Some of the more outspoken posters got tweets back from Orman’s Twitter account.  20 and Engaged has a history of the interactions here.

Am I a Suze hater?

People don’t reach prominence by trying to please everyone.  Suze Orman has been in the financial realm for a long time — certainly longer than any personal finance blogger I’ve met — has nine consecutive bestselling books under her belt, as well as successful radio and TV gigs.  She has a wide following mainly because she gets in people’s faces about the soft spots in their financial lives.  This doesn’t resonate with everyone, and that’s to be expected.

But for the record, no, I’m not a Suze hater.  She’s helped many, many people get on the right track with their finances through direct advice and education.  It’s clear that she engages with people, listens to them, and genuinely wants to help them.  This can’t be taken from her: She’s done well for herself on this earth by helping a lot of people.

Now, back to the prepaid debit card.  Piece of junk?

Suze Orman’s message is clear, but what’s also clear is that she is a sharp businesswoman and a tireless self-promoter.  (She’s the latter because she’s the former.)  She’s in a position to use the leverage of her large audience to spread her message, help even more people … and sell more products.  The Approved Card is the newest product.  Is it better than cash?  Maybe.  Is it a good long-term solution for managing personal finance?  Possibly.  For people who need a shorter leash for a season, a prepaid debit card with a healthy dose of Suze could be part of the solution.  Is it without risk?  No, but nothing is.

Regardless, I certainly don’t fault her for offering this product.  She should be free to do so, just as people should be free to sign up or not.  Time will tell whether it was a good product or not, and the market will decide whether the $3+/month is worth the value that Suze Orman adds.

Postscript: Are my blogging colleagues idiots?

Absolutely not.  I’ve met many of them personally, thanks largely to Phil’s work.  (Phil was the closest recipient of this barb from @SuzeOrmanShow.)  But since we all just live in Clay Shirky’s internet. and since now consumers of the media have not only the ability to talk back easily but also to talk with each other easily, repercussions from bad PR can be swift and long-lasting.  Ticking off bloggers in one’s niche is rarely a good idea.

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Last week our minivan’s transmission bit the dust.  (Thankfully it bit the dust in our driveway.)  Over the next couple of days my wife and I discussed what to do: whether to fix our car, whether to buy a new-to-us one — buying a new car didn’t enter the picture! — which kind to buy, and how to pay for it.

We had a very level-headed discussion about the whole matter.  I’m glad that we’ve learned a thing or two now that we’re approaching our tenth anniversary.  At some points in the discussion, when it was getting serious and when we were trying to make sure that we understood each other, our daughter came in to ask this or that, and at first we asked her to let us finish the discussion privately.

After we got through that part of the conversation, we called her in to let her know that nothing was wrong and that we needed to think carefully about what to do because it was a lot of money.

At some point, either my wife or I made the observation that this topic really wasn’t over her head, or something that we needed to shield her from.  We really didn’t have to discuss the financial questions of getting a car privately.

So after that point, we involved our daughter in buying the car.  My wife took her to CarMax and she got to ride in the cars, and tell her which one she liked better and why.  But probably the more important part was that she learned that we were going to borrow money to get the car.  We explained that we were going to ask our credit union to lend us money to buy the car, and that we had to pay it back or else they’d be able to take the car, because we didn’t really own the car until the loan was paid back.

Then tonight my daughter asked me, “Daddy, why are you getting a loan for the car?”  Music to my ears — not necessarily because we’re borrowing, but because this is the most advanced money question my daughter has asked about to date.  I got to explain some things about investments to her.  I explained that we could sell some of our investments to pay for the car, but at this time we didn’t want to.  I got to explain the concept of interest to her, and that it wasn’t free to borrow money.  I also got to explain the concept of creditworthiness to her; because Mommy and Daddy pay their bills on time, the bank didn’t charge us much interest on the loan.  (We got approved for a very good rate on our used car loan.)

It was great to see her asking questions about personal finance.  I think the trick was not to hide the family’s personal finance from her.

