Family Records Organizer CD

If you’re like most people, you probably have dozens of financial accounts and records to keep track of, such as retirement accounts, bank accounts, credit cards, investments, debts, loans, and mortgages, as well as trusts, wills and medical information.

T. Rowe Price offers a complimentary Family Records Organizer CD to help you with these organizational challenges. This CD provides you with an easy way to gather in one safe place all your family’s records, including primary contacts. It can also help your loved ones know where to find this information in case of emergency.

Defining Success Exercise

I’m reading Tim Knox’s new book, Everything I Know About Business I Learned from My Mama, and I ran across an exercise that I think is too good not to share. 

Here it is:

Spending too much? Try this 7-day money challenge.

Bankrate.com issued a 7-day money challenge recently which caught my eye.

Here are the basics of the challenge:

Step 1: Figure out how much cash you need to cover a week’s worth of gas, groceries, entertainment, dinner on the town, breakfast at McDonald’s, books, music CDs, cosmetics, gifts — the whole gamut of casual expenses.

Step 2: Be honest. Don’t deliberately overestimate so that you’re sure to have enough cash to get through the week.

Step 3: Set the anticipated amount aside and don’t use debit or credit cards.

How to cut vet costs

My baby, Bosco, had to have surgery this week.  And while there was no question that she would get the treatment she needed, I decided to do some homework to see if I can cut the vet costs in the future.  Here’s what I learned…

1.  Plan ahead.  Don’t wait for an emergency to have a vet, and know your vet’s emergency hour policies.  – I have a vet already (have had the same vet for the last 12 years), and am pretty good about keeping annual checkup appointments, but I don’t know his emergency policy.  I’ll be sure to ask at our next appointment, which is about 3 weeks away.

The Fastest Way to Pay Off Debt

There’s some debate among financial planners as to the best way to pay down debt. Some say paying the highest interest rate debt first is the best way; others say paying the smallest balance first is the best way.

Both methods have advantages and disadvantages, so we’ll take a look at both, and help you decide which method is best for you.

Method #1 – Highest Interest Rate

In this method, you focus on paying off your highest interest rate debts first. The basic steps in this method include:

IRS makes filing for husband/wife businesses easier

Legislation eases burden on Husband/Wife businesses

Legislation signed last week simplifies reporting for husband and wife owned businesses. The new law, effective for tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2006, allows a husband and wife who file a joint return to elect to report income or losses in proportion to their interest in the business and not as a partnership. The husband and wife must be the sole owners of the business and both spouses must materially participate in the business to make this election. See page 10 of the technical explanation of the Small Business and Work Opportunity Tax Act Of 2007 for more information on the Section 8215, Family Business Tax Simplification.