I recently found an online financial tool called Mint.com which can help you better manage your finances. It allows you to connect your online financial accounts all in one place. When I found out about this financial tool, I decided to give it a try.
Below are some of my findings:

Sign-up process took less than 5 minutes to complete
I was able to add my banking, investment, PayPal and other financial information quickly and easily
Mint.com has received many awards (click here to learn more about their awards)
Automatic alerts can be either emailed to you or sent to your cell phone
You can even …read more

A lot of the confusion in formal accounting comes from the difference between accrual basis accounting, and cash basis accounting.
Under the accrual basis accounting, revenues are reported on the income statement when they are earned. Under the cash basis accounting, revenues are reported on the income statement when cash is received.
As for expenses, accrual basis accounting matches expenses with the related revenues when the expense occurs. And in cash accouting? You guessed it – expenses are booked when the cash is paid.
The reasoning behind accrual accounting is that it creates an a more realistic income statement (in terms of profitability) …read more

Banks provide necessary services, but they are there for the money –your money. They are always cooking up new ways to charge you fees: miscellaneous fees, maintenance fees, online banking fees, excessive transaction fees, teller fees, etc.
Do not be taken in by offers of “no monthly fees” checking accounts. You can bet your bottom dollar the bank will make up for this freebie through some other fee.
Take time to shop around for a bank. Scrutinize their fees. Read the fine print. Keep records and study the entries. Avoid the charges that you …read more

You receive a check payment which you deposit in your bank account. Don’t assume that you can immediately withdraw or write a check against it.
Out-of-town or out-of-state checks take as much as a week before the amount is actually entered into your account for withdrawals or writing checks against. If you happen to write a check before the amount is actually in your account, your check will bounce –which, in addition to causing much embrassment, will cause a penalty to be charged against your account and do some damage to your credit standing.
To save you from overdrawn …read more

No such thing as a free lunch, specially in bank services. You do a bank a favor by opening a checking account and it charges a monthly fee (which, in some banks, can go over $10 per month).
If you maintain a small balance, the bank will try to seduce you to put in more money by waiving the monthly fees. But –you have to look out for the fee that it will charge if you go below the minimum balance. Those extra charges can add up to a tidy sum.
I think this is an unfair exchange. …read more

The New Housing Bill gives grants for the purchase and rehabilitate foreclosed and abandoned properties. The subprime tsunami not only has created financial disasters, but has also given rise to suburban blight. Abandoned houses are detriorating and giving many areas the look of a ghost town.
This feature of the New Housing Bill can arrest the deterioration. It also opens up opportunities for fixer-uppers. With properties at record low prices, there is good money to be made. Fixer-uppers, however, have to hold the property until the housing market rises from the subprime depth.
info from FHA website, …read more

Credit cards enable you to spend future cashflow, income that you haven’t earned yet but expect to earn with some certainty (e.g., regular paying job, income from own business, etc).
Credit cards are temptations to live beyond your means. You are living within your means if you are able to pay off the entire balance in your monthly bill. This is the best position for you. You are, in effect, getting a 30-day loan from the credit card company interest-free.
There is a GREAT TRAP in small intallment plans paid through your credit card. The amount appears so …read more

One big reason for households to spend future income through the use of & dependence on credit cards (and pile up credit card interest & penalties) is the huge portion of monthly cashflow that has to go into servicing a mortgage.
During the previous period of easy housing money, financial institutions were tolerating and allowing mortgages that ate up as much as 35% to 40% of the household’s monthly cashflow. This is one road to financial disaster.
Having to carry more than 30% of monthly cashflow to service a mortgage will leave inadequate cash for other necessary expenses and lead to …read more

Failure to prepare is preparing for failure.
Benjamin Franklin
We cannot fix our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Albert Einstein
images from Microsoft Clipart

Can cash ever be a de minimis fringe benefit?
Cash is generally intended as a wage, and usually provides no administrative burden to account for. Cash therefore cannot be a de minimis fringe benefit, with one exception:
Occasional meal or transportation money to enable an employee to work overtime. The benefit must be provided so that employee can work an unusual, extended schedule. The benefit is not excludable for any regular scheduled hours, even if they include overtime. The employee must actually work the overtime.
Meal money calculated on the basis of number of hours worked is not de minimis and is taxable …read more