Time Is Running Out To Get The $8000 First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit

The $8000 tax credit is a great deal for people who are first time home buyers.   But let’s review the tax credit and it’s provisions:

First-time buyers can claim a credit worth $8,000 – or 10% of the home’s value, whichever is less – on their 2008 or 2009 taxes.

To qualify for the credit, the home must be purchased between Jan. 1, 2009 and Nov. 30, 2009.

You cannot have owned a house for the past three years to qualify as “first time” buyer. You also must live in the purchased house for at least three years, or you will be obligated to pay back the credit.

To get the credit, homebuyers have to earn less than $75,000 for singles or $150,000 for couples. If you make more than that you may qualify for a partial credit.

Getting the credit should be pretty easy, just claim it on your return.  One caveat, however.  You have to close on your new house by  November 30th.   That may sound like it’s a long way off, but in reality it’s coming a lot faster than you think.

The end of November is also tricky because of the Thanksgiving holidays. Keep in mind that with the holiday schedule, you’d be better off to try and schedule your closing for at least the week of November 16th, just to give yourself some extra time for unforseen issues that can often come up in the buying process (problems with the final walk-through, mortgage documentation problems, etc).

Increasing your Productivity at Work

In today’s economy, success depends on productivity.  Businesses most often lay off employees because they view departments as not cost-effective enough.  One way to ensure your value to your company (or to maintain the effectiveness of your small business) is to keep yourself working hard and task oriented.  This is obviously easier said than done, as anyone who has ever felt the need to procrastinate can tell you.  Here are some tips we’ve found successful in keeping ourselves task oriented.

Learn more about increasing your job performance

America’s Top Financial Bloggers: Sometimes the Best Choice is a Difficult One

by A Dawn

Award-winning author A Dawn is a City University of New York Economics graduate. The former Financial Advisor now works as a Data Integrity Analyst for a major Canadian wealth management corporation. He created Canada’s Personal Finance Website to make the world of personal finance easy and accessible for everyone. Invest Now is author’s first book. He makes his home in the world class city of Toronto.

There is no denying the fact that in times of economic hardship, people begin to look at their own situation and consider whether they can continue to live as they have been. Spending money is great fun when it is plentiful and you know there is more to come. But in times of recession, there is always a danger that the next company to announce major job cuts will be either yours, a family member’s, or one of your customers. It is then that you need to ask yourself if you should change the way you look at financial matters.

Read more about where to make budget cuts

America’s Top Financial Bloggers: What is the Best Way to Survive these Economic Times

By Ron Haynes

Ron writes for The Wisdom Journal, a blog about making wise choices, improving your finances, and living a better life. Ron is a husband of 19 years with three children. He has an MBA and is a partner in a 141 store chain with locations in 16 states.  Having made many of the financial mistakes he writes about, he is now on better footing and is eager to share what’s he has learned along the way. Though many people learn faster on their own dime than on another’s, “experience is the best teacher,” he says, “especially if that experience comes from someone else!”

Have you noticed the bright pricing stickers being used on shelves today? The prices aren’t lower, they’re just more visible and eye-catching. Some brands will go out of their way to highlight their price even though it was cheaper all along. Try to scan the shelves and make sure that apparent markdown is real.

Learn how to protect yourself and your budget when shopping around

America’s Top Financial Bloggers: What is the Best Way to Manage Personal or Family Finances During Difficult Economic Times?

by LAL

I’m LAL (livingalmostlarge), from LivingAlmostLarge and LAL Musings.  I recently turned 30, and am married with a dual income and no kids.  I write about personal finance from the perspective of someone searching for financial freedom.  I one day want to live large.  To me that means not worrying about paying my bills or losing my job.  So join my on my journey and see what pitfalls and successes I have.

What is the best way to manage personal or family finances during difficult economic times by making smart financial choices?

Honestly, making smart financial choices starts before difficult economic times.  I am not a fan of the “latte” factor.  You know, the term coined by David Bach talking about people who spend $3/day on a latte.  That works out to $1000/year on coffee at Starbucks.  Well why not?