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I’m sure he did this before I was born.  Overall, I suppose it was part frugality, part excuse to get some exercise, but a small amount of organization on his part probably paid pretty well over the years.  Interest rates were in the mid-single- to low-double-digits.  A few pennies here and there for each bill he held off paying for as long as possible add up and compound, probably to the tune of a couple thousand dollars.

Now, though, it’s almost not worth the risk to pay things close to when they’re due.  If I remember that a bill is due soon, I pay it, even if it’s a couple of weeks before it’s due.  A couple of factors are to blame for this:

• Checking account deductions happen a lot more quickly than they used to.  It used to be a couple of days or more to clear a check.  Now it’s a lot faster, sometimes almost instantaneous.  So much for that extra two-day cushion for keeping your money.
• Interest rates are in the toilet.  When the difference for waiting to the end is literally 2 cents on a $50 bill, the incentive vanishes.  Do that for a year and I won’t even be able to buy a cup of coffee with the savings.
• Late payment cutoffs are razor sharp.  With some businesses you can’t miss paying on time by so much as a minute.  Late is late, and they know it’s late that accurately.

Basically, there are far more fruitful ways to make money than playing this game.  I say don’t bother.

Do you have any other money-saving tactics that used to pay off, but are now just a waste of time?

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But here’s a different question.  Do you know how to brush your teeth correctly?  Doing this routine the right way could mean the difference between easy, breezy six-month cleanings and long, tedious ones — not to mention the extra wear and tear on the teeth and gums from the elevated plaque and tartar levels.  A couple of days ago at my six-month checkup — which, unfortunately for me, was of the long, tedious kind — the hygienist took the time to show me how to brush my teeth correctly.  Even though I had heard bits and pieces before, I was applying that knowledge poorly, and was doing it mostly wrong.  It was better than nothing, but not a whole lot better.

Defeating the purpose of an electric toothbrush

A few years ago, at the advice of my previous dentist, I bought an electric toothbrush.  The vibrating head brushes the teeth many more times per minute than just going back and forth manually, which covers the surface of the tooth and gum line more effectively.  But in order for an electric toothbrush to be effective, it has to be used correctly.

The way I was using it was very ineffective.  I was told before to tilt the brush head toward the gums, but I was tilting it too much, and pushing way too hard.  I was missing part of the surface of the teeth, abrading my gums in the process, and encouraging them to develop pockets, which is bad because it encourages gingivitis and infection, which can lead to gum recession, cavities below the gum line, and even bone loss.  I was moving the electric toothbrush back and forth like a regular toothbrush, and that isn’t the way to do it either.  Further, I was going over the teeth way too quickly.

What I learned about brushing teeth the right way

It only took about five minutes for my hygienist to show me what I was doing wrong.  Here’s a summary of what she told me:

• About three seconds per tooth. So if you have fourteen teeth on the bottom (no wisdom teeth) that’s 42 seconds for those teeth.  It wasn’t clear exactly whether this was per surface or for the whole tooth, but she said that teeth brushing should take about three minutes.  That’s a little bit less than three seconds per tooth per surface but it was certainly far longer than I was doing it.
• Make sure the brush is almost flat against the tooth, with a very slight tilt up toward the gums. Only a few degrees.  The more straight up-and-down the bristles hit the tooth, the better.  (The mathematical term is “perpendicular.”)
• There’s almost no side-to-side brushing motion when using an electric toothbrush. The motion was more like dragging the brush head slowly over the teeth.  The brush gets under the gum line when the bristles spread out on the surface of the tooth.  I could feel this when I brushed this way.  I had been trying to force them underneath the gum by having a sharp “angle of attack” with the brush, but all I was really doing was attacking my gums; it wasn’t effectively getting underneath the gums clean.
• There’s not a whole lot of pressure. There’s some pressure, but not much.  Pushing hard against the teeth with the brush just wears out the head faster and gives more wear and tear on teeth and gums.
• Loosen up the cheeks to get the back teeth. The hard-to-reach places are easier to reach if the cheeks aren’t tightened up against the teeth.

With root canal therapy and crowns running around $1,000 a pop, and hours in the dentist’s chair, the extra couple of minutes a day brushing teeth the right way to prevent these expenses is time well spent.

