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February 22nd, 2012 | By William Allan | No Comments »
I was listening to one of my favorite channels yesterday, Bloomberg News, and one of the guests was discussing the performance of retail investors (individuals) when it comes to mutual funds. He stated that the performance of retail investors is on average 600 basis points (that’s 6%) lower than the fund itself. This poor performance, [...]
January 29th, 2012 | By William Allan | No Comments »
Obama Administration Expands Aid for Delinquent U.S. Homeowners Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) — The Obama administration, seeking to help more homeowners lower their interest rates and shed mortgage debt, will relax the rules on a federal loan- modification program and triple its incentives to banks. The revised Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, also would pay [...]
December 20th, 2011 | By William Allan | No Comments »
Good article from Morningstar on qualified dividends: http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=450608
November 25th, 2011 | By William Allan | No Comments »
For all you educators out there – even as many school districts cut budgets this year there are those dedicated teachers that don’t let budget cuts stop them from doing their job. Many spend their own money on school supplies. Uncle Sam thanks you for your commitment to education through a $250 deduction of your [...]
November 3rd, 2011 | By William Allan | No Comments »
Don’t miss out on free money. Make sure you know how your 401K plan works so you can take advantage of any matching provided by your employer. Example #1: Assume the employer matches 50% up to the first 6% – under this arrangement your employer will place 50 cents into your retirement plan for every [...]
November 3rd, 2011 | By William Allan | 3 Comments »
On October 19, 2011, the Social Security Administration announced that the 2012 Social Security contribution and benefit base will be $110,100. This is $3,300 more than the base of $106,800 which has been in effect the last three years. The Social Security Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program sets an annual maximum limit (called [...]
October 29th, 2011 | By William Allan | No Comments »
As the IRS continues to increase audits of small businesses (Schedule C filers), the importance of good record keeping is a must. Being self-employed myself, here are some tips for you and ones that I use. Keep a log of your driving activities. This will help tremendously in taking the proper auto deductions. If you [...]
October 1st, 2011 | By William Allan | No Comments »
This coming tax season will be my 20th, and without a doubt I can tell you the most important thing in preparing your taxes, whether you are an individual or a business, is good record keeping. Everyone must keep records, and good records will help you do the following: Prevent missing deductions. We are all [...]
September 11th, 2011 | By William Allan | 2 Comments »
Gold hit a record high of $1,900.40 an ounce on August 22, 2011. This extreme increase in price along with fear of an economic slowdown has led many individual investors to gold, but along with that comes schemes designed to trick you out of your hard earned capital. One such scheme was perpetrated by Gold [...]
August 16th, 2011 | By William Allan | 4 Comments »
There are new cost basis reporting laws that went into effect January 1, 2011 for your investments. Prior to 2011 brokers were only required to report the proceeds from the sale of securities to the IRS for your taxable accounts. Beginning in 2011 your broker will also report the adjusted basis of your security sales. This [...]
