Despite its association with death, taxes aren’t always that bad. A few of us even get quite a bit of money back come tax season. And at the very least there are ways to curb the eventual April blow by planning ahead. Oftentimes, the ways in which people can offset taxes are financially beneficial as well. As cumbersome as tax planning is, there are a few basic ways you can learn to save before you’re pouring over old receipts at the 11th hour…

Taking a Bite Out of Tax

1. Reduce Your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) – While parting with hard earned money in any form is difficult and frustrating , setting a portion of your income aside into tax deductible plans will help soften the ultimate tax blow. The reality though, at least the taxable reality, maintains the more one makes, the more the government taketh away.
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Personal Loans Versus New Line of Credit

No matter the time of year, holidays or not, the need for additional money may arise. While there are several ways to obtain this extra money, two of the most common ways include opening a new line of credit and taking out a personal loan from a bank. The question posed in this article is – between the two, which is more advantageous? Read on to find out!

Before understanding which is better between a personal loan and new line of credit, it is important to define the two terms as they are closely related. A line of credit is where you have an agreement with a company to borrow a specific amount of unsecured credit for a specific period of time. This amount of money is available for use at any time as long terms of the agreement are met.
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Mary is an average American. She works to pay the bills and her credit score is just like that of millions of people across the United States, mediocre. She would like to boost her credit and repair the damage that was done during her younger credit years. She has looked into all the different options including credit counseling, opening another easy qualify credit card and even considering working with companies that promise to quickly fix her credit score. She does not want to be in debt the rest of her life, but at the same time, she would really like to reestablish her credit rating. How can she accomplish this?
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Should States Continue To Increase Loan Regulations

There has been a lot of news out over the past few weeks regarding the loan industry, and in particular the short term loan industry.  These loans cover cash advances, short term loans, personal loans, online payday loans, and other forms of credit that have a short time frame for paying back.

Often these loans have higher interest, but that is because they have less payments and a shorter time frame to pay back. This means that the company that is providing the loan can only make a limited amount of money on lending the credit to individuals. Unlike credit cards and other forms of long term loans where the interest may not be as high, but there are more payments and over the course of the loan a person is paying back much more money than they borrowed.
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State Laws Moving In On Payday Loan Industry

Over the past year or so there have been many new regulations introduced into state laws regarding payday loans, short-term loans, and cash advances.  Often these regulations and laws are put into place to help protect consumers, as well as to set up oversight on the industry, and in some cases even produce additional  revenue for the states.  However, some states have put laws into effect only to realize that they’ve created loopholes that not only help the industry to continue operating with business as usual mentality, but even hurt consumers in some cases because the lenders moved their practices into open-ended loans where there weren’t as tough of regulations as the payday loan industry.
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Loan Sharks Online – What You Need to Know

Payday loans – like any loan – are a financial product extending monies to clients with the expectation that it will be paid back in full. When handled responsibly, a payday loan is a legitimate means for customers to obtain cash loans, and in many cases – in less than 24 hours. As a customer though, and especially one who uses or is thinking about using online payday loans, it’s important to be scrupulous, and aware of loan sharks online.

The Federal Trade Commission recommends that current and potential payday loan (also known as cash advance loan) customers be aware of the following warning signs:
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Difference Between Microlending, MicroLoans, & Microcredit

What is the difference between microlending, microloans, and microcredit, and how are those different from payday loans, cash advance, short term loans, and pay day advances.  The following are definitions for each term are as follows and were compiled from various sources to get the most up to date definition.

Microlending: Commonly referred to as micro-lending, micro-finance, or microfinance and represents the granting of loans that are particularly small in size.

Microcredit: The business or policy of making microloans to impoverished entrepreneurs. Also called microlending.

Microloans: A very small, often short-term loan made to an impoverished entrepreneur, as in an underdeveloped country.

Payday Loans: A payday loan (also called a paycheck advance, cash advance, or payday advance) is a small, short-term loan that is intended to cover a borrower’s expenses until his or her next payday
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What Is Microlending

Mircolending is another way of saying short term loan or small amount lending.  Typically microlending is referring to the leading services of payday loans, cash advance, or payday advance.  With these terms becoming so popular and with so many people using these terms for both practical commercial purposes, as well as aggressive marketing purposes, industry veterans wanted to coin a new phrase to draw some new interest into short term loan services.  Microlending refers to smaller amount loans that don’t go through standard banking practices and are often associated with persons that don’t have collateral, great credit, or can’t get traditional banking loans.

Microlending is usually associated with private institutions or individuals that want to loan money, but is not a bank, and can charge higher interest fees, and serving fees. 
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