Whenever I go get an oil change (often, whenever I find myself with a good coupon to a local oil change service provider), I always notice that little sticker in the corner of my windshield that they affix during the oil change. Usually, it lists the mileage at which I should get my next oil change (according to them) and often lists the approximate date at which I should reach that mileage. The only problem is that, without fail, that mileage revolves around getting an oil change every 3,000 miles. An oil change that often just isn’t necessary. It’s akin to getting an annual checkup at the doctor every six months. Let’s just say I tear that sticker off. We’ve all heard the mantra of getting your oil changed every 3,000 miles. It gets repeated to us every time there’s an ad for motor oil or oil change services. That actually might have been true thirty or more years ago, when engines were built very differently than they are today. However, the reality is that most of today’s car models require oil changes every 5,000 miles, and some models require it even less frequently than that. The information you need is (again) in the owner’s manual for your car. It tells you the exact number of miles recommended for your car between oil changes. For most modern models, it’s 5,000 miles between a change. So, how much does that save you? Let’s look at a 120,000 mile life span for your car. I have a pile of coupons for a Jiffy Lube oil change (including oil) for $29.95, so we’ll use $30 as a base price. With an oil change every 3,000 miles, you’ll have to change the oil 40 times

Go here to see the original:
Don’t Get an Oil Change Every 3,000 Miles (34/365)

Each week, I highlight ten things each week that inspired me to greater financial, personal, and professional success. Hopefully, they will inspire you as well. 1. Mortimer Adler on drudgework I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad idea to work simply for the money sometimes. “Work that is pure toil, done solely for the sake of the money it earns, is also sheer drudgery because it is stultifying rather than self improving.” – Mortimer Adler However, if you’re doing that, your mind should be focused on what’s next. If you go to a job that’s just for a paycheck, then go home and don’t push yourself for something more, you’re just always going to have that same kind of job. 2. Shawn Achor on the secret to better work The secret? Being happy about what you’re doing. I find that when I’m enjoying what I’m doing, the work does tend to be more enjoyable and the work product is better. 3. Robert Bly on work and vacation I tend to think that vacation is work.

See the rest here:
Ten Pieces of Inspiration #58

One of the most important life lessons that we can all learn is to seriously listen to and consider the advice from those who have more experience than we do. When it comes to the end of our life, most of us are going to have some regrets. A nurse, Bronnie Ware, who spent years

The rest is here:
Top 5 Dying Regrets, Why I Won’t Have Them and Neither Should You

From Finance:Home-Equity-Loans Articles from EzineArticles.com:

One of the most important life lessons that we can all learn is to seriously listen to and consider the advice from those who have more experience than we do. When it comes to the end of our life, most of us are going to have some regrets. A nurse, Bronnie Ware, who spent years

Read the rest of the post here:
Top 5 Dying Regrets, Why I Won’t Have Them and Neither Should You

Here is a good post from

More here: Top 5 Dying Regrets, Why I Won’t Have Them and Neither Should You

Have you started thinking about doing your taxes yet ? I haven’t. Rather, as I do every year, I’ve just been tossing all of our tax forms in a pile as they arrive, and I haven’t paid much attention to what’s here vs. what’s missing. But now that we’ve moved into February, you should have everything you need to file your taxes, as most everything is supposed to be in your hands by January 31st. Here’s a quick rundown of forms that you might be expecting: W-2 (for wages earned) 1099-DIV (for dividends received) 1099-INT (for interest earned) 1099-MISC (for miscellaneous income) 1099-B (for proceeds of broker transactions) 1099-C (for cancellation of debt) 1099-G (for government payments, including unemployment) 1099-OID (for certain investment income) 1099-R (for retirement distributions) If your W-2 form is missing , you’ll need to check with your employer. If, on the other hand, you are missing a 1099 form , keep the following in mind: For starters, a 1099-MISC is only required if you earned more than $600 from a given source over the course of the year. You might still get a 1099 even if you earned less than that amount, but if you don’t get one, don’t worry. In contrast, 1099-INT and 1099-DIV forms are required for earnings in excess of $10. That being said, it’s quite possible that your bank or other financial institution has switched to electronic delivery, such that you need to login and download the forms. You should also be aware that payments made to a corporation don’t require a 1099, regardless of the amount. Thus, if you’re self-employed and have incorporated your business, it’s quite possible that you won’t receive any 1099 forms related to your work. Of course, you are still legally required to report all income whether or not you receive a 1099, so be careful… And if you do get a 1099, but don’t report the income, you’re just begging for an audit . — Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com: » How to Handle a Missing 1099 Form » What If You’re Not Going to Get Your Taxes Done in Time? » How to Handle Missing Tax Forms » How to Handle a Missing W-2 Form » What’s Your Biggest Money Mistake? » Considering a High Deductible Health Plan » Flexible Spending Account Spent Out for 2007 » Do Kids Have to Pay Taxes? All About the Kiddie Tax

