Sherry Tingley

Where To Watch Star Wars Online

December 18, 2015 By Sherry Tingley

Are you wondering how you can watch Star Wars Movies at home? You could buy the popular video series from Amazon, but that would cost you up to $100. You can’t watch it on Netflix, Hulu, or HBO or M-GO. The easiest and cheapest way is to use a sell and buy back system offered by a new service called VidAngel

All Star Wars Movie Links

Star Wars A New Hope

Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars The Phantom Menace

Star Wars Attack Of The Clones

Star Wars Return of the Jedi

Star Wars Revenge Of The Sith

You may be wondering if it is legal to watch movies through Vid Angel. It is completely legal. You are buying a video from VidAngel, then when you are done watching, you sell it back to them. It is all seamless and easy. This service is becoming one of the web’s most popular video streaming companies out there.

Media Trivia For Star Wars

Do you know these interesting trivia facts about Star Wars? From who was offered the roll of Hans Solo to how much the voice of Darth Vader cost, these fun facts will brighten any fan’s day.

The Future Of Star Wars

Colin Trevorrow, the director of Star Wars Episode 9, attended the Sundance film festival. He said that the next Star Wars may be filmed in space. The film is set for release in 2019 so this may be a real possibility.

Iconic Historical Star Wars Poster

alt text — Historic Star Wars Posters – Courtesy of ScreenCrush.com

Go to VidAngel and enjoy all the Star Wars Movies.

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Handling Tax Audits Successfully

April 27, 2015 By Sherry Tingley

Don't ignore tax audit notifications. Be prepared to face an audit. — Don’t ignore tax audit notifications. Be prepared to face an audit.

Tax Audit? Don’t Panic

Well, the annual tax mania is over once again. Now you can sit back and relax. Unless, of course, you are one of those that the IRS singles out for an audit. Less than 1 percent of the tax-paying public gets that experience, but it can be unnerving.

Audits are what have given the tax agency its ogre-ish reputation and generated visions of torture and merciless browbeating by suit-clad agents.

Here’s how to address an audit if it happens:

To begin with, an innocent looking letter from the IRS, arriving by U.S. mail, should be taken seriously. Don’t ignore it. Failure to respond almost always triggers escalating pressure from the taxing agency. Better to have your tax accountant respond, if possible. Experts in such matters suggest you never try to deal with an audit on your own. Not many run-of-the-mill taxpayers have the expertise to deal with the figures and the myriad laws that surround them.

Often, the experienced tax experts can spot the difficulty in a return at a glance and resolve it without a hassle. Simply determining which office within the IRS has initiated the audit will reveal the problem.

The experts advise that you never speak to the IRS representatives yourself.

Be prepared to provide whatever substantiating information is necessary to resolve issues. Keeping detailed records throughout the year is the starting point. Small businesses, in particular, need to be certain that personal and business finances are not intertwined.

The statute of limitations on an audit is three years, although the IRS can request an audit up to six years if there is reason to believe there have been substantial misrepresentations on the return. That means you must keep the relevant materials for at least that long. Receipts, pay stubs and other items used in preparing your return should be safely filed away until there is no longer reason to believe you might be audited. Most experts suggest a seven-year period before you toss the information.

The information you provide in response to an audit is filed via Form 4564. It can be delivered to a tax agency in person or mailed. Ask for a face-to-face meeting between your representative and an agent if you feel it is necessary to explain particular items in your return. Mail audits can be time-consuming.

How long an audit takes depends on the complexity of your tax situation – and how many other taxpayers the auditor is dealing with. Generally, a taxpayer has 30 days in which to respond after receipt of an audit notice, and the process then proceeds depending on the particulars. If the conclusion is that you did not pay enough taxes, payment plans can be set up, if necessary. If you don’t feel satisfied with the result of your audit, you can ask for a review.

And there is always the possibility that the audit will find that the government has overcharged you. A little sweetening of the return is ample payment for the consternation you may feel when the word “audit” pops up.

307 Money Saving Tips

March 12, 2015 By Sherry Tingley

You’ve heard it all before, right? Money-saving tips can sometimes be plain boring. Maybe you’re all tipped out. But don’t be. Saving money is good. It is one of the elements of successful personal finance. Our editors have searched the web for the top ten articles on saving money and this is what they have found.

