The IRS has released the schedule of when economic stimulus payments will be issued for most taxpayers who filed their 2007 return by April 15th. I say most because a few taxpayers will get their payments later than this schedule, regardless of when they filed, due to the complexity of the amount of their economic stimulus package payment. The schedule is based on the last two-digits of the filer’s Social Security number. For joint filers, the SSN of the first person listed on the 2007 return will be used. Taxpayers will get their economic stimulus payment in the same form as they used for their 2007 return, either direct deposit or paper check.

The schedule is as follows:

Continue >>

Clipping coupons, shopping sales, and buying in bulk are all ways to save on groceries. Those savings only really matter if the food you buy is actually eaten. Whether it expires, spoils, or simply isn’t something you’ll be able to incorporate into a recipe, wasted food is wasted money - cash in the trash.

Here’s how to get the most out of your food:

Continue >>

Creditors may forgive, but the IRS won’t forget. That’s the takeaway for many types of canceled debt. The forgiven debt is often seen as income subject to taxes.

For example, if you are unable to pay your credit card bill and negotiate with the card issuer to a reduced amount, the amount of reduction is what is subject to taxes. So if they are willing to accept $4000 even though you owe $5000, you’ll owe taxes on the $1000 that they forgave. Negotiating a lower interest rate for future payments

Continue >>

There’s a Cadillac ad for the 2008 Escalade featuring Brian Bloom that gives terrible financial advice. The actor says that life is “high school with money” and that following what the cool kids are doing, including what they are driving, is still going on. The ad concludes with him saying that anyone who never cared about impressing the cool kids should “graduate.”

Continue >>

When you work for a company, you’re likely to encounter the productivity paradox, which can be summarized as follows: The more work you do, the more work you get. Being more productive, while beneficial to your company, is likely less beneficial to you. Ask most bosses if you can work fewer hours as long as you get your work done and the answer will probably be the same: if you can get all of your work done in fewer hours, think of all the extra work you can get done if you put in the full amount of time. The trouble with many jobs is that there is not a direct correlation between the effort you put in and the pay that you get out. Working twice as hard won’t get you twice the money and may just serve to raise expectations.

That’s why extra time may be better spent

Continue >>

My favorite personal finance and business sites that I found through stumbleupon last week are included below. These sites either had useful information, were informative, or simply entertaining.

For those unfamiliar with stumbleupon, it sends you to a random website that matches your interests. You can then give that site a thumbs up or down, to influence future suggestions, before moving on to the next site.

If you currently use stumbleupon, or once you give it a try, I’d appreciate a thumbs up if you like this blog.

On to the list:

Continue >>

Freakonomics is a random and interesting look at the world through the eyes of a freak economist. I don’t mean freak in a bad way, just not “normal.” That’s the part that can take a potentially boring subject like economics and make it something that I would want to read.

The book is more a collection of random, well documented research, than a sequential stream of information building towards one unifying point. The takeaway is that looking at complex economical situations from new perspectives often shows the flaws in conventional wisdom and the results you expect the data to show. Each chapter is basically an example application of that theory.

Exploring seemingly meaningless questions like “Why do drug dealers still live with their moms” and

Continue >>

One of the side effects of filing our taxes each year is that many of us are introduced to estimated taxes. Depending on your situation, you may have to pay estimated taxes, but some people choose to do so as well. If you owed money with your 2007 income tax return paying estimated taxes is one way to prevent that from happening again. The other way would be to increase your withholding by submitting an updated W-4 with your employer. Estimated taxes payments can also be used to cover income not subject to withholding, such as self-employment, interest, dividends, alimony, rent, gains from the sale of assets, prizes and awards.

This post covers estimated tax payments to the federal government, but many states have estimated tax systems as well. Boiling estimated taxes down to their simplest form, they basically allow you to pay taxes throughout the year instead of owing a lot of tax (and potential penalties) at the end of the year. So if you were going to owe $4000 when you file your 2008 return you might pay $1000 at the 4 regular scheduled estimated tax due dates. For 2008, estimated tax payments are due

Continue >>

Just hearing the date April 15th out loud can send shivers down the spine of many a taxpayer. While the deadline to file your taxes may seem scary to some, it really isn’t much different than most other deadlines. Filing your taxes may invoke fear in addition to the actual time crunch, such as fear of audit, inability to pay, making a mistake, etc, but most of the angst comes from the fact that they must be filed by a specific time. Sure, it’s easy to file an extension,

Continue >>

I finished reading The Long Tail over the weekend. The name of the book comes from the increasing importance of the sum of products and services that sell in small numbers. It makes the case that because there are so many of them, adding up these little sales actually makes them more valuable then the small number of products that sell in huge numbers, i.e. the biggest hit is the sum of the non-hits.

Continue >>