Ken Clark

Last week, I was invited to sit down with a wonderful woman who was dealing with some less than wonderful credit card balances. The goal was to help her go on a “credit card diet” so that she’d be out of debt in 12-18 months. I’ll be checking in with her over the coming months to see what kind of progress she’s made.

Kristi Nelson at NBC 5 News in Dallas was kind enough to set the whole thing up and then turn it into a special on their nightly news broadcast.

Enjoy the clip:
http://www.nbcdfw.com/around_town/shopping/Slim-Down-Your-Debt-Go-On-a-Credit-Card-Diet.html

Our college-aged daughter was out visiting us this weekend and brought her W-2 in the hopes of getting her taxes done early. Usually, I just use our TurboTax software to do her simple return. But this year, I’d heard that TurboTax is only letting you do one return per software purchase (without paying an additional fee), and I had no interest in purchasing two copies of the program.

When I went on to the TurboTax website to double-check this rumor (which was initially true, but was changed due to a customer backlash), I noticed they offer a free filing service called TurboTax Freedom. After giving it the quick once over, I decided to give it a try.

My overall impression is that this a great program for qualifying users. It only took me about 15 minutes to prepare and file her simple return (one W-2 and the standard deduction). The interface was simple and intuitive, with plenty of hyperlinks that help define confusing terms and rules.

The Federal E-file function was free and easy to use (it required me to provide either her E-file PIN or AGI from last year). Since her state of residence (California) doesn’t have a free E-file program that works with TurboTax, I paid $9.95 to be able to print her state return and file by mail.

All in all I thought it was a great program - ideal for taxpayers with just one or two W-2’s, who will either use the Standard Deduction or have very few itemized deductions.

To qualify to use the TurboTax Freedom program, a taxpayer must meet just one of the following requirements:

• Have an Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) under $30,000.
• Be active duty military with an Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) under $56,000.
• Qualify for the Earned Income Credit (EIC)

Have you used TurboTax Freedom? I’d love for you to post your experience in the comments section below.

CBS 3 in Philadelphia just aired an interview I did on Credit Card Reward Perks.

Enjoy!

http://cbs3.com/business/rewards.program.credit.2.908054.html

One of my favorite journalists, Michelle Goodman, just wrote a very timely article for ABCNews.com about people finding themselves in the tough situation of having to lay off household employees.

She was kind enough to include my thoughts on some of the psychological and relational aspects of this, as well as some tips for cutting household expenses.

In addition to checking out the article, be sure to check out Michelle’s new book on the freelancing lifestyle, My So Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire.

ABC News.com - Pink Slips: First You, Then the Help

Anyone who knows me knows my passion for seeing people experience freedom from debt and financial stress. They also know that there are few things that anger me more than programs that promise to solve all your financial problems for one low fee.

Naturally, when I received an email from some guy wanting to tell me about this amazing program (United First Financial’s Money Merge Account) that will shave years off my mortgage, the red flags went up. I became even more alarmed when I realized that the “Money Merge Account” isn’t really an account at all, but web-based software that can cost up to $3,500 to access.

What does the software do?

In the end, nothing different than what prudent people have being doing for decades for free - using their discretionary income to pay down their home mortgage principal. Of course, this software encourages you to do arguably foolish things like taking out a home equity mortgage to try and speed up that process (even though many people may not realize they can’t even qualify for a HELOC until after they’ve spent the $3,500 for the software).

But, to be fair, I asked the guy to send me a demo of the software. He indicated however, that the only way I could have access is if I did “a demo call” with him. When I told him that I don’t have the time to sit through a demo call and that I would only review the product if given full access on my own time, he chose to pass.

That’s not very encouraging from a company that claims their product is changing lives. I’m not sure what kind of sales training they’re giving these guys, but that pretty much killed it for me.

Turns out I’m not the only one. Check these links out:

Personal finance author Dave Ramsey gets into it on air with a completely clueless (you almost feel bad for her) lady trying to pitch this program.
Listen Now.

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine article encouraging consumers to avoid this program.
Read Now.

In the end, if you’ve got $3,500 to spend, don’t send it to United First Financial. If anything, go buy a $50-$100 personal finance program like Quicken, which does essentially the same thing, and send the rest of that $3,500 in to pay down your mortgage. My guess is, five years from now, you’ll be reaping a lot more rewards from that than from signing up for the Money Merge Account system.

Jarrod Thalheimer just put together a great list of “10 Ways To Beat A Credit Hangover” for AOL’s new personal finance site, WalletPop.

Jarrod was nice enough to include a few quotes from me in Tips 5, 6, and 7 of the article.

Check it out when you get a second.

10 Ways to Cure a Credit Hangover - AOL WalletPop

Some of you may have seen the new credit cards many companies are offering that provide “financial” rewards instead of the standard airline mileage or cash back. While I’m not a huge fan of these, they’re definitely catching the eye of consumers.

Here’s a special report (featuring me, among others) on KDAF TV news in Dallas on a few of the hot cards right now.

Enjoy!

Here’s an article that ran in the La Opinion newspaper about the psychological effects of the financial crisis on families. The writer, Yolanda Arenales, was kind enough to include a few of my opinions in the article.

Although I can’t read it (my Spanish is pretty shoddy), I’m pretty flattered.

Read the entire article here.

Tamara Holmes just published an article looking at the growing trend among credit card issuers of offering rewards programs focused on paying off debt, saving for retirement, saving for your kids’ college, etc. It’s quite a shift from the old days of mileage programs.

Many thanks to Tamara for including me as an expert in the article!

Check it out:
Card Issuers Offer Rewards to Build Savings and Payoff Debt - CreditCards.com

If you’ve been reading my stuff for long, you know that I think Tax Refund Anticipation Loans (RAL’s) are a pretty bad deal for 99% of folks.

Lauren Garrison at the New Haven Register newspaper just did a great article on the perils of these short-term loans and was kind enough to include my less-than-rosy opinion in the article.

Check it out when you get a chance!

“Experts Warn of Perils From Tax Refund Loans” - The New Haven Register