Archive for December, 2010
As Billy Shakespeare might have put it, “To convert, or not to convert? That is the question.” The traditional IRA is a tax-deferred investment. You pay taxes only on the distributions from this investment, not on the income earned. The big advantages are that you:
- Get a return on the dollars that otherwise would have been paid in taxes.
- Pay your tax later on, with inflated dollars.
- Get an income-tax deduction (depending on your income) when you make the original investment.
The Roth IRA is a completely different animal. You get no tax deductions. But you get no tax hit, either.
Police recommend securing properties left empty over Christmas
Consumer Confidence in Retail Industry on the Rise
Welcome to Quizzle’s Top Money Tips Roundup, where you’ll find this week’s top five most interesting, helpful and unique personal finance articles from around the Web. This week’s edition covers painless ways to give back, how apartment-dwellers can save money, tips for dealing with holiday stress, what to do when a pay-raise is nowhere in sight and where the best deals are post-Christmas.
Giving with the Scraps of Life: 10 Painless Ways to Give to Charities (The Motherload)
As consumers, we’re so inundated with buy this, splurge on that messages during the holidays that it’s easy to lose sight of what the season is really all about… giving. Giving to loved ones, of course, but also to those in need. The Quizzle Wi Read more…
It’s hard to overstate how important credit scores have become in our financial lives.Not only do our scores influence whether we get loans and how much they cost, but the information is also used by insurance companies to set premiums and by landlords to evaluate applicants. Good credit scores can save you money; bad scores can cut you off from financial help or cost you literally hundreds of thousands of dollars over your lifetime.
- Quick quiz: Estimate your credit scores — free!
Given how important credit scores are, you may find some relief in the fact that not every financial misstep you make will necessarily show up in your numbers. In fact, there are plenty of mistakes you can make that won’t touch your FICOs, which are the credit scores most lenders use.
Those blunders include: