“There’s basically $500 sitting on my desk, but I can’t decide whether I should grab it or not.”
Put the situation this way — and you probably think I’m crazy. But what if I told you it’s not actually cash staring me in the face?
These are the two offers sitting on my desk:
In the financial world, the term “charitable donation” is often associated with the tax write-off it provides. But besides that added perk, there are hopefully other reasons you choose to donate to charities.
The number one reason, in my opinion, should be the desire to forward a cause you personally believe in.
What better way to use your hard-earned money than to play a personal role in helping a cause close to your heart? Everything costs money, and most non-profit organizations rely heavily on donations.
What I want to address in this post, however, is why some people choose not to give.
I want to believe that not many people are penny-pinching or non-caring — because, frankly, that’s depressing. I think there may be other reasons people aren’t giving, and I want to address some of them here.
My hope is that, after reading this, those of you who don’t give yet will feel more motivated or more interested in doing so. [ continue reading… ]
Seeing something out of the corner of my eye, I could almost feel his presence behind me before I felt him tap on my shoulder.
“Dad, can I show you something?”
I followed him up to his room, where he anxiously pointed to the computer screen. It displayed an ad for a 24-inch computer monitor, which was regularly priced at $319 and was on sale for $189.
He’s been saving his money to upgrade his monitor, and after missing out on a great sale a few weeks ago, he didn’t want to let this one slip through his fingers.
He clicked a few more times and showed me the exact one he wanted to order.
Here’s why he wanted to buy this one in particular: [ continue reading… ]
A few decades ago, getting married was a chance for two people to better their financial fortunes as they started a family. In those days, it was easier to get by on a single income, and higher education (no matter your gender) wasn’t as essential as some think it is today. People married young so they could work together to improve their fortunes and set up house. Since 1996, the tax code has also provided tax bonuses for married couples with wide income disparities.
But the times are changing. The marriage age is increasing, and it’s now likely that both partners have some sort of education and career. As a result, marriage is no longer always in your best financial interest.
When you have high earners in a two-income household, the tax advantages of being married tend to disappear. Consider the 28 percent tax bracket for 2014. For a single person, that bracket spans $89,350 to $186,350. For those married filing jointly, that same tax bracket spans $148,850 to $226,850. [ continue reading… ]
Last week, I explored three of the common benefits of raising the minimum wage. While the conventional wisdom suggests these minimum wage hikes will stimulate the economy, improve entitlement programs, and reduce turnover rates for businesses, the research has shown that those benefits aren’t nearly as clear-cut as the sound bytes might lead you to believe.
This week, we’ll examine what the research says about the most common arguments against raising the minimum wage:
One of the biggest arguments against minimum wage increases is the potential effect on national unemployment. Basic economic theory posits that businesses required to spend more on low-wage workers hire fewer of those workers in order to maintain their bottom line. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office has projected that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 would reduce total employment by approximately 500,000 workers (or 0.3%). [ continue reading… ]
Shopping is becoming increasingly streamlined. We used to think self-checkouts were the cutting edge of technology, but we’ve come a long way since then.
Here are a few examples:
So what’s next in the effort to streamline the shopping experience? [ continue reading… ]
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