IRS Tip of the Day

Here's a tip to the IRS.

Dear IRS,

I will gladly pay taxes to live in the greatest country on our planet. But for the love of all things good and green, could you possibly make it any harder to pay you? As a college graduate who owns a business, a house and a dog, I don't claim to be a genius, but I should be able to easily figure out how much money I owe. Instead, I have to resort to hiring a tax professional at my own expense. I'd try it myself, but if I make a mistake, you'll find me, steal said house and dog (and college degree) and put me in jail. So I just wanted to say I think it's mean. As a business owner, I doubt I'd have any clients if I made them fill out a form to calculate how much money they owed me. When you owe someone money, you should get an invoice from them. Plain and simple. So send me a frickin' invoice, and I'll pay your frickin' taxes.

Regards,
Jason

P.S. When I call you to ask a question about your insanely difficult process, whatever you do, do NOT hang up on me. TWICE.

P.P.S. When I finally do get to talk to you, do me a favor and try to actually know the answer to my question. If you don't even know how your system works, how can I be expected to know?

Realty Tip of the Day

A few tips if you're listing your house for sale. First off, NEWS FLASH: People will actually look at the photos you put online! I know this may be a surprise to you, but you may want to be careful what's in the shot. For instance, let's look at these two actual listings here in the Lexington area. I realize these may not be Lexington's finest homes. But couldn't we get the hoopty out of that shot above? "Hm, tempting. I really want to live there where an 80s model drug car is parked in front of my house...cool...it's got character."



And for the love of all things, PLEASE somehow crop the broken mailbox out of the shot. Take the photo from an angle, or heck, just show interior pictures! You know, maybe, just maybe, someone will ACTUALLY come look at your house (at least that's the goal, right?) so maybe you can sorta "fix" the mailbox? After all, it is the first impression, right? "Honey, I'm sure it's just a coincidence that the kids bashed this mailbox--it's probably a pretty safe neighborhood."

NEWS FLASH: NO ONE WILL BUY YOUR GHETTO HOUSE IF IT LITERALLY LOOKS LIKE IT'S ALREADY BEEN PILLAGED.

Help End Slavery Tip of the Day

Paste Magazine & Our Stage are donating $3 to "NOT FOR SALE" (Not For Sale is a campaign to end slavery throughout the world) for every person that signs up for a free ourstage.com account. Help end slavery by signing up using the link below

http://pastemagazine.com/notforsale

- Thanks Thor

Direct Deposit Tip of the Day

Turn up the volume on your speakers for this and enjoy.

Insurance Tip of the Day

This tip is special thanks to Chad at the Cre8tive Group, who didn't realize his helpful information would become a tip for the world to see!

You'd think that if you have a high-price item in your home or business that it would be covered, in almost any circumstance by your homeowner's insurance. But you may not realize that most insurance policies only cover individual personal items up to $1,000, often times close to your deductible. Of course, if your house burned down, flooded, or was otherwise destroyed, of course insurance would replace the home and the items inside. But, if someone broke in, stole that one item, and left, it would only be covered to $1,000, unless you have a separate type of insurance for the item.

So, Chad informed me that a type of insurance offered by most providers is a great solution. It's a type of insurance called inland marine insurance, which you can use to insure any piece of property at almost any value. The best part is that this insurance is cheap, and it covers the item inside or outside your home, and in almost any situation of damage, theft or destruction. It could be stolen, ran over by your car, rained on, thrown into a lake or dropped off a cliff. And the best part is, there's no deductible. You're insured for whatever amount you specified. The only scenarios in which inland marine insurance does not cover you are 1. intentional damage or destruction, or 2. if the item was being used in a felony.

But, this insurance is especially useful if the item will be rented to other people, traveling on delinquent airlines, or being shipped. Laptops, cameras, videocameras, jewelry, etc. would all be good candidates for this insurance.

State Farm offers inland marine, and for my HD videocamera, it was only $1.55 per $100 for a year. Well worth the peace of mind!

Change Tip of the Day

Heard the old phrase "not worth the paper it's printed on"? Well, as it turns out, a variation of that is true. "Not worth the metal it's minted on" is true of some older US coinage. Coinflation has the full details.

Fixed Tip of the Day

"Fixed" credit card interest rates don't really mean "fixed". It just means that they have to give you at least 15 days notice and they can only change the rate of a group of people, not just you. More info at Marketplace Money.

Fraud Tip of the Day

So we've already covered that you're not all that liable for fraudulent Credit Card activity. Well did you also know that your liability is limited for regular bank accounts too? (in the U.S.) The only trick is you have to catch it early. If you notice fraudulent activity within 2 days you are only liable up for $50. Some banks, like ING Direct want their customers to feel so safe, they go above and beyond the law and you are liable for $0. You just have to catch it early. So sign up for online banking and check your account every other day. It could get to be a pain, but at least you won't have your bank accounts completely drained!

Tax Tip of the Day

According to IRS Publication 526 (the one about charitable contributions you can deduct, duh) there are some tax benefits for those of in certain kinds of industries, such as:

"Expenses of Whaling Captains
Beginning in 2005, you may be able to deduct as a charitable contribution the reasonable and necessary whaling expenses paid during the year in carrying out sanctioned whaling activities"

Credit Offer Tip of the Day

Are you sick of going to your mail box just it is just full of credit card offers? Well now there is a simple website and phonenumber you can use to get off their lists, a la the Do Not Call list. The website is: OptOutPrescreen.com or you can just call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT