Death and Taxes, but not Tax Breaks

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Death and Taxes, but not Tax Breaks 1 The phone is ringing off the hook now.  Mid-March is the sweet spot for Americans to do their income taxes.  It’s that time when everyone thinks they are “early” and yet, they are right in the middle of the pack, right with most other people plodding along with TurboTax or schlepping down to a CPA or even popping into see the guy in the kiosk inside the local Wal-Mart.  The truth is, the people who wait until April 15 are actually the minority, among my clients at least.  The reason is simple.  Anyone who CAN’T do their taxes until April files for an extension (you get one automatically without even having to give a reason.)  Anyone who can do their taxes, doesn’t wait until April 15 is breathing down their neck.  After all, there is procrastinating, and then there is procrastinating.  It takes a top-level procrastinator to wait until they are writing dates that start with “4”.

The number one question?  The same thing it is every year.  “What can I do about my taxes?”

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Avoiding Bad Financial Products

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As a professional financial planner, I often come across finanical products that are such bad ideas that I don’t even know how (or why?) someone got them to market. Usually the answer is flat out greed. A company willing to make a buck at the expense of its customers is always out there.

A posting over at Wise Bread talks about some of these bad ideas. The one at the top of the list is the new 401(k) credit card / debit card. No doubt, this idea orgininated with the goal of allowing retirees to access their 401(k)s in an easier manner so that they could consider leaving the balance in the 401(k) plan instead of rolling it out into an IRA. (Rolling it out is almost always better – keep an eye out for the coming article on Finance Gourmet.) Now, however, some companies are offering these cards to everyone!

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The Truth About Stock

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One if the most frequent questions I get from people is what kind of [tag]insider tips[/tag] and tricks do I know as a financial planner. Of course, most people don’t want to hear it, and sometimes it can take a while to explain. Today, one of those secrets is revealed over at What Is A Stock – It’s Not What You Think on the main Finance Gourmet web site. Check it out. Then, subscribe our feed so you can get the next article which will reveal the secret about the [tag]stock[/tag] market and how stocks are priced.

How to Get a Bonus On Your Tax Rebate!

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Tax Graphic Ok, it’s official. Pretty much everyone in America is getting a [tag]tax rebate[/tag] this summer. The IRS says they’ll start mailing checks in May. So how would you like to get a nice tax-free bonus on your tax rebate? Here’s how.

Your tax-rebate is part of the [tag]economic stimulus[/tag] package recently passed by Congress and signed by the President. You will get up to $600 per person or up to $1200 per joint couple. You also will get up to $300 per child. That money will be a tax free payment from the government. So how do you collect your bonus?

If you qualify for a deductible traditional [tag]IRA[/tag] contribution in 2008 and you put your rebate into a traditional IRA then you will get to deduct the amount of the contribution. So, if you are in the 30% tax bracket, it’s like getting a 30% bonus in the form of a deduction on your 2008 taxes (which you will file in 2009). If you are self-employed you can accomplish the same thing using your SEP or SIMPLE IRAs.

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Credit Card Rewards Catalog

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One of the toughest things about comparing all the different rewards credit cards out there is that the credit card companies aren’t very good about showing you what your points can buy until AFTER you sign up. Go ahead, try and find the rewards catalog for a reward credit card without logging into the site. Most reward programs sound the same. Earn 1 point for every $1 you spend with some specials here and there thrown in to maybe give you more points at grocery stores, gas stations or elsewhere. The catch though is that it doesn’t matter how many points you earn, what matters is what you can get with those points. Remember Chuck e Cheese and Showbiz Pizza? 10,000 tickets gets you an 8″ stuffed animal. What do 10,000 points get you from your credit card? Less than two years ago I used 40,000 points on my Capital One Miles Reward card to get $400 worth of gift certificates to Baby’s R Us. I pretty much furnished the nursery for free. It was a great deal. I logged in at Christmas time this year (2007) looking to do the same for a pregnant friend. Imagine my shock when …

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Do You Need a Financial Planner or Financial Advisor?

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On the Finance Gourmet website, the first part of our latest article has been posted. It covers that tough topic of whether or not you need a financial advisor or financial planner. It is unbiased, and subsequent sections will give you all the details you never got so you won’t have to ask the question again.

Want the one question quiz?

1) What are you doing right now to protect your retirement portfolio from the coming recession, and what did you do last time to protect if from the falling housing market and the sub-prime mortgage crisis?

Write it down. Seriously. You are only cheating yourself if you don’t. Writing it down will help you make a fair analysis.

The answer on the next page will let you know if you need a financial advisor or financial planner.

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Part 4 and Part 5 of Financial Advisor and Financial Planner Primer is up!

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Part 4 and Part 5 of the Primer about [tag]Financial Advisors[/tag] and [tag]Financial Planners[/tag] is now up. Find out about what certifications you need to understand, and why they matter. Don’t worry, it’s a way shorter list than you might think. Also, keep an eye out for TONS of new content once I get a chance to do final edits this weekend. Here is a sneak preview: Why You Need at Least TWO Credit Cards for a Good [tag]Credit Score[/tag] How to Choose A Financial Advisor- Finally the Details to All Those One Line Requirements You’ve Read Before Financial Advisor vs. Financial Planner – More Than Po-ta-to Po-tah-to The [tag]Stock Market[/tag] – It’s Is DUMBER Than You Think And More…

About

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About Finance Gourmet The person behind Finance Gourmet is a former real-life financial planner with real life clients. Why is this such a big deal? Because virtually no one else you are reading can say that. Those articles in the newspaper? Professional journalists. Those other websites? Professional writers and web designers. Those books? Professional speakers mostly, with some supposedly successful (or formerly successful) investors thrown in, and maybe a former financial advisor or two. Of course, it might all be ChatGPT financial advice these days. Why Am I Doing This? Have you ever noticed that the column in your Sunday paper business section each week always takes up the same amount of space? Do you really believe that all the financial issues out there take exactly the same amount of explanation? Are capital gains taxes and mutual fund expenses both completely understandable in the same number of words? (Wow! Sunday paper?! This page is OLD. I’m going to leave it though because the point still stands. I guess you spend 20 years as a professional in the finance industry, some of your stuff will age.) In real life, some topics are more complex than others. Some topics are understandable by …

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Welcome to Finance Gourmet

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With so many good domain names already taken it can be a bit of a challenge to find a good, reasonable name for your home on the web. Hopefully, I’ve done ok. My main concern will be how many people know how to spell “gourmet” :). Although I won’t be taking the food theme to an extreme, the new website name fits pretty well. The Finance Gourmet will be unlike the hundreds or thousands of other financial websites out there. How? Well, in lots of ways, but the most important one will be our depth. The world has become obsessed with the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) concept. That, plus the limited space available in many printed publications has led to a world where despite there being literally millions of financial articles, there are virtually none that contain enough information for you to read them, and then take real meaningful action. This will be different. The Gourmet isn’t content to just know the basics. The recipe on the back of a bag of Nestle Chocolate Chips may indeed produce chocolate chip cookies, but there is so much more. How would you make them softer, chewier, fluffier? Can you just add …

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