Home › Five Cent Nickel

Five Cent Nickel

Written by a man who has been meticulously recording his finances since 1997 (stored in Quicken), Five Cent Nickel is one of the oldest and most respected blogs around. This blog often provides great commentary on—and summaries of—useful financial tips featured by other publications. If you’re too lazy to read every little money article out there, just stop by Five Cent Nickel and get the cream of the crop.

Latest Posts from Five Cent Nickel (page 6)

Claiming the Home Office Tax Deduction

Published Friday, February 22, 2013 - 20:19 by Five Cent Nickel

Do you claim the home office tax deduction? I don’t, even though I generate a significant amount of self-employment income out of our home. But lots of other people do. In fact, according to IRS statistics, nearly 3.4 million taxpayers claimed the home office deduction in 2010. […]

Just How Tough is Today’s Economy?

Published Thursday, February 21, 2013 - 17:58 by Five Cent Nickel

My timing is terrible, but then, you can’t help when you’re born. I got out of college in the early 1980s, when the economy was struggling and jobs were hard to find. Things got better both for myself and the economy, and I spent much of the 1990s and early 2000s recruiting job candidates at a time when unemployment was low and qualified job seekers were hard to find. […]

Wine Prices and Perception

Published Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - 22:54 by Five Cent Nickel

Over the past week or so, I’ve discovered the joys of the Freakonomics podcast. I read and enjoyed the book Freakonomics shortly after it was released, but it took me years to discover the Freakonomics podcast. One of the beauties of this podcast is that not only do I enjoy it but my kids are (more often than not) fascinated by the episodes. […]

Marrying for Love and Money

Published Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - 06:00 by Five Cent Nickel

With Valentine’s Day in the rearview mirror, I’m thinking about love. Love, and money. […]

Poor Service Made Right

Published Monday, February 18, 2013 - 21:30 by Five Cent Nickel

Not quite a month ago, I wrote about a poor customer service experience at the Golden Arches, and what a poor job they did in making it right. Today I’m writing about another negative experience at a different establishment and a manager that went above and beyond what was necessary to make things right. We recently had lunch at a relatively well-known Italian sit-down restaurant chain. […]

How to Get Missing Tax Forms

Published Friday, February 15, 2013 - 21:32 by Five Cent Nickel

Today is the day. You should’ve received your W-2 for 2012 by January 31st. If you didn’t you were supposed to go ahead and contact your employer to (gently) remind them that they dropped the ball. And then… You were supposed to be patient. Yes, the IRS is willing to help, but they didn’t want to hear from you until after February 14th. […]

When are 2012 Taxes Due?

Published Friday, February 15, 2013 - 21:13 by Five Cent Nickel

This is just a quick reminder… Unlike the past couple of years, when the traditional tax filing deadline (April 15th) fell on the weekend and/or Emancipation day, April 15th, 2013 will be a non-holiday weekday. Thus, your taxes will be due on the 15th — exactly two months from today. […]

The Antidote to “Buy High, Sell Low”

Published Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 23:54 by Five Cent Nickel

The stock market has been on a tear recently. The month of January ended with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up six percent, the S&P 500 index north five percent, and the NASDAQ composite up “merely” four percent. And the trend has continued in February. […]

Lending Club to Issue Revised Tax Documents

Published Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - 17:54 by Five Cent Nickel

Speaking of Lending Club and tax documents… Earlier this week I received an e-mail from them stating that they will be issuing corrected 1099-OID, 1099-INT, and 1099-B forms for 2012. They didn’t say what was wrong, but they cautioned recipients to wait for the new forms before filing. I’m also not sure if this e-mail was targeted to specific investors or if they sent it out to everyone. […]

Putting Lending Club on Auto-Pilot

Published Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - 15:28 by Five Cent Nickel

In response to my latest update on our Lending Club portfolio, I was asked why we’re winding down our holdings. My response was that it’s too much of a time sink. A reader named Simon then said: “I imagine Lending Club will have a feature someday to auto-invest for you. At that point, lending with them will become dramatically more passive.” This is an excellent point. […]