When we were married almost two years ago, the last thing on my mind was a little tax concept known as the marriage penalty. We were worried about whether the caterer was going to get our food right, how badly our respective best man or maid of honor were going to embarrass us, and whether the night would go off without a hitch. Looking back, it was a little silly because while there were little snags here or there, it was a wonderful night and, hopefully, everyone had a great time.

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If you were to build your personal finances from the ground up, the checking account would be the first “product” you’d pick. If you’ve ever drawn your financial network map, you’ll remember that the checking account is the spoke in your primarily hub-and-spoke layout. Your paycheck is deposited into your checking account, your savings accounts are linked to your checking account, and when it’s time to pay credit cards or the mortgage, chances are the money comes from your checking account.

So if you were to rebuild your personal finances or build it from scratch, the first step is finding a checking account that fits your needs. For me, I need a checking account to be free, have plenty of ATMs, and no minimum balance. If your bank doesn’t offer that as a minimum, I’d find one that does.

So how do you find the best free checking account?

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When you go to do your taxes this year, you will have the option to give three of your tax dollars to the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. $3 isn’t deducted from your refund or added to your tax bill, $3 from your taxes is simply allocated for the fund. The money is used to in the party nominating conventions, presidential primaries, and then the general election every four years. It was created by Congress in the 1970s as a matter of campaign finance reform as candidates who accept financing have to follow certain fundraising and total spending rules. If you remember, it was a big deal when then presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama opted out of public financing.

If you want to learn more about it, I may recommend the Federal Election Committee website where you can find all sorts of campaign finance gems.

My question to you is do you check off $3 to the Presidential Election Campaign Fund? When I first started filing my taxes, I didn’t because I erroneously thought it meant I would be personally donating $3. After I learned it wouldn’t actually cost me $3, I thought it was absurd that we would give even more money to spend on political campaigns. However, as I read more, I realized that forcing candidates to take public financing puts a cap on how much they can spend. I don’t claim to be an expert but I think that’s a good thing.

What do you think?

After my last post on drugs, vitamins and expiration dates, I received an anonymous email from someone who claims to work in the pharmaceutical industry. They wanted to share some insider knowledge on how drug and vitamin expiration dates really work. A lot of it confirms and expands on what I wrote initially but includes some first hand knowledge that corroborates what I’ve only found researching online.

So while I can’t confirm he or she works in the pharmaceutical industry, I have no reason to believe (and I think you’ll agree) what he or she says is true.

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If you have a few (dozen) hours to kill and want to learn some pretty insightful things, I have to recommend this fantastic thread on Reddit where users share all sorts of tips. There is a heavy dose of tips on how to buy electronics (warranties and how to abuse them), how to buy cars, fast food warnings (don’t get the Filet o’ Fish and always ask for unsalted or “well-done” fries to get a fresh batch), and a couple gems I’d put in the “money category.”

I spent about a good hour reading through the first few pages but now my brain is way too full of knowledge… here were a few money gems.
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Last year was a year to forget, especially if you were one of the many millions to lose their job. Fortunately, through various stimulus packages and other laws, unemployment benefits were extended to help people through a difficult time. Unfortunately, some of those unemployment benefits are taxable as income.

Fortunately, for the 2009 tax year, not every dollar is taxed. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act made the first $2,400 of unemployment benefits tax-free. After that, the remaining benefits is considered taxable income.

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We are led to believe that the best place to invest our money is in the stock market. Low barriers to entry, low barriers to exist, plenty of information, high probability of success in the long run and a lot of success stories. We also hear some of the horror stories of people who day traded tech stocks in the early 2000s, gamblers who lost it all on penny stocks, and all the chop shop, pump and dumpers like in the movie Boiler Room. However, through it all, we’ve been taught, over and over again, that if you buy for the long term, you will always win.

For today’s Devil’s Advocate post, we’re going to break down the stock market and show why we really are just little guppies hoping not to get eaten by the sharks.

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Every year, Forbes puts out it’s full list of the Top 100 companies to work for and every year I look for the two employers I’ve ever had… only really expecting to see one of them (and fairness, there aren’t any major defense contractors on the list). This year, my last company, Booz Allen Hamilton, retained the 52nd spot on the list despite going through some huge organizational changes. I have nothing but good things to say about the organization and the people I had the pleasure of working with while I was there.

But, enough about why *I* look at the list, let’s see which companies stack up where it matters most – pay.

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Yesteryday, I wrote a post about zero based budgeting, a type of budget that forces you to assign each dollar of income to an expense category. I think it’s a very good way of budgeting but one that can be difficult for nonbudgeters (I think envelope budgeting is the best way, of the five budgeting systems I’ve discussed, for nonbudgeters to get their feet wet).

However, in writing about all these budgeting systems, many of which are very similar, the conclusion is that there is no right way to budget. There is only a way that gets you to financial independence, the way that works best for you and your situation. In reviewing all of these free budgeting tools, it all went back to the simple idea of spending less than you earn.

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Now that the income limitations have been lifted and anyone can convert a tax-deferred Traditional or Rollover IRA into a tax free Roth IRA, a lot of blogs, gurus, and news sites have been celebrating the Roth IRA conversion. I have always held the Roth IRA in high regard because it’s a fantastic retirement investment vehicle that offers a little more predictability. I pay taxes on my contributions today and I get all the appreciation tax free, what’s not to love about it?

Unfortunately, whether or not you should convert a Traditional or Rollover IRA to a Roth IRA is not as clear cut. There are a lot of important factors many people are overlooking when it comes to Roth IRA conversions. While you may gain some tax benefits in your retirement assets, it does come at a cost to your overall financial picture. To ignore those could be extremely detrimental. Let’s take a look at the four major factors to consider before you convert to a Roth IRA.

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