Category Archives: Finance
PayPal Alternatives
Lifehacker came out with a timely article on “Why You Should Ditch PayPal and Use These Other Services to Send People Money”. I’ve been poking around looking at a few alternatives ever since doing some investigating into some eBay practices and discovering PayPal also has some disturbing complaints against them as well. Then, coincidentally, I sent some money to someone as a donation for software via PayPal, and PayPal decided to put a hold on it. Oddly enough, the time I wasted telling them it was legitimate cost me more than the measly donation.
I don’t know why it is, but it seems that companies often start out with a really good idea and user friendly, but then they get big and they start going downhill rather than improving.
Job Seeking and Travel Expenses
While this is somewhat off topic from the usual mix, this is an important work related item if you are unemployed and seeking work or just hate your job so much that even in this economy you are willing to look elsewhere for employment. What travel expenses can you deduct while looking for a new job? When you work for a company, the rules are generally clear, but perhaps the IRS rules are not so clear when you are looking for employment.
LifeHacker has put together a short article that gives the basic guidelines and pointers to the IRS if you need the details in “Rules for Deducting Travel Expenses While Looking for Work”. This will help you get back as much of the travel expenses as you are due from taxes, which is particularly important if you are struggling with unemployment.
