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I am participating in the Carnival of Personal Finance this week. Go check out the Investimist post as well as all the other excellent posts. I will likely be posting on several in the upcoming week.
For anyone checking out the Investimist for the first time, welcome and get comfortable. I can be reached by leaving [...]

H&R Block had to restate the past two years of earnings due to “tax problems”. The media, including this Reuters article takes it as being that they messed up on their own tax returns. I can tell an accountant didn’t write the article.
What H&R Block fudged made an honest mistake on was in its accounting [...]

MSN Money has an excellent article on not biting off more house than you can chew. Any first time homebuyer has heard it from older relatives: “buy a little more house than you can afford right now, you’ll grow into it”. The article lists reasons why that advice worked last generation, but doesn’t translate well [...]

CNNMoney’s “Ask the Expert” column highlights one of the glaring weaknesses of the “consumer-driven retirement” idea. A worker just moved from a job that offered a 401(k) to one that doesn’t. They were dutifully socking away the max under their 401(k) plan ($18,000 including catch-up contributions) but now is wondering what they can do without [...]

“Ugh, my financial advisor called, it’s time for my yearly ‘check-up’”
“That’s good he makes you do it every year, even if it’s just more revenue for him.”
“Yeah, I should go, it’s at least less painful than the dentist”
“And just as important, can I ask you a question? Is he a ‘fee-only’ advisor?”
“I have no idea. [...]

My first real post was an explanation of the scams that “instant tax refunds” truly are. On Wednesday, California joined the legion of states suing H&R Block over their use of Refund Anticipation Loans
Lockyer wants Kansas City, Missouri-based H&R Block to reimburse customers in an amount he said could reach the hundreds of millions of [...]

In honour of the day, I thought I’d point out an article that says that married people build wealth faster than single or divorced people.
[P]eople who walk down the aisle and stay hitched accumulate nearly twice as much wealth as those who are single or divorced.
Economist Jay Zagorsky of OSU’s Center for Human Resource Research, [...]

The Motley Fool (which I love for general advice but not necessarily for stock picking) has a commentary on idiot-proofing your IRA.
While the list is not exhaustive, following these five ideas will go a long way to pumping up returns for retirement.
* Stop ignoring the little things
* Don’t overpay The Man
* Avoid overdosing on accounts
* [...]

This part five in a weekly series focusing on lowering tax bills and making the process of filing slightly easier. Today, I’ll focus on whether or not to use a tax preparer.
Throw up your hands
The CS Monitor has an excellent article on selecting a tax preparer. Several of the points in the article are worth [...]