Quick Thanks
A quick (but big) thank you to Kristie Lorette, a fellow Copywriting & Marketing pro, who spotted a potentially embarssing quirk on the site and had the courtesy to let me know about it. Thanks Kristie.
Free Unbiased Financial Information
A free website loaded with unbiased financial information that you can trust. The Finance Gourmet? Yes. We are trustworthy and knowledgeable, but we were thinking of someone with a little more institutional credibility. How about the Federal Reserve?
Here Comes Your Annual Privacy Notice
Have you been carefully reviewing your year end mail and statements from the companies you do business with? If not, you may have not noticed the annual privacy notice which gives you the right to opt out of having your private info sold to the highest, lowest, and every bidder in between.
Refinancing the Mortgage to Take Advantage of Lower Interest Rates
Ok, it’s time to look at refinancing the old homestead’s mortgage. I’ve been putting it off because of holidays and the fact that rates can still go lower even though the Fed recently cut rates to zero. Now, it’s time to take a serious look at refinancing and how it might work out for my family. I’ll be posting a series of articles here on Finance Gourmet to help guide you through the process. By writing these articles in “real time” with my refinance adventure, you can see the whole process from A to Z and use it as a guide for your own refinancing now, and in the future. To make sure you don’t miss out, I recommend grabbing the RSS feed. If you aren’t familiar with RSS or “feeds”, they are basically a way to get the article pulled from here by a RSS reader which is just software that goes and gets articles from the websites you ask it to watch. That way, you don’t have to remember to open your bookmarks to get back here. It is kind of like the old idea of subscribing to emails that updated you on website content, but this way, …
End Of Year Federal Income Tax Advice Tips and Tricks
Here they come. Articles, columns, emails, and websites by the dozens (hundreds? thousands?) each offering tax advice in the guise of tips and tricks while actually offering up nothing more than the same old retread of a supposed gold mine of tax savings. This is the true, cold, hard fact: There is virtually nothing you can do to lower the amount of taxes you pay on earnings that come in the form of a steady paycheck. Sorry, but it is true. Tax Advice and Tips and Tricks So, what exactly is in these so called advice articles? Mostly things that will not apply to most people, or nickel and dime savings that won’t make much of a dent. But, tax advice articles are popular, especially at year end. Let’s take a look at the most common advice. Pay Your Next Mortgage Payment By December 31 – This doesn’t lower your taxes so much as borrow a deduction from next year’s taxes. The idea is that by paying your January 1st mortgage payment in December, you get to deduct 13 moths worth of interest, instead of 12.(Mortgage payments used to be due on the 1st of the month, that isn’t always …
Capital One No Hassle Rewards – Gift Cards
Analyzing the Capital One No Hassle Rewards credit card as it applies to the Capital One Rewards Catalog offers for gift cards.
Fed Cuts Interest Rates to Zero – How Does This Affect Your Mortgage, Home Equity Line, and Credit Cards
The phones are blowing up all over as news of the Federal Reserve Board’s decision to cut interest rates to between 0% and 0.25% spreads. Here is what it means to you. First off, this is a strange deal. The Fed always sets a hard number for its interest rate target. So, this range thing is a little bit strange. But, it is basically either 0% or 0.25% depending upon how you want to look at it. Second, although the Fed Funds target rate is an important benchmark for lending, it actually has nothing to do with you or your loans. Most loans are tied to the PRIME RATE which generally moves in similar ways to the Fed’s interest rate. Most of the time, when a loan or credit cards specifies the prime rate, they mean the Wall Street Journal Prime Rate. Here is the thing you need to understand. Your loan agreement says exactly when it is affected by the prime rate. So, your loan may say something like, the prime rate as published in the Wall Street Journal on the first Monday of each month. If that is the case, then today’s move does not affect your interest …
Find The Capital One No Hassle Rewards Site
It seems that several visitors are finding their way to the Finance Gourmet because they are trying to figure out how to access the Captial One No Hassle Rewards information on the Captial One website. Some people just wanted a mailed printed Capital One Rewards catalog, but they aren’t very common. It isn’t exactly hidden, but if you are one of those people who wants your webpages to be pretty clear, you might be a little frustrated. There are two ways to get there that I know of: If you login to your Capital One credit card account online, you will see a screen like this one. You’ll notice that there is a “Rewards Summary” link in two spots on the main card management screen. Click it and you’ll get information on how many points you have earned. On that screen is a button that says “View and Redeem Rewards.” Click that, and you are in business. If you would rather just go there directly, the address is https://nohasslerewards.capitalone.com From there, you can look at what rewards are available and order your rewards directly from the site. Keep in mind that you’ll need to have cookies enabled (especially if you …
Buy Real Estate Now – Or Maybe Not
I’ve been a professional writer and business consultant for over a year now, but many people still remember me from my financial advisor days. So, I get plenty of questions about investing, the stock market, and real estate. The number one question I get these days, is, “Should I be buying real estate now?” The answer? Yes, if you need a new house. Real Estate Investment Cycles are Long The funny part about all of this to someone who has been “on the inside” is that these are the very same people who refused to have anything to do with the stock market following the Internet bubble of the late 1990s. While I patiently tried to explain to them that buying low and selling high meant buying now, when things looked at their worst, they shook their heads and said they were going to do something else. The same thing about the stock market holds for all investing. Buying low and then selling at a higher price is how you make money. But, here is the thing everyone seems to have forgotten, or maybe they just never knew. Real estate market cycles take much longer than stock and bond investment …
How To Save On Taxes And Help Other People For Free
This year, many people find themselves in a position were donating money to charity just doesn’t seem like a good idea given their current situation. But, there is still a way to help without spending a cent, and as a bonus, you can save on your taxes at the same time. Many charities run thrift stores. If you haven’t thought it through all the way, it works like this. Someone donates a dresser. The dresser is worth $40. The charity puts it in its thrift shop with a price tag of $30. Someone buys the dresser for $30. Since the item was donated, the entire $30 is profit (minus the cost of running the store.) So, it is like donating $30 in cash. As a double bonus, it is possible that the person shopping in the thrift store is also having a tough time this holiday season and getting a good deal on a dresser can benefit them as well. Here is the great part for your pocketbook. You get to deduct the $40 from your taxes. If you are in the 30% tax bracket, that is like getting $12 from Uncle Sam. Sure, you could have sold the dresser …