Useful Websites

Ever have a question about tax or financial issues that you wanted an answer to? Here are some sites that you might find helpful to find those answers. Also, see my list of IRS tax links.

  • www.irs.gov: If you have a question for the IRS or need a form for this year or a former year, you can go the IRS site for answers to frequently asked questions, publications that are comparatively easy to read and forms that may be looked at on-line or downloaded. You can also figure your withholding allowances using its W-4 calculator. States also have websites. New York’s is https://www.tax.ny.gov.
  • www.bigcharts.com. If you need to know the quote for a stock or mutual fund in the past as well as currently, you can find it here.
  • There are many useful financial sites on the web, often part of a magazine, television channel, or financial business like mutual fund. www.marketwatch.com, www.kiplinger.com,  https://finance.yahoo.com,  and www.vanguard.com, all have financial information and arrays of financial tools that you can take advantage of. Mutual fund companies not only have information on their mutual funds (eg www.vanguard.com) but often also have financial tools that you can use.
  • You can do basic retirement planning and college planning on many of the general sites. When you want more specialized information on college planning, for instance, you can go to www.savingforcollege.com.
  • www.morningstar.com has up-to-date information on mutual funds and stocks. You can get an in depth analysis of each fund and stock you own as well as asset allocation tools.
  • The trick is not to become overloaded. Also don’t be sidetracked by the proprietary offerings on whatever site you’re on.
  • For mortgage information, go to www.hsh.com to figure out how much mortgage you qualify for as well, how much you can afford, is it worth it to refinance as well as how much will a particular loan cost per month.

Be aware that each financial tool is based on assumptions. The tool is only as good as the assumptions you put into it. For instance, if you say that you will get an 8% return on your money until you retire and you only get 4%, your calculations will be off.