Apple long ago stopped giving guidance to Wall Street. Without that guidance, Wall Street really doesn’t have a clue how things are going for Apple beyond what things like channel checks can tell them. If you want to read about Apple’s second quarter earnings, there are several reasources including Marketwatch, and Apple’s investor relations website. However, for long-term investors in Apple stock, the quarterly earnings are not the story. What is the story is …

Read More

What Happens If I Don’t Pay My Taxes

by

Doing income taxes can be a trying time for many taxpayers. There are numerous forms to fill out, cumbersome calculations to perform, not to mention, the rules change every year. When you finally finish, you might end up owing a lot of taxes to the government. The IRS isn’t know for being forgiving, but that doesn’t stop people from wondering, what happens if I don’t pay my taxes? Failure to File Taxes First, it is important to distinguish between not filing your income taxes, failure to file, from not paying your income taxes. There are significant additional penalties for not filing your income taxes on time. If you can pay your taxes, but can’t get them done on time, then consider filing a Form 4868, Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File U.S. Individual Income Tax. Filing this form grants taxpayers an automatic extension of time to file. This form must be filed by the April 15th filing deadline just like a regular tax return would be. Once filed, the new deadline for filing your taxes moves to the beginning of October. Beware, even if you file for an extension, you do NOT get any additional time to pay …

Read More

Can Car2Go Save You Money?

by

I recently wrote a review of Car2Go Denver and someone asked if they could save money using Car2Go. The answer, as always, depends on your own personal finances and circumstances, but let’s take a look at how you might save money using Car2Go or another car sharing service. Car Sharing or Auto Sharing Keep in mind the difference between ride sharing and car sharing. With ride sharing, you ride in a car with someone else. With car sharing, you “share a car” with other people. While this is technically true, in reality what you are doing is renting a car by the minute. So, can a car sharing membership save you money? To find out, we need to know about the costs. Car2Go in Denver charges 38 cents per minute. This doesn’t sound like a lot, but it can add up quickly, especially if you end up driving during heavy traffic. For a quick 10 minute drive to the grocery store, a Car2Go rental costs you $3.80. Of course, you’ll have to get back home too, so we’ll call it $7.60, round trip. Not bad. Whether or not that will save you money is going to depend on your current …

Read More

Fastest Growth in America

by

The government puts out all kinds of information in various reports that are published throughout the year. Some of that information is carefully followed and dissected, such as unemployment numbers and economic reports. Others are completely ignored. But, the best ones are the reports that some reporter sees and concocts a grabbing headline around. Is North Dakota Really the Fastest Growing? The fun with headlines not withstanding, the biggest issue with many news reports about government numbers is that they provide so little context, to a readership that already has such a weak grasp on the math itself. The latest “big news” is that North Dakota has the fastest growing county in the U.S. by population. The key piece of information is that this statistic is not only by population, but also by percentage. For those of you with a firm grasp on the mathematics of statistics, and percentages in general, it comes as no surprise that the biggest percentage gains come the easiest from the lowest starting values. In other words, if you put a turtle in a shopping cart, you can increase his average speed by 1000 percent. If you change the top speed of a race car …

Read More

Payday Loans Scam

by

Payday loans are a bad deal for borrowers. The negatives that are inherent to this type of loan are quickly exacerbated by people making poor choices, or just as often people with no choices. Payday loans are named for the way this lending method got its start. Originally, the way a payday loan worked, was that you borrowed month, until payday and then you paid the loan back. The idea was that this could be bridge to your next paycheck if you had unexpected expenses or other issues that busted your budget and left you no options. In the years since this type of loan has morphed into no-win situation for people with no other options. Why Take a Payday Loan To understand how a payday loan works, and how they cause such so many problems, it is instructive to look at just how people use payday loans, and why. As is often the case, and example can be particularly instructive. Let’s consider James. James gets paid once a month. On May 15th, his car has trouble. The mechanic says it will cost $300 to get it repaired, but James does not have $300 in his checking account and he …

