Finance | Growth & Investment

Claiming your Casino Bonuses on your Taxes

While many people consider online poker a hobby or something to do during some down time, others think of playing poker as a lucrative career. You most likely won’t be able to make enough money to call it your full-time job, but you will have to claim your poker winnings when you file your taxes at the end of the year.

It’s important to keep track of all your winnings. It might seem like a difficult task, but it’s going to make things easier. Here are tips on claiming your online casino bonuses on your taxes.

Calculate Winnings

Add up all your winnings and online casino bonuses to figure out your grand total. If you play casino games online, you should start keeping track of how much you’ve won and lost. Keep track of everything. This means the day you played, what games you played and how much you won and lost in each game. The more organized you are the easier it will be when it comes time to adding the information to your taxes.

Adding Information to your tax Return

On line 21 of the IRS Form 1040 is for other income. This is where you’ll add the grand total of your winnings.

Under line 27 of Form 1040 is for other deductions. This is where your losses will go. Only fill this part out if you’re planning on itemizing your deductions under Schedule A on your tax return.

If taxes were withheld from your winnings then you should receive a W-2G form from the casino’s website. If this is the case take your grand total of federal income tax withheld and put it on line 62 of Form 1040. Skip this step if you never received the W-2G form.

Filed Under: Finance

You Can Improve Your Household Budgeting

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If your household expenses seem too high, and you’re having a hard time making ends meet, you may need to take a new look at your household budgeting. Here are a few small things you can do to improve your income.

Leftovers

How often do you throw away leftovers after dinner? It’s time to start eating them. Some food items are much cheaper when you buy them in bulk. Make more quantities of favorite meals and freeze them in individual or family size servings. For example, a bag of dried beans will make enough to fill about half a dozen cans. One bag of beans costs less than one can.

Other foods that freeze easily without losing their texture and flavor are chili, grilled chicken, soups, and even cookies. All of these things are fairly cheap to make homemade. You’ll save a huge amount of money in the long run if you ditch the processed foods and make and freeze your own.

Clothesline

Clothes fresh off the line smell so good. It really doesn’t take any longer for most things to dry on the line, either. If you don’t like stiff towels and sheets, pull them down right before they completely dry and throw them in the dryer for few minutes. However, use the line. It will save you money on your electric or gas bill, and you can stop buy dryer sheets.

Use Ammonia and Vinegar to Clean

One gallon of lemon scented ammonia costs about $1.99. Vinegar is less than $1.00. Ammonia can replace surface cleaners like 409, and vinegar can replace window and glass cleaners. You can also mop with ammonia and just a squirt of dish soap. These are old-fashioned, inexpensive solutions that work.

Filed Under: Finance, Personal Tagged With: Fabric softener, Home and Garden, Shopping

Does Your Child Have a Savings Account?

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Today’s adults are not so good at saving money. Many have over-extended credit cards, expensive cars, and huge mortgages. They don’t have any money to fall back on, either. It may be too late for you, but don’t set you child up to fail. If he doesn’t have a savings account, get him one, and teach him how to save his money.

Kids are impulse driven. The younger ones have no concept of value or the cost of goods. Therefore, they’ll spend $1 as quickly as they’ll spend $20. As they’re learning the value of money, you can also teach them a thing or two about personal finance and budgeting.

If your child gets $20 for his birthday, make him put $15 in his savings account, and tell him the other $5 is his to manage and spend wisely. He’ll immediately understand that he needs to protect his cash; not only by saving it, but by thinking about what he purchases. If you really want to teach him some finance lessons, set up some spending scenarios and have him work through them.

Candy v. Video Game Download - if your child wants to buy a $2 bar of candy, and he’s also bugging you to download a $1.99 game app onto your phone, give him a choice. Ask him which choice will give him more pleasure for his money? The candy gets eaten once. The game gets played several times.
Give you a dollar v. loan you a dollar - what a great way to make him understand credit. Tell him you’ll pay the loan back with interest, just like you do to the bank.

Make your child’s relationship to money interactive, and the savings part will be easy.

Filed Under: Finance, Personal Tagged With: Budget, Child, Saving

Cash Loans for Your Financial Needs

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With the difficulties associated with an ailing economy, people are constantly looking for unique ways to get by from month to month. Unfortunately, in most of these cases, the only routes available to people who are so far in the hole are options that will only make their situation worse. This results in more unnecessary fees and other forms of debt that continue to pile on the consumer.

Fortunately, there are cash-based loans that are available to people who find the time between paydays are, at times, inconvenient for paying bills when they are due. Services that offer solutions such as a payday advance help neutralize this issue by providing a cash loan to hold people over till payday. Below are a couple of the most common reasons why people go the route of cash loans.

To Cover Bills Between Payday

Unfortunately, as people begin getting into a financial hole, bills come due in between paydays that cannot be covered due to a lack of funds. This can result in the excessive use of credit cards and difficult-to-pay late fees for bills that go unpaid until after the due date. Cash loans help solve this problem by providing people with money instantaneously.

An Unexpected Expense

Unexpected expenses are never a good thing. This is especially the case for people who are already having problems paying their bills. When something such as car trouble impedes getting to work for a family who is living paycheck to paycheck, not having enough money to fix the car can be a major issue. Cash loans help to solve problems like this.

Filed Under: Business, Finance, Investments Tagged With: Credit card, Loan, Payday loan