Many of you have already filed your taxes, and hopefully you used one of our preferred online tax software companies to do it so you have a chance to win a FREE iPad. One thing that I can’t stand about almost every major tax preparer/filer is that they peddle tax refund anticipation loans. These loans are bad news, but millions of Americans still apply for them and get ripped off in the process. Let’s take a look at a few reasons why refund anticipation loans should not be something you consider when getting your tax refund.
Erik FolgateErik and his wife, Lindzee, live in Orlando, Florida with a baby boy on the way. Erik works as an account manager for a marketing company, and considers counseling friends, family and the readers of Money Crashers his personal ministry to others. Erik became passionate about personal finance and helping others make wise financial decisions after racking up over $20k in credit card and student loan debt within the first two years of college. Another one of Erik's projects is the site, Stuff We Google.
Avoid The Tax Refund Loan
Erik Folgate
Personal Finance Round-Up: 28 Ways To Save Money On Your Car Expenses
Money Crashers
Our cars can be one of the most financially draining possessions that we own. The first thing most people think of when you start talking about an emergency expense is a costly car repair. Not only are maintenance and repairs expensive, but buying gasoline, the fees and taxes associated with buying a new car, and yearly registration and insurance costs are all expenses we pay simply to have the luxury of driving. Fortunately, there are great folks like Jeremy over at Gen X Finance that give us great guides like the 28 tips to save money on car expenses and save thousands of dollars. Jeremy is a retirement planning specialist and founder of Generation X Finance and the guide to Financial Planning at About.com. To learn more, follow Jeremy on Twitter.
I Filed My Taxes With TaxAct Online
Erik Folgate
As you might already know, we’re giving away 3 FREE iPads to three random winners who file their taxes through us using one of three great online tax filing services: Turbo Tax, TaxAct Online, or H&R Block. I was really glad to see that TaxAct was included in the “Big 3,” because I’ve been using them for the past 5 years to file my taxes, and I’ve never had a bad experience using their online product. One of our staff writers, Joanna, did a really good, in-depth review of TaxAct that you can read about before you use them.
4 Green Travel Tips That Save You Money
Erik Folgate
Traveling is one of the harshest activities we engage in against the environment. We take transportation that pollutes the air, we produce a lot of waste, and we’re typically less conscious of conserving resources. I’m not a tree hugger, and I don’t come down on people for not recycling, because I think it needs to be a personal conviction to be better stewards of this Earth and our resources. There are several ways to travel greener AND save money at the same time.
Here are 4 tips that I try to follow:
Personal Finance Round-Up: What To Do When Your Friends Ask You For Financial Advice
Money Crashers
Money Crashers has been around for about four years now, so all of my close friends and family know about my passion for personal finance, and I get quite a few questions from close friends and family about their own finances. I really don’t mind helping the ones closest to me. Most of the “advice” that I give is common sense, and I don’t get too technical with my recommendations, because I’m not licensed properly to give certain financial advice. Flexo, from Consumerism Commentary, recently ran an article about how to handle requests for financial advice. I really liked his advice about being careful to jump into financial conversations with acquaintances such as co-workers, and I also liked that he advised not to lend money to friends or family to solve their financial problems, because usually the problem isn’t money. The problem is the decisions they make and the bad financial habits they’ve formed. If you’ve never checked out Consumerism Commentary, it’s one of the top personal finance sites that I’ve been following since 2006.
Prescription Drugs: Are Consumers Paying Too Much?
Erik Folgate
The other day I was going through my prescription receipts for the past year in order to get ready for my taxes. I began noticing, in very small print on the receipt, the retail cost of the drug. Since I used several different pharmacies throughout the year, I decided to do a price comparison. I take several maintenance medications, so I was particularly interested in the cost of those.
Refurbished Mac Computers And Laptops Can Save You A Ton Of Money
Erik Folgate
Last week, I finally took the plunge and switched my alliances with PC and Windows and switched to Apple. I bought a 21.5″ Apple iMac with 4GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive, ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics card with 256MB memory, and a 3.06GHZ Dual Core Intel processor. I should just move to San Francisco and start wearing black turtlenecks, because I will never go back to the days of Dell and Microsoft. It’s been 4 days since I first started using it, and I love it. My ability to quickly create screen casts, web videos, manipulate and edit photos, and work in several different programs all at once has vastly improved. I don’t know what it is about the Mac OS or the programs designed for Macs, but they load and run SO much quicker than Windows and Windows-based programs. For example, Firefox opens instantly, whereas, even in Windows 7, Firefox hesitates to open for about 10 seconds. Ever since I bought an iPhone about a year and a half ago, I’ve had the itch to switch my computers to Apple, but the price tag had always deterred me from making the switch. I never thought I’d be able to spend less than $1,700 to $1,800 for what I wanted, but I ended up getting this iMac for $999, which was exactly my threshold for what I was willing to spend. How did I do it? Read below:
Becoming Wealthy Is Like Becoming An Olympic Athlete
Erik Folgate
The Winter Olympics started last Friday, and I am not too intrigued by most of the sports included in the Winter Olympics, but I do love the women’s figure skating, downhill skiing, snowboarding, and the bobsled competitions. As I was watching the Olympics the other night, I gained more appreciation for the athletes the more that I thought about the training it took for them to reach this poing of being one of the best in the world in their respective sport. Then, I started thinking about how all of the principles of an Olympic athlete correlate to the financial principles that help people build wealth. Passion, Perseverance, and Discipline are three attributes of an Olympic athlete that we must all possess if we want to win with money.
