What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Bank ignores me!
2. Gold digging or thinking ahead?
3. Encouraging others to think frugally
4. Why saving, not investing?
5. Budgeting software
6. Finding my loans
7. Reordering checks
8. Interest-only loan problems
9. How early for retirement savings?
10. Gaming site
A great deal of the work that goes into The Simple Dollar is simply figuring out topics for posts.
My usual procedure is to sit down and just…
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What can you do if you can’t pay the taxes you owe come April 18th? Should you borrow from your 401 (k) or is there an IRS tax payment plan option? This is especially important for many Americans that collected unemployment for the first time in 2010, and didn’t realize that unemployment benefits are taxable. Many of them are in precarious and vulnerable position. In this article, H&R Block walks you through a few options — from borrowing from your 401 (k) to arranging an IRS tax payment plan.
“Any taxpayer who is unable to pay his or her tax…
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Can’t, Taxes
This is a guest post from Bailey Harris, who writes for the Home Insurance Blog. If you like what you see here, be sure to stop by and check it out.
Everyone knows that having an adequate insurance policy is a must for homeowners, but what if you rent? Many people overlook the value of a renter’s insurance policy, which can be a costly mistake.
Renter’s insurance works a lot like homeowners insurance. It replaces your stuff if it is damaged or stolen and protects your assets in the event of an accident or catastrophe. If you have been…
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The following is a guest post from Marotta Wealth Management.
Over the long term, stocks outperform bonds and bonds outperform cash, which was affirmed in 2010. Analyzing the breakdown of asset categories will help you craft portfolios that will perform best in this new year and beyond.
Fees matter. The S&P 500 finished up 15.06% for 2010. Your index fund probably underperformed this benchmark by whatever expenses the fund incurred. If your fund is very efficient, this amount was small. But if your funds fees are excessive, your performance was reduced even more.
For every additional 1% you earn…
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Fortunately, we are a long way from the day that purchasing an inexpensive computer monitor meant that you were getting a dud. If you have been around to watch the progress of computers from the days before monitors, to orange and green screens that were as large as a small fridge and on up to the LCD screens of today, then you can really appreciate the progress. I remember when a machine with 128K – yes K – cost a couple thousand dollars. Needless to say, things have processed but best of all, prices have dropped.
CRT Monitors
In…
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File this one under "S" for "shut the front door!" -- no, really, shut the front door and lock it: Senator Jim Alesi of New York is very angry that he injured himself after breaking into a home, and is suing the owners, his constituents, as well as the builders of the home.
Sen. Alesi claims in his lawsuit that he was hurt after deciding to look into the house of a Perinton, NY, couple, which was under construction under the time. The fun part is they didn't know he was "looking into" their home, and he definitely was…
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I’m swamped!
Kris and I leave for our African safari in just over a week. We’re mostly packed, have housesitting arranged (it’s almost like we should just have a permanent room-mate with as much as we’re gone), and have been experiencing only minor side effects from our anti-malarial drug. We’re basically ready to go — except that I haven’t had time to get the blog prepped for my absence. Real Life keeps getting in the way.
So, for the next week, I will eat, breathe, and sleep money. Most of my time will be spent writing and editing articles for…
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For those of you new to Free Money Finance, I post on The Bible and Money every Sunday. Here's why.
Here are some sobering thoughts from Ecclesiastes 6:1-3:
There is another serious tragedy I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily on humanity. God gives some people great wealth and honor and everything they could ever want, but then he doesn’t give them the chance to enjoy these things. They die, and someone else, even a stranger, ends up enjoying their wealth! This is meaningless—a sickening tragedy.
A man might have a hundred children and live to…
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Enjoying, Wealth
