Dealing with Payroll Taxes in Quicken 2005
Make no mistake. Uncle Sam wants the money you withhold from an employee's payroll check for federal income taxes, Social Security, and Medicare. Uncle Sam also wants the payroll taxes you owe — such as [more…]
Entering a Check into the Quicken 2007 Register
To start working with Quicken, head to the Cash Flow Center, which looks and works (sort of) like a Web page. The Cash Flow Center provides clickable hyperlinks to some of the most popular banking and [more…]
Examining Four Key Types of Investment Ratios
To research possible investments, you read financial reports, prospectuses, and all manner of number- and jargon-filled analyses. Investors use different ratios to boil that information down into usable [more…]
How to Use Leftovers
If you use a little creativity, leftovers can be fun, tasty, inexpensive meal starters. By camouflaging the leftovers from meal to meal, even your pickiest eaters will have trouble recognizing the roasted [more…]
Recording Credit Card Transactions and Payments with Microsoft Money
Besides leaving credit cards at home, one way to keep credit card spending under control is to diligently record charges as you make them. Watching the amount that you owe grow larger and larger in the [more…]
How to Market Your House for Sale with Photos
Digital pictures of your home's interior show off rooms to potential buyers -- on the Internet and in your marketing fliers. Taking your best shots requires attention to ISO setting, shutter speed, light [more…]How to Dispute Your Debt with a Debt Collector
You’re contacted by a debt collector. You don’t agree that you owe that much — or anything at all! What to do next to save your credit from crashing?
Send the debt collector a letter disputing it within [more…]
Trading or Investing: Technical Analysis
Technical analysis is the study of how securities prices behave and how to exploit that information to make money while avoiding losses. The technical style of trading is opportunistic. Your immediate [more…]
Profitability Ratios for Investment Analysis
Profitability ratios form a core set of bottom-line ratios crucial to all investment analysis. Profitability ratios are typically based on net earnings, but variations will occasionally use cash flow or [more…]
Computing Simple Interest and Annual Rates of Yields
Calculating interest can seem complex, especially when the terms "rate" and "yield" are involved. Right next to the annual percentage rate (APR) you often find the annual percentage yield [more…]
Ask Debt Collectors for Proof of Your Debt
When a debt collector contacts you about a debt, he must send a written statement of your right to request written verification of the debt and your right to dispute the debt. [more…]
Look Closely at Your Credit Card Finance Charges
Some credit card companies offer lower interest rates if you transfer balances from another credit card to a new account. And if you write a check to borrow cash against your credit card, that amount can [more…]
Requirements for Using Savings Bonds for College Expenses
To save for college tax-free using either Series EE or Series I savings bonds, the owner needs to be at least 24 years old on the first day of the month when the bond is issued. There are no exceptions [more…]
Setting Up a Credit Card Account in Quicken 2006
If you want to track credit card spending and balances with Quicken 2006, you must set up a special credit card account. (In comparison, you use bank accounts to track other things, such as the money that [more…]
Covering Top Ways to Invest in Commodities
Because the commodities markets are so wide and deep, you have a number of investment vehicles to access these markets. A common misconception among investors is that you can only trade commodities by [more…]
How to Manage Your Money by Setting Financial Goals
The best way to avoid financial problems is to establish financial goals and a household budget to help achieve them. Your financial goals should be specific, realistic, time based, and flexible. As you [more…]
How to Track Stocks with Quicken Watch Lists
You can add stocks and other investments to your Quicken Watch List to help you track them. When you set up a Watch List, you can list stocks that you own, stocks that you want to own, stocks that are [more…]
How Microsoft Money Can Help You with Your Finances
Microsoft Money 2005 takes the pain out of managing your personal finances. The popular software serves as a research tool and a means of gazing into the future. With Money 2005, you will know how much [more…]
Treasury Bill Investments Backed by U.S. Government
For short-term investing, Treasury bills (called T-bills) are the nation’s most marketable security. T-bills are issued with 3-, 6- or 12-month maturities. When you purchase a T-bill, you pay less than [more…]
How to Adjust Information on Your Credit Report
If you (and lenders) don’t like the look of your credit report, you may be able to make some changes to that credit report. If you think the credit report doesn’t reflect your true credit history, you [more…]
Asset Productivity Ratios for Investment Analysis
Asset productivity ratios describe how effectively business assets are deployed. These ratios typically look at sales dollars generated per unit of resource. Resources can include accounts receivable, [more…]
How to Throw a Party on a Budget
When you budget for your party, do so before you start shopping. Figure out how much you can spend on your party, overall. List the items you need and estimate what you can afford to spend on each item [more…]
How to Use Quicken’s Loan Calculator
You can enter any type of loan scenario and Quicken tells you how much your payments are going to be, how long it is going to take you to pay off a loan, and how much interest you are going to pay. You [more…]
Investing in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Properties
One of the ways the federal government promotes homeownership is by providing financing through Fannie Mae (FNMA or Federal National Mortgage Association), Ginnie Mae [more…]
Avoiding Estate Taxes with an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust
One common way to get around estate taxes on your life insurance is to create an irrevocable life insurance trust. You transfer the ownership of your life insurance policy to the trust, effectively taking [more…]