Read more about budgetting for major purchases

America’s Top Financial Bloggers: What is the Best Way to Manage During Difficult Economic Times?

By Christina Brown

Christina Brown writes for Northern Cheapskate, a blog dedicated to helping others live a frugal lifestyle through coupons, freebies, and money-saving ideas.  Learn how she saves money as a stay-at-home mom living in the rural northwoods of Minnesota at www.northerncheapskate.com.

Many of us have lived well for a long time. We dressed nicely, we ate out at restaurants and took exotic vacations.  But now layoffs arrive with little notice, and families are struggling to make ends meet. The days of spending without thinking have disappeared.  For many of us, it is a cold, hard reality we’re not prepared to deal with.

Here are five ways to take control of your personal finances during these tough economic times.

Read more about how to save money from one of America's top financial bloggers

Hints for Reducing Debt

We often speak of the importance of paying off debt as a means to financial freedom, but what is equally, if not more important, is a discussion of ways to pay off that debt.  We’ve compiled some helpful hints on how to pay off your personal debt (whether it be credit card, student or other types of debt).  With a little smart shopping, saving sense, and the willingness to seek help, anyone can get themselves out of debt without having to go the dreaded bankruptcy route.

Talk to your credit lender. They may be willing to cut you some slack if you explain to them that you plan on paying off all the debt.  Ask for a reduced payment schedule.  The key is to ensure them (in not so many words) not to give the debt over to a collection agency.  If you can talk to them and ensure them that the debt will be paid off, then you may convince them that getting the full amount of money you owe is preferably to hiking up your interest rate and never getting most of it.

Learn more about reducing your debt

Managing Student Debt: A New Government Program

For many people, debt begins at the age of 18, when they begin their college education.  Sad to say, many student borrowers don’t recover from this debt for many years, even decades.  Debt has the habit of snowballing: it piles up and before you know it, interest rates have caused it to grow to huge proportions.

So how can students begin to cut off debt before it gets the better of them?  There are a plethora of programs out there to help manage student loan debt, but that debt still exists, it’s just a matter of when it gets repaid.  A new program is designed to decrease payments and cut off debt.

Learn more about managing student debt

Planning for a Newborn? Good Financial Advice.

July and August have the highest percentage of births for any month in America.  For the soon to be parents:  Congratulations!  Parenthood is a wonderful and life-changing experience.  As with most life changing experiences, as you may have determined after reading many of our posts, there are life changing financial aspects to deal with.  The blog www.cashmoneylife.com recently had an article spotlighting the different things to prepare for as a parent, and we would like to highlight some of these, and some of our own, for you.

Check and update your life and disability insurance

Could your family survive a disaster if you weren’t there to assist them?  What would happen to them if something happened to you?  These are the reasons for life insurance as well as disability insurance and both of these become even more important as your family begins to grow.  Make sure the beneficiaries of your insurance are your spouse and children and your policy is not outdated.  You would be surprised at how often that happens.  Make sure you have enough insurance to cover the expenses ahead so your new child has a fair shot if disaster strikes.

Discover more about budgetting for newborns

The Search for Security at Retirement

What’s more important to today’s retiree:  flexibility in investing or rock-solid dependability? It will come as no surprise that the pendulum is swinging in answer to that question, from the former to the latter.

A recent survey reported in investmentadvisor.com found that those at or nearing retirement “expressed significantly lower levels of financial comfort, greater concern about further market declines, and higher interest in guaranteed income streams for retirement” than one year ago.”

Where once “the ability to make decisions about how money is invested, diversified, and allocated” was held as the most important factor, now it is the safety and sustainability of a “guaranteed payment stream” above all else.

One such product for creating that kind of stability for retirement is the Annuity.

In the U.S. an annuity contract is created when an individual gives a life insurance company money which may grow on a tax-deferred basis and then can be distributed back to the owner in several ways. The defining characteristic of all annuity contracts is the option for a guaranteed distribution of income until the death of the person or persons named in the contract. Perhaps confusingly, the majority of modern annuity customers use annuities only to accumulate funds and to take lump-sum withdrawals without using the guaranteed-income-for-life feature.
Learn more about using annuity for retirement savings

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