Disney just announced that they would be kicking off a marketing campaign titled “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” promotion. Starting January 1st, 2010, if you volunteer a day of community service at select charities, you can get a free one-day, one-park ticket. They will give out a million tickets until December 15th, or until they run out. The “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” promotion is going to replace the current promotion where you can get free admission to the park on your birthday.

How do you participate? Visit’s the Give a Day, Get a Disney Day page to sign up and look for an eligible volunteer opportunity in your area. You won’t be able to sign up or search for opportunities until January 1st but you can sign up to get an email reminder when the program gets started.

I checked out the terms & conditions of the offer and it’s fairly relaxed. There are some restrictions on when you can use the ticket (You can’t enter Walt Disney World Resort between March 29th – April 8th, and July 4th; you can’t enter Disneyland on February 13-14, March 21, June 21-22, July 4, NOvember 21, or December 11-12). Outside of the day restrictions, I don’t see aren’t any other notable or unexpected requirements (full terms & conditions).

Give a Day, Get a Disney Day [HandsOn Network]

(Photo: savannahgrandfather)

Today marks the day that Zhao Danyang, winner of the 2008 Warren Buffett charity lunch, will be dining with the Oracle of Omaha at Smith & Wollensky steakhouse. Zhao Danyang, who runs the Pureheart China Growth Investment Fund in Hong Kong donated a whopping $2.11 million to the Glide Foundation for the opportunity to invite seven of his closest friends to join him and Warren Buffet.

Buffett has been doing these charity auctions for several years and it wasn’t until 2003 did the auctions move online. The proceeds benefit the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco non-profit that offers housing, job training, health and child care, and meals for the poor. In addition to the winner’s donation, Smith & Wollensky also donates $10,000 to the charity as well.

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In these difficult economic times, charitable organizations and philanthropies have seen a dip in charitable giving. It’s unfortunate but understandable; if you have to decide between rent and supporting a charity, chances are rent will win out.

If you can’t donate money, consider donating your time. I started volunteering at Meals on Wheels in Howard County last week and it’s been a blast so far. The task is pretty simple, the work needs to be done, and my donation of time costs me very little and saves them money. All I’m doing is helping pack a two hundred or so meals once a week (one lunch, one dinner).

The first day consisted of:

• Opening up cans of fruit cocktail and scooping about three ounces of it into little containers.
• Packing two juices, a milk, an apple, turkey sandwich, mayo, and a tea bag into brown paper bags.
• Heating up some kosher soups in the microwave.
• Spooning broccoli into a little plastic lunch tray, that already had pasta and italian sausage, and handing it off to someone else to seal.

Day two? It was St. Paddy’s day so the cold meal was roast beef and the hot meal was corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes. We were done in two hours flat.

And during that entire mechanical process, I chatted with the three other volunteers about all sorts of stuff. We even talked about Twitter! They knew what it was, they just didn’t get why it was popular… how about that?

Do you volunteer anywhere and, if so, where? What’s the work like? If you don’t and have a few hours to spare, please give it some consideration because it’s a lot of fun, you get to meet some great people, and you get to do some good without spending a dime.

This Devil’s Advocate post will cover something that’s bound to elicit a lot of discussion – here are four reasons why you shouldn’t donate money to charity. That’s right, you read that correctly, I have four reasons why donating your hard earned money to a charity is a bad idea and chances are there is at least one reason here that you didn’t even consider. If there was ever a Devil’s Advocate post to end all Devil’s Advocate posts (don’t worry, it’s not the last one), this would probably be one of them!

Americans are one of the most charitable groups in the world, having donating $306 billion in 2007 according to the Philanthropy Journal, an increase of 3.9% over the year before. While the donation amounts in 2008, a period of economic uncertainty, are not yet known, chances are Americans will still be sending hundreds of billions to philanthropic organizations… so in the face of that, I present to you four reasons why you shouldn’t donate money to charity.

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Charity credit cards, credit cards that donate a portion of your spending to a charitable organization, have increased in popularity the past few years as companies vie for your business. In the past, credit card companies often replaced reward programs with these charitable programs, keeping their costs the same while offering something new cardholders may prefer. Now, many of the charity credit cards offer both – the standard 1% rewards program plus a small donation based on your spending. With where transaction fees are nowadays, it doesn’t cut too deeply into their bottom line.

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Have you thought about your taxes lately? Probably not, but this month is probably one of the most important months in tax planning because it’s the last time you’ll have an opportunity to effect any meaningful change to your taxes next year. Once December ends, 2008 is essentially frozen and your taxes will be what your taxes will be. So, what sorts of tax moves should you consider making?

Sell your stock losers. Any losses you realize from the stock market, that aren’t offset by gains, can be deducted from your regular income, up to a limit of $3,000 a year. If you’ve been thinking about dumping some losers, now’s the time to do it. If you have more than $3,000 in losses, you can carry those forward indefinitely (until death). More advanced traders may also consider tax loss harvesting as an option as well.

Donate to your favorite charities. Times may be tough but they’re even tougher for charities and philanthropies, who rely on generous contributions to stay in operation. Consider donating money, goods, clothes, your car, anything – to one of your favorite charities so that they can stay operating through these difficult economic times. If you itemize your deductions, you can deduct contributions from your regular income.

Delay bonuses and income. If you can swing it, try to push any additional payments until the new year. If you are paid this year, you have to pay taxes on it in a few months. If you are paid next year, you won’t have to pay taxes on it for an extra year. If your employer withholds taxes on your bonus payments, this is a less valuable strategy.

