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How To Give More While Spending Less This Christmas

Christmas, without a doubt, is the season of giving. Malls become packed with eager shoppers wanting to buy something for the people they hold dear in their hearts. Online stores experience a boost in sales for the convenient and easily deliverable items they offer. Card companies enjoy the hottest quarter of the year during the chilly months leading to December 25. With all the hooplas surrounding Christmas, it is quite easy to get swayed by the commercial tendencies promoted by the holiday.

But lets take a deeper look at Christmas. Is Christmas really the season to spend money so that we could buy some presents for our loved ones? Or is spending money merely incidental to the reason behind the season, that is, to share our happiness with the people around us?

This is not a philosophical article, by any means. But we have to lay down that premise for the point of this piece. And that point is this: we dont really have to run our budgets dry to celebrate the holiday season. We could always revel in what Christmas truly means in our own way, and the more creative the alternative we come up with, the more special it would be for the people we wish to be the recipients of our love.

Lets illustrate. Neil Gaiman, a very famous New York Times bestselling author, didnt have the time to prepare a shopping list in the Christmas of 1997. So instead, he crafted an amazingly thought-provoking 100-word story about Santa Claus, wrote the same at the back of a Christmas-themed postcard, and sent it out to his friends. The story, Nicholas Said, has seen publication many times since then, but the very postcards upon which the story was written would command an immeasurable amount of bids on eBay.

Of course, hes a New York Times bestselling author, you might say. Anything he does would be special. But the point here is, he could have given an autographed copy of his book, but he did not. Instead, he went the extra mile, and what he did give his friends was viewed as something more special than an item you could buy somewhere.

And for Neil Gaiman, all he had to do was spend for the postcards.

You could do the same, as well. You could choose to create something more economical, rather than buy an expensive gift that has less meaning than something you would pour your heart out into making. Here are some ideas about what you could come up with to celebrate this season of seasons:

* You could prepare some homemade greeting cards that would reflect the personalities of the recipients. All you would need are some art tools and some cardboard papers. It doesnt matter if you dont have the creative flair for these things. Your effort would shine through whatever you would come up with, and this would be better than anything that money could buy.

* If you have the touch for poetry, personalized poems would make great Christmas gifts! Even if you dont have such talent, give it a try. Youd be surprised to discover how easy it is to come up with words that rhyme. They could be funny or emotional it depends on what message you want to convey. For example, the intended recipients name is Jenny. Heres a sample limerick you could prepare for her

And thus, the holidays have arrived quite quickly
But my budgets down to zero, and Ive become quite thrifty
So to this special girl, a masterpiece of an art
Who has, time and time again, stolen my heart
The heartiest greeting this Yuletide days to my dearest Jenny

* You could rummage through your stuff and give something that is o value to you to someone who is special. Special things embedded with sentimental value are more worthy of appreciation than things you could always purchase over the counter.

* You could create a scrapbook from photographs of special moments shared with the intended recipient.

Christmas is the season of giving. Giving doesnt necessarily include buying something. You dont have to go broke this coming holiday. You could always share a piece of your heart to the people you hold dear through some works that would reflect how special they are in your life.

financials

An offer in compromise (OIC) is an agreement between a taxpayer and the Internal Revenue Service that resolves the taxpayer’s tax liability. The IRS has the authority to settle, or compromise, federal tax liabilities by accepting less than full payment under certain circumstances. An OIC is considered only after all other collection alternatives have been explored.

The minimum offer amount must generally be equal to, or greater than, a taxpayer’s reasonable collection potential (RCP). The RCP is defined as the total of the taxpayer’s realizable value in real and personal assets, plus future income.

The IRS may legally compromise for one of the following reasons: doubt as to liability, when doubt exists that the assessed tax is correct; doubt as to collectibility, when doubt exists that the taxpayer could ever pay the full amount of tax owed; or effective tax administration. Under effective tax administration, there is no doubt that the assessed tax is correct and no doubt that the amount owed could be collected, but the taxpayer has an economic hardship or other special circumstances which may allow the IRS to accept less than the total balance due. Absent special circumstances, taxpayers that have the ability to pay the tax liability in a lump sum through an installment agreement will not be eligible for an OIC.

Taxpayers requesting an OIC must have filed all required federal tax returns. If in business, they must also have filed and paid any required employment tax returns on time for the two quarters prior to filing the OIC, and be current with deposits for the quarter in which the offer in compromise was submitted. Taxpayers must also not be a debtor in a bankruptcy case.

Taxpayers may choose to pay the offer amount in a lump sum, in monthly payments over the remainder of the statutory time allowed for collection, or a combination of a lump sum and monthly payments. Generally, it is to the taxpayer’s advantage to pay the amount in the shortest time possible because longer payment terms will require a larger offer amount.

