Minimizing Taxes On Funds
Posted on January 11, 2009
Filed Under Money and Finances | 3 Comments
Today’s article will enable you to understand how to select tax-friendly mutual fundscomposite triple beat when investing outside of retirement accounts. The key is to use tax-free money market and bond funds. Certain kinds of money market and bond funds invest only in bonds issued by governments, and depending on the type of government entity they invest in, their dividends may not be subject to state and/or federal tax. Such funds are typically identified by the word “Treasury” or “municipal” in their fund titles.
A Treasury fund buys federal government-issued Treasury bonds (also called Treasuries), and its dividends (although federally taxable) are free of state taxes. The dividends of a municipal bond fund, which invests in local and state government bonds, are free of federal tax, and if the fund’s investments are limited to one state and you live in that state, the dividends are free of state taxes as well.
The catch: Because everybody knows that Treasuries спални and municipal bonds are not subject to complete taxation, the governments issuing these bonds can pay a lower rate of interest than, say, comparable corporate bonds (the dividends on which are fully taxable to bondholders). Therefore, before taxes are taken into account, tax-free bond and money market funds yield less than their taxable equivalents. However, after taxes are taken into account, you may find that with tax-free money market or bond funds, you come out ahead of comparable taxable funds if your tax bracket is high enough. Because of the difference in taxes, the earnings from tax-free investments can end up being greater than what you’re left with from comparable taxable investments.
If you’re in the 28 percent federal bracket or higher, don’t buy tax-free funds Inside retirement accounts. Your returns inside a retirement account are already sheltered from taxation. You can ignore the taxability of funds and go for the highest yields.
Unfortunately, stock mutual funds don’t have a tax-free version like bond and money market funds do. Unless they’re held inside a retirement account, stock fund distributions are always taxable, period. If you’re in a high enough tax bracket and a stock fund makes large distributions, these stock distributions can be a significant tax burden. Unfortunately, with stock funds more than any other type of fund, investors often focus exclusively on the pre-tax historical return, ignoring the tax implications of their fund picks.
Popularity: 74% [?]
Stress & Tension
Posted on January 8, 2009
Filed Under Stress | 4 Comments
Tension is a form of stress that everyone experiences each day through hundreds of different outlets. There is a conscious or unconscious concern about our ability to perform that lies at the basis of this very common stress: Feelings of tension.
We sometimes speak of nervous tension, tense situations, or of tensions between people, but tension only exists in the muscles. It is a physical reaction, a contracting of the muscles, which occurs in all of us when we are threatened. In one respect this tension is good. It prepares us for emergencies and keeps us alert.
When the tension persists, however, we become restless, fidgety, and unable to concentrate. We might bite our nails or show other nervous mannerisms, and very often there are such physical reactions such as backaches, chest pains, stiff necks, or headaches. One recent report has suggested that roughly half of all headaches come from a muscle tension which results from the pressures of daily living.
Popularity: 80% [?]
Deepak Chopra
Posted on January 5, 2009
Filed Under Self Help, Audios, Videos, Books | 3 Comments
Popularity: 70% [?]
How To Organize Your Child’s Room To Make It More “Kid-Friendly”
Posted on January 2, 2009
Filed Under Recreation | 1 Comment
While you are sitting on the floor, look for ways the room could be arranged to make it easier for a little person to manage. What about the bed? Are the sheets, blankets, and bedspread the ones adults think cute or pretty but that are hard for a child to make up neatly? Perhaps a bedspread with cording or a design marking the side edges of the bed is better.
Some children have a washable quilt that can easily be pulled up rather than having a top sheet and bedspread with it. The child can make it by just crawling up to the head of the bed, pulling up the cover, smoothing it, and slithering out.
As you are looking for ways to make the room arrangement easier, ask yourself if the child can hang up his own coat and robe. If not, maybe hooks would be easier than hangers.
You will probably want a wastebasket and some kind of clothes hamper in the room. Shoe boxes in the drawers make terrific dividers to separate socks, underwear, belts, and pajamas. As you sit on the floor evaluating, you will come up with some good ideas, but don’t forget to ask for the child’s opinion, too.
Popularity: 70% [?]
Reflect Your Personality With Feng Shui
Posted on December 30, 2008
Filed Under Self Help, Audios, Videos, Books | 1 Comment
Feng shui is a very flexible art that allows you a lot of room to express your own personality and style. With feng shui, you can follow ancient principles that help you create balance and harmony in your environment while still retaining your taste and the integrity of a room’s atmosphere. Feng shui brings out the best in the design choices you have already made by improving the flow of energy in a space. Feng shui techniques are not difficult to practice, and they can help you be better able to appreciate the beauty that already exists in your home by uncovering the potential for peace and harmony that is hidden within every space.
Feng shui works well within any other design scheme because it blends seamlessly into whatever kind of atmosphere you are trying to create in a space. This is one reason why feng shui is appropriate in a wide variety of settings. Because feng shui does not have a strict, dominant look like other aesthetic schools do, you can streamline any space from your office to your bathroom to your bedroom according to feng shui principles without having to change the basic design scheme at all. It is possible, for example, to practice feng shui in a Victorian-style romantic bedroom, or in a sleek office setting that has a contemporary feel. Feng shui is not about the specifics of how things should look, it is about optimizing energy flow and visual harmony, so you can use it in any room of any style.
