Feed The Pig

I saw an advertisement at the mall last week with this scary looking pig: I will feast upon your soul! Turns out, the ad was for the financial education website FeedThePig.org. The site is run by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and has a goal of educating Americans between the ages of 25 to 35 to take control of their finances. There are lots of free tools on the site, such as checklists and financial calculators, as well as links to...

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Taming Taxes

I can’t say I completely dread April 15th. For one thing, it’s my brother-in-law’s birthday, so it’s not all doom and gloom. But finding out if I’ll get a tax refund or if I will owe money does make me a bit anxious. See, I’m one of those who believes that getting a big tax refund means you have actually lost money. You’ve given Uncle Sam an interest free loan for a year, which coincidentally means you lost the opportunity to invest that money...

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What Should You Do With Your Tax Refund?

So you're getting a tax refund, huh? Great! For many people, a tax refund represents "extra" or "found" money that they didn't plan on having. (In reality, it's simply their own money being returned to them after the government borrowed it interest-free the previous year, but that's another discussion...) In 2015, the average tax refund was over $2,800, which is a significant amount of money. It can be tempting to spend that money on hookers and...

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Goal Update: End of March 2016

At the end of each month, I post an update of my goals, including a brief discussion of any notable events that might have occurred during the month. The latest month's figures can always be found under the Featured menu in the menu bar at the top of the blog. Last updated: End of March, 2016 Current value: $22,063 Change from last month: +$950 Percent of Goal:  20.29% Note that the funds in this account are invested in...

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