How much are McCain, Clinton, and Obama worth? (Hint: Between $1m and $40m)

April 13 9 Comments latest by Travis

I found these on CNN Money and thought they were interesting. For more details (plus an analysis of each candidate’s portfolio), click the images.

Interesting: McCain’s net worth is about 40 times higher than Obama’s.

Much of the Clintons’ net worth comes from Bill Clinton’s speaking fees, which average $150,000 per talk. (More details in another article: “On one particularly good day in Canada, Clinton made $475,000 for two speeches, more than double his annual salary as president.” Note: The article also says only 20% of his speeches “were for personal income.”)

Assorted links you might like:

• A while back, I was featured in this New York Times article (where Marci, the NYT career columnist, wrote about my book, blog, and speaking). Check out her career blog — it’s very good.

• Jonathan Clements, the single-best personal-finance columnist, has left the Wall Street Journal. See a great parting interview here.
• The Freakonomics authors make fun of idiotic reporters’ coverage of daily stock events as they struggle to assign causality to essentially unexplainable events. “Here are a couple of stock-market headlines I’d love to read one day,” they write. “‘Stocks Surge, Reasons Unknown; May Be Nothing More Than the Random Fluctuation of a Complex System.’” I wrote something similar in The Worst Financial Advice From Around the Web.

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9 Comments latest by Travis

Why you should be happy to get a tax refund, not guilty

April 10 45 Comments latest by sow

When it comes to be tax time, people love to start throwing around phrases that enrage me and make me wish to become a cartoon hero that points at someone and ejects a roll of duct tape towards their mouths to silence them. In my dreams, I would be a cross between Spiderman and a librarian.

Anyway, how often have you heard this phrase?

“If you get a tax refund, it means you’ve given the government too much money.”

This oft-repeated phrase assumes rationality: ‘If you get a refund, it means you sent extra money to the government! Why would you let them make interest off your hard-earned money? You should only send the minimum amount!’ Then these people are usually out of breath because of their own self-proclaimed brilliance.

Technically, they’re right. I live in a world of reality, however, which means that “technically” isn’t always correct. Here’s why I’d rather get a tax refund than owe the government money:

First of all, if you end up owing the government money at tax time, most people don’t have extra cash lying around. We know this because they are horrible at managing their money and have record debt rates. Sorry, it has to be said.

Second, how much interest are we really talking about? Let’s say you get a government rebate of $600. At my high-interest ING account, that’s $1.50/month in interest. Oooh, the government is making bank off my money! Get a life.

And, in fact, people’s opinions reflect this:

…when asked if they’d prefer to owe taxes, get a refund or break even, none said “owe,” according to the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. Fifty percent hope they break even, and 45% hope they get a bigger refund this year than last.

In real life, $600 that you owe to the government would affect your life far more than getting $600 back, meaning it’s better to get money back than to owe it. So if you end up getting a tax refund, don’t feel bad. And don’t just follow what the pundits say. We live in the real world, and there’s a difference between the best decision and the financially smart one.

Read more or buy now.

Bonus: The first 5 people to purchase the ebook will receive free copies of H&R Block’s TaxCut software (a $59.95 value, free).

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45 Comments latest by sow

How to get your virtual assistant to schedule your doctor’s appointments

April 9 22 Comments latest by Ultimate Virtual Assistant Guide : Productivity501

As much as possible, I like to have other people do my work for me. So if you’re trying to find a doctor (a hellish process that I despise and curse), I asked my virtual assistant to find it for me. Use this script if you’re looking for anything similar.

Hello,

Please set up these appointments on Monday morning (12/17), when the doctors’ offices open.

Please set up the following medical appointments for me:

1. A dental appointment (annual checkup)
2. An eye checkup (annual checkup)

WHERE TO LOOK

* Please look up doctors on http://www.bluecrossca.com — my doctor must accept my medical insurance (Blue Cross PPO — Lumenos)
* Then cross-reference the doctors’ names on yelp.com to find doctors with positive reviews
* Call the doctors to see which doctors are available for checkups on the below dates
* Please confirm with the doctors that, as a member of Blue Cross Lumenos PPO, I will have 100% exam coverage (dental exam) and a $15 co-pay (vision exam)

WHEN I’M AVAILABLE
* December 17, 18, 19, 21, 27, 28
* 8am - 11am PST and 4pm-7pm PST

LOCATION
* Located near the ZIP code of XXXXX

Thank you,

-Ramit

A few things:

1. Yes, you have to be extremely specific
2. Please don’t say, “In the time it took you to write that, you could have done it yourself!” That’s just dumb
3. For my virtual admin, I use AskSunday.com but you can use anyone you want. Also try Craigslist or eLance
4. I got the idea from the 4-Hour Workweek. Read my review or just buy the book
4. Tim Ferriss wrote an insanely detailed checklist for his VAs

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22 Comments latest by Ultimate Virtual Assistant Guide : Productivity501

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