deyab said:Glitch99 said:deyab said:If my employer wrote me a check, I must wait till it's cashed, but my employer would make the decision for me and include it in same years W2. Again, no. Your employer includes it according to the pay date. If pay day is 12/31, they distribute checks on 12/31, and the income is recieved 12/31. There is no decision to be made. There is no leeway.

Uh.. I probably should have worded the last sentence better. The OP is NOT an employee. He is getting paid for a multi month project, clearly a contractor. OP does have discretion.Your wording has nothing to do with anything. Employee, contractor, or anything else, it doesnt matter. A check IS the payment. When a check is in your hand you have received payment. The income has been recieved as of that day. That is the day the income is realized. There is no leeway, discretion, or any other gray area to interpret.

The only other option is if the OP matches income to the same period in which any related expenses were incurred (if 70% of the expenses were incurred in 2007, 70% of the revenue is attributed to 2007) - but this too leaves no discretion, the rules still dictate when and how income is accrued.

deyab said:I am not an accountant. I am replying to this post based on my personal experience.This isnt a question about personal experience, its a question about the rules. When responding to fact-based questions, you should provide facts, not opinions based on personal experience. How you've decided to do it is not relevant to how the IRS clearly states it is to be done.

I'm 22 years old and I'm about to start my first 401k plan in February. It looks like my company's plan is pretty crappy...there are 14 funds, and 7 of them have Morningstar ratings of 1 or 2 stars.

Of the remaining options, 2 look pretty good and the rest look decent. No index funds, unfortunately. Fees look way too high to me, but since they're all through Goldman Sachs, I can't do much there.

I make ~33k, and I intend to contribute 4% of my paycheck, which maxes out the matching contribution. (100% of first 4%, fully vested) I'd put more in, but right now money's tight because I also wanted to max my 2007 Roth IRA contribution.

My question is, if I only plan on working with the company for another year or two, how should I allocate my funds? My thinking is, if the plan is so crappy, I'll probably want to roll over to an IRA when I leave my job. In that case, I'd better stick mostly with short-term funds like a money market fund, right?

I don't want to be a timid investor, in general, since I've got so much time left till retirement, but I don't want to do a long-term fund when I'll only be in it for a few years at most.

Any suggestions? Proposed breakdowns? Further info needed? Thanks!

dcwilbur said:bula said:I am leaning towards a 12 month cd because I know I will have a lower tax burden in 2009.Tax is due on interest EARNED during the year, even if it isn't paid until the CD matures. If you take out a 12 month CD today, you will get a 1099 for 11 months of interest in 2008, even if the interest isn't actually paid until 2009.

Sorry, dcwilbur, but that isn't correct. Tax is owed only on the amount of interest paid during the year, not on the amount of interest accrued. If someone were to open a one year CD today that pays all the interest earned on the CD at maturity, there would be no tax due for that account for 2008 since all of the interest would be paid in 2009. No 1099 would be issued for 2008 for the CD. The 1099 for 2009 would be for the entire 12 months of interest.

uglymonkeybutt said:How do you search morningstar for a specific fund? I tried to type my 401k fund's ticker (e.g. GITAX or GOIAX) into what I ASSUME to be the seach box, and nothing came up.You should see two search boxes near the top left, you want to enter ticker symbols into the box labeled "Quote".

I have a CitiProfessional card whose CL I reallocated about a year ago after issue, and left it with $1K. When their system got around to offering up a CLI 6 months later, it offered up $500. I took it, of course, but am wondering if anyone with Citi experience knows what they like to see to offer bigger CLIs? This Citi card is currently sockdrawered.

Virtually all of my other cards are heading towards $25K CL (each).

On a related note, have a new & sockdrawered GEMB Net Rewards Visa that was issued at $3500. What do they like to see to offer up CLIs?

I have posted the question that Glitch99 and deyab is disagreeing on at the Tax thread. The pro there should have a better handle on the issue.

ucbedge said:Which online savings account do Fatwalleters recommend the most? I have ~$25K in Emigrant Direct since it was the darling of the FW world two years ago. Has it fallen out of favor? What does everybody recommend?

FNBOdirect is still at 5.05% for $1+

I think Countrywide is at 5.25% for $10k+

not sure where any online accounts will be after the FOMC expected Rate cut at the end of the month.

1 - yes
2 - yes
3 - Yes, as well as online.

swishyx said:Re BofA Business Power Rewards Visa:

(1) do they ever auto-CLI?
(2) is there an online method to request a CLI (can't find one)
(3) If you call in to request one do they hard pull?

uglymonkeybutt said:I'm 22 years old and I'm about to start my first 401k plan in February. It looks like my company's plan is pretty crappy...there are 14 funds, and 7 of them have Morningstar ratings of 1 or 2 stars.

Of the remaining options, 2 look pretty good and the rest look decent. No index funds, unfortunately. Fees look way too high to me, but since they're all through Goldman Sachs, I can't do much there.

I make ~33k, and I intend to contribute 4% of my paycheck, which maxes out the matching contribution. (100% of first 4%, fully vested) I'd put more in, but right now money's tight because I also wanted to max my 2007 Roth IRA contribution.

My question is, if I only plan on working with the company for another year or two, how should I allocate my funds? My thinking is, if the plan is so crappy, I'll probably want to roll over to an IRA when I leave my job. In that case, I'd better stick mostly with short-term funds like a money market fund, right?

I don't want to be a timid investor, in general, since I've got so much time left till retirement, but I don't want to do a long-term fund when I'll only be in it for a few years at most.

Any suggestions? Proposed breakdowns? Further info needed? Thanks!"Short term" means you will be needing access to the money soon. Your situation is still "long term" - you aren't planning on using the money, just transfering it to a different account.

You arent counting on having $XXXX on a certain date; you will just roll over whatever the value is at the time you roll over, and keep going. So unless you plan on withdrawing and spending the money soon, keep investing long term even as you move the money from account to account.