Original post:
Missing Tax Paperwork?

I’ve turned the regular fluctuation of gas prices at the gas station fairly near our home (the one mentioned yesterday) into a game of sorts with my oldest son. Simply put, we’ve started tracking the data. We watch for the price of gas on that sign each time we drive by it, then we mention whether it has gone up or down recently. We remember the record prices we’ve seen (sadly, he’s so young that the lowest price he can ever remember is $2.97 a gallon – I remember my parents getting almost hysterical when prices inched vaguely near a dollar a gallon), We also talk about whether or not the price is low enough right now to stop in and fill up. We’ve even started tracking and recording this data a bit. We do the same thing when we see gas stations in other towns, comparing them to the prices at home. It’s a fun little economics game, but it has some real value, too. I’m cluing him in on many of the things he needs to know in order to maximize his value at the gas pump when he’s old enough. If you can save $0.10 per gallon of gas, filling up a typical sixteen gallon tank saves you $1.60. Do that consistently and you’re talking about a significant difference in your annual fuel bill. So, how do you shave off that $0.10? There are a few things you can do to make sure that you’re putting the least expensive fuel option into your tank. For starters, know what your car needs. Very few cars need the premium fuel or can even utilize it to any degree of effectiveness. Take a peek in your car manual (see, there it is again – your manual is really useful) and see what type of gas is suggested. Most modern cars simply suggest using 87 octane gasoline, which is the “cheap” stuff at the pump in many states. Choose the gas type that’s cheapest at your pump that meets the minimum suggestion from the manual. Never drive significantly out of your way to get cheaper gas. My rule of thumb is that I have to be saving at least a dollar in my tank for every mile out of my way that I drive. Since my vehicle has a sixteen gallon tank, I’m looking for a savings of at least $0.07 a gallon for every mile out of my way that I drive.

See original here:
Buy the Cheap Gas (33/365)

January 31st was the deadline for companies to mail out W-2 forms and 1099 forms involving other income and interest. Coming up is February 15th, the deadline for brokerages to send out 1099-B forms listing stock sale proceeds. That means you early-birds out there (not me) are probably chomping at the bit to file your taxes! So here’s a question to you readers about last year: Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll. A better question would be why you chose that software – price, convenience, trust, quality of product, or what? Would you have switched if a competitor was $25 cheaper? Related posts: eBay, Half.com, PayPal, Amazon.com Sellers: 2011 IRS 1099-K Regulations Free IRS Tax Filing Extension Instructions 2011 (Online/E-File) How To Generate and Issue Your Own 1099-MISC Forms Poll: Which Tax Software Did You Use In 2011? from My Money Blog . © MyMoneyBlog.com , 2012.

Go here to read the rest:
Poll: Which Tax Software Did You Use In 2011?

