Money

This article covers all the contribrution limits and rules for Roth IRA accounts as well as Traditional IRA accounts.  If you plan to contribute to your IRA accounts then it is important to know how much you can contribute.
Here are the limits for 2009 and previous years:

The over 50 rule applies to anyone who turns [...]

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The state of New Jersey has been hit quite hard by the current economic downtown and state unemployment levels have been rising.  The unemployment rate in NJ is now 9.7% (up from 9.3% prior to August) which is coincidentally the same as the national average.  New Jersey has lost 155,700 jobs since December 2007, when [...]

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TradeKing discount brokerage has just announced a new promotional program where they will pay you $50 just for setting up a new brokerage account with them.
TradeKing is one of the lowest-cost online brokerages around with $4.95 trades. You can set up any type of account you want and use your “buy and hold” investment [...]

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The past year has been a bad one for the American worker.  Because of the 2008 financial crisis and ensuing recession – millions of Americans have lost their jobs.  The current national unemployment rate is 9.7% as of Sept 4.  While many workers will find new jobs within the time period of existing employment benefits [...]

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The Ohio unemployment rate has reached a level of 10.8% as of August, 2009.  Legislation recently passed by the house (Sept 22) called Bill H3548 will allow any states with a total unemployment rate (TUR) of 8.5% or higher to be eligible for federal funding which will allow 13 more weeks of extended unemployment benefits [...]

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It’s been announced that the extremely popular Cash for Clunkers trade-in program will be continued after more funding was obtained to pay for the credits.  The Cash for Clunkers program was suspended on July 31 because of a concern that the funding limit ($950 million) might have already been reached.  The original program was intended [...]

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The brand new Cash for Clunkers government program which was designed to help stimulate the car industry as well as the general economy has come to a quick end. The plan was funded with $1 billion for the trade-in credit. The program was to run to November 1, 2009 or until the funding [...]

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The Make Home Affordable mortgage refinance and modification program was announced earlier this year as part of the 2009 stimulus package.  The idea behind this refinancing program was to enable some home owners who are having difficulty making payments on their house a way to refinance even though they wouldn’t normally qualify because their mortgage [...]

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The state of Texas has recently announced that a 13 week unemployment benefit extension has been made official.  This will affect anyone who has exhausted or will exhaust their 59 weeks of unemployment benefits.  The money for this extension will be coming from the 2009 stimulus package announced by President Obama at the beginning of [...]

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Here are the rules for the new “Cash For Clunkers” government program.  If your car qualifies then you could receive a credit of either $3500 or $4500 towards the purchase or lease of a new car.  Read more about the details of the Cash for Clunkers bill.
[edit Aug 30 - Cash for Appliances program announced [...]

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President Obama has recently signed the “Cash For Clunkers” program – officially known as the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS).  This federal program is being run by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and has a budget of $1,000,000,000 (1 billion dollars).  The basic idea of the program is that you can trade in your [...]

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Having an emergency fund is one of the cornerstones of good financial budgeting.  Some people don’t like to keep cash so they prefer to utilize lines of credit, but what do you do if those lines of credit are not there when you need them?  The safest emergency fund should be in good ol’ hard [...]

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Online savings account interest rates are not very high these days.  It wasn’t long ago when you could get 4% or 5% on your savings which seems pretty good right now!  It’s very easy to dismiss rates that are as low as 1% or 2% but keep reading – I hope to show you that [...]

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In 2009, the 2009 stimulus package was created by President Obama and provided extra funding for states to extend the length of unemployment benefits if necessary.  Most states have a fixed number of weeks available for benefits but can increase the number of weeks if necessary.  The Florida unemployment rate in April was 9.6%.
The state [...]

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The 2009 stimulus package signed by president Obama contains quite a few financial stimulus for many different parts of the population.  Infrastructure spending, tax cuts make up most of the bill but one of the key aspects to the package is a special cash payment.  This won’t be like the general stimulus check of last [...]

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Everyone knows what credit cards are…unfortunately some of us know all too well how hard it can be to pay off the balances.  Once you get in the habit of only making the minimum balance on your credit card balance then it is very difficult to lower the debt because the interest rates are so [...]

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COBRA insurance is temporary health care insurance for people who have just lost their job and their health insurance coverage.  It is also used by recent retirees and commonly covers spouses and children as well.  Typically it is used by workers who are between jobs that provide health care and is provided by the previous [...]

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As part of the recent economic stimulus bill of 2009 – an $8,000 home buyer tax credit was created.  This credit will apply to home buyers who buy a home this year.  Clearly this is an effort to try to keep up house values and given how much they have fallen, perhaps it is a [...]

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One of the more interesting aspects of the recent economic stimulus bill was the introduction of a federal income tax deduction on any taxes and excise taxes paid on a new vehicle.  This was introduced because of the poor condition of the big 3 car companies since this deduction will help encourage some people to [...]

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The recent 2009 economic stimulus bill was recently passed and it features a number of changes to unemployment benefits.  Unemployment benefits are being extended which should come in handy given the large number of layoffs in recent months.
Unemployment benefits extended in the 2009 economic stimulus plan
Previously, unemployed workers were eligible for 26 weeks of unemployment [...]

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