Feng shui lets you create a new feeling for any area of your home without taking over your personal style, because in feng shui you get to use the objects you already have in order to create new, more harmonious arrangements. For example, feng shui often makes suggestions about incorporating certain colors, like scarlet, in specific areas of a room, but you can use almost any item of that color to make the feng shui decorating scheme work. This means that all you have to do is search your home’s inventory for anything that has scarlet, whether it is a vase, a pillow, a hanging picture, or even an attractive hardcover book, and move it to the right area. Feng shui teaches you to use what you have right now to better effect.
The fact that feng shui can lend extra power to the design choices you’ve already made means that feng shui is a great way to amplify how your setting reflects your taste. Feng shui reflects your personality at every step of the process from planning to the end result. Feng shui can help you bring out the best in your space, and in yourself. When you utilized feng shui to charge your environment with positive energy, you will be making sure that you and your unique style shine their brightest.
Further Reading:
http://www.artofplacement.com
http://www.fengshuitips.co.uk/home.htm
Popularity: 70% [?]
The True Definition Of Forgiveness
Posted on December 27, 2008
Filed Under Forgiveness | 1 Comment
The true definition of forgiveness should center on the benefits of feeling peaceful. Finding peace does not need to be complicated. Remember, all grievances begin when something in a person’s life happens that they do not want to happen. From that initial unpleasantness they take things too personally, blame the offender for how they feel, and tell a grievance story. The grievance means that too much space is rented in their minds to hurt and anger.
Remember this definition of forgiveness: It is first foremost a practical definition. Your goal is to feel peaceful. The feeling of peace comes as you heal your grievances - blaming less, taking responsibility for how you feel, and changing the story you tell. This is called peace forgiveness. As you feel more and more peace, you are progressing in your goal to heal from your grievances. You are learning to forgive.
There are three components when it comes to forgiveness. The most critical component is the story we tell. When we tell a story of victimization we have already taken something too personally and are blaming the offender for how we feel. When you tell the story of your heroic overcoming of an injustice, you will naturally blame less and take things less personally. However, it is very difficult to move directly to changing a well-rehearsed grievance story.
To avoid that problem, you should begin by taking responsibility for how you feel. We have to remember that we are responsible for our emotional experience. Our past is not responsible for our present feelings. Just because something unpleasant occurred in our past or may occur in our future does not mean that day after day should be ruined.
Difficulties, mistreatments, and unkindness do not have an extended warranty. We become helpless when we give the person who hurt us excessive power over how we feel. Our painful feelings will diminish only when we take that power back and show we are responsible for
how we feel.
There is a complementary technique that will help us reclaim responsibility for how we feel. This technique is easy to practice and available to everyone. It is to not lose sight of the good things in our life. This sounds simple but takes some effort. What this means is we spend time and energy finding the beauty and love in our life to balance the time we spend on grudges, grievances, and wounds.
Popularity: 84% [?]
The Truth About Medicare: Will It Cover You When You Need It?
Posted on December 24, 2008
Filed Under Health and Fitness | 3 Comments
Most people believe that Medicare will pay for all their long-term-care expenses. It does not. Fewer than 2 percent of the long-term-care costs in our nation is covered by Medicare. The coverage is restrictive and pays for such care only if you meet very strict criteria:
1. You must be in an acute-care hospital for three days before entering the “skilled” nursing facility. An acute-care hospital is an institution licensed by the state and legally qualified to provide skilled care.
2. The “skilled” nursing facility must be Medicare-certified. Skilled care is medical care that can only be performed by or under the supervision of licensed nursing personnel.
3. Your care must be defined by Medicare as “skilled” care, not custodial care. Custodial care is what most people receive by attendants in nursing facilities. It is not defined as medical care, as is skilled care.
When Medicare does pay for your skilled nursing care, it pays the full amount for the first twenty days only. For the next eighty days you must pay $81.50 a day before Medicare will pay the rest. After the one hundred days are up, you must pay the entire amount . With in-home health care, the same limitations apply. Medicare covers only a small portion of home health care and only if it meets the criteria of skilled nursing care.
Popularity: 73% [?]
Immediate Memory
Posted on December 20, 2008
Filed Under Time Management | 1 Comment
What do we use our immediate memory for? The almost trivial use of this immediate memory is when you try to remember a phone number. Most people will notice that they have trouble repeating more than seven digits of a phone number they have just heard. This is the limitation of your immediate memory.
The major purpose of immediate memory seems to be that it is part of a scratch pad system that we use in our minds to keep track of what we are hearing and to try to understand it. This can be shown in several ways. In the extreme, there are people who have very poor immediate memories for words because of damage to the brain, where the damage is so limited that it only seems to affect this type of immediate memory. Such cases are uncommon. Usually, damage in this region of the brain is associated with damage affecting other speech functions.
People with this problem typically cannot repeat back more than one or two digits at a time. And they have problems with accurate comprehension of what they hear, because they cannot keep track of all the clauses and redirections we normally juggle in our minds.
Popularity: 75% [?]
Jack Canfield: The Success Principles
Posted on December 17, 2008
Filed Under Self Help, Audios, Videos, Books | 2 Comments
Popularity: 72% [?]
Byron Katie - The work 4
Posted on August 8, 2008
Filed Under Self Help, Audios, Videos, Books | Leave a Comment
Popularity: 78% [?]
[getSynergized]- How to Develop a Wellness Program in Your Life
- How to Disallow Fear from Taking Over Your Life?
- Improve Your Mood by Giving Thanks
- Getting Started with Yoga
- What is Creative Visualization?
- How Stressful Thinking Affects You
- Personal Self-Care Tips: Top 10 Ways to Care for Your Mind, Body, and Spirit
- How to Easily Expand Your Comfort Zone