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Automating the paying of bills has a number of very compelling advantages for customers:

1. It’s convenient. No more signing checks, or licking envelopes and stamps.  The charges appear right on the monthly statements for easy tracking.
2. It’s reliable. Once in place and left undisturbed, the payment comes out before it’s due, every time.
3. It’s less costly. Stamps and envelopes cost money.  Getting the things ready to mail costs time.

These advantages also apply on the business end:

1. It’s convenient. The money just magically flows into the account.
2. It’s reliable. Once set up, not getting the money requires some action on the customer’s part (they have to opt out or not have enough money in their account).
3. It’s less costly. There are fees associated with the transactions, but they’re generally less than what it would cost to pay staff to process the checks.

For all its advantages, though, auto-pay isn’t quite “set and forget.”  It’s very good on convenience and reliability, but not perfect.  Why isn’t it?

Blame it on physics!

I sneaked the caveat in while your back was turned.  (Sorry.)  But it’s very much similar to Newton’s First Law of Motion:

Newton’s First Law of Motion:  Every body tends to remain at rest or in a state of uniform motion unless acted on by an external force.

From this stems Mighty Bargain Hunter’s Law of Auto-pay Continuity:

Mighty Bargain Hunter’s Law of Auto-pay Continuity:  Every automatic billing agreement tends to continue reliably unless some billing action acts to halt the agreement.

The caveat is here:  Auto-pay is reliable once in place and left undisturbed.  Any number of things could disturb this agreement, and it usually involves some change in some part of the billing process.  The conditions of these changes may be buried in the service agreement for the autopay, or they may not, but in any case, the Corollary of Auto-pay Pessimism holds:

Corollary of Auto-pay Pessimism:  Failure to pay for services rendered, even if failure to pay is due to an auto-pay agreement that was halted suddenly or even silently by the company, is the fault of the customer.

Case in point:  A user on the money StackExchange site had his credit rating drop when something got mucked up with the automatic bill pay of his utility company.  He claims that his automatic bill paying stopped, without any notification to him, when he opted in to paperless billing.  I don’t have any reason not to believe him — and it does suck a little that this happened to him — but I still think that in this case it would have been up to him to be vigilant about making sure the payments were still coming out of his accounts on time.

Companies protect their interests, but they’re not evil

The service agreements, and automatic bill-paying agreements, are written by the companies for the benefit of the companies.  They have verbiage that places burdens like these on the customers, and absolves them of liability.  So, even if halting the bill-pay agreement was flat-out wrong and done without any notice, it’s still on the customer to pay.

At the same time, I don’t believe that companies are malicious, and even if they were, they wouldn’t deliberately cancel someone’s auto-pay agreement just to wreak havoc.  They want to get paid on time.  Forcing things to collections, notifying the credit bureaus of late payments, etc., all cost them money.  It would be stupid of them to do things to interrupt the smooth flow of money into their coffers.

This being the case, it makes most sense for customers to double-check that account actions don’t have unintended side effects. Any account action outside of normal operations — change of address, change of bank account, change of credit card, change of service, and maybe even change of billing preference — should be followed up with verifying that everything else is still in place.  If there are side effects, then they’re caught sooner rather than later.

Any other horror stories about bill-pay that you’d like to share?

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1. JD and his wife, Kris, have kept their finances separate throughout their marriage.
2. JD despises doing laundry and would do it only if there were nothing clean left to wear.  He would hate every minute of doing the laundry, sometimes would unintentionally leave the clothes in the washer to mildew, etc.
3. Eventually Kris got fed up, and proposes The Laundry Agreement:  Kris will do JD’s laundry in exchange for JD making sure that Kris’ car is always gassed up, on his nickel.

JD agreed.  Fifteen years later, the agreement stands, and it works like a charm.  This agreement, as well as keeping their finances separate, works very well for them, as it all but eliminates arguments about money.  That’s fantastic!  There’s not a single thing wrong with JD and Kris doing things that way.

I just know that it’s completely impractical for my wife and I to go down this road.  The main reason is that I bring in almost all of the income for our household.

