By CJ, on June 24th, 2010
Tax Avoidance – Getting up to Speed with the New Rules
There is tax evasion that is illegal and requires that you do things like stash black money away in offshore accounts and bogus companies; and there is tax avoidance that is just about playing your legal options correctly, to take advantage of tax savings options the law provides you. President Obama is trying to undo years of Democratic and Republican tax cuts that have bankrupted the country and resulted in cuts in essential public services – and the results aren’t pretty. Taxes are going to rise one way or the other.
Joe Public knows that these tax code changes could change his fortunes overnight, and like investors all over, he feels that drastic investment philosophy changes that need to be made. Just in February, ordinary investors moved their money from regular stocks to new kinds of investments like foreign equity funds [...]
By Mincom, on April 22nd, 2010
Personal Finance Software Comes of Age, and Goes Free
When personal computers came on the market in the 70′s as something you could use at home for the family, personal finance software was one of the most important things the marketing people thought the general population could use it for. Over the years, tools like Quicken and Microsoft Money became almost a standard purchase along with every PC sold.
The only problem has been that this personal software had to be chained to your own computer. If you wanted to keep account of credit card purchases, you just had to wait for your card statements and weeks later, key everything into your computer manually. Of course, today you no longer have to pay for great finance software. Tools like Mint, Wesabe and MoneyStrands are free and they can help you keep abreast of all your finances and checkbook balancing.
Unlike tethered personal finance [...]
By Mincom, on February 20th, 2010
Covering the basics of the forex market
The foreign exchange, or forex, market is relatively young, having begun in the early 1970s after the United States dropped the gold standard and national currencies started to fluctuate widely. For about 30 years prior to that, most nations had agreed to keep their currency values stable in relation to the U.S. dollar, making a forex market unnecessary. With that no longer the case, banks quickly realized that a profit could be made in “buying” currency when it was devalued and “selling” it after it strengthened, just like any other commodity.
Today, the forex market handles about $1.9 trillion in transactions every day, and it runs 24 hours a day, five days a week. (With nations around the world involved, it’s always daytime somewhere.) The most traded currencies are the U.S. dollar, the euro, Japanese yen, British pound, Swiss franc and Australian dollar.
The [...]
