JoeTaxpayer

Let’s start this week with a guest post at Out Of Your Rut. Written by Rob Bennett, This Is the Best Time in History to Be a Stock Investor is an excellent look at P/E10 (price to earnings , but using an average of the prior 10 years earnings) and why Rob concludes we are in a positive buying environment. While I think there’s always  risk in investing, some times appear to be better than others and Rob makes a compelling case.

As we wind down the year, just over three months remaining, it’s time to think about How NOT to Lose Your FSA Money. This article was published some time ago, but came to my attention this week through a tweet. Keep in mind, starting in 2011, over the counter medicine is no longer permitted to be reimbursed without a prescription. Check out your records for the past few years and after you use up your current account balance, start planning for next year.

My favorite Tax Tweep Kay Bell, wrote Solar tax breaks in the wake of Solyndra. I’m a believer in solar power, not that I’m a tree hugger, I just think that there’s a compelling economic case to be made for solar to play a greater role in the mix of power sources we use in this country and especially in third word countries. Time for me to write an article looking at this topic from a dollars and sense standpoint.

At Five Cent Nickel, Is the Home Mortgage Interest Tax Deduction a Good Deal? For many, not so much. The standard deduction may result in your mortgage interest having a smaller effect than you’d think. Check out Nickel’s article, do the math and decide.

At My Money Blog, Jack Bogle Makes Market Prediction For Next Decade. The father of index investing is looking for 7%/yr this decade. Not quite the 12.5% we saw this past 25, but not too shabby for those of us looking to retire 7-10 years from now. Time will tell.

Our Congressfolk are just now starting to realize that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme? Shocking, isn’t it?

Last year, I published a brief article Your Credit Score, in which I described the different components that make up your Fico Score.  Since then, we’ve reviewed Age of Open Credit Lines, Number of Open Accounts, and Credit Utilization.

Today, let’s talk for a moment about on-time payments. This one should be obvious to you. Pay your bills on time. No matter what. When I was young and stupid, I probably had too many cards, chasing one deal or the next, and my utilization may have been pretty high for a time, but the one thing that remained sacred was the on time payment. The snapshot above from my Credit Karma report card shows how even if 1% of your payment history is late, you take quite a hit to your score which can really cost you in the long term.

Disclaimer – I receive no compensation for any reference to Credit Karma, if they ever decide to send me a t-shirt, I’ll disclose it to keep the FCC happy.

This is the last post in an 8 part series on being homeless, by a guest author who goes by the name Dreamscaper. It’s my honor to share his story with my readers.

Most, if not all, people don’t choose to be homeless. If they are like me they don’t want to ask you for help more than you want to give a quarter to. When you are at the point of asking for a handout you are pretty bad off.

I’d imagine most homeless people can’t get back on their feet without a little help from people. How do you get a phone number and address and clean clothes when you are trying to figure out how you are eating today or this week? Giving a hungry person something to eat could motivate them to try to get back on their feet.

The Easter Sunday I was homeless I was reading a stolen book outside a church service on campus. After the service someone came out and offered me a piece of cake. They apologized for not having a fork or spoon. They were all out. They just wanted to give me a piece of cake with no strings attached. They didn’t try to convert me or anything. Just wanted to give me a piece of cake.

For anyone making it this far, this is the best thing I ever remembered during my time of being homeless. If you want to make a difference, do something nice for someone and don’t expect anything in return. You’ll always be remembered as “That person who came out with a piece of cake”.

Note from Joe – I hope you enjoyed this special series of posts. What was your attitude towards the homeless, and has it changed at all since reading this story? Let me know, I’d enjoy the discussion.