Ordinarily, the statutory time allowed for collection is suspended during the period the OIC is under consideration, and is extended further if the OIC is later submitted to the Appeals Office. If the IRS grants a fresh start by accepting the OIC, it is expected the taxpayer will have no further delinquencies. If taxpayers do not abide by all the terms of the agreement — including filing all future returns and making all payments when required for 5 years or until the offered amount is paid in full, whichever is longer — their OIC may be declared in default. If the IRS rejects the OIC, taxpayers will be notified by mail. In the IRS letter, it will explain the reason for the rejection and provide detailed instructions on how to appeal the decision.

by Joshua Geary

It’s funny how the Dow Jones has that uncanny way of reigning supreme over our lives. For some of us who can’t wiggle out of the stock market because of some irrational belief that staying invested – whether bull or bear - is of paramount importance, we wake up each morning wondering if the sky will fall and affect our retirement portfolio. There are times when our portfolio just quivers a tad and then it goes back to its usual position. Other times, our portfolio suffers a jolt where key joints and ligaments get out of place and leaves us with a negative posture (position). Then the skies turn blue once again and our portfolio is dancing the boogie woogie and reaching for the stars.

The up again/down again cycle is something we’ve grown accustomed to by now, but despite our strong immunity to the psychotic moods of the stock market, we’re still reaching out for those aspirins that we keep at home and in the office. And of course we’re not getting any younger.

Speaking of aspirins, did you hear about the aspirin count theory that stock market observers often joke about? We heard this guy the other day who was saying that the market theory states that stock prices and the production of aspirin are closely linked – but go in opposite directions. As stock prices fall, an increasing number of stock market investors need to swallow a handful of aspirins just to survive the day.

Want to get rid of that aspirin bottle? Have you considered replacing some of your underperforming stocks with real estate notes or income trusts? Or taking a 360 degree turn and liquidating some or all of your stocks and investing in a piece of property that’s guaranteed to fetch stellar returns?

For more aspirin reducing information and insight into self directed IRA and 401k opportunities with your real estate investments check out myrealestateira.com.

Its not easy being a student. You may be enrolled in an educational institution to secure a good future for yourself, but the demands of school necessitate that you sacrifice some lucrative earning opportunities for the time being. This can be very difficult considering the rising cost of living. Students have bills to pay, as well. And with their introduction to independence, a lot of them quickly realize that the first few steps towards personal liberty are not paved in a path of roses.

There will be times when students would encounter some financial difficulties. Bills would be harder to meet, since most of the students time and effort are focused on their studies and income streams will be very limited. So whats a student to do when financial troubles come knocking on the door.

Well, he could resort to some loans. Aside from conventional loans, a student is afforded by the government a direct loan. This direct loan is more like a study now, pay later plan that would allow the student a certain sum of borrowings that he could worry about when he has finished his schooling and has found gainful employment.

Student loans are called direct loans because they do not require any collateral. They are subsidized by the federal government, and engaging one would be tantamount to entering a contract with the government.

Now the problem

What should a student do when he has several loans in existence? This would certainly pose some difficulties for him, eventually. The interest rates alone for each of the loans would accumulate into unmanageable proportions. Also, there is that danger that the said loans would become due and demandable at the same time. This would reduce any budget into ruins, especially a budget as fragile as a students.

Thankfully, the student could always resort to student loan consolidation. Student loan consolidation, by its very essence, is a way to consolidate or to merge all the loans that the student has entered into. This would provide for him a lot of benefits. Lets take a look at some of them.

* Potentially, the interest rates could be minimized, as there would be one central amount that would be used to determine the applicable and aforementioned interest.

* The consolidated loan would be easier to manage. The student doesnt have to keep tabs of each loan individually. He would only have one loan to deal with, and one due date to remember.

* By consolidating his loans, he would be able to extend the maturity date of some of them. The new due date of the consolidated loan is the one that would be observed. The student would be able to avoid paying for a forthcoming loan, the period of which is about to expire.

* Youd only have to pay one creditor. There is no need to approach a variety of lenders on matters that concern your borrowings.

A student loan consolidation involves the collection of all the students loans into one compounded sum. This is done by engaging into an agreement with one creditor who would pay off all your debts. The amount he has used to pay for them would constitute one, new loan that the student has to eventually pay off as well.

With student loan consolidations, the creditor who assumes all the existing debts is the government. Student loan consolidation is a furtherance of the student assistance program of the federal government to help the future of the nation cope up with the financial trials they might endure without compromising their quest for knowledge and the development of their skills. It is the federal governments way of ensuring that the students would be able to become productive members of society who would one day make a difference in shaping the history of the country.

financials

What precisely is enterprise asset management? This is the way, or should we say a method, whereby you can find out how to go to get the most out of your business. In order to be successful with this management routine, you first must evaluate where your business/ enterprise’ strengths and weaknesses. This does not mean that enterprise asset management is a self-checking exercise; rather it is first an inventory of what is and what is not.

Where Can Enterprise Asset Management Help?

Asset management is an exercise session that each and every business has and should undergo at some time or another. If you don’t complete this exercise it will be tough to decide on a plan; that would be just like hiking on an unknown road blindfolded. There are some aspects that cover it and these consist of five key elements:

Read the whole article Enterprise Asset Management