Prepay state and local taxes. This one is a little tricky, if you don’t think you’ll be subject to the AMT, consider prepaying your state and local taxes. State and local taxes are federal tax deductions so prepaying them today means you can deduct them today as well.

Accelerate other deductible expenses. If you have a mortgage, consider paying next month’s payment this month. If you pay it this month, you can deduct the interest payment against this year’s income. If you pay for it on January 1st, it’ll have to wait until you file 2009 taxes. This is true of any deductible expenses you may have from student loan debt to medical to your real estate taxes. If you want, you can make the payment with a credit card and then pay off the credit card next month and still have it be deductible for 2008.

Use up your $12,000 gift exclusion. Each year, you are allowed to give $12,000 to someone else tax-free. If you give more than $12,000, then you are subject to what is known as the gift tax. It’s a little backward but it’s a page out of the estate planning book since heirs to an estate are often taxed on that estate. Anyway, if you were planning on giving someone a very generous gift, don’t forget to to do it. Next year the limit rises to $13,000 so you can give $25,000 to someone within a week and avoid the gift tax ($12,000 on December 31st, $13,000 on January 1st). If you are married, you could give someone $50,000 ($25,000 from each spouse).

Beware buying into mutual funds with capital gains distributions. Mutual funds buy and sell stuff all year, then distribute a bit of that at the end of the year. What you won’t want to do is buy into a mutual fund that is set to make a year-end capital gains distribution because you’ll be immediately taxed on that distribution. Imagine a mutual fund that costs $100 a share. You buy it and the next day it makes a $1 per share distribution, lowering the cost per share to $99. You just bought the thing and already are on the hook for $1 per share in taxes. Boo!

Contribute to your retirement. If you aren’t maxed out on your 401(k), or similar, plan, consider doing it because each dollar contributed is entirely deductible. The 2008 contribution limit for your 401(k) is $15,500 ($20,500 if you’re 50 or greater). Another good idea is to contribute towards your IRAs but you have until April 15th to accomplish that.

Get married. Your tax filing status is based on your status as of December 31st, 11:59 PM. If you were married on December 31st, you’re considered married for the year. If that helps your tax situation, you might want to consider it.

Get everything ready. If you’re due a refund, try to get all your ducks in a row as soon as possible so the government will mail you your refund check ASAP. All you’re really waiting for is the official W-2 from your employer, which they are required to mail out by January 31st, and you should be ready to hit the e-file button.

(Photo: thetruthabout)

If you’ve bought yourself a new car and are looking to get rid of your old one, or simply want to get rid of a car, consider donating it to an organization that accepts car donations. Selling the car will almost always be better than donating from a financial standpoint, but donating offers benefits that may trump the money depending on your situation. After detailing five reasons why you should donate your car, I’ll give a few scenarios where donating is better than selling.

Here are five solid reasons why you should donate your car:

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Unfortunately, the Advanta Kiva BusinessCard has been discontinued.

I was really surprised when I heard about the Kiva BusinessCard, a credit card offered by Advanta, because it sounded asymmetric with the types of offers credit cards usually have. Advanta has been really innovative in the types of cards they’ve been offering, trying to capture those smaller markets, and I believe this card is yet another attempt to do so. First, they were offering up a business credit card for online marketers, now they’re offering a business card with a philanthropic twist known as the Kiva BusinessCard.

Kiva, a program I’ve only written about briefly in the past, is an international, philanthropic microlending organization. They give loans to aspiring entrepreneurs in developing countries in an attempt to lift them from poverty, you can read more from their about page. It’s the embodiment of the old maxim: “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime.” I wrote that in the past I would give it a try but that fell on the back burner as, at the time, many of their loans were 100% funded.

So, what is Advanta offering with their card? If you offer a loan through the Kiva system, paying for it with the Kiva BusinessCard, they will match it dollar for dollar up to $200 per month. In actuality, since Advanta won’t know the exact loan you’re funding, Advanta supplies the funds to Kiva and they loan it out as needed but the intent and effect is still the same – an aspiring entrepreneur gets funds they otherwise wouldn’t get if you used another card. After the loan is repaid, the funds are given back to Advanta, just as they are to you after a loan, but they retain it (you have the option of retaining it or making another loan).

The 5% bonus cash back transaction categories are Kiva loans and charitable donations of up to $1,200 a year; 1% on everything else with no limit. $1,200 isn’t a tremendous amount but that’s 5% more you can give to charitable organizations each year, not counting the charitable income tax deduction you’d get.

Some other notable features of the card:

• 15 month 0% APR balance transfer promotional period,
• $0 fraud liability,
• No annual fee

It’s an interesting offer, wonder how popular it’ll be.

I always suspected that not all the panhandlers (or beggars, whatever term you prefer) were in the situations they claimed to be in and had heard unsubstantiated stories about “professional panhandlers.” One rumour back in Pittsburgh was that a particular panhandler on Forbes near PITT owned an Escalade (this was something I heard eight years ago, before high gas prices) and was seen turning the corner and hopping in it after “work.”

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You can delay the reaper but you can rarely totally avoid him and this past week Linens ‘n Things filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a few weeks after they were originally predicted to have succumbed. If you read my post about how they were going under and how you shouldn’t hold onto gift cards, then you wouldn’t be one of the 400,000 customers stuck with $42M in worthless gift cards.

Mrs Micah talked a little about contributing to presidential campaigns and how the contributions amount to very speculative investing. It’s an interesting thought, especially after noting people contributing to “lost cause” campaigns like Huckabee’s, that definitely gets you thinking. I was never one for political campaign contributions, I think my money is better served going towards health/medical related charitable causes.

Lastly, I did a roundup of the best high yield savings accounts.