How to Calculate and Pay Quarterly Self-Employment Taxes + MORE

Recently, I got my brokerage account upgraded to a margin account.  So I though that this would be a good time to talk about what margin accounts are, how they work, and some of the benefits and risks involved.  I also wanted to discuss my thoughts on how to get the most out of a margin account.
 What Is Margin?
Margin is basically nothing more than a loan from your broker…

I received a reader inquiry about an emotional spender.  I try not to label spending problems, since I feel there are so many different intricacies involved in spending problems.  I am leaning more towards emotional spending on this one, but … Continue reading →The post What are Some of the Ways to Help an Emotional Spender? appeared first on Financial Black Sheep…

I’ve been attending a job-related class this week at a fairly large conference center in Maryland. It houses almost 50 separate classes a week. I’ve been here before, but I never really paid much attention to the place, because there’s nothing overly remarkable about it.
During our hour long lunch period while most of the other class attendees were out eating at Ruby Tuesday, I stayed behind and went for a walk instead…

(Photo credit: 401(K) 2013)
Taxes are due in just 3 days. The PF blogosphere has been a steady stream of tax advice for months. And probably the most common piece of advice: if you are receiving a tax refund this year, then you are a schmuck who is giving money away to the government. Instead, they say, you should try to make your tax return as close to zero as possible…

Open if you dare I read an interesting article yesterday and I wanted to discuss some of the points with you. Head on over here and give it a read, I’ll be waiting….You’re back? Good. It appears that about half of all unemployed Americans are between the age of 18 and 34. Since I fit squarely in that demographic, that number is a little concerning to me…

This weekend we will celebrate my daughter Tori’s 11th birthday.  I can easily see the bits of personality she has inherited from her mother and I.  She has her mother’s dramatic flair, compassion for others,  as well as her strong will (otherwise known as stubbornness).   She gets her work ethic and sense of humor from me…

Photo: x_jamesmorris
If you’ll have self-employment income this year – either from a small business with employees, a sole proprietorship, or even just contract work you do alongside your full-time job – you’ll probably need to pay quarterly self-employment taxes this year.
As an employee, this isn’t something you have to worry about…

Welcome to Planwise…plus the VIP Club Roundup
Club Thrifty – Stop spending. Start living.Hey peeps! Welcome back to Club Thrifty.
We have been super busy here trying to bring you the awesome sauce each and every day, and we have a few exciting events that of which we’d like to make you aware…

Depending on what economic experts you read, the economic situation of the United States seems to be getting better, albeit slowly but we see some improvement. Unemployment even though still quite high but most months it is on a downward path. I guess the country as a nation has started to believe in the old …

Remember back in Step 1 when you created an emergency fund with $1,000 in it?  We’re now going to revisit that and raise it in order to give you a bit more flexibility and ability to weather the storms.  At this point in the process, you have $1,000 in an emergency fund and all debt (besides the mortgage) paid off, congrats!  That’s an awesome accomplishment because the next 5 steps are where you really begin to build wealth…

Oh Friday, how I enjoy thee.  This week seemed to go by at a sloth’s pace.  I have been under the weather since Saturday and I am just starting to feel better.  The one thing I learned about this illness is that germs from daycare can be wicked.  It appears that the kids are not as affected by them, but when it gets to the adult, it is ten times worse…

Happy Friday Dinks. The world recently lost the famous movie critic Roger Ebert.  As you know I absolutely love movies, I love watching them at my home, I l watching them at the movie theatre and I love snacking on popcorn.
A standing movie date with my best friends includes dinner and movie at least once a week…

Hey everyone! Today I have a guest post for the sixth week of my debt payoff series (the other five posts were How I eliminated my debt in less than 1 year, How We Handled $32,000 in Student Loans, Getting out of debt … with a plan, Debt Repayment is My Middle Name and  Budgeting to Pay off Debt.

I asked readers and friends to submit guest posts regarding anything relating to their debt…

I wrote a guest post on Lifehack called “14 Ways to Be Fearless“.  Brian Lee has put together a very comprehensive site dedicated to helping people with just about anything life throws at us.  It is a great honor for me to have been chosen to be a contributor.  Please feel free to comment on the post and share it on your favorite social media sites!
Enjoy!

Happy Friday everyone! I was reading an article that I found on the Washington Post earlier this week and wanted to pass along some of the info. to my readers. The article is related to the costs associated with having either Cable TV or Satellite TV. My desire is to not start a debate on the sense of paying for cable TV as it can be divisive in the PF blogosphere…

This article represents the first one where I take a step away from a strict personal finance issue to wail, rave, and generally, well, rant about subjects that are close to my heart. They will likely have some application to the world of money, as it usually doesn’t take too much effort to connect to money in some manner, but don’t expect them to be money related, for the most part…

Since closing on the first part of my business sale, we now have enough money to pay off our student loans. Before you start congratulating me, remember that I am 39 years old, and my husband is 43. How on earth do you have student loans in your 40′s?
Start Late
My husband didn’t decide to become a teacher until he had one failed attempt at college and several different jobs…

The following is a post by a guest contributor, SmarterBucks®, and has been co-written by myself and SmarterBucks®.
The amount of student loan debt in America is staggering. Last year it passed the $1 trillion mark, making student loan debt the second largest form of consumer-held debt in America. It’s beat only by mortgages…

So we had someone at our front door again last night 🙁 although this time they came at around 9pm. I get the feeling that they go house to house shaking the front door to see if anyone turns up to see who is there. If someone (or something – Ricky) goes to the front door then they know someone is home, if no one turns up then they can go around the back and break into the house with a fair degree of certainty that no one is home…