Separating finances leads to subtle issues with one breadwinner

JD and Kris both have jobs that bring in income.  He’s a very successful blogger and author, and she’s a scientist.  (Allegedly a good one to boot — JD says repeatedly that she’s always right.  Or maybe that’s another key to eliminating arguments.  But I digress … )  They both contribute money directly into the household.  With both partners chipping in income, it’s reasonable either to keep separate finances or combine them.

My household is different.  I bring in the money (mostly) with my day job, with a relatively modest contribution from my blogging activities.  My wife, on almost all accounts, works harder than I do.  She spends each weekday exclusively with our daughter (both as her mother and as her teacher in our one-student homeschool) and keeps the household running smoothly.  Our household is perhaps more stereotypically traditional: the husband goes to work while the wife raises the kids.

Just about everything is joint in our household.  When we’re going out to lunch or dinner (which we’re trying to do a little less these days) we joke: “Hey honey, can you pay this time?”  (It’s the same credit card account regardless of which one of us pays.)

I don’t really see it working any other way for us.  Since I bring in almost all of the money, doing separate finances would be awkward.  What would it really accomplish to separate mine and my wife’s “money” under these circumstances?

• I would be setting up a power structure with the money.
• I would have to decide how much was “hers.”
• She’d have to ask me for more if she needed it.
• It really would look, and feel, like I’m giving my wife an allowance.

Now, if my wife were careless with money and I were careful, then I’d be wise to control the money for our financial well-being.  But this isn’t the case.  My wife is not careless with money.  Yet with separate finances, I’d have to control her money as if she were careless with it, by the simple fact that there’s almost no other money coming in but mine.

To be blunt, it would be insulting to my wife for me to do this.

In our case, we need to work as a team to make sure that we’re using the paychecks that I bring into the household wisely.  That’s the fairest and also the most respectful way for us to handle our finances.  Because it’s a common pot of money, we have arguments about it, but resolving these arguments strengthens both the finances and the marriage.

Ultimately, though, joint finances or separate finances merely sets up a framework for reaching financial goals:

• “I bring in the money for both of us.  Let’s draft up some financial goals, create a budget, and decide how much to allocate to each spending category to meet those goals.”
• “We both bring in money.  Let’s draft up some financial goals, create a budget, and decide who pays how much into each spending category in order to reach those goals.”

They’re not that different, are they?  Which, in the end, means that JD and Kris can do things their way, and my wife and I can do things our way.  The ends justify the means, so to speak.

There is, however, a small side bonus for doing things my way.  I’m not caught under the specter of rising gas prices gun like JD is.  Before too long, he’ll either be hiring out his laundry service or doing it himself with much wailing and gnashing of teeth, because he will have to pay Kris $500/month to do it under his current Laundry Agreement.

(Just teasing. )

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1. Joe is a healthy guy in his twenties, who just dug himself out of debt.
2. Six months later, he gets terribly sick and is diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes plus a whole list of other bad stuff.  At the time he goes to the doctor he’s knocking on death’s door and needs to get on a diet and medicine regimen to have a chance.
3. Gets depressed, and super-spends his way into $85k of debt after cashing out his 401(k), figuring he’d better enjoy it while he can.
4. Now, Joe’s disease is managed, and he’s digging himself out of debt again.  He has about $63k to go.
5. He blogs about his Type 2 Diabetes over at Sweet Urine.  (No, really.)  He has a Donate button that heads straight to the ADA.

What happened to him is pretty harsh, and it’s nothing more than genetics.  He’s educating people about the disease.  He’s handling it very well and very candidly.  (And he’s responding to comments in J Money’s post, so you can read more over there.)

What about what looked like to be a last-hurrah spending spree?  I honestly have no clue what it would feel like to be in his shoes.  It’s probably very scary and all sorts of unproductive thoughts would be running through my head at that point.

It’s fair to say that I wouldn’t make the best decisions of any kind in that state, financial or otherwise, on my own.

