IBM Earnings Up

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IBM reported its 2010 third-quarter earnings today. The company reported earnings per share of $2.82 which is up 18 percent. The company did not announce any increase in the dividend paid per share, although that was not unexpected. The company continues to use share buybacks as the primary method to "return money to shareholders." The company’s third-quarter earnings announcement notes that the company, "returned $4.5 billion to shareholders through $0.8 billion in dividends and $3.7 billion of share repurchases," a ratio of approximately 1 to 46. However, the company did note that its free cash flow was down $300 million to $7.6 billion for the first nine months of the year. Coming up later today, Apple reports its earnings. The company does not pay dividends at all, preferring to build an enormous hoard of cash for some future purpose.

2011 Mileage Rate IRS Standard Deduction Amount Set

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Update: Information for the IRS mileage rate 2016 is here. This article is about the 2011 mileage rates published by the IRS. When deducting eligible automobile expenses, taxpayers have the option of deducting actual expenses or using the optional standard mileage rates to deduct automotive expenses. Because, the records required in order to deduct the actual expenses and depreciation of a car expenses are extensive and detailed, most people opt to use the standard mileage deduction. In addition, many businesses use the standard IRS mileage rates to reimburse employees for miles driven for work purposes. This both ensures that the company can deduct those reimbursements fully as a business expense, and that there is no disagreement about what the mileage reimbursement rate should be since an impartial government agency is the one that sets it. The mileage deduction rate is adjusted every year. The standard 2011 tax deduction mileage rate has been published. Standard IRS 2011 Mileage Rates Beginning on January 1st, 2011, the standard mileage rates for calculating the deductible costs of operating a car or truck for business purposes is 51 cents per mile. Remember that although you cannot deduct the cost of commuting to a job, you can …

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How To Compare Rewards Credit Cards

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Not long ago, comparing rewards cards was pretty straight forward. Most credit card offers gave cardholders one point, or one mile, for each dollar spent and charged to the card. Credit card rewards programs sometimes offered bonuses for earning miles either for using the cards during specific periods of time or when shopping at certain types of stores. Often, these special offers came in the form of “double miles” or even “triple points”. These days, such offers are non-expiring specials on some credit cards. Other cards, such as some Capital One rewards cards offer a base miles earning rate other than 1 mile per dollar. My Capital One No Hassle Miles credit card, for example, has a base miles earning rate of 1.25 miles for each dollar spent, with two times miles per dollar spent when the card is used in certain types of retail shopping establishments. Of course, comparing which card offers the highest miles earned per dollar spent is useless without also comparing what rewards those miles or points can be redeemed for. In order to determine which rewards cards are good values and which ones are below average (or worse) it pays to keep in mind that …

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Unemployment Report Bad News for 2011 Economy Recovery

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The November jobs report came in worse than predicted. Recent reports suggesting that consumers were spending more money and that first-time unemployment claims were dropping suggested that the Great Recession might be coming to an end in 2010. Alas, the jobs report shatters that idea for the short-term. A recovery without new jobs isn’t worth the paper it’s statistics are printed on. Ongoing economic recovery requires that not just the people who are currently employed go back to spending and non-fear based economic decisions, but also that more people join their ranks. Unfortunately, that can’t happen if people are not returning to being employed. Smart money decisions will swing from taking advantage of low prices and low interest rates to saving cash. While increasing savings is good on a personal level, it isn’t necessarily good for the economy overall. The possibility that jobless benefits will begin to run out for millions of Americans only adds an additional weight to the overall economy. Put it together with States losing billions of dollars worth of Federal money from economic stimulus programs ending in 2011, and you have a lot of negatives pulling on the first quarter of 2011. The Federal Reserve’s recent …

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Should I Convert My IRA to a Roth IRA In 2010?

