Your Financial Guide

Will you buy a Mega Millions ticket?

New Yorkers dreaming of the luxe life have helped pump the Mega Millions jackpot up to $312 million.

Friday’s jackpot was previously advertised at an already-hefty $304 million, but lottery officials credit “strong sales across all participating Mega Millions jurisdictions” for the $8 million increase.

Lottery business has been brisk for Abrar Ahmed, 36, who works as a part-time clerk at Midtown News in Koreatown. But the father of two doesn’t just sell to wannabe millionaires, he dreams of winning it big, too.

“I play sometimes,” he said, admitting he plans to buy one or two Mega Millions tickets (on Friday). “I can’t afford much, but everyone wishes.”

Mega Millions tickets are for sale at more than 16,000 retail locations statewide until 10:45 p.m.

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A new study from the Center for Responsible Lending, “Fix or Evict? L

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If you have a lot of debts, you must try to pay them off as fast as possible so that you can have a healthy financial structure. Your financial health can really help you save more for the future and take out loans and mortgage accordingly. But if you have secured debts, a debt payment is very necessary so that you don’t have to pay any penalty fees for paying that in advance or even lose your property if you default in your payments. Debt reduction options can really help you pay off your debts as well as strengthen your finances.

Advantages of debt reduction in your financial life

Debt reduction has a lot of advantages that you must take help of if you want to solidify your finances. R Read more…

NOTE: It’s Spring Break week for us so I’ll be away from the computer much of this week.

I wanted to share this list of the top ten tax breaks according to the Joint Committee on Taxation that I found in yesterday’s WSJ. I think it’s funny that they consider them expenditures. It’s the PEOPLE’S money, not the governments. Anyway, here is the list:

• Deduction of mortgage interest on owner-occupied homes.

• Exclusion of employer contributions for health insurance.

• Exclusion of retirement contributions and earnings.

• Reduced rate of taxes on dividends and capital gains.

• Exclusion of Medicare benefits.

• Earned income credit.

• Deduction of state and local taxes.

• Deduction for charitable contributions.

• Child tax credit.

• Exclusion of capital gains at death.

I’m not sure why “Exclusion of retirement contributions and earnings” is in that list since the government will get taxes on this money at retirement.

I would consider giving up all deductions EXCEPT for retirement contributions for say a 10% – 15% flat tax.

Taking away these deductions wi

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Mortgage rates moved lower this week after the earthquake and subsequent nuclear fears in Japan sent investors toward U.S.

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Do you agree with the decision to create .xxx domains?

There’s a new red light district being created – just for the web.

On Friday, the the non-profit group in charge of internet addresses approved a movement to add the internet domain “.xxx” to a list of “generic top level domains” – similar to those those that end in .com, .net or .edu.

The move by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which has been in the works since the board voted against it in 2007, was a point of contention for adult entertainment webbies who claimed that the new domain adds additional financial pressure to register new domain names.

Many other detractors – including the Obama administration – are concerned the new domain is opening up the door for censorship, especially in foreign countries. The Uni

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With the majority of the aging population demand for health care facilities is increasing. Medical coding and billing services are becoming one of the choice of the fastest growing career in the health sector. A person may obtain certification by completing required courses and passing the certification exam.

With more and more involved in this field are now willing to hire only people who have some form of medical coding and billing certification. It is also advisable to obtain certification by an accredited institution. On Guide To Medical Billing you will find a list of various universities and schools having different types of certifications available. Consequently, it is always better to check with your instructor on the type of certification you will get. Read more…