The historic acquisition of the Huffington Post, a major news blog that was co founded by Arianna Huffington, by AOL for $ 135 million, was in the news recently. It was announced officially that Mrs. Huffington would take charge of the content section of AOL. However, David Eun, President of AOL Media announced to the staff at AOL that he would be leaving the company shortly as there is “no role (left in the company) that matches with what I’m seeking to do” in his own words in a memo sent to AOL staffers. Along with Eun leaving the company, there have also been announcements by AOL CEO Tim Armstrong about a number of changes within the organization. This announcement was made in anticipation of the merger. AOL’s sprawling content operations will now be taken into hand by Arianna Huffington,  [...] 

Back when I graduated, I had a simple win-win situation for my dad. I had about $40,000 in student loans on my head. Approximately half of that was at a 6.8% interest rate and I wanted it to be lower than that. Clearly, this is something any sane person would want. So I simply told my dad that I would pay him $18,000 at a lower interest rate than I would have paid the banks. My dad agreed to my plan, although not very readily. In the end, we  both won. I got a lower interest rate and dad got to earn interest on his money. But even if you’ve not got as accommodating a father as mine was, the government has made tax breaks available to students and it can potentially save you years worth of payments if you use it right. Perhaps the most common of all tax breaks is the student-loan interest  [...] 

This thanksgiving, the New York Times ran a very interesting piece on a man who went from rags to riches to rags again. His name is Nick Martin, and after receiving a check for $14 million (worth $10 million after taxes and deductions) a decade ago, he now has nothing left of it. It is a tale of a lavish lifestyle and personal bankruptcy, but it is a familiar tale as well. See, in 1998 Nick received a check as part of the proceeds from the sale of the family owned company. What happened next is a classic tale every American is familiar with. Nick and his family spent lavishly on cars, horses and properties and invested some in stocks too. And so you can now understand where that money went when the real estate and the stock markets tanked. It’s easy to be judgmental about this case of  [...] 

Up until some time ago, credit cards ruled the roost. Our consumerist lifestyle was fueled by the craze in using credit cards, and with the tightening of credit lines it makes more sense to pay by cash these days. You need a heck of a lot of discipline not to exceed your buying (or repayment capacity) and if you can do that, credit cards are still the thing for you. Moreover, with the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act (CARD Act) coming into power, even consumers with decent credit scores are finding that it is difficult to get credit cards that offer previous interest rates. Getting those lower rates is in fact more difficult than ever. I used to regularly use my decade old card that offered an interest rate of 10%, a far cry from the interest rate it now charges  [...] 

I think that, at a stretch, there are very few things more unpleasant than filing taxes. As a kid, eating Broccoli was one of those things and this is pretty much the adult equivalent of that. As always, I look for ways to save money when filing for taxes and it is a mini-game I take great pleasure in. I try to figure out how to whittle away my tax dues, and the IRS tries its best to foil my plans. It’s a terrific game of cat and mouse in a way. It doesn’t matter one jot what you’ve done all year long. You could have saved the cutest puppies and all of the free world from alien terrorist invaders with giant guns, but if you’ve made money on that, you’ll have to pay your taxes. Just what ways to save money do I suggest then? Excellent question Watson…you can always cut corners when  [...] 

I have always believe that innovation is the way of the future. On the one hand, you have companies like Palm that have great ideas but are so terribly slow to market that their ideas get crushed. On the other hand, you have companies such as Apple that release their products (all of them extremely innovative, as you well know) like clockwork. The American economy counts on businesses like Apple and Google thriving on innovation. And to see the success of the iPhone proves that a quality product, even at a higher price, will always be a success. China can continue to push out their cheap phones and it won’t make a difference to the iPhone. But the iPhone’s phenomenal sales have impacted the federal deficit. How, you may ask? Well, the Asian Development Bank Institute recently released a  [...] 

The name is Bond; just Bond. And they’re affected by more than just bond ratings. Prices and yields of bonds are very delicate measures in a sense, and so it is understandable that there has been a huge hullabaloo over the AAA rating that has been accorded to U.S. Treasuries. Indeed, there might be a lot more pressure exerted on the Obama administration if the federal deficit is not reduced in the weeks to come or if steps are not taken in that direction. But in his latest State of the Union speech, there was little evidence that concrete steps to reduce the deficit would be taken. Instead, all we got is a freeze on discretionary spending. Little wonder that both Standard & Poor’s (S&P) and Moody’s have looked at America’s sovereign debt rating with some curiosity and caution. Sovereign  [...] 

All too often, we complicate things beyond a point. Things should be kept as simple as is possible, and this is certainly true of investing in mutual funds. Investing can get quite complicated quite easily if you let it, so my own portfolio is a mixed bag, but a simple one. Like so. US Stock Market Index Fund International Stock Index Fund Short Term Treasury Fund Dow Jones REIT Composite Index Fund All of this added up equals profit. As you can see I have gone for nothing overly complicated or fancy, and that’s exactly the way I intend it to be. I don’t like high cost mutual funds, and I don’t recommend you go about investing in mutual funds that do carry high costs. I remember this little nugget of wisdom thrown out by Warren Buffett, that investor to beat all investors. He simply  [...] 

He was balding, with slight signs of a paunch jutting out through his moderately expensive suit. He was also bristling with unhappiness. “My investment strategies just never seem to work!” I’m not normally an eavesdropper, but I couldn’t help overhear the man on the subway half bawling at the person on the other end of the line, presumably his broker or money manager. Surprise, surprise…here’s someone who doesn’t think his money is doing nearly as well as it should. But then again, does our money ever do as well as we want it to? By nature, human beings are greedy animals. The more we get of something, the more we want more of it. Once we get that first million, then it’s on to getting a 100 million, then a billion. Is there ever an end to this? For all of ten minutes (it certainly  [...] 

Saving for future is always a noble job but with the growing prices savings are cascading out of our pockets. The price rise on all commodities is obviously a cause of thinned savings but we cannot ignore the hike on taxes also. Saving taxes and getting returns together is probably the best dream of every tax payer. But how to make this dream realize. Tax saving along with returns is now possible with investment instruments. Investment instruments are the best options since they ensure guaranteed returns while giving you a scope to save your taxes. If you are planning to invest a total sum equal to at least one lack rupees in these investment instruments, then be sure that this entire amount will get removed from your taxable income. However, there is short twist in this tale. The type of investment  [...]