Article 1 – 55 Painless Money Saving Tips

Saving can be the key to achieving almost any financial goal, according to Rob Berger, a litigation attorney who founded DoughRoller.net. Comfortable retirement? Down payment on a house? A new car or stereo? You get there by setting a little aside periodically and faithfully and voila! It can happen and you aren’t mired in too much debt. It’s a truism too many Americans ignore. The national savings rate is at the lowest point since the Great Depression. Today’s cost of living makes eking out anything above expenses seem impossible. Prove the statistics wrong. Make saving a priority, find the money to do it and pay yourself first. You deserve it.

Article 2 – The Craziest Things You Did To Save Money

Bankrate.com surveyed consumers and found six humorous stories about saving money. You will find stories about hot dogs, cutting out soda purchases away from home, collecting golf balls, cutting out smoking and strategic dumpster diving. You may never take these suggestions, nevertheless they will make you smile.

Article 3 – 54 Ways To Save Money

Bank of America advises in 54 ways to save money that you discipline yourself to save as much money as you spend on non-essential indulgences. In other words, slip an equivalent amount into the cookie jar as you spend on beer, wine, cigarettes, designer coffee and other things that you really could do without. At $4 per almond low-fat latte, the savings could soon be hefty.

Article 4 – 80 Small and Big Ways to Save Money This Year

Suggestions for saving money are some of the standard ways that we all know about, but some of their top suggestions include dropping your landline, renegotiating your cell phone charges and getting a home energy audit.

Article 5 – Savings Guide

Basic advice about achieving any financial goal can help you save for a down payment on a house, a new car or stereo or a comfortable retirement.

You can have what you want without getting bogged down in debt when you find money to save, make savings a priority, and pay yourself first. Paying yourself first means to automatically transfer a portion of your earnings into a savings account every month.

Article 6 – 8 Simple Ways to Save Money

The first step in saving money is to know how much you’re spending. One added tip here is to check your savings progress every month. Every family will have different goals and priorities. You have to decide which ones are most important to you.

Article 7 – How to Save $1,000 in One Month

Want to save $1,000 in one month? Dave Ramsey tells you how in a basic approach that depends on you focusing on your goals and believing you can achieve them. One of the fastest ways to reach this goal is to increase your income. Any number of ways are available for that one, including holding a garage sale or posting an ad on Craigslist.

Article 8 – 10 Ways to Save Money on Groceries Without Coupons

Saving money on groceries – without coupons – is the subject of a Kiplinger slideshow. It aims for an audience that doesn’t want to spend the time and effort that coupons require or that generally buys items that don’t routinely show up in the coupon arena.

Article 9 – Your Guide To Saving Money

Realsimple.com has a money savings guide for those that wake up in the middle of the night worrying about paying for college for their children or paying their mortgages or car payments. Helpful starting steps: Start an emergency fund. With adequate emergency savings, your “Oh S..T” moments are under control. Set aside at least 3 percent of your earnings for retirement.

Article 10 – Little Steps: 100 Great Tips For Saving Money For Those Just Getting Started

Coming up with a hundred ways to save money seemed to be no problem for Trent Hamm. His recent article at the SimpleDollar leaves no stone unturned. Programmable thermostats save on energy bills. Cancel unused memberships. Don’t go to shopping malls to relieve stress or to entertain yourself.

If you have taken the time to read any of these articles, you will notice the same basic similarities in all of them. Budget. Set Goals. Economize. Share with us your favorite money savings articles.

Christmas Shoppers Are Getting Smarter

December 23, 2014 By Sherry Tingley

Smart phone apps allow users to scan bar codes to find the best prices for items.

It happens every year. Suddenly, the shopping frenzy is upon us and the race is on.

Many Americans are taking advantage of the electronic age to get it done smarter, faster and more efficiently. They know how to find legitimate deals, avoid the fake ones and how to leave items in online shopping carts while they make sure they have the best deals they can find. To spot a shopper in the aisle of a leading retailer using a smartphone to check competing prices in another outlet is not outside the norm.

It’s this kind of savvy that took some of the energy out of Black Friday and other mega sales days this year. Many retailers who invested in huge advertising promotions before Thanksgiving apparently left customers with the impression that the deals were so big they had plenty of time to take part in the annual shopping spree without hassling the crowds.

C. Britt Beemer of America’s Research Group, reported that 75 percent of of the Black Friday shoppers were focused only on the door busters, deeply discounted specials that retailers hope will get people into the store. Last year, only 49.9 percent of the Black Friday shoppers said that the door buster was their main objective. The stores, many of whom have losses on the door busters, also lost the additional revenue generated by the impulse spending they hoped for once the customer was inside the doors.

