Money Tips Network

This post comes from Victoria Araj from the Quicken Loans Zing! blog.

It’s tax season, and that means it’s time to sort through your shoebox of receipts, those envelopes of stock statements and that drawer of paperwork that hasn’t been touched in 12 months.

Depending on your income, assets, marital status and a host of other life factors, making sure you have all of the necessary documents needed to file for your specific situation can seem daunting.

Here’s a quick checklist of items you may need to gather before meeting with your tax professional.

INCOME

Sometimes, no matter what you do, life will hand you some lemons.

It’s really easy to respond to that with a trite “when life hands you lemons, make lemonade,” but sometimes that just doesn’t work. Things you’ve been preparing for and working on for years have blown up in your face. The big dreams you had for the future are deflating. The worst part is that you feel like it’s not your fault – and it very well might not be.

For example, let’s say Bob has done everything right for the last few years. He has a nice emergency fund and has most of his debts paid off. He’s been working on a big project at work that he thinks is about to pay off and become a major project.

One day, his boss calls him into his office. The project is cancelled. Bob is being let go.

On his way home, Bob is trying to deal with this when all of a sudden his car overheats.

This article is by staff writer Sam. Sam spent 13 years working in Equities on Wall Street and discusses financial independence strategies on Financial Samurai. Sam is also the founder of the Yakezie Network, the largest personal finance blog network on the web.

When I asked the community whether we have the duty to live up to our potential, many of you balked at the notion of living up to anybody else’s standards but your own. I read every single comment, and the general feeling is that society has unrealistic expectations of what one should do or should be. I agree with the general feedback. Screw society. Do what you want to do and don’t let anybody stop you.

Summer is almost here and that means we’re about to enter peak travel season. Whether you’re planning a family vacation or looking to travel for business, there’s no doubt that any trip is more enjoyable when it’s paid for with points. Thankfully, 2017 might well be considered the year of the travel credit card, with a host of credit cards offering amazing signup bonuses and generous rewards rates.

What makes this year so great for travel cards? There’s fierce competition between the card issuers to bring in new accounts. They keep matching and one-upping each other with the value they’re offering to consumers. That’s why we’ve found multiple cards offering at least 1.5X points per dollar spent and highly flexible redemption options.

This article is by staff writer Holly Johnson.

These days, my monthly budget is on the boring side. Aside from our regular spending, I’ve got a mortgage payment to fork over, groceries to buy, and utility bills to pay. Throw in some payments to my kids’ 529 plans and my SEP-IRA and I’m basically done for the month. After all of the bills are paid, the key for us is making sure that the rest gets transferred into savings so that it doesn’t accidentally get spent.

But it wasn’t always this way, and I was reminded of that fact the other day when I was flipping through one of my old notebooks. That’s when I found our monthly zero-sum budget for August of 2010, and that’s when our old lifestyle smacked me right in the face. Want to know how many bills I paid in that month? Twenty-four.

According to a new survey from Insure.com, the most expensive 2014 car to insure in the United States is the $110,000 Nissan GT-R Track Edition, which requires a few bucks less than $3,200 in premiums to cover for 12 months.

The super car is better known in some quarters as “Godzilla,” for it is a monster that emigrates from Japan. Sporting a twin turbocharged V6 engine that boasts 545 horsepower, the lighting quick GT-R Track Edition rockets from zero to 60 in a scant three seconds, and touches speeds of 190 to 200 miles per hour.

So what kind of person buys and drives Godzilla? A well-heeled one no doubt. But also a guy, for it is inevitably a male buyer, who just adores aggression.

There are many moments in my professional and personal life when I need to bear down and concentrate for a little while.

I need to write an article.

I need to do my taxes.

I need to finish a book chapter.

I need to review my investments.

When I’m doing these things, I don’t want to be interrupted. Interruption disrupts my train of thought. Interruption causes my task to take a lot longer than before. Interruption often results in a reduction in the quality of my work, and when I’m doing an important task, I can’t afford that reduction. It eventually hits me in the pocketbook.

Interruption is bad. I want to avoid it.

In the past, I’ve mentioned a lot of techniques I use to minimize interruption. I turn off my cell phone. I turn off my internet router or block distracting websites. I close my office door. I shut off my email program.

We all have times in our lives when our days go from busy, to full, to "I cannot manage one…more…thing." It's in these times where the seemingly small acts of others can make a huge difference. Uplifting a mood can make someone's day, and therefore, make his or her workload seem a bit more manageable. That, in itself, is good medicine. And anything that makes this life a little better for all of us is a good thing. (See also: 25 Ways to Make Someone Happy Today)

Below are 100 easy ways to brighten someone's day. You may not know the difference your small act of kindness could make for them, and yourself. What goes around, comes around, after all!

This article is by staff writer April Dykman.

On average, women earn less than men for the same job and performance level. Popular thought has been that that’s because women simply don’t ask for more money. Makes sense, right? You have to ask for something in order to receive it.

But there’s something about that line of thinking that has never sat well with me.

I asked and did not receive

During college, I worked for almost four years part-time for a hair product distributor. My first job there was answering the phones, but due to my Mac knowledge and Adobe Illustrator skills, I quickly moved from the front desk to working side-by-side with the CEO on marketing projects and event planning.