The Sun’s Financial Diary

As we’re getting into the tax season, how to lower tax payment legally is probably on everybody’s mind. While most techniques you could employ to reduce your tax bill for the previous tax year already expired at the end of the year from, there is still one thing you can do to significantly cut your [...]

A few years ago, after a long bout of worrying about money, I came to the realization that it’s expensive to be poor. If you don’t have the money to pay bills on time or at all, you incur expensive late fees and higher interest rates. A lack of available funds to purchase items when [...]

Are you a Citibank credit cardholder? If you are, then now you can access your Citi credit cards from your mobile device, such as BlackBerry, iPod Touch, or iPhone.
Citibank recently launched its mobile banking application, Citi Mobile, for iPhone which provides its customers with anywhere, anytime access to their credit card account information. Actually, Citibank [...]

While it seems that unemployment numbers may be dropping, there are still millions of people who are out of work right now. Being unemployed is not only damaging to the self-esteem of those affected but it is also really hard on the pocketbook because unemployment benefits are not commensurate with your former salary and not [...]

An old adage might say that ignorance is bliss, but in actuality it rarely is. And when it comes to your money, it never is. The good news is that with a little effort it can be easy to educate yourself and truly become your own best advisor and your budget’s best advocate.
Start by seeking [...]

One of the more intriguing stories coming out of Capitol Hill recently has been the struggle over whether or not Ben Bernanke will (or perhaps more importantly should) be nominated for a second term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
To briefly recap events, President Obama announced in late 2009 that he would nominate Bernanke for [...]

This time last year, I created a list to track failed banks in 2009. On January 23, 2009 when I wrote the post, there was a total of 3 bank failures. At that time, I also compared 2009 with 2008, the first full year of this recession when 25 banks were shut down. I was [...]

Well, Ally Bank, a division of GMAC Financial which recently received the third round of bailout from the government, is expanding its business, adding Ally Bank Interest Checking Account to its product line that already includes high-yield online savings account and CDs (regular CDs and 9-Month No Penalty CD). The checking account currently offers two [...]

Listen to almost every politician and you’ll likely hear a similar theme coming from their mouths – lower taxes. And why not? Telling taxpayers that you’re going to lower their tax bill is how you win elections.
But there’s a stark reality that America is facing right now. The low tax rates that [...]

The reasons behind stockpiling items at home are clear: savings and convenience. Only problem is, finding where in the world to stash it all and how exactly to go about doing it.
Chances are if you could really benefit from the savings that stockpiling can offer, than storage space is likely an issue. It has been [...]