There are a lot of people today who are supporting their parents.  There are different levels of support but many Americans feel a heavy burden on their shoulders as they are completely supporting their parents who once supported them.  If you are in this situation, you may be able to claim your parent as a dependent and get a tax break. 

Not everyone qualifies to do this but it is certainly worth checking in to…

To qualify as a dependent, your parent's income can't exceed the amount of the personal exemption. For 2007, the cut-off is $3,400. In most instances, Social Security benefits aren't counted. But if your parent receives more than $3,400 from other sources, such as pension benefits, interest and dividends from investments, or withdrawals from retirement savings plans, you can't claim her as a dependent.

Francis Degen, an enrolled agent in Setauket, N.Y., says the income requirement prevents most taxpayers from claiming a parent as a dependent, because even a small pension will make the parent ineligible.

In addition to the income test, you must provide more than half a parent's costs for food, housing, medical care, transportation and other necessities, says Cynthia Jeanguenat, an enrolled agent in Virginia Beach. Even if all your mother's income is from Social Security, you can't claim her as a dependent unless you pay more than half her living expenses.

Your mom doesn't have to live with you to qualify as a dependent, as long as she meets the income test and you provide more than half her financial support, says Donna LeValley, a tax lawyer and spokeswoman for J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax 2007. If your mother lives with you, you can include a percentage of your mortgage, utilities and other expenses in calculating how much you contribute to her support, LeValley says. You can find a worksheet in IRS Publication 501, available at www.irs.gov.

To learn more on this subject, read the article below from USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/block/2007-06-25-parent-support_N.htm?csp=34

Kamaron Institute personal finance business references, tips and resources. 

Our world has changed in many ways over the last decades.  Today, most moms and dads both work.  Both parents work in way more than half the American families with young kids.  The next biggest group is still the dads working and the moms staying at home raising the kids (and this is certainly an important job!).  It may seem there is a large group out there where the moms work and the dads stay at home but that is actually still a very small percent. 

This article gives some great statistics that you might find interesting…

Times have certainly changed since the days of “Leave It to Beaver,” when Ward Cleaver, in a business suit, won the bread and June Cleaver, in an apron, served it. But we are far from being a “Mr. Mom” society, too.

In 62 percent of married-couple families with children under 18, both the father and the mother are employed, according to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A sizable 31 percent adhere to the traditional ’60s sitcom mold, with the father being the sole wage earner.

A mere 5 percent of the fathers are not working while the mother is employed, the data show. The statistics are silent on which of these fathers are jobless by choice.

But it is clear that the urge to earn remains strong among fathers, and that a man’s ego may suffer a blow if he decides to stay home.

If you want to read more, you can view the complete Kamaron Institute Job Market article by clicking the following link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/business/yourmoney/17count.html?ex=1339732800&en=1a5051d2a69bec01&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Kamaron Institute business news, educational career and parenting reference tips and resources.  

Have you noticed that there are times when you can't fill up your whole gas tank with certain credit cards?  There is a security feature in place with Visa & MasterCard and other cards which limits the dollar amount on pay-at-the-pump transactions.  This has been in place for some time but only in recent times have people begin to notice it since gas prices have risen so high.  It is not all gas stations and probably those driving SUVs would be the ones to experience this.  This is good information to have in case you do experience this and can't figure out what is going on…

As the price of gasoline rises, rules to limit credit card fraud at the nation's pumps are confusing consumers who just want a full tank of gas.

Caps on transaction amounts — or the total dollar amount of gas a customer can pump into their car — are limiting some drivers.

Credit card companies have established a protective layer by setting transaction caps on how much gas a consumer can pump at any one given time.

For MasterCard customers, it's $75. Visa and Discover users have a $50 pay-at-the-pump limit. Transaction limits vary for corporate card holders and American Express users.

Not all gas stations have to abide by the cap. And there are no limits if a customer goes inside and pays with their credit card at the counter.

The caps have gone unnoticed as gasoline prices remained relatively low.

“We get more calls, questions, when gas prices increase,” said Visa spokeswoman Rhonda Bentz.

The average price of regular unleaded gasoline increased from $1.50 a gallon at the start of the decade to $2.28 a gallon in 2005, according to the American Automobile Association.

Today, gasoline prices are topping $3 a gallon.

To learn more on this subject, read the complete article below from USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2007-06-15-gas-cutoff_N.htm?csp=34

Kamaron Institute personal finance business references, tips and resources. 

