Posted on October 23rd, 2009 by Carlo Capomazza
For the first time in 35 years, it’s expected that Social Security beneficiaries will receive no cost of living adjustment (COLA) increase next year. Since the automatic COLA went into effect in 1975, beneficiaries have never failed to receive an increase, raising concerns that millions of beneficiaries will suffer a lowered standard of living since Medicare Part D (prescription plans) and Medicare Part C plans are expected to increase.
Filed under: Economy, Health Insurance, Money-Saving, Politics, Retirement, Tax Issues | No Comments »
Posted on September 7th, 2009 by Carlo Capomazza
Image via Wikipedia There’s a lot of free stuff out there. Erin Burt of Kiplinger.com — one of our favorite personal-finance websites — has compiled quite the list of free items being offered this year. As is the way with any list of freebies, some items are more worthwhile than others; some are hidden gems, [...]
Filed under: Economy, Electronics, Entertainment Business, Finance, Foreclosure, Money-Saving, VRN | No Comments »
Posted on September 6th, 2009 by Carlo Capomazza
The post in which we wrote last month about a possible tax credit for pets received quite a number of comments — some for and some against the idea. Whether the proposed law has a chance on Capitol Hill or not has yet to be seen. However, the amount of responses we got from the [...]
Filed under: Economy, Finance, Money-Saving, Pets, VRN | No Comments »
Posted on September 1st, 2009 by Carlo Capomazza
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced plans to expand a program that closely monitors how much income taxpayers report versus how much they pay on their mortgage. The IRS expects the expansion to take place by 2011:
After prompting from an IRS auditor, the agency will study whether it should make greater use of data [...]
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Posted on September 1st, 2009 by Carlo Capomazza
Pending home sales have risen once again in July, marking the sixth-straight-monthly increase.
Filed under: Economy, Finance, Real Estate Market, Tax Issues, VRN | No Comments »
Posted on August 30th, 2009 by Carlo Capomazza
You may have read that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke recently had his identity stolen:
If ever there were living proof that identity theft can strike the mighty and powerful as well as hapless consumers, look no further than the nation’s chief banker: Ben Bernanke. The Federal Reserve Board chairman was one of hundreds of victims of [...]
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Posted on August 28th, 2009 by Carlo Capomazza
(Update1): The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a bulletin on Wednesday regarding the specific provisions of the credit card reform that have already taken affect. The bulletin pertains specifically to the 45-days notice the card companies must provide cardholders when or if their interest rate will be changed (emphasis added):
The bulletin [...]
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Posted on August 27th, 2009 by Carlo Capomazza
A lawsuit filed by Lending Tree — a mortgage-loan lead generator — against Mortech, the company which provides Lending Tree’s loan-offering technology, certainly suggests so:
“LendingTree recently learned that Google imminently plans to launch a loan aggregation service in late August or early September of this year that would compete with LendingTree,” the complaint says. “Lending [...]
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