Scott On Money

The deadline for filing your 2006 taxes is only three weeks away. If you have to file anything more complex than a 1040EZ you probably need to get cracking. If you are trying to do your taxes at the last minute your liable to miss deductions or make costly mistakes.

The IRS will give you an extension to file if you submit form 4868. You’ll have to check with your state for details on your state taxes.

Realize that the extension is an extension to file, not to pay. If you haven’t paid everything you’re likely to owe get that in as soon as possible. The longer you wait the higher your potential liability for interest and fines.

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BusinessWeek lists 25 companies that have great customer service. It may not surprise those of you that read this blog regularly to see USAA at the top of the list.

If you or one of your family members is in the military look into there product, both insurance and finance, and see if they can save you money.

I personally have found their insurance, car loan and credit card terms and services great.

I don’t use there brokerage, banking or custom funds.

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You’ve seen me talk previously about dragging my credit score down by refinancing opening a slew of credit card accounts and creating huge balances to take advantage of 0% credit offers.

Today I got my credit score again and it popped up more than 15 points. Why? Time. All those accounts that were opened over a 5 month period have aged another month and the scoring model has decided that I’m now a few percentage points less risky as a borrower.

Remember to give yourself a big discount on your car or home loan by paying down credit balances and not opening accounts several months before you plan on getting a loan.

The time factor is huge. About a month. Over fifteen points.

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Wait scratch that.

According to MSN California is ranked 15th among the 50 states for state and local taxes. Not something to get all giddy about. I was truly shocked that the situation is actually worse for 14 other states. Property Taxes here are brutal. So are income taxes. Come to think of it our sales tax is outrageous. Wait, I almost forgot our gas tax is insanely high. Oh well.

Congratulations Maine and New York. I hope you are happy with how the government spends your money.

Take a look at where your state ranks. You might just consider giving yourself a tax break by heading north. If you move to New Hampshire, Delaware or Alaska you just might get a double bonus. If global warming would just really kick in the climate should be much better in all three states!

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Federal Surplus?

You will not hear it in most other places so listen up. The US ran a surplus of forty billion dollars in January. According to this MarketWatch article this doubles last year's January income.

As the article notes the pain is not over. January’s are big months due to the income tax schedule.

Cutting the deficit is big news. Some other key points you need to know:
- Katrina spending had a huge impact.
- Government spending continues to grow.
- Tax receipts continue to grow without tax increases.

Forty billion. Wow.

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Buying in bulk is a great way to save big bucks. I tend to purchase a lot of household supplies like paper towels and toilet paper in bulk. I save about 30 cents a roll on paper towels and a dime to a quarter on the toilette paper.

I also buy dish soap, dishwasher soap and hand soap in bulk along with printer paper, sponges and frozen foods.

You’ll notice there is not a lot of food on this list. I don’t cook enough to justify buying most foods in bulk. I have a hard enough time using up all my super market consumables like bread before they go bad.

Be careful with foods. Take into consideration how long they will last and how quickly you might get tired of an old favorite.

I once bought a 5 gallon jar of maraschino cherries. It is hard to remember if they went sour on the shelf or in my mind but I only ate about two pounds of the tasty treats before tossing the massive jar.

Go forth and buy in bulk (when it makes sense).

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Prosper Raises Loan Servicing Fee

Prosper.com raised their loan servicing fee from 0.5% to 1% on loans with credit grades B or lower.

This change by itself has not caused me to reconsider using Prosper.com but doubling the servicing fee has to figure into my ROI calculations for these higher risk borrowers and will certainly tip a lot of borderline loans into my “do not fund” category.

You can see Prosper’s full fee list here.

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