May 4th, 2018299205Most Georgians don’t shy away from spending on their furry, feathery and scaly family members.
According to a Georgia Credit Union Affiliates survey, about 50 percent of respondents own pets. Of those pet owners, 11.7 percent said they tend to spend between $300 and $500 annually on pet care and supplies. Another 9.4 percent spend between $500 and $700, while 9.5 percent claim to spend more than $1,000 on their fur babies each year.
Expenditures on pets by Georgians are not far from national averages, according to research from the American Pet Products Association.
Data from the APPA shows about 68 percent of households in the...
May 4th, 20182141The U.S. unemployment rate crept toward historically low levels last month, according to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The unemployment dipped town to 3.9 percent, following six months at 4.1 percent. According to a New York Times article, there's only been one sustained period over the last 60 years when the jobless rate stayed below 4 percent — in the late 1960s.
April also marked the 91st consecutive month of job gains, "far and away the longest streak of increases on record," according to the New York Times.
"We've continued to add jobs routinely every month for so long, and the unemployment rate we have...
May 3rd, 2018134290You're probably basking in the glow of your completed tax season, right? You've put your calculator away and have prepared yourself to forget how a W-2 works until next year.
Until you suddenly realize you forgot to claim that important tax credit; you took a deduction that wasn't meant for you; you just flat out got something wrong!
Take a deep breath. Relax.
The Internal Revenue Service provides a form called 1040X to amend any tax mistakes filers made on Form 1040, 1040A, 1040EZ, 1040NR or 01040 NR-EZ. Filling out a 1040X requires simple math. The document is made up of three columns. Column A shows figures from the return...
May 2nd, 20181248If you're making payments on your furry friend through a pet store, make sure you're reading the fine print. Are you sure you're making payments to eventually own your animal?
Buying a pet through a store can get expensive. A Forbes article found that golden retriever puppies can cost about $500 and other sites suggest African Grey parrots can range in price from $1,500 to $3,000. With those costs in mind, some pet stores understandably offer payment plans.
But the U.S. Federal Trade Commission used its blog to warn consumers to use caution when entering into those agreements. Many consumers enter a payment plan believing they're...
May 2nd, 20182164The U.S. saw a drop-off in mortgage applications last week as interest rates on some 30-year-fixed-rate home loans reached the highest levels in more than 4.5 years, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday.
According to a Reuters article, interest rates on "conforming" 30-year mortgages — loans with balances of $453,100 or less — averaged 4.80 percent, the highest since September 2013 and up from 4.73 percent from the prior week.
For more, read the full Reuters article here. ...
May 1st, 20181155In case you haven't noticed by now: gas prices are pretty high. And, according to a Fortune article, that's not likely to improve any time soon.
Rising oil prices are expected to translate into higher gas prices this summer, according to projections made by private analysts and the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The average gas price in the U.S. is about 42.81 per gallon. That's up from $2.39 a gallon last year, according to the Oil Price Information Service. Last summer, gas prices averaged about $2.41 a gallon. But this year, the EIA estimates drivers will pay closer to $2.74.
"This will be the most expensive driving...
April 27th, 20180150The U.S. economic growth slowed to a moderate 2.3 percent in the first quarter of 2018, according to media reports.
That means the country's gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced in the nation, rose at a 2.3 percent annualized rate in the first three months of this year. That's a steady rate, but still less than the 2.9 percent growth the U.S. experienced to close out 2017.
Bloomberg reported that analysts expect the economy to rebound again as tax cuts take affect in the already strong job market.
"The biggest question is what's going to happen in the second quarter," Jacob Oubina, senior U.S....
April 19th, 20182171The good news: We all got an extra day to file our taxes Wednesday.
>>Related: IRS delays tax deadline by one day after technological malfunction<<
The bad news: We got that extra day because the U.S. Internal Revenue Service discovered a "glitch" in the part of its operating system housing taxpayers' personal tax records, according to a Washington Post article.
The IRS reportedly discovered the malfunctioning "master file" around 4 a.m. Tuesday, the original tax deadline day. The agency told the media there was no reason to believe taxpayers' private data had been breached.
"There's no data loss," the IRS told...
April 18th, 20181171Don't worry — you still have until the end of the day to file those 2017 tax returns.
The Internal Revenue Service announced late Tuesday it would allow taxpayers to submit their returns without penalty through Wednesday, according to media reports. The announcement came after e-filing experienced technical difficulties all day Tuesday, the original tax deadline day.
According to a Washington Post article, the IRS's ability to process many tax returns filed electronically was knocked offline Tuesday as 5 million Americans were expected to try to file their taxes.
"This is the busiest tax day of the year, and the IRS apologizes for...
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