Financial Tidbits

Free Tax Return Preparation

Tidbit — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:30:03 +0000

According to irs.gov, there are volunteers at certain organizations that will give free tax preparation to those with income less than $39,000, the elderly, and military personnel and their families. The three organizations offering this service are:

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program (VITA)

Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE)

Armed Forces Tax Council (AFTC)

More info can be found at: Free Tax Return Preparation For You by Volunteers

Being Disorganized Can Cost You Money

Tidbit — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 12:40:00 +0000

Might Bargain Hunter gives us 16 ways being disorganized costs you money. Most of us can relate to at least one of these. Not only can being disorganized cost you money, but it can cause stress too.

Save Time At Your Office

Tidbit — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 12:10:12 +0000

For those of you who work in the office, Stuart Levine, author of Cut to the Chase—and 99 Other Rules to Liberate Yourself and Gain Back the Gift of Time and featured on the Today show, offers an excerpt from his book titled, “Eight Ways to Save Time at The Office. How could you not want to read this brief (or purchase the book) with an intro like this. “We give our time away all day long, to emotions that gain us no advantages, to people who do not value our time, to inefficient habits. If you want to take back this time, you need to cut to the chase.”

Jim Cramer’s 2007 Growth Stock Pick is NYX

Tidbit — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 03:12:44 +0000

On the famous (infamous?) Mad Money show with Jim Cramer the best growth stock of 2007 was announced. The Cramer camp likes the NYSE (ticker: NYX) because:

they are replacing their traders with computers, including a removal of 500 people of their payroll in November.
Sarbox (Sarbanes Oxley) is “softening” and will allow more ADRs. This means more trading on the NYSE.
There is a great amount of value in the real estate that takes up the floor of the NYSE.
When they merge with Euronext, their overhead should go down. This should increase operating margins.
Analysts estimates are too low according to Cramer. He expects earnings to be at $12 a share in 3 years.
Last but not least, the Cramer camp thinks that this stock should go from $95 to $240

Resource for Personal Finance Spreadsheets

Tidbit — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 03:12:20 +0000

Get Rich Slowly has compiled a list of personal finance spreadsheets. This is a pretty good list and as the author points out, if you search the web you get a lot of crap until you find some good spreadsheets.

If you are looking for some spreadsheets to do a little planning of financial scenarios and budgeting, this would be a good place to start.