Blog

Today at 5 we'll find out whether Eastman Kodak will hit the jackpot. At 5pm sharp the U.S. International Trade Commission will issue its ruling on whether Apple and Research in Motion infringed Kodak's patents on in-phone camera technology. If the result goes in Kodak's favor, it could mean a billi...

I'll admit I don't know all that much about baseball. Now math, that's a different story, basic math at least. Yesterday there was an excellent piece in the NY Times that dealt with the basic math about personal finance. The most basic equation, the unbreakable truth of any financial situation, is s...

For those of you who deduct auto mileage on your tax return there is good news from the IRS. During the final six months of 2011 taxpayers who use the optional standard rates to deduct travel expenses will get an additional 4.5 cents per mile. Effective July 1, each business mile will be deductible...

Our job as financial advisors requires a considerable amount of research about markets and the many factors that affect those markets and thus affect our clients. The reading, listening, and resultant pondering are ongoing; some sources are better than others. Yesterday we had a visit from one of th...

Hardly a day goes by that financial markets are not buffeted by news of a looming default of Greek sovereign debt. After years of high government spending on public-sector salaries and an expensive social safety net, the bills are beginning to come due. With a large outstanding debt, Greece needs mo...

This is a common question with a somewhat confusing answer .... (maybe). You should receive a Form SSA1099 which will show the total amount of your benefits. Generally, if Social Security benefits were your only income, your benefits are not taxable and you probably do not need to file a federal in...

We are off to a good start with a beautiful Rochester Summer. And at Brighton Securities, it's not all stocks & bonds - at least not all the time. Last night our BSC softball team took on the friendly CPAs of Insero & Co., who nonetheless ran a red-ink game against our mighty players: final score 9-...

No... I'm not talking about hamburgers. The IRS has now processed over one billion electronically filed tax returns.This number should grow by over 100 million per year. Approximately 80% of all tax returns are now processed electronically. It costs the government 20 times less to process an e-f...

The New York Times never did pen an article about Exxon's big oil & gas find in the Gulf (mentioned yesterday in Part 1) though late yesterday they did reprint a Reuters story on the topic. But it's a new day, there is more natural gas news, and the Times is once again behind the times. Bloomberg...

Today Exxon Mobil announced two major oil discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico that could lead to production of more than 700 million barrels. I noticed the news on the Dow Jones news wire this morning and looked for additional detail about the story in my regular morning news source: The New York Time...