When it comes to your finances, there are few things you can do that are as beneficial as really understanding taxes and keeping up with current tax law. Most people don't realize just how much they pay in taxes every year. The government is always coming up with various schemes to get you to do this or that and most of the time they try to motivate you by giving you some type of tax rebate or credit. In the past year, I've been able to save over $15,000 simply by paying attention to the changes tax laws and taking advantage of different credits, lower tax rates, etc. That may or may not seem like a lot of money, but considering the average household income where we live is in the … [Read more...] about Understanding Taxes
Blog
How to deal with a boring job
Reader question: My job is driving me crazy! I work in tech support, so I'm mostly getting paid to be there if there are any problems that come up. This means many days I'm just sitting there dinking around on the internet for 2 or 3 hours at a time. This might be a dream job for some people, but I feel like I'm losing my skills. I'd look for another job, but I think my place is pretty secure here and I don't want to risk going somewhere else only to get let go in a bad economy. Do you have any suggestions for me? Brad Those are some good questions. I've previously talked about figuring out your work zone to help decide when it is time to leave a company and … [Read more...] about How to deal with a boring job
Lifehacker Password Hacked
You've got to appreciate some of the irony in that title. Lifehacker is part of the Gawker group of websites. Some hackers got into their system and downloaded their database and source code. They also ran some scripts agains the database and were able to find nearly 200,000 people who were using passwords that weren't very strong. I had an account on Lifehacker from years ago. Since I didn't consider it a huge security issue I used a simple five letter, single word password. Since it was easy to break this password, my username, password and email address was part of the roughly 200,000 released in decrypted form on the web. I panicked just a bit when I saw my password on the list. … [Read more...] about Lifehacker Password Hacked
Book Summaries Sale
Some time back I mentioned the free book summary from Soundview. It looks like they are running a sale where you can buy one subscription and get another subscription free to give as a gift. If you have a hard to buy for person on your shopping list AND you were thinking about getting a subscription for yourself, this could be a pretty good deal. Soundview Executive Book Summaries: Buy 1 Gift Subscription and Get 1 FREE! … [Read more...] about Book Summaries Sale
Online Degree Programs
Over the next ten years, I believe we are going to see an ever increasing shift toward online degree programs in areas where people have traditionally attended a physical university. There are a number of obvious reasons for this trend, but here are a few: Low cost to scale - A well designed online degree program may have a high fixed cost, but a low-cost to add an additional student. The cost to provide a degree program to 20 students vs. 40 students requires a much smaller percentage increase than doubling the number of student physically coming to class. Tighter focus on education - Online degree programs tend to be much more focused on the actual educational process with less of a … [Read more...] about Online Degree Programs
SpiderOak Storage and Backup Review
SpiderOak offers a service similar to Dropbox. However, where Dropbox seems to be concentrating on ease of use and simplicity, SpiderOak seems focused on creating powerful software with many different options. The downside is that SpiderOak isn't something you are probably going to have your grandma setup for herself. The upside is that it lets you do all kinds of things that aren't possible with DropBox. DropBox gives you a folder that you can sync across computers. This works well and provides a very simple mental paradigm. "I put something in the folder on Computer A and it shows up on that folder on Computer B. Spider Oak lets you backup arbitrary folders and lets you specify … [Read more...] about SpiderOak Storage and Backup Review
Executive MBA Programs
When I wrote Never Hire an MBA, I think some people thought I was recommending against any type of MBA degree. This isn't the case. If anything the arguments in that post would support the idea that an MBA is valuable. My main point was that employers need to make sure they don't get blinded by the MBA credentials and make sure they are hiring people with more than just a diploma. If you are an employee looking at an MBA, you have quite a few options. In this post I want to discuss executive MBA programs and how one of these programs might support your career goals. Executive MBA programs are designed for people with experience who are in the middle of successful careers and don't … [Read more...] about Executive MBA Programs
Self Directed IRAs
I've been learning a bit more about Individual Retirement Accounts and wanted to share a few things I've learned about how flexible IRAs actually are. Obviously talk to a qualified financial advisor before acting on anything you see here. If I got anything wrong, please let me know in the comments where everyone can read it. Most people think of IRAs as being something you can invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and that is about it. If you really look at the law, it is much more generic than that. In fact the actual tax law only lists a handful of things that IRA can not be invested in. Here is the list: Artwork Gems Antiques Coins Life Insurance … [Read more...] about Self Directed IRAs
Starting College
With school in full swing again it seemed like a good time to do a post geared toward helping people who are experiencing college for the first time. If you aren't in college, but know someone who is, please consider passing these tips on to them. Learn outside the classroom What you learn in the classroom will only be a very small part of your college education. It is easy to get so focused on the formal side of education that you miss out on learning from everything that is going on around you. College is a great place to learn how to interact with people from different backgrounds and cultures, deal with strange and difficult people, and negotiate. Too often, students overlook the … [Read more...] about Starting College
What is Holding You Back?
What is keeping you from reaching your full potential? Think of four or five things that are really holding you back. Better yet, write them down on that scrap of paper sitting on your desk. Did you write them down? Why not? Go ahead and do it. I'm not going anywhere. Did you write them down now? Ok good. Now, take a look at what you wrote down and divide them into two groups. Things you can control. Things you cannot control. In general I find that people who accomplish very little tend to see all of their obstacles in the second category, while people who achieve things see obstacles in the first category. In other word, successful people understand that they are the … [Read more...] about What is Holding You Back?