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That's Dow 11,000: the oh-so-closely watched barometer of the stock market. Lately Wall Street savants and their media pals have been nattering about whether and when the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) will reach 11,000. Yesterday (Thursday) the Dow closed at 10,927 and in recent weeks has been...

To all the doomsayers: it's time to reevaluate your position. Every time I read the financial press or watch CNBC I hear your screeds of frightful futures (the banking systems bad assets, the government's record borrowing, the next bubble, etc.) and I wonder who would actually take your advice. Yo...

TICK, TOCK. The deadline for your 2009 return is a week away. Not quite ready? Fortunately, the Internal Revenue Service has some sympathy for procrastinators; the paperwork for filing an extension is simple, and it will give you until Oct. 15, 2010 to file. In other words, the IRS will give you a...

Ok, so you got started. After reading my blogpost a month ago you were inspired to march into your HR department and sign up for your 401k. An important step for sure, but rather than forget about your contributions completely, here are several ideas to put more away without taking too much of a blo...

Last week I began my series on the 2010 Health Reform legislation. Specifically, I covered the portion of the legislation which contained the health coverage "individual mandate" for U.S. citizens that will be phased in beginning in 2014. This week we'll look at the centerpiece of the health care...

Over a beautiful Easter weekend we learned that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate held steady last month at 9.7%, with 162,000 jobs created. This is good if not great news for the economy. Democrats and Republicans each seized upon this latest opportunity...

The first quarter of 2010 is officially closed for the markets. Both the Dow and the S&P 500 are up over 4% on a year to date basis, and nearly 50% on an annual basis. If we think back to where we were last year at this time, few pundits and TV personalities would have dared to imagine we would be...

Many higher income parents gain little or no benefit from having their college bound children as dependants on their tax return. Your dependency write-off for your college kid is partially phased out between an AGI of $250,200 and $372,700 for joint filers and between $208,500 and $331,000 for heads...

Over the next several weeks, I will provide useful information related to the 2010 health reform legislation which is guaranteed to impact everyone. I will begin my initial focus on individuals and move into changes for businesses. Although my posts will be a brief overview of the changes, the mos...

...Your financial check-up, of course. With tax time less than a month away, there is a good chance that many of your important financial statements are on the kitchen counter or at least not too far out of your reach. Since you have them out anyways, it might be a good idea to take a look at your f...