But that statement also has the key. If you’ve made the decision for what you’d do should you face a serious illness before you get to that point, then you can execute that plan if a sudden illness happens, without thinking about it too much in the heat of the moment.  At that point, if you’ve decided beforehand that there’s something you want to splurge on, then you can have some comfort in that decision and not second guess yourself.

If you have anything more than a trivial amount of money, or people who depend on you, or both, then decide now how you’d handle that money if a life-threatening illness comes out of nowhere. It’s one less thing to worry about, and you can concentrate on more important things.

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At work it sometimes means announcement of raises or year-end bonuses when there’s profit to be shared.  People may be entering the new year with a fatter wallet and a bigger paycheck.

This holiday season?  Not so much.  Googlers notwithstanding, many people found out that not only were there no year-end bonuses, but there was no year-end raise, either.  About 1.4 million US Federal employees are likely looking at no annual raises in 2011 and 2012. With the prices of groceries, gas, health care, and many other things steadily climbing, staying put is actually falling behind.

While people don’t wish that a pay freeze would happen to them, it’s far from unusual.  Here are seven things to consider doing if you’re going to be pay-raise challenged for a while:

1. Give thanks for your job. For Christians, like myself, this is part of 1 Thessalonians 5:18; it’s not a quid pro quo exchange with God, but instead a recognition that everything we have comes from Him.  In any case, a thankful heart is a much better launch pad for being proactive.  Spinning wheels with worry just makes a lot of bad-smelling smoke and wears out the tire treads.
2. Don’t panic. A pay freeze is not a pay cut, and it’s not a pink slip.  For the time being, the paychecks will continue to come in.  This is not a worst-case scenario.  Food will continue to go on the table, the lights will continue to come on, and the water will continue to run.  The basics, and a lot of the extras, are still there.
3. Recognize the wake-up call. If this pay freeze came out of the blue — heck, even if it didn’t — it’s still jarring.  Raises aren’t always regular.  It’s possible to experience a backslide with income.  Jobs, even “safe” ones like government jobs, aren’t bulletproof.  Were you ready for the announcement?  If not, it’s time.  Get ready.  Don’t ignore the wake-up call.
4. Make some battle plans. The Bad Economy is knocking on your door.  Maybe you already have another job or have a side business going, or you’ve gone back to the basics cut your expenses and have started to do the little money-saving things again.  That’s great.  Keep doing more of that.  If not, look at options for earning more and spending less.  Since you’re already not in panic mode, you have time to plan for your best way to fortify your finances and find that money that you thought you were going to get.  Revisit the basics and go from there.
5. Work your thaw-out plan. A pay freeze from one job is just that: a pay freeze from one job.  The income can be made up elsewhere, and since you’ve made plans for how to do that, you just do it.  If you feel most comfortable with another job, then go out to get one.  If you think wringing the unsatisfying expenses out of your budget is the way to go, then find less expensive alternatives to your gourmet premium whatevers.  If you want to tackle a side business, then go for it.  Plan enough to get started, and sand down the rough edges along the way.
6. Build momentum. If the pay freeze on the one job is the worst of it, hallelujah!  If it isn’t, and The Bad Economy ends up pounding the door in and you lose that job, then you’ll be glad that you just didn’t coast when you felt comfortable again.  Build the side business more, or take a battle axe to your expenses.  Build up a nice emergency fund.  The more cushion you have, the more time you have to wrestle your way out of a financial head lock.
7. View the entire process as a test. Life has ups and downs.  This is a down part, a trial, a test.  Tests teach you what you know and what you don’t know.  Just going through the test has its own benefits, even if the test itself isn’t fun.

Oh, by the way:  I’m going through this myself right now, so you’re not alone.

(Thanks to Blonde and Balanced for including this post in the Carnival of Personal Finance.)

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MBH Picks!

• Good Financial Cents tells the story of how he got started as a financial planner.
• Credit Cards Canada asks what it would cost to put the twelve days of Christmas on your credit card.
• The Penny Hoarder gives a how-to on making money by shopping at drugstores.
• Magical Penny has something different in mind when he talks about diversification.
• Gen Y Wealth lists twenty financial milestones to reach in your twenties.
• The Saved Quarter has a great list of ten gifts that keep on saving.
• Life Lessons from a Military Wife has a great list of gifts from the heart instead of the wallet.

