Change Counts

If you have read much here at my site, you know I am a Christian and I believe in the 10-10-80 rule of investing. Simply put, it means you give 10% to God first, then 10% to savings (investing, retirement, etc) then you live on the remaining 80%. See my post about it to learn more.

This year, when you are filing your taxes for 2007, you need to be aware that the “proof” required for giving cash to a charitable organization has increased. We need to be sure we have this proof if asked. Your church or synagogue, needs to give you the correct document so we all stay out of trouble. I remember way back when, we didn’t need a lot of proof, but now we need more . Here are some of the changes to the rules for 2007 tax year.

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Did you know that if you had a real estate foreclosure in 2007, you may not have to pay taxes on any of the forgiven debt? This is new for the 2007 tax year. You see , usually when a house is foreclosed, the bank may not sell the house for enough to pay off the loan. Depending on the circumstances, the lender may “forgive” the homeowner the difference and just zero out the amount that was still owed.

Let me give you an example.

Say you owe $250,000 on your house and you get into trouble and can’t make the payments. Finally, the worst happens and they foreclose on you. I say the worst, because this absolutely destroys your credit for many years, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. But we know it happens, and it happened a lot more than normal in 2007.

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Do you know what that means? It makes a difference when you are investing in mutual funds because anytime the funds managers sell some stock inside the fund, you may have a taxable dividend. This is especially important in non-retirement accounts. That is why you need to pay attention to something called “turnover rate”. When you evaluate a mutual fund, you can research what this rate is. A high turnover means the manager buys and sells often. This is no problem if this is in a Roth IRA account, or some other non taxable account. But if this is a standard investment account, this will cause taxable dividends for you to deal with.

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I was reading something the other day that made me stop and think. It was some really good information and I hadn’t thought about it for a while. It’s kind of like when you smell something that you really hadn’t smelled in a long time, and it brings back a memory. I remembered a crucial thing that people investing for retirement need to remember.

You are likely to live a long time!

In fact, if you make it to age 65, you will likely live another 20 years according to the Center for Disease Control. I don’t know how they know that, but it sounds right. If that is an average, that means about half are going to live longer than that. Are you investing like that?

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I have never been happy with my category at Entrecard. I don’t know why, but I just don’t feel like a belong in any of them. I am not really an “internet marketer”, although, yes I do market on the internet.. That just doesn’t seem like my category, though.

How about Business? Nah, just doesn’t feel right. I like to talk about taxes, and investing, and saving money, and making money.

Make Money Online. I would say almost everyone interested in Entrecard (or traffic) is also interested in Making Money Online. Doesn’t seem like my category though.

So, I don’t have a category, and I think that may be a bad thing. Since I can’t identify which one my site should be in. Or at least I can’t find the name for it in Entrecard.

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Who gets the money and how much? That’s really what everybody wants to know, right? Well I have tried to “crack the code” on this stimulus rebate money and here are the facts as I understand them. I have to admit, the IRS has gotten a little better in explaining things, but still after pouring over the facts on the IRS site, I am left a little uncertain about a few things. Here is my understanding about this stimulus money. Check out this IRS site for up to date information.

“If you are eligible for a payment, all you have to do is file a 2007 tax return and the IRS will do the rest,” said Acting IRS Commissioner Linda Stiff. This has a lot of things implied. For instance, “if you are eligible”….

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