Don’t Quit Your Day Job – Personal Finance, Economics and Investing

… is higher than credit card debt in our country (hat tip: Wall Street Journal). How can this be?, you may ask, when the number of news stories on credit cards seem to vastly outweigh the corresponding reports on student loans. Well, yes, credit card stories seem to outnumber student loan stories by a ratio of about 15 to 1, according to StudentLoanJustice.org. How did this happen?

Here’s something you can really sink your teeth into – a calculator from the Tax Foundation which will let you input your tax data. What does it output? Well, your tax burden under the ‘Bush’ tax cuts (passed in 2003), your tax burden if the plan expires, and your tax burden if the changes in President Obama’s budget are enacted. Now that you have this data, you can cut through the noise and choose which one you like the best by simply figuring out under which plan you owe the least! Joy!

Reality check or tempered expectations? The number of 401(k) investors who believe they can retire early has, as expected, decreased over the last few years of market turmoil. Since 2007, the number of investors who think their 401(k) or IRA accounts will be the largest source of income in retirement has fallen 7 percentage points – from 52% to 45%.

You knew it was only a matter of time – once it was revealed that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner blamed his personal tax problems on a misuse of the tax software TurboTax – that someone would try to blame their own tax problems on the software in Tax Court. Well, your wishes came true, and the first tax case was decided on the 19th concerning the “Geithner Defense”!

A recent article on CNN Money highlighted what I like to refer to as truly alternative investments. The article, entitled “Investments You Can Live With” covered four categories of ‘investments’ which one can use or display (or drink!) in their home. Wine, photographs, antique furniture, and paintings are all mentioned as possible additions to your investment portfolio.

The “VAT”, the so-called value-added tax, has received some attention here before at Don’t Quit Your Day Job. Unfortunately for everyone, it probably will receive a bunch more in the future. Fresh off Paul Volker’s comments to the New York Historical Society putting the VAT in play, the United States could be getting a VAT of its own. As pointed out in this very good article at Super-Economy, the US is the only county in the OECD that doesn’t have a Value-Added Tax.

Recently we’ve been giving you lots of information on that most popular of topics- the income tax! We here at DQYDJ see no need to tone down our articles on taxes at this point… something about this date (maybe it has something to do with the April 15 tax deadline?) makes tax articles popular. Anyway, thanks to the Tax Foundation, we have an interesting measurement of tax – the number of days you have to work to be free and clear of the burden of tax, otherwise known as Tax Freedom Day!

From the always-interesting website Political Calculations comes this gem of an article… The Calvalcade of Risk 102. Let me explain… Ironman hosted the carnival, but also embedded into it a useful calculator for determining whether or not an individual should drop health insurance as a result of the new health care law. The somewhat predictable result? If you’re younger and generally healthy, you could be better off dropping health insurance. Check it out yourself!

How often do you see articles from the Associated Press which talk about tax inequalities from the ‘other’ direction… namely the number of people who don’t pay any income taxes. In fact, you may be surprised to find out that nearly half of American households don’t have to pay a single cent in Federal Income taxes. A full 47% of households will pay no 2009 income tax.

CNN recently weighed in with a helpful article for you tax-procrastinators out there. Did you know that in many cases, the IRS doesn’t mind if you file your taxes late? Yes, you guessed it… file late if you are owed money by the Government… most likely you won’t be penalized!