Budgeting

• The Financial Blogger has a guest post that shows (succintly) how to instantly increase motivation for sticking to a budget.
• Green Panda Treehouse chats about where our money goes.
• Live Real, Now suggests a pre-step to Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps.
• Passive Family Income lists three steps to setting up a budget.
• Mom’s Plan shows how to save money on groceries without coupons.
• It’s the envelope budgeting method with a slick interface and great training resources.  Check out Mvelopes Personal and give it a try for free!

Career

• Free Money Finance discusses one opinion of the biggest thing an MBA does for you.
• Darwin’s Money reports that looks matter in the workplace.  (Survival of the fittest, I guess.)
• Before You Invest explains how to start an eBay business.
• Boomer and Echo lays out the cost of starting a franchise.

Credit

• Studenomics goes through how credit card companies make money.
• Smart Balance Transfers lists three reasons not to get an airline credit card.
• CardHub explains how to get a higher credit limit.
• Credit Card Offers IQ has some Citi bonuses to report.
• The Digerati Life lists five prepaid Visa cards that require no credit check.
• Credit Card Forum gives ShopDiscover reward tips.
• Soldier of Finance marches through how to get free credit scores at CreditKarma.
• Ask Mr. Credit Card reports on the Mastercard DDoS attack.
• Miss Bankrupt explains the difference between prepaid cards and secured cards.
• Nerd Wallet compares Citi rewards cards.
• Discover More® Card – $100 Cash Bonus

Debt

• Consumer Boomer calls for responsible use of revolving credit this holiday season.
• Balance Junkie explains how to solve a debt problem.
• Sustainable Life Blog reports on a debt payoff decision.  Was it the student loan or the truck?
• Donna Freedman wishes everyone a debt-free Christmas.
• Tight budget for Christmas this year?  Make your dollars go further with Mr. Rebates!

Finance

• MomVesting explains the concept of net worth and offers words of advice if that number is below zero.
• PFStock talks about a website that lets you see how your income stacks up to other people in your ZIP code.
• Sustainable Personal Finance has a com-post.  (Garbage collection for nothing and your premium soil for free.)
• Sun’s Financial Diary discusses loans of last resort.

Frugality

• Living Richly On A Budget kicks that expensive caffeinated drink habit down to size and shows how to make your espressos at home.
• FruGal winterizes her beauty routine on a budget.
• Consumerism Commentary tackles the argument that frugality is bad for the economy.
• Sweating the Big Stuff advocates donating more to charity.
• Subscribe to Groupon’s Daily Deals!

Investing

• Commodities Universe gives a brief introduction to paper trading some futures contracts.
• Buy Like Buffett runs down some Christmas gifts that appreciate in value.
• Investing Thesis has a fairly lengthy interview on the topic of gold, bonds, fiat currencies and economics.
• Do Not Wait recommends not waiting to identify your sources of investing risk.
• The Dividend Guy recommends investing in yourself.  I agree 100%!
• The Intelligent Speculator lists no less than twenty things to consider when evaluating an exchange-traded fund.
• Dividends Value gives us a baker’s dozen of stocks with a good mix of yield and growth.
• Money Thinking chimes in with a history lesson on what happens when the stock market crashes.
• The College Investor explains different kinds of education saving accounts.
• Retire By 40 goes through his portfolio and explains his rebalancing.
• ETF Base makes the case for emerging markets exposure.
• The Smarter Wallet discusses modern portfolio theory.
• Chicago Financial Planner has a bit of a gripe with Vanguard.
• Dividend Growth Investor makes the case for dividend investing in retirement.
• Watson Inc wonders if he’s a financial hypocrite.

