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It’s that time of year again: Rain and taxes. If you’d rather hunt eggs in one of our typical April deluges than prepare your returns, you shouldn’t feel bad.

It’s completely understandable.
Worth looking into Here are some other tax breaks to be on the lookout for if:

You’re unemployed or underemployed: Read Brent’s Jan. 31 column for tax breaks that might help.

You earn less than $48,279: Check to see whether you qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit. It’s turned into the government’s largest anti-poverty program, though it’s a complicated one to figure. Full Article…

Chances are, health care will be one of your biggest expenses in retirement. Qualifying for Medicare coverage at age 65 will quell some cost and coverage worries. Although Medicare is far more affordable than private health insurance coverage for seniors, the government health insurance program still leaves retirees with significant out-of-pocket costs.Consider this: A typical 65-year-old married couple without chronic conditions will need $197,000 to pay for out-of-pocket medical costs throughout retirement, according to new calculations by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. That figure includes insurance premiums, services not covered by Medicare and home health care expenses, but it excludes nursing home care.

Full Article…

According to a recent survey, when and whether a person uses a credit card is dictated by a number of factors.

The poll, which was conducted by Compete.com’s Shabduli Purav, showed that the most popular frequency of credit card usage by consumers was between one to six times a week. Only 16 percent said they used a card more than that, while 47 percent said they used credit three or less times a month.

“My initial findings were somewhat surprising,” Purav wrote in a blog post for the site. “While credit card usage appears to be frequent and common, our survey indicates that credit cards are still not the primary mode of payment.”

The survey of credit card users shows that the most popular use for credit cards was expenses associated with travel (81 percent) and high-price purchases (77 percent). Full Article…

Here’s a key take-away from the financial crisis that devastated our economy: Bad boards of directors played a big role in the mess.

Because bank boards were too close to the executives they were supposed to police, they did a lousy job of spotting excessive risk. They allowed short-term pay incentives such as huge options grants that encouraged bankers to roll the dice.Now, as we start to get a new peek inside companies from reports released ahead of the spring annual-meeting season, it’s dismaying to see that so many boards of directors are still making the same mistakes.

So I asked The Corporate Library, an independent company that is the recognized expert on corporate governance, to dig into its Board Analyst screener to come up with a list of five of the worst corporate boards.

Full Article…

() - Wednesday, rating agency Moody’s Investors Service raised the outlook on the Lithuanian government’s Baa1 ratings to stable from negative.

The rating upgrade reflects the relatively rapid stabilization of the economy and decline in financial stress across the region. The outlook on the Baa1 foreign currency deposit ceiling was also changed to stable from negative.

“The Lithuanian economy has stabilized more quickly than previously anticipated, and also faster than the other Baltic countries,” said Kenneth Orchard, vice-president/senior credit officer in Moody’s Sovereign Risk Group. After an incredibly sharp downturn beginning in mid-2008, the recession apparently ended as early as the third quarter of 2009. < Full Article…