Read More

Detecting IRS Phone Scam

by

The latest phone scam goes something like this: Someone calls and claims to be from the IRS. They say that you owe taxes and you need to make a payment right away. Otherwise, the scammer says, you may be deported, lose your business license, or even be arrested. This is in addition to the ongoing problems with tax fraud identity theft. How To Tell If It’s the IRS Phone Scam There are a couple of tip offs that can help you detect whether it really is the IRS on the phone. First, off, the IRS does most of this stuff by mail. Mail gives a verifiable paper trail for future legal proceedings if necessary. Also, having a computer spit out 10,000 letters is way faster, cheaper, and more efficient than calling 10,000 people. If you haven’t gotten a single letter from the IRS before you get a phone call, be very suspicious. Sometimes, the scammer gets lucky and maybe you have gotten some letters from the IRS. Maybe you didn’t understand them completely. Now, it’s time to understand how the IRS threatens people. The IRS cannot do ANYTHING at all without telling you IN WRITING that they are going to …

Read More

What Obamacare Deadline Really Means for Your Money

by

If you’re here to complain, debate, inflame, or otherwise argue about whether or not Obamacare is a good or bad thing, let me stop you right there. This is a personal fiance website, not a political forum. Go debate the merits of policy somewhere else. This article is about the finances of Obamacare and the upcoming March 31 deadline. If you have a comment about that, or something I missed, let’s hear it. If you want to say how good or bad this law is, don’t bother, I won’t approve it. Obamacare Deadline March 31 Alright, with that out of the way, let’s jump right in. The law popularly known as Obamacare is actually called the Affordable Care Act. This is strange, because Congress usually goes out of its way to come up with an acronym for every big law it passes. However, this law states that you must be covered by health insurance by March 31. So, now what? First off, if you have health insurance that you get through your or your spouse’s company, stop reading and go have a latte. Nothing in this law pertains to you or your current situation. Second, if you already have health …

Read More

401k Plan Fee Disclosure

by

More fraud happens in this country every year than you can possibly imagine. Technically, of course, it isn’t actually fraud because of the cheater’s loophole: disclosure. Disclosure is what makes every scam legitimate in the eyes of the law. As long as the company cheating you tells you they are cheating you, somewhere, anywhere, then they aren’t really cheating you, because you “know” about it. That these disclosures take place inside of 40-page documents filled with jargon and legalese makes no difference. After all, you signed a piece of paper saying that your read and understood the document that you never read, or understood. 401k Fees and Employer Understanding Make no mistake, the guy, or rather the team, of people that manage IBM’s 401k plan know exactly what they are doing. There is probably one or more finance people, legal people, and business people working on IBM’s 401k. As a result, the IBM 401k plan is certainly as well priced and delivered as the company requires. Subsequently, the 401k plan works well and is priced well for its employees as well. This is likely the case at most companies big enough to have both an actual HR Department and a Legal …

Read More

What Happens If You Don’t File Your Taxes On Time

by

What happens on April 15?  For those of you from non-US countries, that probably doesn’t mean much.  To us Americans, April 15th is Tax Day, the deadline to file tax returns. Yup, and entire day taken over and corrupted by government. Well, I guess those interstates won’t pave themselves for free. If you’re working at the last minute then you might be looking for last minute tax tips.  Of course, what many people really want to know is what happens if you don’t file your taxes by the deadline and is there anything I can do if I can’t get my taxes done? The answer, actually, is surprisingly benign.  Filing late is a no-no and can result in all kinds of problems, not the least of which are penalties.  But, there is a ray of hope.  Instead of filing your tax return, file for an extension.  One extension is granted automatcially, so all you have to do is send in the form.  If you can’t get your taxes done by April 15, then make sure you file your request for extension in its place to avoid penalties, fees, and interest. If you file for an extension when are your taxes due?  …

Read More