Money Management

• Net Worth Journey shares three lessons learned from hair transitioning and how they apply to money management.
• Generation X Finance lists five great year-end financial moves.
• Beating Broke expounds on financial intentionality.
• Provident Planning continues his series on stupid rules of thumb.
• Go Banking Rates warns that this winter could be costly.
• Musings of an Abstract Aucklander (!) chats about lifestyle creep.
• Prepaid Cards 123 discusses prepaid cards that offer online bill pay services.  Interesting way to keep on top of things if you’ve made mistakes before.
• Grumpy Rumblings of the Untenured (!) ask if paying a relative’s tuition is the right thing to do.
• Daily Financial Solutions explains the real cost of owning a car.
• Manage your money for free with Mint.com!

Real Estate

• Garbage Filter explains some common real estate terms helpful to those looking to buy a home.
• Yes, I Am Cheap predicted the mortgage fraud crisis.
• Mortgage rates are at multi-decade lows.  See if you could save money with a mortgage refinance!

Reviews

• Accumulating Money reviews a book on the stock market by Mariusz Skonieczny.
• PT Money reviews EBates.
• Investor Junkie reviews E*Trade.

Saving

• Fabulously Broke in the City breaks this little news:  Women who save are sexy.
• Money Help for Christians gives a brief introduction to the 403(b) retirement account.
• Cash Money Life explains how to cash in US Savings Bonds.
• Len Penzo blows the cover on six money-saving tips that are anything but.

Taxes

• Bargaineering ponders what would happen if the mortgage interest tax deduction didn’t exist.
• Spruce Up Your Finances discusses the ins and outs of itemized deductions.
• Personal Dividends makes the case for solo 401(k)s for the small business owner.
• One Money Design has a tax prep checklist.
• Get quick answers and speedy, professional, intuitive tax preparation with H&R Block At Home!

Other

• Prairie Eco-Thrifter reveals the key to happiness.  Well said.
• Wealth Pilgrim explains term life insurance.
• Budgeting In The Fun Stuff plays her top five songs about personal finance.
• Oblivious Investor investigates and discusses a different side of online bank recommendations.
• Financially Poor parades ten epic money pwns.  (Warning — this post is PG-13.)
• Dough Roller shines the spotlight on the American Red Cross.
• My Dollar Plan reports on some Amazon bonuses.
• Canadian Finance Blog describes some insurance you can do without.

That’s it!  Thanks for checking out the posts.  Have a safe and happy holiday!

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Two thousand eleven will be upon us in only a month.  Here are a few tasks that are worth doing to tie a financial bow on 2010:

• Review your health and dental care choices if you have them available. At many employers it’s open season — that time of year where changes can be made to your benefits that can’t be made at other times of the year under normal circumstances.  Check with the doctors and dentists that you go to frequently for your care to see if they’ll still be taking the same insurance, if they’ll still be in its preferred provider network, etc.
• Review use-or-lose accounts. Pretax flexible spending accounts (FSAs) are use or lose from year to year.  Some employers allow a grace period after the end of the calendar year for using up the previous year’s allotments, but not all.  Review your plan and how much you have left in your FSA to see if you have some spending to do.  Even if you have a grace period, check to see that some of the expenses that are allowed in 2010 aren’t disallowed in 2011.
• Review your withholding. Have you been withholding enough from your paychecks to cover the federal and state income taxes you’ll owe?  There are still a few paychecks left in 2010 to close the gap on what you might need to pay the tax man for all of your hard work.  Underwithholding may result in penalties.  The IRS has a withholding calculator that can help.
• Prepare for filing 2010 taxes. If you’re due a refund for your 2010 taxes, the faster you get your completed return in, the faster your money comes back to you.  Make a list of who needs to send you what tax documents, and by when.  As a guide you can review what documents were sent to you for your 2009 taxes.  That way you’ll know who’s holding up your refund and can get on the horn with them.
• Review possible deductions that you can itemize, and do them before year’s end if appropriate. If you’ll be itemizing your deductions for your 2010 taxes, consider whether it would make sense to take the deductions now, or wait until 2011 to take them.  There are times for which each is appropriate.
• Give some thought to 2011 financial goals. Consider starting work on them now rather than on January 1st.  Michael Masterson’s The Pledge compiles some of his secrets to success and is imminently actionable.

What other year-end financial tasks do you do?

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