When a mutual fund or hedge fund lists their historical returns, the industry standard is to use time-weighted returns that assume you buy at the beginning of the time period and hold until the end. However, what often happens is that a fund will start out small and have great returns for a while, gradually start attracting lots of investor money, and then the subsequent returns are not so hot. Whatever special inefficiency or investment idea the fund managers had initially is either wiped out by market forces over time or simply hindered by asset bloat. In such a case, the actual returns experienced by investors is less than what is listed under fund return data, even though things like 5-year trailing returns still look quite good. Via Abnormal Returns , Ben Lorica of The Verisi Data Studio took an academic paper by Dichev and Yu [pdf] in the Journal of Financial Economics and made a nice visualization of the hunk of data presented about hedge funds: click to enlarge From the paper’s conclusions: Using a comprehensive sample, the main finding is that dollar-weighted investor returns are about 3% to 7% lower than fund returns, depending on specification and time period examined. This difference is economically large, and it is enough to reverse the conclusions of existing studies which show outperformance in hedge fund returns. In addition, the estimated dollar-weighted returns are rather modest in absolute magnitude; for example, they are reliably lower than the returns of broad-based indexes like the S&P 500 and only marginally higher than risk-free rates of return. Most of us can’t invest in hedge funds even if we wanted to, so this is best taken as a larger lesson to be careful when chasing hot returns by any money manager. You don’t want to be the last money in. Morningstar also tracks “investor returns” (dollar-weighted) separately from “total returns” (traditional, time-weighted) in their mutual fund listings. Related posts: Morningstar Investor Returns: Another Reason Why Chasing Past Performance Is Bad Hedge Funds: Too Sexy For My Money Index Fund vs. Top Hedge Funds: Buffett Makes A Bet Hedge Funds: Actual Investor Returns Less Than Advertised from My Money Blog

Here is the original post:
Hedge Funds: Actual Investor Returns Less Than Advertised

I love Dropbox . I like that it’s a real folder on my computer that is also invisibly synchronized and backed up in the cloud. The best part is that usually I forget it’s even there. Other online storage apps like Box.net or SkyDrive don’t work nearly as seamlessly for me. The Dropbox free version offers up 2 GB of storage free to start, which you can increase to nearly 20 GB with various tasks. It may not be big enough for a full backup, but plenty for my important files. Check out this Lifehacker guide that details all the possibilities. You get 250 MB free by signing up under a referral link , and I get 250 GB extra too. I’ve only gotten 3 referrals up until now, but with other stuff was already at 4.5 GB free. Today Lifehacker adds that right now if you install their new Beta version which lets you automatically back up photos and videos from your cameras/phones when connected to your computer, Dropbox will give you even more space – for every 500 MB of photos and videos automatically uploaded, you’ll receive another 500 MB of space permanently, up to 4.5 GB total. I synced up the photos from my iPhone and already have another free gig and counting. Sweet. Related posts: Make Money Bidding on Self Storage Auctions? 4 More Ways To Get A Free Credit Report Increase in Housing Quality vs. Increase in Housing Prices

See the rest here:
More Ways To Increase Your Free Dropbox Storage

By S. Shugars In this consumer centered world that we live in, it is often easy to forget that: You are not the car you drive. You are not the house you live in. You are not the clothes you wear. You are not the toys you play with. You are not the people you

Read the rest here:
What You’re Not

Here’s an interesting a:1:{i:0;s:8:”TlRnPQ==”;} post from Finance:Home-Equity-Loans Articles from EzineArticles.com:

By S. Shugars In this consumer centered world that we live in, it is often easy to forget that: You are not the car you drive. You are not the house you live in. You are not the clothes you wear. You are not the toys you play with. You are not the people you

More:
What You’re Not

Here is an interesting post from

Continue here: What You’re Not

Every weekday, I drive my daughter to preschool. It’s a nice routine, one that gives me a chance to spend some time with her. I make breakfast for her, make sure she’s adequately dressed for the weather, brush her beautiful long hair, and then we’re off to her preschool. Along the path from home to preschool is a gas station. That station has the lowest gas prices within about a ten mile radius, so it’s the one I tend to use regularly. Right next to the gas station is a free air pump, which I use about once a month or so. After I fill up, I drive over to the air pump, pull out my air gauge, check the pressure in each tire, and fill it up to the maximum recommended pressure as suggested in my car’s manual (see – there’s that car manual mentioned again). Quite often, I’ll stop there before dropping off my daughter. She’ll get out of the vehicle with me, talk to me while I’m airing up the tires (she doesn’t quite have the finger strength to actually air them up, though we’ve tried), and often she’ll help me pull the air tube around to the proper position so that I can air up each tire. It’s a bit of father-daughter bonding, sure, but it’s also saving me some money and subtly teaching her about a really valuable tip for auto maintenance. I actually learned about this tip the hard way, too. I used to just get my oil changed at a full-service oil change place that would air up your tires for you each time. I always felt that was good enough. In 2006, though, I started getting really into measuring my vehicle’s fuel economy and figuring out ways to reduce it. I got my oil changed on a very hot day late in that summer, and by early December I was due for another oil change

See original here:
Air Up All of Your Tires (32/365)