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Seven Mile Beach is the star attraction of the Westin Grand Cayman. Photo: Pete Markham

Despite what you may have heard, you don’t have to pay for a single hotel stay in order to begin racking up hotel loyalty points. Case in point: With the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express, you simply need to meet a minimum spending requirement in order to earn a boatload of points. Here are the details:

Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express

If you’re paying someone to prepare your tax return, make sure they’re legitimate. Photo: 401(k)

Every year, Americans lose untold billions of dollars to a host of tax scams that range from identity theft to return-preparer fraud. While most of these scams can happen at any time, they tend to be most active during tax season, from January through April 15.

As we get older, we tend to distort our memories in favor of the choices we made. Photo: Kevin Dooley

It took me a long time – most of a year, in fact – to come to terms with the fact that I spent most of my early professional life making horrible financial decisions and pretty mediocre career decisions.

I wasn’t exactly lacking in evidence in either department, to tell the truth. One only had to look at our financial state in early 2006 to see the reality of our poor financial choices. We were facing a ton of credit card debt, student loans, two car loans…. and all of that while living in a pretty cheap apartment.

In his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Obama proposed changes to 529 college plans that may force the 7 million families using them to rethink their college financial game plan.

Currently, you can make contributions to a 529 plan, invest those funds, and eventually withdraw the earnings tax-free as long as the money is used for education expenses such as tuition, room and board, or books. That makes it one of the more appealing ways to save for your child’s education. Plus, some states offer income-tax deductions on contributions.

But under the new proposal, investment gains in a 529 college savings plan would be considered ordinary income and subject to capital-gains taxes.