The Worst Financial Advice I’ve Ever Seen From a Major Publication
Erik Folgate
Today, one of our writers came across an article that made me want to throw up just from reading the title: Forget the Mortgage, I’m Paying My Credit Card Bill. Oh man, where do I start? I honestly feel bad for the people that write this crap and for the people that they interview, because they really have no idea how much damage their advice is doing to the American people. I thought the title was a joke at first. I thought the article would make a case for paying your credit card first, then go back to reality about how paying your mortgage and keeping a roof over your head should be the first priority. But, that never happened!
Only You Can Create New Jobs For This Country
Erik Folgate
If you’ve been following the financial news today, then you saw articles like this one from Yahoo Finance about the unemployment rate falling to 9.7%, which is a five-month low. That sounds like good news, and it could be, but when you look deeper into the numbers and throw some logic into the equation, it doesn’t make sense that the unemployment rate would fall that much. Does this mean the numbers are cooked? Are we on the road to recovery for job loss? I really hope so, because it’s the single most glaring eye sore to our economy right now. It’s the one road block that will keep our economy from heading in the right direction. Here’s a quote from the article I referenced above.
25 Online Resources For Freelancers and Small Businesses
Erik Folgate
Last week I revealed to you how my best friend and I started a side business doing internet marketing for small businesses and one reason for our success was that we found clients before we set up the business. Now that we have some clients, we need to look a little more legit, so we started shopping around for some online resources to help us get more organized as a business. Doing freelance work and/or starting a side business is one of the best ways to earn extra money to help you pay off debt, save for retirement, save for kid’s college, or save up for a large purchase. You should focus on seeking out clients first, and then set up business processes. When that time comes, here are 25 online resources to check out when setting up your business.
Personal Finance Round-Up: How Does The IRS Pick Tax Returns To Audit?
Money Crashers
It’s that time again to take a look at our personal finance blogging friends, and see what they’re writing. Seriously, we have the best blogging community on the web. If that’s not evident by now, then something is wrong. Here are some of the best of the best articles from this past week:
How Does the IRS Pick Tax Returns To Audit? Ever wonder how the IRS chooses who to audit and who not to audit? They do have a method behind their madness, so read this to figure out ways to stay off their radar for an audit from Bargaineering.com.
$499 iPad Is First Affordable Computing Device By Apple For Average User
Erik Folgate
If you were following Twitter, Facebook, or any tech blogs today, then you know that the Apple event surrounding the announcement of the Apple iPad (insert feminine hygiene joke here) dominated today’s news, and it will surely dominate tech news for the rest of the week. I followed along with sites such as Gizmodo and Cult of Mac for their live blogging of the event, and I must say that while the iPad is pretty darn impressive, it is lacking in some areas (but then again I am a tech nerd). I have stronger opinions about technology devices than the average user. One piece of news that did REALLY impress me was the price of the iPad:
How To Stay Safe And Avoid Getting Ripped Off On Craigslist
Erik Folgate
I was listening to the Clark Howard radio show today, and a guy was asking Clark if he should buy a car on Craigslist without ever seeing it. He said he was tempted, because the car was “such a good deal” and way below market value. As most of you probably know, this is immediately a red flag for a scam on Craigslist, but some people just don’t take the time to understand what they are doing. Here are some tips to help you never get scammed on Craigslist.
If It Sounds Too Good To Be True, It Probably Is
How I Started A Side Business For Extra Income
Erik Folgate
I’ve been working on blogs, Facebooking, Tweeting, Linking In, and YouTubing for almost 5 years now. I started writing for this blog in 2006 with a vision about turning a passion of mine, personal finance, into a blog where I could share my thoughts and experiences about personal finance. Four years later, personal finance is one of the hottest blogging communities on the web, and Money Crashers is poised to have its best year yet as a personal finance blog. I still make a nice little side income from writing for Money Crashers, but while I was learning about blogs and social networks, I developed a strong set of skills about how to market a business on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. I also started learning about the power of having an updated company blog and link building strategies to optimize search engine rankings for company websites, and that was the beginning of a career transition and the start of my side business.
