How would you like to lower your income taxes next year? Okay, I know that you may not have even filed your tax return for last year yet, but if you’re like many of us, it’s around this time of the year when you start thinking something like, “I’m giving Uncle Same too much; I need to find a way to lower my income tax.” The good news is that now is the perfect time to get your finances in order so next year you won’t have that regret. The mortgage interest deduction is probably the single best way for average folks to lower the amount of income tax the IRS takes...
Few of you probably know many Americans who grew up during the Great Depression. The men and women of that generation are among those who fought and won World War II. Newsman and author Tom Brokaw gave them the label, “The Greatest Generation” and I think it’s a fitting honor. If you’re fortunate enough to know any members of The Greatest Generation, you’ll know that the hard times of the Great Depression gave them a deep appreciation for the value of money and the risk inherent in the stock market. I bring this up because I think the generation we call the...
Do you sometimes get the feeling that no one is really looking out for your interests? If you’ve recently been turned down for a bank loan, you understand this; but let’s look at an even bigger picture for a moment. Not too long ago, many people worked for large companies that had solid retirement programs that they could depend on when they grew older. Also, people tended to work for the same company for many, many years, and that helped them amass significant retirement payments. Further, when it was originally founded back in 1935, social security was called...
In both the investing and real estate worlds we talk a lot about assets. Usually it’s pretty easy to attach a dollar figure to those assets and those numbers in turn fit neatly into the cells of an Excel spreadsheet. The most important asset we have in our lives, however, isn’t so easily plugged into cut and dry math calculations. I’m talking about our time. I don’t think I’m wrong to say that time, in fact, is our most precious asset. The assets that use dollar figures to measure can go up and down through the years. In a similar way, the quantity of those...
