Archive: April, 2010

Most of our tax problems arise due to our own attitudes towards it. We don’t even want to talk about it unless tax season arrives. Take personal finance blogs for example; most of them don’t talk about it for 10 months of the year. As soon as it’s March, their blogs are full of posts on how to save money on tax, what are deductibles, and blah, blah, blah. Not their mistake, I must say. They do what we demand. We, as readers, don’t like talking or reading about tax, hence they don’t write about it, and we remain uneducated about tax, all the time. Here is a pledge: I would write regular posts on tax to explain my readers the importance of knowing about it, and make them knowledgeable enough to file their own taxes effortlessly. Before we start, let me tell you, taxes just have big and difficult names. However, it’s very easy to understand what they mean. Let’s start  [...]

Gauging the performance of a company isn’t much difficult if you know certain ways and formulae used by most traders. A similar formula, debt to equity ratio, is a way to ascertain company’s value by determining its debt and assets. Hence, let us understand what does this ratio mean, how it works, and when should one use it. Debt To Equity Ratio – Meaning One can measure the current financial performance of a given company by calculating its debt to equity ratio. This is done by dividing the amount of liability the company has by the amount of equities it holds. The final amount derived will mention the debt to equity used by that firm to finance its assets. Debt to Equity Ratio Formula: Debt to equity of Company ‘X’ = Total Liabilities / Total Shareholders’ Equity Liability, in this ratio, is not always the total amount of outstanding amount. Sometimes the amounts of long  [...]

There are several ways to save money in tax. The only problem is, we don’t know how to do it. We don’t know which expenses or investments are deductible and which are not. So, here are few tax saving tips for 2010. 1.    Do not throw away receipts: Throwing away receipts means throwing money. Yes, most if your business related expenses are deductible, but only if you have the receipts of purchase. Moreover, a job-related expense, not reimbursed by the employer is deductible too. 2.    Be well-versed with tax: Majority of us lose lots of money paying huge tax because we don’t know various ways to dupe IRS legally. And trust me, it’s not difficult at all. Once you start learning about it, you will enjoy it. These tax saving tips for 2010, however, wouldn’t be useful if you are not interested to actively participate in it. 3.    Investments: By making few minor  [...]

As the name suggests, price of any commodity paid at the time of purchase is known as spot price. Similarly, the price of gold, any quantity, that you pay immediately on purchasing it is known as spot gold price. In some cases, price is paid a day or two in advance. In short, spot gold price is the current price of the gold in the market. Gold is one of the best investments as it provides guaranteed returns in long term. Besides, this investment helps you to hedge against inflation. A currency can be devalued by the government. The stock market can collapse due to poor economic conditions. Gold, however, is the only commodity that’s traded all over the world. Hence, it doesn’t lose value as easily as other investment products. Gold market is, however, quite volatile in short run. The spot price of next day cannot be predicted as, in short run, the prices are based purely on speculation.  [...]

As soon as you receive your W-2 form, you would need to think about how to file tax this year. If you intend to get you refund quickly from IRS, the best way to file your taxes is online. All you have to do is determine how you would prepare to file returns and how you would send it to IRS, in order to avail a quicker refund. Numerous people today are using online tax filing method, mainly due to couple of reasons. First, if you do it online, you have a record of your returns always stored in your desktop. You can, at any time, check your previous year’s records, and keep a track of your finances efficiently. So, everything you need to have an effective tax record would be just a click away. You don’t really have to waste numerous hours digging up your house for these documents. Let’s face it. If you file your taxes manually, it’s pretty complicated, irritating, and not convenient  [...]

I am planning a vacation later this year. However, instead of withdrawing money from any of my investments, I have decided to save money to sponsor the trip. All was going well until I asked my neighbor for more suggestions. With his 10 ways to save money, I am planning to give up saving. Have a look at them and let me know if you have any better ideas, but not weird ones please…please… Automatic Reduction from Your Income And who would pay my monthly bills? I am already not able to meet my expenses. This is what happens when you ask for advice to people who are jealous of you, of everyone. Collect Change Not from other people, but yours. Say you buy something for $8, you receive $2 change if you hand over a $10 bill to the shop owner. Do not use that $2 coin, save it, says Mr. Jackson, my neighbor. According to him, you can save enough every month to pay your electricity bills.  [...]

I can confirm that we are on your path to recovery by looking at the data revealed by BLS – employment up in March. However, is it possible to say ‘this is the end of recession’ just by looking at the employment trend? Improvement in an economy is marked by two important things – employment and output, which are moving not quite as required, but yes, they are positive. Experts argue, these two factors too are cannot determine the improvement in the economy. During the recovery phase back in Nov 2001, the output trend performed much better than employment curve. If people would have depended on employment data, recession would have lasted till Nov 2004. But if you have looked at the GDP then, you would wonder if there was any recession at all. This time, however, the dilemma is not so intricate. GDP has risen and so has the economy rate (though a bit), which can be a strong indicator  [...]

Markets fell after reports revealed a strong quarter on Wednesday early hours. However, the relief of a positive figure this quarter overpowered the worries of a minor fall in the indices. NYSE was down by 12.98 points closing at 7442.82 with a 0.2% fall. S&P, falling around 0.3% plunged by 3 points at 1169.43. DIJA slipped 51, now at 10,856. Global cues also experienced a negligible fall. The data revealed few optimistic figures, however, some number continued to maintain a low. The purchasing manager’s indexes of Chicago fell from 62.6% to 58.8% in last month. Most economists had expected a fall. This, however, was much bigger plunge than anticipated and came as a surprise. Similarly, New York City followed the trend of plummeting, and thus surprising economists. There was a major fall in the business activity in the city this month. The seasonally adjusted index of New York  [...]