ShopperTrak, a consumer analytics company that tracks in-store purchases, pegged the Thanksgiving weekend sales at $21.76 billion, a dip of 2.1 percent over the last holiday season. Sales rose 8.5 percent on the Monday after that weekend, an indication that more people were opting to miss the rush without feeling they might miss the best deals. Even so, before the end of the year, sales for November and December will have increase by 4.1 percent, the National Federation predicts. Most retailers see 20 percent of their sales in those two year-end months.

This is how shoppers are doing things smarter and changing the way the retailers are likely to approach the holidays in the future:

It takes more to catch the buyers’ attention now than in a less sophisticated day. If the retailer offers 20 percent off, they may ask for free shipping too. They are more savvy about the elements of retail selling and more apt to press the limits. Free shipping is, in fact, a big factor in online shopping. Merchants that don’t offer the service have 10 to 15 percent lower sales on their websites, according to analysts. Target is piloting a free shipping policy and saw online sales surge, the company reported. Their free shipping deal is available through Dec. 20.

Online buying obviously is making more inroads into store sales. Shoppers are not in such a hurry as they once were. This year has not seen any toys that are so hot people have a hard time finding them, reducing the mad scrambles that occurred in the past with such items as Cabbage Patch dolls and Tickle-Me Elmo. The shopper is willing to wait for further discounts as the season progresses. That puts the customer in the driver’s seat.

Online shoppers are learning to hold items in a shopping cart while they take time to look for better deals. They may have full shopping carts waiting for some time before consummating their deals.

In all, the 2014 shopping season may impact what happens in the future as shoppers become even more tuned in. Watch and see.

7 Financial New Years Resolutions For 2015

December 22, 2014 By Sherry Tingley

“Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.” ? Brad Paisley — “Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.”
~ Brad Paisley

Keeping Resolutions Is The Hard Part

The list of New Year’s resolution stays about the same each year: Diet, exercise, quit smoking and/or drinking, save money and get out of debt. They’re right up there every January 1. For most, it’s a quick resolve and a fast forget. And does it matter?

Could be, some experts say. Especially if you put money into the deal, say buying an expensive juicer to add to the healthy diet that is soon forgotten. No refund will be offered for the fancy exercise equipment you buy and don’t use. Or if you take that first step in financial matters by consulting an expert, that money is lost.

The failure rate is high, according to a Grenny’s online survey. About half of Americans give up their resolutions just 30 days in to the New Year, while 75 percent are back to old habits within three months. Even the financial prudence that was brought on by the early-2010s recession have dropped by the wayside as the economy improved, experts say. When things were toughest, some 33 percent of Americans vowed to get financial planning under way. Now the number is down to 16 percent.

Jonathan Clements, director of financial education for Citi Personal Wealth Management, offers these suggestions that might bolster your resolve to keep the New Year resolution regarding financial health:

1. Buying items on sale is not a guarantee of saving money. Any spending detracts from savings, especially if the sale item isn’t something you really need.

2. Don’t focus overly on investment accounts. Checking every day isn’t necessary if you are a long-term investor. You may be prompted to trade too much and make panic decisions.

3. Don’t invest too heavily in employer stock. The company gives you a paycheck. Think twice before doubling your risk by tinkering with your portfolio.

4. If you want an incentive for keeping your resolution, write down where you think the Dow Jones Industrial Average, gold and the 10-year Treasury yield will finish. Email your predictions to everyone you know. Likely you’ll be wrong and you can learn from the experience that trying to time the markets is a futile exercise.

5. Get rid of wasteful spending. In this category are over-buying groceries so that they go bad before consumption, paying for lottery tickets, buying the wrong gifts for family and friends, paying for seldom-watched premium cable channels, most extended warranties, over-priced restaurant meals, clothing you don’t wear and magazines you don’t read. Make a list and check it twice, then trim.

6. Don’t look at a new car or home improvements as investments. Neither one is likely to recover the full cost. They are depreciating assets, not an investment.

7. Talk to the kids about your family finances. Guide the conversation relative to the ages of the group. Let them know early how much help they can expect with college and other goals. Explain how retirement may affect your own finances and what steps you have taken to prepare. Share the financial blunders you have made, if they will be instructive. Let them know how much they may expect to inherit on your demise.