By Town Crier Staff Report
Save in a 529 college-savings plan for a grandchild.
T. Rowe Price has a graph on its Web site that calculates whether you are saving enough to pay for college, based on hundreds of possibilities.
Logon to www.troweprice.com and select “College Investment Calculator.”
Advice on taking care of a person with Alzheimer’s disease
To order the booklet “Steps to Success: Decisions about Help at Home for Alzheimer’s Caregivers,” call (800) 424-3410. To download it from the Internet, logon to www.andrus.org.
IRS relaxes rules for 2001 donations to charity.
The rule is when you give a gift of $250 or more to charity, you must obtain a receipt by the time you file your return. In response to the flood of donations after Sept. 11, the IRS says you don’t have to worry as long as you received the charity’s confirmation by Oct. 15, 2002.
Advice on taking away the car keys from a relative with dementia
An online guide is available at www.thehartford.com/alzheimers. It has suggestions for easing the transition from driver to passenger.
Invest in corporate bonds to get dividends.
More companies are selling their bonds directly to individuals; some cost as little as $1,000. At times they are a bit risky, but some pay interest monthly rather than semiannually. Logon to www.directnotes.com or www.internotes.com.
Don’t sweat over above-average tax deductions.
According to Kiplinger’s Retirement Report, itemized deductions on your federal return won’t automatically trigger an audit. The IRS takes into account that people who live in high-tax states have bigger state-tax deductions, and it matches mortgage deductions with reports from lenders.
Last year, average itemized deductions totaled $15,582 for those earning $50,000 to $100,000 and $24,062 for those earning $100,000 to $200,000.
Don’t pay full price for a time share.
You can get a better deal on a resale time share offered by the Timeshare Users Group. Logon to www.tug2.net or Internet auction house eBay at www.ebay.com.
- Resource material taken from the Web
