Money lessons learned from Michael Jackson & Ed McMahon

According to this Fox news article:

Yet after selling more than 61 million albums in the U.S. and having a decade-long attraction open at Disney theme parks, the "King of Pop" died Thursday at age 50 reportedly awash in about $400 million in debt, on the cusp of a final comeback after well over a decade of scandal.

Jackson lived like king but died awash in debt. Just days ago, it was Ed McMahon, the co-host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson for 30 some years. They all had talents and opportunities that most of us dream of. However, if you are not in debt, you are richer than both of them and many of the celebrities. Think about it! You can honestly say "I am richer than Michael Jackson." Now that is powerful.

Lessons learned from most celebrities:

1. They spend more than they can afford. Simple: earn $1, spend $2, then you are in debt. People get that rule, but most choose to ignore it.
   
2. They entrusted the wrong people. Mike Tyson & Don King anyone?
   Bernard Madoff, A Con Man for Our Times and all the celebrities and investor entrusted their money with him? Know who to surround yourself with: friends or foe.
3. Finance education is important. It helps you make better money decisions for yourself. Actors\musicians are good at what they do, but not necessary on business\financial decisions.
   

Personally, I also have one rule: I don't lend money to friends. Borrowing money is usually the easy way out and your should be aware of someone who are looking for an easy way out. But that doesn't mean I won't help a friend. I just think there are a lot of other ways to help someone. Help a friend to find a job, help a friend to move... better yet, help a friend to spot troubles before troubles find him.

I like Michael Jackson, he was an icon of my generation. I remember doing the moonwalk as a kid and watching his Thriller video over and over again. Good luck to his kids and may he rest in peace.

Cost of having a baby

My wife and I are talking about having a baby. I saw this video on cost of having a baby today and frankly it sacred the crap out of me with those figures.

Diapers, stroller, car seat and those are just one time expense, adding reoccuring expenses like health care, life insurance, tuition and the numbers are staggering. Not to mention the lost of sleep and stress. I want to know who has that kind of money! People are having kids all around me, are they not telling me the financial situations they are in?

If your kid turns out OK, healthy and smart, that's great, but what if not? Be honest, anyone regret having a baby? Was it worth it? Leave a comment and let me know.

The IRS owns me money, now what?

I got my 2008 tax refund about a month ago, however, it was about $250 short of what I filed on my 1040. Then I received a letter from the IRS attempting to explain the difference.

Turned out that all my calculations were correct, but during my 'copy and paste' process, I missed filling out the number on line 9b (qualified dividends). As you may know, qualified dividends are subject to a lower tax rate, and the IRS simply ignore my qualified dividends which in turn reduced my refund amount.

I called the IRS, after talking to the representative for 30 minutes, this is what she told me to do to reclaim the rest of my refund - fill out Form 1040x and send it to the same address where I sent my 1040, and then wait 8 to 12 weeks!

I guess I can't completely blame the IRS for this one. But 8 to 12 weeks for this? Com'on! Guess I learned my lesson on this one.

P.S. The IRS representative was very nice and patience. :)

Free Fax Service

Need to fax a simple document from your computer but don't have a fax machine around you? That was my problem couple days ago. So I went goggling and found this simple and free fax service from FaxZero (http://faxzero.com/).

For FaxZero free fax service, you can send 2 free faxes a day and up to 3 pages per fax. FaxZero will include advertisement on cover sheet. But that's it! If you need to fax more pages, it is $1.99 (accept PayPal) per fax up to 15 pages.

So if you have something simple to fax, remember to use FaxZero free fax service next time.

Another great tool in your pocket! :)

P.S. Now I think about it, any fax service may/may not sell your 'fax to' number to third party and your 'fax to' number may/may not start receiving junk faxes. Something to think about before you use this kind of service...

Quicken: Washington Mutual (WaMu) to Chase personal account conversion

If you have Washington Mutual (WaMu) checking/saving account like I do, and you are a Quicken user, you will find this post helpful.

Since WaMu checking/saving account moves to Chase, you'll need to modify your Quicken in order to switch your WaMu account to Chase account so that you can continue to download your transactions online.

I did the process tonight and it was fairy quick, took me about 10 minutes. To get complete instructions, go to this link on Quicken customer help web site.