US Financial News

With the announcement of a 3.6% COLA increase, many social security recipients were cheering. After two years without a COLA increase for their benefits, this much needed boost was a ray of sunshine to over 60 million retirees. However, the picture is not so great for the 160 million workers in America who are subject to Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes.

Because of the COLA increase, the maximum taxable earnings subject to social security also increased from $106,800 to $110,100, or a 3% rise This will adversely affect about 10 million higher income workers who currently earn more than the 2011 wage base of $106,800. The actual social security OASDI tax and Medicare tax rate , deducted from most worker paychecks, will remain at 7.65% in total. Employers pay the same amount of payroll taxes as their workers. Though, the OASDI tax for employees is currently 2% lower, thanks to payroll tax cuts stimulus legislation. Self-employed individuals pay twice the payroll tax rate, or 15.30%, since they do not have an employer match component.

Higher taxes? Currently a worker earning over $106,800, will pay a maximum of $8,170 per year towards social security and Medicare payroll taxes. So,

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| Tags: Cola Increase, Increase
Posted October 22, 2011 by Oliver Blake under Financial News

A recent study from Gallup revealed that Americans are currently more negative about the personal finances that at any point in the past decade.

Gallup began asking the question “How would you rate your financial situation today — as excellent, good, only fair or poor?” in 2001, and, in the most recent survey (conducted between October 6 – 9), more rated their situation as “poor” (22 percent) than at any point in the past 10 years.

This 22 percent mark is even higher than during the recent recession, when between 16 percent and 19 percent rated their personal finance situation as “poor,” Gallup said.

In addition, 48 percent of respondents said that their personal finance situation is “getting worse.” This is but a tick lower than the record-high of 49 percent recorded for this measure in April 2008.

When asked to cite their most important financial problem, “lack of money/low wages” garnered the most response at 14 percent of respondents. “Too much debt” – whether from credit cards, mortgages or other loans – came in at second with a 13 percent mark.

Rounding out the top fi

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| Tags: Finances, Personal Finances
Posted October 19, 2011 by Hanna Silver under Global Finance

If you are a citizen of United States, then you would already be aware of the fact that in most states in the U.S. you need to have auto insurance in order to own a car. In fact, a minimum coverage is required to be possessed by an individual in all states which shows some basic financial responsibility. Do not shirk away from auto insurance by thinking it is an extra cost. You should remember that the auto insurance will protect you, your family and your vehicle in case of an accident no matter which party’s fault it is. Read on to know about the requirements of the coverage those are necessary.

Bodily injury liability – This coverage does not apply to you, but to the other party who gets injured in an accident that has been caused by you. It also covers you and your family members when you are driving the car of someone else with their permission. It is rather important that you have sufficient amount of liability insurance in case you get involved in a serious accident you may get sued for quite a large amount of money. You Read more…

| Tags: Auto Insurance
Posted October 13, 2011 by Admin under Financial Guru

“Several other Midwestern cities are among the metro areas with the best credit scores, Experian said. Compared with the rest of the nation, they tend to have lower unemployment rates and less debt.”

“The move is part of a broader effort by banks to lure more credit-card customers after many lenders retrenched from the subprime market. A surge in losses from soured loans during the recession and a regulatory overhaul prompted many of the largest credit-card issuers to focus exclusively on borrowers with the best credit.”

“Personal finance columnist Liz Weston says theres no credit card reward rich enough or healthy enough to offset the cost of carrying credit card debt. When youre carrying a balance, your primary concern should be getting the lowest possible interest rate so you can get out of debt faster, she says.”

| Tags: Credit, Credit 10142011
Posted October 11, 2011 by John Wane under Financial Guru

Hello All,
We had a mixed day leading into Bernanke’s speech, and at the end of the day we didn’t receive any new data.  A third round of stimulus is to be discussed in the upcoming FOMC meeting on the 20-21st, and ultimately it will depend on whether the Euro tanks before then.  Trichet’s speech early this morning was of caution with respect to the euro zone’s economy growing more slowly than had previously been expected, stating that the central bank see’s “significant downside risks” in an environment of “particularly high uncertainty.”  Given the breakdown to my 1.3870 target i mentioned in Tuesdays report, the door is now open to test the 1.35/1.36 region within the next two weeks.  Keep in mind that we have currency option ex tomorrow, so we may get a quicker than anticipated slide or we will teeter around 1.40 until next week.  On the energy front, Crude is running into major resistance at the $90 level, and if Europe unravels at the seems I still anticipate prices to go back below $80.  DOE data reported a draw of 4 million barrels of crude, with gasoline inventories rising 200k barrels.  And ending the day with Obama’s job proposal worth $450 billion in stimulus we have yet to see how the market will react.
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| Posted October 10, 2011 by Oliver Blake under Financial News

Years ago, I found myself sitting in law school in Moot Court wearing an oversized itchy blue suit. It was a horrible experience. In a desperate attempt to avoid anything like that in the future I enrolled in a tax course. I loved it. I signed up for another. Before I knew it, in addition to my JD, I had a LL.M Taxation. I needed only to don my cape…. taxgirl® was born. Today, I live and work in Philadelphia, PA, one of the best cities in the world . I landed in the City of Brotherly Love by way of Temple University School of Law. While at law school, I interned at the estates attorney division of the IRS. At IRS, I participated in the review and audit of federal estate tax returns. I even took the lead on a successful audit. At audit, opposing counsel read my report, looked at his file and said, “Gentleman, she’s exactly right.” I nearly fainted. It was a short jump from there to practicing, teaching, writing and breathing tax.

| Posted October 10, 2011 by Hanna Silver under Global Finance

The country’s top 16 credit card underwriters have relaxed their lending standards for the first time in three years, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s recently released 17th annual Survey of Credit Underwriting Practices.

This year’s survey reported some initial indications of commercial products loosening up for the first time since the underwriting standards began being tightened in 2008. In fact, one quarter of the banks backing credit cards loosened their underwriting standards in the 12 months the survey covers, the greatest relaxation of standards since 2002.

Of course, this conversely means that the survey found that 75% of the credit card underwriters either did not change their standards at all, or, in the case of banks with poorly performing products, actually tightened their underwriting standards.

Dave Wilson, Senior Deputy Comptroller for Bank Supervision Policy and Chief National Bank Examiner, said, “Some easing of standards is normal and healthy as the economic environment stabilizes. We need to remember that overly liberal underwriting standards contributed to extremely high credit losses. The pac

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| Tags: Credit Card, Standards
Posted September 25, 2011 by John Wane under Financial Guru

We all know the old axiom, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” I hate it with a passion. It’s the only defense that most investors ever have against investment fraud. And, because everyone knows it, the vast majority of investment scamsters do not offer returns that sound too good to be true. Instead, they promise a point or two more than you can earn from a legitimate investment. Anything more is the mark of a rookie or an amateur.

But rookies and amateurs sometimes get lucky. Last week the SEC filed an enforcement action against two alleged scamsters who promised investors returns as high as 6,300 percent. According to the SEC’s press release:

The SEC alleges that Jason G. Rivera, Jr., Marc C. Harmon, and two companies controlled by Rivera raised nearly $8 million from investors in two separate schemes, one involving purported trading in gold and diamonds and the other involving purported trading in collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs). However

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| Tags: Good True, True
Posted September 25, 2011 by John Wane under Financial Guru