Just thought I’d give a little link love to a couple of personal finance posts that I though were especially interesting today.
First of all, at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity offers a handy comparative chart of John McCain v. Barack Obama in terms of who pays taxes (shown here in part):

Income
McCain
Avg. Tax Bill
OBama
Avg. Tax Bill
Difference
(Obama – McCain)

$2.9M+
-$269,364
+$701,885
+$971,249

$227k – $603k
-$7,871
+$12
+$7,883

$112k – $161k
-$2,614
-$2,204
$410

$38k – $66k
-$319
-$1,042
-$723

< $19k
-$19
-$567
-$548

Bottom line? Most of us, from a strictly how-much-money-is-in-my-wallet standpoint, benefit from Obama’s plan. Also, Blueprint notes that McCain’s proposal increases the deficit by $4.5 trillion over the next 10 years, while Obama’s increases it by $3.3 trillion.
Quicken …read more

Yvonne Russell, one of the writers over at Home Biz Notes, pointed out to me that it is Financial Planning Week. Sure, the week’s almost over, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t start thinking about financial planning NOW. In honor of Financial Planning Week, I offer 5 financial planning tips to help you get started:

Spend less than you earn
Create financial goals
Pay down debt
Create a budget
Buy personal finance software

Of course, these are just the basics. But if you start out with these 5 financial planning tips, you will have a solid foundation to work from.
For more on Financial Planning …read more

One of the ways you can keep track of your personal finances is to use personal finance software. This is a great way to visually see where your money is going, and whether or not you are truly yielding wealth. Personal finance software offers a variety of ways for you to categorize your income and expenditures. You can even link your personal finance software to your bank accounts and investments online, and watch as your registers are automatically updated.
Some of my favorite features, however, are the reports. It is possible to create graphs and charts, as well as reports, that …read more