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Happy Hour: Outsourcing And A Debt Ceiling Hiatus

January 18, 2013

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Jon

Welcome to the end of the week and another edition of Happy Hour! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy your end of the week roundup of all things interesting in the land of money.

Smart Outsourcing

This is the most intelligent thing I came across this week. Apparently, a Verizon developer outsourced his own job to a Chinese consulting firm. That in itself isn’t brilliant. He did it for a fraction of what he was paid. Instead of coming into work and working. He sat in his office and watched cat videos, shopped online, trolled Facebook and went home. It’s not the most exciting way to spend the day but hey…bonus points for thinking outside the box.

It doesn’t say if the developer still has a job, but it’s safe to say he uncovered a glaring amount of excessive costs. The first being his job. I doubt he’s the only overpaid employee. If you walk into your boss’ office declaring a way to save 80% on payroll costs, I guarantee they will sit up and listen. The guy probably deserves a promotion for this. Continue Reading…
TurboTax Review: Tax Prep Made Easy

January 17, 2013

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Jon

TurboTax is one of the most popular online tax preparation and filing services around. During tax season, it’s nice to use great tax software that makes finishing your return as quick and painless as possible.

I’ve used TurboTax to do my tax returns for over a decade now. Back when the only option was to buy the software in a store, I was using it. That was before the internet, by the way. Of course now, TurboTax offers online tax software and makes those dreaded tax returns that much easier to finish and file quickly. But how does it stack up against the competition?

With TurboTax, you’ll find a range of products that fit the easiest tax return to the more complicated ones.
Continue Reading…
Fiscal Cliff Tax Changes That Impact Your Return

January 15, 2013

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Jon

The last-minute fiscal cliff deal made several changes to the tax code. Most of the new tax law focuses on the 2013 tax brackets and tax credits and deductions going forward. One key area of concern were tax policies that expired at the end of 2011 but hadn’t been renewed for the 2012 tax year.

The American Taxpayer Relief Act retroactively restores many of those tax credits and deductions for the 2012 tax year. In turn, it could affect your tax return due this April. Hopefully, in a good way. It’s just too bad it took Congress until January 1st to fix the code. As I point out below, it’s caused a delay to the tax season that will affect many taxpayers. Continue Reading…
Happy Hour: $1 Trillion Coin And Treasury Signatures

January 11, 2013

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Jon

Welcome to the end of the week and another edition of Happy Hour! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy your end of the week roundup of all things interesting in the land of money.

$1 Trillion Platinum Coin

The argument for a $1 Trillion Coin picked up steam this week now that the focus is squarely on the debt ceiling issue. Just when you think the political system is starting to look better, it hits a new low. Instead of dealing with the current debt ceiling issue, they’re dreaming up legal loopholes to avoid the discussion entirely. It’s a coin version of talk to the hand.

If you remember the market reaction to the debt ceiling debate in 2011, you have an idea what could happen in late February, early March. Not surprising the 2011 debacle is when this whole coin idea first surfaced. It certainly won’t inspire confidence in the markets. The fact the coin is being seriously discussed shows just how ugly the debate will get. Of course, if our politicians are too inept to realize any of this, I say mint the thing. Continue Reading…
Your Official 2013 Federal Income Tax Brackets

January 10, 2013

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Jon

It’s finally official! After too much debate, the House vote showed up fashionably late. The 2013 federal income tax brackets were finalized on the first day of the new year.

So what does this mean for everyone? The tax brackets will be unchanged for all but the top income earners. Even more important, though, these tax cuts are permanent. Or the tax cuts are permanent in the sense that they won’t expire. Congress can still change the tax law if they can agree on something. So, at least we won’t have to relive the fiscal cliff again next year.

With the signing of the American Taxpayer Relief Act, Congress made several changes to the tax law which is covered here. The first of which were the 2013 income tax brackets.

These tax tables are for the 2013 tax year, with taxes due in April 2014. Use the 2012 tax brackets for tax returns due in April 2013. Continue Reading…
2013 Market Predictions

January 8, 2013

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Jon

Every year market pundits and media set out to predict the future. As you would expect (or maybe you wouldn’t?), their success rate falls short of a great batting average. But despite all this, they come back each year to repeat the exercise. Once again, we join the rank and file with some less outlandish market predictions for the year.

Hopefully, our success rate is slightly better than most. If last year was any indication, it will be better than .500.

Before we get started, I’ll dispense with the legalize. None of these predictions should be viewed as facts. This exercise is for entertainment purposes only. To be clear no math or statistical data analysis was used in any way. In fact, no thought went into this whatsoever. We wasted all our time coming up with solid ways to eliminate conscious thought in the predictive process: rock paper scissors, counting out rhymes, darts and a magic eight ball were just a few. In the end we flipped a coin. And the results speak for themselves.

With that over with, let’s get onto the predictions! Continue Reading…