My Money Blog

Mortgage Interest Tax Deduction on Rental Property

Posted on June 22, 2009 // 69 Comments

As pointed out by reader Jason, another consideration when evaluating the cashflow potential for a rental property is whether you can deduct the mortgage interest on your taxes. To see what the rules are, I always like to start directly at the … [Read the rest]

MyPoints: Earn Points For Reading E-mails & Visiting Websites

Posted on June 19, 2009 // 26 Comments

Well, I just burned a few minutes and grabbed another $25 Amazon.com gift certificate from MyPoints. It's one of the few surviving "read e-mails for money" websites from the dot-com boom, and is a great example of Bored Money - ways to earn some … [Read the rest]

Finding an Investment Property with InvestorLoft and PropScout

Posted on June 18, 2009 // 19 Comments

CNN Money recently listed 5 new tools for homebuyers, one of which was InvestorLoft.com. At first glance, it looks like a Zillow for investment properties. I decided to run a quick search using their PropScout tool for an investment property in … [Read the rest]

Income-Based Repayment of Federal Student Loan Debt Starts July 1st

Posted on June 17, 2009 // 73 Comments

If you have a student loan debt balance that is close to or exceeds your annual income, this is for you. Income-Based Repayment (IBR) is a new way to lower your federal student loan payments starting July 1, 2009. It caps monthly payments and … [Read the rest]

Microsoft Money Discontinued, Transfer Your Data To Quicken

Posted on June 17, 2009 // 95 Comments

If you use Microsoft Money to manage your finances, you should know that Microsoft will no longer be selling MS Money after June 30th, 2009. From the Microsoft product page: With banks, brokerage firms and Web sites now providing a range of options … [Read the rest]

The MPG Illusion: Comparing Fuel Efficiency Can Be Tricky

Posted on June 16, 2009 // 20 Comments

While researching the benefit of swapping one of my 21 mpg cars for a 31 mpg Honda Fit, I came across a site called the MPG Illusion. The easiest way to illustrate their point is via a quick quiz. Pop Quiz The full quiz and explanation is here. … [Read the rest]

Does My Car Qualify For The Cash For Clunkers Program?

Posted on June 15, 2009 // 73 Comments

You've probably heard about the new "Cash for Clunkers" bill that is offering up to $4,500 towards the purchase of a new car. The idea is to stimulate demand for new cars as well as raise overall fuel efficiency by promoting the trade-in of … [Read the rest]

Chase Business Checking: $100 Bonus Coupon Codes

Posted on June 12, 2009 // 12 Comments

Chase Bank is offering $100 Bonus coupons for opening a qualifying business checking account with at least $500. You must print out a unique coupon code and bring it in to a local branch. First link is good for the following states: IL, WI, MI, … [Read the rest]

20 Common Attributes Of People Who Improved Their Financial Situation

Posted on June 12, 2009 // 32 Comments

I recently received a review copy of Jean Chatzky's The Difference: How Anyone Can Prosper in Even The Toughest Times, where she attempts to understand why some people easily move from barely getting by into a life of comfort and/or wealth, while … [Read the rest]

PNC Bank Virtual Wallet, $75 New Account Bonus

Posted on June 12, 2009 // 8 Comments

PNC Bank has a new online banking product called Virtual Wallet which combines multiple bank accounts and online money management tools into one site. Virtual Wallet is comprised of 3 accounts working together: • Your SPEND account is a … [Read the rest]

Mortgage Rate Reset Timeline: Another Wave Coming

Posted on June 10, 2009 // 18 Comments

One of the things I like to read when I get the itch for some stock market opinion (which isn't very often) is John Hussman's weekly market commentary. Not that he's always right, and I don't own any of his mutual funds, but I like to hear his … [Read the rest]

Microplace Review: Investments, Application, Funding Methods, Bonus

Posted on June 9, 2009 // 21 Comments

I finally got around to looking closer at Microplace, a site owned by eBay that tries to alleviate global poverty by offering investments that enable loans to hardworking poor people. I wrote about them previously in Earn a 5% Return and Help Fight … [Read the rest]