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As the end of the 2010 tax year comes to a close, an interesting question is coming up more often. Should I convert my IRA to a Roth in 2010? There is a special 2010 tax trick that allows you to convert your traditional IRA to a Roth IRA and spread the taxes from the IRA conversion out over the next two tax years. That little tax secret expires at the end of 2010, which means that unless you convert your IRA to a Roth before year-end, you can’t lower your taxes with that tax loophole. Roth IRA conversions are open to everyone regardless of income from now on. However, there are still Roth IRA income limits for contributions. Is It A Good Idea To Convert IRAs in 2010? Normally, making a big tax move like a Roth conversion late in the year is not a good tax strategy for most people because it doesn’t give you any time to compensate for it. For example, if you were to convert an IRA to a Roth IRA in 2011, you will owe income taxes on the amount of money converted, minus any non-deductible IRA contributions you made to the traditional IRA …

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Lower Your Taxes – Increase Tax Deductions 2010

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Here comes the end of the year! (Yikes, already?) As 2010 draws to a close, it is time for the annual publishing of the end of year tax tips articles. Or, for the mainstream media, it’s time to re-publish pretty much the same thing that was published last year, rehashing the same old annual tax savings strategies. I thought we’d go ahead and get a jump on them (Isn’t that what good personal finance blogs are for?) by pre-posting all of the standard, run of the mill, year-end tax tips before Thanksgiving. Of course, if you are serious about tax planning, you’ve already done all of this and more. Don’t worry, we’ll be publishing new, little-known, tax tips and end of year tax tricks for 2010 soon. Here they are the Common 10 Tax Reduction Strategies for 2010 (and 2011, 2012, 2013, etc…) Donate To Charity – Definitely a good write off for high-income taxpayers and everyone else. Of course, the only tax deduction more well known than donating to charity is deducting mortgage interest on your home. Deduct Your Medical Bills – This is wasteful advice for most taxpayers. The medical expenses deduction only applies to medical and dental …

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2011 Outlook for Banks and Mortgage Companies

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Throughout the financial crisis and subsequent bailout of the U.S. banking system, the issue has been one of Wall Street versus Main Street. That is, the idea that greedy bankers, investment bankers, and Wall Street traders duped unsophisticated Americans into mortgages that they could not afford and then left them hanging when things went bad. Whether that versions of events is true or not is open to debate. However, what has been missing so far from the banking crisis scenario is that numerous investors, very sophisticated, institutional investors, were also "duped" by Wall Street titans and those too-big to fail banks. Those investors were buying AAA-rated bonds from reputable investment firms and banks. They were not buying risky, high-yield bond investments, or so they thought. An article over at MSNBC underlines those circumstances and suggests that the next phase of the mortgage crisis debacle may just now be getting underway, thanks in part to the complexities and speed of the U.S. legal system. Banks Sued Over Mortgages Used For Bonds Giants of the bond market’s investing world such as PIMCO Investment Management, and Blackrock Financial Management, two of the biggest fixed-income mutual fund managers in the world, as well as …

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What Does the Election Mean for the Economy?

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Republicans Win House, Democrats Keep Senate – Gridlock? Traditionally, Wall Street and big business have favored gridlock in Washington D.C. The idea is that when Republicans and Democrats are busy fighting each other, they can’t be changing the laws and regulations that businesses already know. Theoretically, any currently successful business already knows how to earn money and make a profit under the current laws, but that may not be the case under new legislation that gets passed. The devil you know, is better than the one you don’t — so to speak. But, is political gridlock good for American business this time? Is partisan fighting a good thing or a bad thing for the U.S. economy right now? Is Gridlock Good for The Economy? With the 2010 U.S. economy in a fragile state, and major changes in the form of ending stimulus funds coming in 2011, the difficult question is whether the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives a bad thing for the economy, or is it good for the economy that Democrats have lost the House. The major concern to look for in 2011 is the end of stimulus spending and other U.S. Government spending to bolster the …

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Apple Stock Good Investment or Passing Fad

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People are always asking me if I think certain stocks are a good investment. There is a flaw in the question, but we’ll get to that in a minute. Right now, let’s get right to the real question people are always asking me these days. Is Apple Stock a good investment? What people mean when they ask me that is not whether or not Apple is a good investment, but whether or not I think Apple stock will go up a lot … soon … really soon. They also want to know whether or not I think Apple stock will go down, but that is not why they ask the question. They want to buy Apple stock because it sounds like a smart investment, or because it feels like a smart investment. Of course, none of this has anything to do with an in-depth analysis of the company’s stock and it’s prospects for future growth and earnings. It’s all about buzz. They heard about the iPhone and it’s a big hit! They heard about the iPad and it’s a big hit! They heard about the NEW iPhone, and it’s a big hit! Now, they hear that Apple’s earnings are higher …

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