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This is not going to be another one of the endless string of depressing and discouraging articles on how ill-prepared you are for your golden years. About how you don't have enough in your retirement savings accounts. About how you should have started sooner rather than later planning for...

Unfortunately, our current tax system is like a big game, with taxpayers looking for every deduction they can find that will help reduce their tax bill. While you should definitely take advantage of every deduction that you're entitled to, there's also a limit on how far you should push things....

We are witnessing what could be a watershed moment when it comes to planning for a secure retirement. Millions of Americans were already alarmingly ill-prepared for their so-called "golden" years when the stock market crashed and the housing market melted down. Now, just as many people are finally...

Wall Street and the media have been fixated with the debt crises in countries such as Greece, Portugal and Ireland. But we're not hearing nearly enough about a much bigger economy closer to home that's on the brink of disaster. We're talking about California -- the eighth largest economy in the...

The three most intimidating letters of the alphabet for most Americans are I-R-S. Very few things strike more fear in a taxpayer's heart than the thought of being audited by the Internal Revenue Service. For years, reports of abuse of power and poor treatment from the IRS ran rampant. That led...

If you needed any more proof that our state, local and federal budget spending is out of control, here it is. In an effort to get out from under record deficits and support their spending habits, politicians from Seattle to New York and everywhere in between have cooked up some outrageous...

This story was corrected on January 31, 2011. In life, you can't win the game if you don't know all the rules, and paying your taxes is no different. Every tax deduction or tax credit that you miss means more money out of your pocket and into Uncle Sam's. But our tax code is so complex -- it is...

Personal finance experts Ken and Daria Dolan help you get an early jump on your taxes with simple steps you can take right now that will take some of the stress out of tax season. The National Taxpayer Advocate recently announced that Americans spend 6.1 billion hours a year on tax prep. That's...

.articleFildUndr{color:#3A3A3A;font:italic 0.917em Georgia;} filed under: Taxes, Tax Advice, Tax Basics Jamie Koslow, AOL Back in the spring of 2009, a cornerstone of the government?s massive $800 billion stimulus package was a tax credit for millions of American workers. In theory,...

.articleFildUndr{color:#3A3A3A;font:italic 0.917em Georgia;} Jamie Koslow, AOL Tax time is upon us, and we'll all be looking for ways to cut how much we'll owe the IRS. While you should definitely take advantage of every deduction that you're entitled to, there's...