Written by Scott Barnes on November 28, 2011.
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, questioned the Administration’s legal authority to bypass Congress and rewrite a provision in the partisan health law that limits premium assistance to state established exchanges only, effectively prohibiting subsidies from being offered through federal exchanges. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, Hatch warned any legislative change to federal law without formal approval from Congress would exceed the constitutional authority of the Executive Branch.
“The legislative function, under the Constitution, is exclusively granted to Congress,” wrote Hatch. “This excessive use of regulatory authority is only the continuation of a trend by the Treasury Department and the IRS of violating the constitutional principle of separation of powers by usurping Congress’ exclusive role in law-making.”Under the $2.6 trillion health law, Americans purchasing coverage through the new health insurance exchanges can receive tax credits and subsidies to offset the cost of being mandated to buy health insurance. However, th
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Written by Scott Barnes on November 24, 2011.
Borrowers who apply for a Prosper loan through this Sunday, November 27, 2011 get an Apple iPod Nano when the loan originates. I cant tell if the iPod Nano is 8 gb ($129) or 16 gb ($149). Note that the fine print for this offer does not exclude AA loans with 1-year terms, which have very low origination fees of only 0.5% of the amount borrowed; a $2,000 loan would have an origination fee of just $10. There is no pre-payment penalty for paying off your loan early, so do the math.
Before committing to anything, you can get a free rate quote without affecting your credit score. Youll even get a free credit score afterward unless you get the best AA rating, at which point you know your credit score is sky-high anyway.
New lenders who register by December 12 and invest the minimum needed for each gift by December 23, can get the following:
- $5,000 Apple iPod Nano, 16 GB ($149 value)
- $10,000 Bose® QuietComfort® 15 Headphones ($299 value)
- $25,000 Apple iPad 2 32 GB WiFi model ($599 value)
Lenders who receive promotional offers from Prosper may be subject to IRS Form 1099-MISC reporting requirements should the total value of those items exceed $599 in a calendar year. G
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Written by Scott Barnes on November 17, 2011.
Yesterday I told you the story of when I borrowed money from my parents and how it really bothered me. I don’t think I could ever utilize my parents as my mortgage lender but as credit markets continue to tighten, more and more people are heading for the Bank of Mom and Dad for their own personalized mortgage deal.
Family mortgages can work as long as everyone fulfills their end of the bargain, timely payments are made, and the taxes and insurance premiums are paid. When you consider the minuscule returns on “safe” investments such as certificates of deposit or money market accounts, getting a 5% return on a mortgage backed by real estate can be appealing. Additionally, when you combine these type returns with the tight lending standards many young home buyers are facing, you begin to realize that there’s a need and a way to fill it. With ma
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Written by Scott Barnes on November 10, 2011.
Are you a student looking to consolidate your debts? UK student loan debt consolidation can help. With the rising cost of a college education, many students are turning to debt consolidation to ease the burden of having to pay several bills a month and in some cases with high interest rates. Consolidating student loan debts into one manageable debt is an effective way for students to manage their debts in the UK.
Today it is much easier to manage student loan debts than before. UK students that are trying to balance studying and paying huge bills such as high interest credit cards, car payments, student loans and other expenses now have a way to consolidate their student loan debts into one simple monthly payment and ease their monthly financial burden. UK student loan debt consolidation programs are helping many students who are going through financial difficulties paying back their student loans.
If you are a student looking to consolidate your UK student loans into a single new loan, this is a good idea.
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Written by Scott Barnes on November 4, 2011.
WASHINGTON –U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, today slammed Senate Democrats for offering a flawed $60 billion infrastructure spending bill (S. 1769) that would use permanent tax hikes for temporary, second-stimulus spending and undermine much-needed job growth during a speech on the Senate floor:
Mr. President, let us be clear about what the Democrats’ Rebuild American Jobs Act is and is not about.
It is about expanding infrastructure spending, financed by tax increases.
It is about setting up a brand new government bureaucracy, in the form of an infrastructure bank that will take years to get underway and will subject taxpayers, once again, to private-sector risk taking and to bailouts.
It is about following in the footsteps of the ongoing, costly, government sponsored enterprises — or GSEs — called Fannie and Freddie.
It is about increasing the federal footprint in the infrastructure arena.
It is about increasing taxes on those with incomes above $500,000, now creatively called millionaires, including incomes of many business owners who risk their own capital to create jobs. It is about further federal wage controls on construction projects which lead to inefficient use of taxpayer funds.
And it is about creating political talking points for the upcoming Presidential election.Now here is what the legislation is not about. It is not abo
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Written by Scott Barnes on October 30, 2011.
He wrote an article for the NY Times called (a little jab at ?), which covers one of the cognitive fallacies discussed in the book caused by overconfidence amongst professional stock-pickers and money managers. First, he covers what some of you may already know about the performance of actively-managed mutual funds:
Mutual funds are run by highly experienced and hard-working professionals who buy and sell stocks to achieve the best possible results for their clients. Nevertheless, the evidence from more than 50 years of research is conclusive: for a large majority of fund managers, the selection of stocks is more like rolling dice than like playing poker. At least two out of every three mutual funds underperform the overall market in any given year.
The second story was more personal, and had to do with a small group of financial advisors.
I asked for some data to prepare my presentation and was granted a small treasure: a spreadsheet summarizing the investment outcomes of some 25 anonymous wealth advisers, for eight consecutive years.
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Written by Scott Barnes on October 17, 2011.
If you’re interested in depositing much, much more into an IRA than the traditional $5,000 annual limit, an SEP IRA may be just the ticket. The catch? You’ll have to start your own business (read 26 Ways to Make Extra Money Wile Keeping Your Day Job).
Simplified Employee Pension Individual Retirement Accounts, known as SEP IRAs, are IRAs that business owners can set up and fund on behalf of employees and/or themselves, even if there’s only one employee … YOU! And the annual contribution limit for 2011? Almost ten times the regular IRA contribution limit! One key difference is that instead of the employees, it’s the employers that make contributions to the plan. In 2011, co
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Written by Scott Barnes on October 13, 2011.
In tight financial times like today, lending establishments have stiffened their lending guidelines and many institutions have not bounced back from fiscal problems caused by loose lending. However, many institutions can help former students that were forced to borrow heavily to gain access to a college degree. After graduation, these people can seek loan consolidation as a vehicle for remedy and relief.
The student loan that is often utilized by those in need of financial aid in the U.S. is the Stafford Loan. This loan can either be subsidized and unsubsidized. If the federal government concludes that you are a student in need of monetary assistance you will be guided to the subsidized Stafford student loan.
An unsubsidized student loan means a college student is required to pay interest on the loans despite the fact that they are still studying. Interest on unsubsidized loans compound while a student studies, even though they will not begin paying back the loan until six months after they graduate.
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