The Dow had a few not-so-good days recently, knocking it down a bit after the great run it has had this year.  But today was a new day.  It had the biggest one day gain in nearly a year!  Many experts feel the stock market is not near the high yet that it will reach this year.  Days like today certainly helps to boost the confidence of investors…

Stocks rebounded smartly Wednesday, propelling the Dow Jones industrial average up 187 points as bond yields eased and economic data came in stronger than expected.

The Dow saw its biggest point gain since July 19, 2006, and more than made up for a plunge a day earlier that was fueled by the benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield's surge to five-year highs. Rising bond yields amid inflation concerns had been pummeling stocks since last week.

Though rate worries still dog investors, their confidence perked up after the Commerce Department said Wednesday that retail sales jumped 1.4% in May. The rise, which followed a 0.1% decline in April, was the highest in 16 months and double the increase analysts expected. It signaled to the stock market that consumers plan to keep spending and pushing the economy along, even as gas prices and other costs increase.

Investors were also pleased about the Federal Reserve's beige book report, which said the U.S. economy kept expanding at a moderate pace in the first part of the second quarter. The central bank's next meeting on interest rates will be held in two weeks.

To learn more on this subject, read the complete article below from USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/markets/2007-06-13-stocks-wed_N.htm?csp=34

Kamaron Institute personal finance business references, tips and resources. 

A couple years ago it didn't seem you could go wrong by investing in real estate.  However, it isn't the case right now.  Many investors are not in the best shape.  Back in 2002 the thing to do was get out of stocks and put the money in real estate.  Now the opposite is true.  Many real estate investors are selling off their real estate and putting the money in the stock market…

How things have changed.

For-sale signs are sitting ignored in some cities. Interest rates on exotic loans are doubling. Insurance premiums and property taxes are skyrocketing. Wannabe real estate tycoons stuck with properties they can't sell have been turned into landlords, forced to fix toilets and take tenant calls in the middle of the night. Many are “under water” — owing more on the mortgage than they could get by selling.

Meanwhile, stock investors have been celebrating again as broad market indexes march to new highs. And that is prompting some real estate investors to make the switch back to stocks. Real estate “isn't as lucrative as it used to be,” says Jack Patterson, a financial adviser in Coral Gables, Fla., who has been helping clients sell real estate and buy stocks.

It's a complete flip-flop from 2002, when investors tired of the bear market ravaging Wall Street cashed in their stocks and bought homes and investment property. People doing that were the subject of a USA TODAY cover story in December 2002.

To learn more on this subject, read the complete article below from USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2007-06-06-real-stocks-usat_N.htm?csp=34

Kamaron Institute personal finance business references, tips and resources. 

How many of you go to an office every day to work?  Have you ever had the thought, “I wish I could just work from home like so-and-so does.” Or maybe thoughts like “They have it made being able to work from home and not having to go to an office every day.”  Well, it is always good to have a different perspective on things.  The grass is not always as green on the other side as you might think.  There are some disadvantages to working from hom as this person says in great detail.  But before we totally share the negative side of working from home it is important to say that there truly are great advantages.  The important thing to understand is that people are different.  There are people out there who would probably disagree with several of these points that are made.

One thing that most work-from-homers would probably agree on is that it can be tough to “leave” your work.  When your work place is only a few feet or a couple rooms over from where you sleep, it can be tough to “walk away” and leave it for later.  But that can be learned. 

So here's a different perspective on working from home for all you office workers out there…

Usually, I’m on the phone interviewing sources, but there are times when, if I’m on an especially pressing deadline, I can’t be on the phone at all. Sometimes I won’t even leave my house for a few days.

That’s when I welcome the ringing phone, just so I can hear the warm tones of my digital amanuensis. It sounds crazy, I know — the 21st-century version of an old lady and her cats — but I feel inexplicably less isolated just because she’s around.

“That’s really pathetic,” a friend of mine said when I told him about my invisible playmate. He’s right. But we do what we have to, those of us who work alone.

O.K., I know I have been the envy of my office-worker friends, who complain about the lack of privacy, the politics, the gossip at their workplaces. And those are certainly things that I’ve wanted to avoid over the years. But now, frankly, I’d like to poke fun at the boss with my colleagues, or to know whether Sheila in accounting is dating the messenger guy.

We home-office loners compensate for our lack of community in myriad, pathetic ways. I try to get out at night, I see friends and hit the gym and check out hip city happenings, but none of that really takes the place of being around a group of people who are working toward a similar goal.

If you want to read more, you can view the complete Kamaron Institute Job Market article by clicking the following link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/business/yourmoney/03pre.html?ex=1338523200&en=ad7650f12a17b9b9&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Kamaron Institute business news, educational career and parenting reference tips and resources.