Eileen Ambrose: Personal Finance

November 15, 2009

Personal finance

Tax relief to snag before year ends

You have about six weeks left to make moves to cut your tax bill in the spring.

November 15, 2009

Personal finance

Tax relief to snag before year ends

You have about six weeks left to make moves to cut your tax bill in the spring.

November 10, 2009

Personal finance

Tax credit sparks potential homebuyers' questions

As soon as Congress passed legislation to expand the $8,000 first-time homebuyer credit, readers started sending in questions about whether they would qualify under the new rules.

November 8, 2009

Gift cards are safer, but pitfalls remain

There's a good chance this holiday you'll either buy a gift card or receive one.

November 3, 2009

Personal finance

Try to avoid cashing out 401(k) account

You leave your job, and then face the question of what to do with your 401(k). If you're like 46 percent of workers, you will cash out the account even though this money is meant for retirement.

November 1, 2009

Personal finance

Wellness wars

If you don't have a wellness program yet at work, one likely will come your way soon. And if you do, count on your employer aggressively making sure you participate.

October 27, 2009

Personal finance

Look who got the homebuyer credit

The first-time homebuyer credit is set to expire in several weeks, and there's a push among those in Congress and the housing industry to extend and even expand the generous credit that gives people as much as $8,000 to buy a house.

October 25, 2009

Personal finance

Holiday flights might cost you more

The holidays will be here before you know it, and if you haven't made arrangements to fly home for Grandma's pumpkin pie, do so as soon as possible.

October 20, 2009

Personal finance

Protecting good rating when irked by card fees

Theodore Casser has been a loyal Bank of America credit card customer for about 10 years. But the prospect that the bank might start charging him an annual fee because he pays off his balance monthly has the Baltimore software developer ready to sever that relationship.

October 18, 2009

Personal finance

Roth IRAs open to wealthier Americans in 2010

Higher-income taxpayers for years have been shut out of the Roth individual retirement account and could only look on with envy.

October 13, 2009

Personal finance

Time running out for Md. tax amnesty

If you're behind on your state taxes, you have just about two weeks to come clean and avoid severe repercussions.

October 11, 2009

PERSONAL FINANCE

Danger: Low inflation

Investors and economists worry about higher inflation, but the more immediate concern is inflation that's flat or even negative.

October 4, 2009

Personal finance

Making finance fun?

One of the big hurdles of teaching personal finance to children and young adults is how to do so without boring or confusing them with lectures about compound interest and annual percentage rates.

October 4, 2009

Personal finance

Making finance fun?

One of the big hurdles of teaching personal finance to children and young adults is how to do so without boring or confusing them with lectures about compound interest and annual percentage rates.

September 29, 2009

Personal finance

Health insurance: Get it at work or go it alone?

Soon you'll get your employer's open enrollment packet, and if the benefits experts are right, you could be facing a premium increase as high as 20 percent.

September 27, 2009

Personal finance

Overdraft angst

Many banks automatically cover your debit or ATM card transactions when you don't have enough money in your account, even if you never asked them to do it.

September 22, 2009

Personal finance

Maryland gets 'B' for financial stability, up from last time

Despite the weak economy and worker furloughs, a new report gives Maryland a "B" when it comes to the overall financial stability of its residents.

September 20, 2009

Personal finance

At a premium

If you haven't gotten your open enrollment packet yet, brace yourself for higher premiums and deductibles, fewer choices and more pressure from your employer to eat your vegetables.

September 17, 2009

Personal finance

How to stretch a paycheck: Get advance on earned income tax credit

The latest statistics last week from the Census Bureau are grim. Household income has fallen sharply; poverty is up. And that's based on data from a year ago, when employment was in better shape.

September 13, 2009

Personal finance

Learning from loss

On this day last September, most of us couldn't imagine how bad things were going to get.

September 8, 2009

Personal finance

Homeowners facing foreclosure fall prey to false schemes

omeowners desperate to save their houses from foreclosure are searching for hope, and that can land them in worse trouble.

September 6, 2009

PERSONAL FINANCE

Home credit crunch time

Time is quickly running out if you want to take advantage of the $8,000 first-time homebuyer credit.

September 1, 2009

PERSONAL FINANCE

How to check if your bank is safe

Months before the Bradford Bank's failure, the signs were there.

August 30, 2009

PERSONAL FINANCE

A long cry for help

If you want to take advantage of a new federal program to modify your mortgage so you can afford to stay in your house, be prepared to wait. And wait. The $75 billion Home Affordable Modification Program has gotten off to a slow start since its March launch, and Maryland housing counselors say mortgage servicers seem understaffed and overwhelmed by the demand for modifications while borrowers are sometimes waiting several months to get relief.

August 25, 2009

College students with prepaid cards can get hit with hidden expenses

As students head back to college, marketers are promoting prepaid cards as a way for young adults to learn financial responsibility and for Mom and Dad to monitor a child's spending.

February 1, 2009

Eileen Ambrose: Tips to help you save some of your money

Gather your W-2, charitable receipts and investments statements. Tax season is here.

November 23, 2008

Eileen Ambrose: Year-end tax planning becomes an even trickier proposition

A new administration takes office in January promising to raise taxes on the wealthy. Then again, the weak economy and declining stock market could delay any tax changes until 2010.