A Review of Mint.com – Online Budget Tool

January 17, 2012

I‘ve been a long time user of Mint.com. If you’re not familiar with Mint, it is a free online personal budgeting tool that allows you to see your whole financial life in one place.  Whether it’s checking, savings, credit cards, PayPal, investments, retirement accounts or many other personal finance accounts, Mint.com is your one stop [...]

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How to Invest with Just $25 A Month

January 13, 2012

When I started investing in the stock market back in 1993, my wife and I were dirt poor. I’d just graduated from law school, and our net worth was a negative $55,000. We still wanted to start investing, but we were faced with a big problem–how do you invest when you don’t have much money? [...]

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How Half a Percent Can Ruin Your Retirement

January 12, 2012

Last year one of my largest expenses was one I never saw. I didn’t get a bill for it. And I didn’t have to pay it, at least not directly. But it still cost me a small fortune. I’m talking about investment costs in the form of mutual fund expenses. Mutual fund expenses present two [...]

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Official 2012 Federal Income Tax Brackets

January 10, 2012

The final figures for the 2012 Income Tax Brackets have been confirmed by the IRS (pdf file). The current tax rate structure we use has been in place since 2003 and consists of 6 rates: 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33% and 35%. These 6 tax rates will remain in effect through 2012, but we expect [...]

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Beware of Debt Collectors Bearing Gifts

January 9, 2012
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Photo: wajakemek | rashdanothman Imagine that you have unpaid credit card debt. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the statute of limitations on the debt has expired, so you are not legally obligated to pay. But your credit score has taken a dive, so getting more credit seems impossible. And then comes [...]

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Reader question: Should you invest in a 401(k), a Roth IRA, or pay off credit card debt?

January 8, 2012

Recently a reader e-mailed me with the following question: I definitely do want to open a Roth IRA as soon as possible because I hear it’s typically better than the Traditional IRA. However, I’m not certain whether one should be putting money way in one’s 401K or Roth. As you can tell, I’m not that [...]

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How to Turn Gift Cards into Cash

January 7, 2012

Did you ever receive a gift card to a store where you never shop? With the holiday’s behind us, you may be sitting on a lot of gift cards you may never use. One option is to re-gift them. But another option is to sell the gift cards online for cash. Buy and Sell Gift [...]

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Ready Debit Card Review

January 6, 2012

I‘ve reviewed a lot of prepaid cards here on the Dough Roller. I’ve done that for two main reasons: (1) prepaid cards are a growing market as people look for alternatives to traditional banks and credit cards, and (2) there is still a lot of confusion concerning how these cards work, particularly when it comes [...]

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No Fee 0% Balance Transfer Offer from Discover

January 5, 2012

If you can remember that far back, credit card issuers once offered balance transfers without a transfer fee.  Now that most credit card and banking fees are on the rise, balance transfer fees are more commonplace, sometimes upwards of 5% of the transfer.  Discover is bucking this trend with the Discover® More® Card – No [...]

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