Money Tips Network

A vision for the future of Get Rich Slowly

Well, it only took me three years, but I finally have a vision for what I want to do with Get Rich Slowly.

When I re-purchased this site in 2017, I did so without any real idea of what I'd do with it. I wanted it back for sentimental reasons. (And so that nobody else had control of this monster I created.) I didn't really know what to do with the 5000+ articles in the archives.

You see, when I started Get Rich Slowly, it was clearly a forum for me to share my experiences as I dug myself out of debt. After I succeeded, I sort of lost my way. (Well, and a bunch of Real Life stuff made me lose my focus.) So, I sold it.

When I started writing at Money Boss in 2015, I had a clear vision for what I wanted to do with that site. I had a mission. That made it easy to decide what to write there and what not to write.

How Donating to Charity Affects Your Tax Bill

Edit: I made a mistake with the standard deduction math and explanation near the end of the original version of this post. I have since corrected it. Thanks to the readers who pointed it out.

Monica writes in:

Last year, I took the advice of my older brother and made several charitable donations during December to help out my taxes for the year. When I filed them, I did get a return, but it wasn’t nearly as big as I expected. Are charitable donations really a big deal or did I do something wrong?

Charitable donations do provide a reduction in your taxes, but it’s not the huge reduction that many people often think they are or expect that they are.

To understand the benefit that charitable donations give to your taxes, first you have to understand how income taxes work. This is something that many people surprisingly misunderstand.

BlueVine Business Checking Account Review

If you need a checking account for business you might want to consider BlueVine business checking. BlueVine was created in 2013 to help small businesses with capital needs. From their three offices in California, Louisiana and New Jersey they are able to service their clients all across the country. While disbursing over $6.5 billion in loans over seven years they launched their business checking accounts in 2019. When reviewing options for a free business checking account we compare the number of free transactions per month, minimum deposit, fees, support and product variety using our proprietary SimpleScore methodology. See the full rundown on best free business checking accounts of 2020.

Want to Stop Using Loans to Pay for Your Car? Here’s How to Do It.

Quite often, I get emails from readers asking about car finance. What is the “best” way to purchase a particular car that they want? They have their eye on some new model and want me to essentially tell them that it’s okay to purchase it.

When Is It Ok To Finance A Car?

I rarely do. Taking out a loan for a car is only a good move if (a) you’re buying your first or your second car and absolutely need one today to commute to work – and even then, you should be buying a used one or (b) you have enough cash to buy the car you want but you’re offered 0% or extremely low financing, making it cost-effective to take out the loan and then sit on your investment (a pretty rare case, but one we found ourselves in recently).

We fully own both of our automobiles and don’t intend to replace either one of them for years. Of course, we’re slowly saving up for their replacements at a reasonable rate, but we’re not paying interest – interest is working in our favor.