The purpose of life insurance is to provide a source of income, in case of your death, for your children, dependents, or other beneficiaries. (Life insurance can also serve certain estate planning purposes, which we won't go into here.)

As another school year ends, college tuition payments are a year closer. Parents often wonder when they should start saving and how much.

Summer is a great time to tackle those home improvements on your list. And under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, the energy tax credit is increased. The new law raises the credit rate to 30% of the cost of all qualifying improvements and raises the maximum credit limit to $1,500 for improvements placed in service in 2009 and 2010.

Summer is wedding season. If you are getting married this summer, remember to give some attention to your 2010 tax filing status.

Whether it is sewing, woodworking, fishing, gardening, stamp or coin collecting, millions of Americans participate in hobbies that may result in a profit. What are the tax implications of a hobby? When does a hobby become a business and how does that change the tax implications?

Social networking has euthanized the basic fundamentals of writing. On Twitter, for instance, a skeletal 140 allowed characters barely permits the stringing together of sentence fragments. The use of a full subject, conjunction, and predicate is truly a luxury with the countdown of remaining available characters ticking away in the corner of the white box. The dreaded negative number on this countdown alerts the loquacious tweeter that unless they find a way to downsize, their hundreds of followers will be left to wonder: “What IS Happening with Mary?” This is truly the heyday of the ampersand.

Keeping full and accurate homeowner records is vital for determining not only your home deductions but also the basis or adjusted basis of your home. These records include your purchase contract and settlement papers if you bought the property or other objective evidence if you acquired it by gift, inheritance, or similar means. Here is a discussion of what records you need to keep and when it is safe to dispose of them.

Each year, many taxpayers overlook tax credits, even though they often qualify for one or more of them. Though both tax deductions and credits save you money, they do it in different ways. A deduction lowers the income on which tax is figured. The tax credit is even better because it lowers the tax itself. Take time now to review your records and see if you qualify for one of these tax credits; many are new or expanded for the 2009 tax filing year.