Tax Preparation Software: Compare the Best Online Tax Preparation

By MoneyBlueBook

Review Of TurboTax and TaxCut Online Tax Preparation Software

According to some news statistics, more than half of all Americans hire a professional tax preparer to file their taxes. In this day and age, those kinds of stats frankly surprise me. I would have thought by now that the vast majority of Americans would have finally embraced the benefits of online tax preparation and the added cost saving advantages of utilizing do-it-yourself tax software products. Chalk it up to the continuous complexity of our marginal tax bracket system with all of its intricate income tax deductions and tax credit varieties or blame it on the tendency of people in general to outsource their financial responsibilities - but many people still stubbornly prefer to depend on professional tax experts to take care of their annual income tax filing obligations instead of doing it themselves.

For many people, filing income taxes is a painful, expensive, and dreaded task - but it really doesn't have to be. While I'm not suggesting the filing of one's income taxes will ever become an enjoyable experience (that will never happen), there are mitigating ways to make the process much more bearable. In the past, when April 15 tax day drew near, the only way to avoid having to flip open the bulky U.S. tax code or pour over the volumes of tax regulations and detailed tax commentaries, was to go out and pay $200-300 for an overpaid accountant or professional tax preparer to fill out the appropriate tax

By MoneyBlueBook

Updated List Of The Best Money Market Savings Account Rates Below

Amidst the current economic recession and ongoing credit crisis, there is an active flight to quality as consumers flee risky and volatile investments in stocks and mutual funds in favor of safer asset choices like high yield savings accounts and certificate of deposits (CDs) with the nation's best banks. But while bank deposit products all enjoy similar safety and security assurances under the auspices of the federal government, they are not all created equal, as certain deposit categories offer higher interest rates than others, while others afford greater comparative flexibility.

In the world of FDIC insured banking products, there is a natural give and take tension between the interest rate of return offered by any banking product and the degree of liquidity or flexibility afforded. The rate of return for any banking product refers to the annual percentage yield (APY) or interest rate offered in exchange for investing your money in a particular banking asset. Liquidity and flexibility of any bank account product refers to how quickly and easily you can tap into your money at will and convert it into immediate spendable currency. The general rule of thumb for bank accounts is that the higher the interest rate of return offered, the less flexible or liquid the account. Likewise, the more flexible and readily accessible the bank account product, the lower the interest rate offered as tradeoff.

When it comes to getting the best interest rate of return, the best CD rates easily

By MoneyBlueBook

As a work from home attorney and self driven small business entrepreneur, I like to keep tabs on the pulse of the business markets and track the breaking of current economic news at all times. Whenever I'm working from home, I always have CNBC or the Fox Business News channel playing on the TV. However, because of this constant monitoring of the markets and relentless digestion of every piece of bad economic news that comes through the news wire, I've steadily become an extremely bearish investor of late. With little credible positive news to speak off for the foreseeable economic future, I've become ever more protective of my existing financial assets, making a mad dash for safety like I've never done before.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett (who despite all of his historical wealth building wisdom, seems to be suffering a bit of a credibility and legacy problem recently with the plunge of his Berkshire Hathaway investments) used to preach that the world of money and finances revolves around the inextricable interplay between two core human emotions - fear and greed. These two primal capitalist emotions dictate our personal financial paths at any given moment and determine how we each respond to potential monetary opportunities as they present themselves. The age old Warren Buffett truism is that we ought to be greedy when others are fearful, since valuations and expectations are lowest, and opportunities and potential upside are highest at the peak of overwhelming market fear - but unfortunately, I think I have succumbed to this

By MoneyBlueBook

Quicken 2009 Discount Coupons and Promo Codes Listed Below

The editors at CNN Money recently examined and reviewed several of the top online personal finance tools - and ultimately decided to award its highest honors to four winners - Mint, Yodlee MoneyCenter, Wesabe, and Quicken Online. In the editorial review, all four personal financial management websites were highly regarded and praised for their innovative money management features that offered Internet consumers an introductory and accessible way to manage their saving, spending, and retirement portfolio online, all for free.

However, of the four highly regarded and mentioned personal finance sites, Quicken Online perhaps has the most impressive historical lineage, having been created and spun off as an online web app by Intuit, the same financial software maker that brought us the popular desktop money management tool Quicken, and ubiquitous tax preparation program Turbo Tax. While Quicken Online has been around for some time, it wasn't until recently that the financial tool was finally available online for free (previously, Quicken Online cost $2.99 per month after the end of the initial free trial period). While Intuit's bread and butter has historically been its comprehensive suite of Quicken desktop programs, it's clear the era of Internet based financial web tools is at hand. With the slow demise of print media as well as the end of newspapers, it seems the former stalwart money management tool has been forced to go online to match the emergence of new free competing tools. With the

By MoneyBlueBook

If you've been in the market for a high interest savings bank and have been searching for the highest interest rate offers, you may have come across an unfamiliar online savings bank called Dollar Savings Direct. It's no wonder few people have heard about Dollar Savings Direct - for many months since its establishment, the online savings bank has been operating under the shadows of its more established and well known divisional cousins - Emigrant Direct and Emigrant Savings Bank.

Until about a year ago, Dollar Savings Direct used to be known as BancoFortuna - Emigrant Savings Bank's attempt at launching a Spanish language bank to deepen its foothold into the Hispanic and Latino online banking market. Promoting its BancoFortuna.com website and touting a very high annual percentage yield (APY) interest rate on new accounts, Banco Fortuna was intended to appeal to U.S. consumers in the Spanish speaking demographic. After many months, it was ultimately evident and clear that the online bank's venture into the U.S. Spanish speaking market wasn't as successful as the bank had planned or hoped. Ultimately, and months into the foray, Emigrant re-branded Banco Fortuna into a new but familiar English based service - establishing a new bank named Dollar Savings Direct. If you visit the old BancoFortuna.com website today, you are automatically redirected to Dollar Savings Direct, confirming the change in marketing approach. While still a relative upstart, Dollar Savings Direct has recently begun to garner some success and much attention with its attractive high interest rate promotions, rates

By MoneyBlueBook

Goodbye 2008 and Good Riddance - Hello Year 2009!

Happy New Year everyone! As much as I'd like to be forward looking, sometimes it's hard not to recap the past. I think 2008 will go down as one of the worst years in American history in terms of the economy and national morale. Since the start of last year, there has been this gloomy gray cloud of recession worries and depression fears that has persistently lingered over the heads of all Americans. Despite our attempts to shake its clutches by turning our attentions to more exciting events such as the media circus and hype surrounding the historic presidential election of���� Barack Obama, the first African American to be voted into the White House, it appears the ominous clouds will follow us into 2009 and beyond for the foreseeable future.

Who To Blame and Where To Go From Here

Those who want to take the easy way out by blaming the credit crisis and current economic woes on the Bush administration, or on the Democratic Congress, or even on the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - have their sights on the wrong culprits. The primary blame should be placed on ourselves - the credit and home hungry American consumer who pushed housing prices to astronomical and unsustainable levels. Weaned on easy credit and driven to consume to great excess over the last few years, our abandonment of the age-old practice of saving and living within our means put us on the road to financial disaster that finally