Posted by Madeline Hedley | Posted on 23-01-2012
National Freedom Day is around the corner. On Feb. 1, we commemorate Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery and indentured servitude in the U.S.
But around here, the freedom we most commonly think about is the freedom that comes from proper financial habits. So we’ve been thinking about ways to celebrate your financial freedom.
Here are a few ideas:
Start a new savings account.
There’s no limit to how many savings accounts you’re allowed to have or to how much you can save. It’s entir
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Posted by Zachary Stones | Posted on 20-01-2012
Tim Iacono comments on a Brian Williams news segment detailing the rising prices of farmland across Americas heartland, particularly in Iowa, where Republican presidential candidates so recently debated. Prices in the area have risen more than 30% in Iowa and 25% on average throughout the Midwest. One land auction featured in the report resulted in a sale for more than $13,000 per acre more than double the value from five years ago. Experts say the increases are driven by the rarity with which farmland comes on the market and the growing demand for agricultural products, particularly corn for the surging (and subsidized) ethanol market.
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Posted by Zachary Stones | Posted on 07-01-2012
The IRS has so far conducted two voluntary disclosure programs in order to recoup tax money from offshore financial accounts that has been unpaid. As a result, the agency collected about nearly $3 billion in taxes, interest and penalties from 30,000 taxpayers that participated in the disclosure programs as of September 2010. If you have an offshore bank account in which you hide taxable income, beware because the law is fast catching up with you.
In the past, many people hide their income in Swiss bank accounts because of the Swiss banking laws that allow secrecy.
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Posted by Madeline Hedley | Posted on 07-01-2012
If you feel like a company you paid for a service has not delivered the best place to start to attempt to resolve the issue is to contact the company directly. If youve tried repeatedly to get your issue resolved by sending an email or leaving voice mail and thats not getting any attention, send a letter by some traceable means that provides you with proof of delivery. A signature or name of who signed for it is even more beneficial.
The least expensive service to use of to send your letter through the post office by certified mail, return receipt requested. When the letter is signed for you will get back a green postcard showing when it was received and who signed for it.
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Posted by Zachary Stones | Posted on 03-01-2012
Economist Paul Krugman takes an unflinching look at Chinas current economic position, and believes what he sees is a mirror image of Japan in the 80s or the U.S. in 2007: a country that has relied on shady banking practices to sustain a boom in growth that now cannot be supported by domestic consumption or financing. Now, as the bubble is set to burst, the country seems ready to dig in its heels, particularly by issuing punitive tariffs on foreign trade partners. Krugman rightly notes that the last thing the global economy needs is another crisis point, but he also believes that is the direction in which the country is headed.
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Posted by Dakota Bonnor | Posted on 30-12-2011
(Especially if youre not getting a bonus this year)
When you’re working towards complete credit repair, one thing that’ll make the journey easier is learning how to stretch your purse strings as far as they’ll go. Finding debt relief is an important part of credit repair, and nothing can help you achieve that better than learning how to get the most out of your limited budget.
The following are a few tips to help you make the most of your money when attempting credit repair:
Start using your credit cards
Not as your main source of spending, but more as a back-up. Evalu
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Posted by Madeline Hedley | Posted on 29-12-2011
Who doesnt want to be surrounded by nice things, step out every day in fashionable clothes, and vacation somewhere luxurious and lovely? Wanting the finer things in life is not uncommon especially if your friends or neighbors already have those things.
Keeping up with the Joneses may make you feel good for a while. But if you have to rack up debt in order to make those luxury purchases, keeping pace with the competition may do you more harm than good.
Excess debt is a major problem in this country. W
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