2003 December | Wheatworks Blog: Financial Matters

Death and Taxes

12/29/2003, 8:29 pm

“The only two certain things in life,” goes the cliche, “are death and taxes.”

Let’s get taxes out of the way quickly by acknowledging that the tax season is about to begin for most Americans. Get ready for it. Enough said.

And let’s focus briefly on the more important of life’s certainties: Death. It’s a sure thing and, unlike taxes, you can’t file for an extension.

It’s amazing how few fail to make any practical preparations for their death and its consequences for their family. I have friends with children who refuse to prepare a will (with whom will their children live?), don’t have life insurance (term insurance is the affordable choice), and who haven’t recorded any of the details related to their family finances (why add confusion to your family’s grief?).

It’s almost 2004 and it’s time to think about New Year’s resolutions.

Here’s one for you to consider: Make three practical preparations for your death.

1. Create a will
2. Buy life insurance to protect your family
3. Record all the financial details your family will need to know if you’re not around to take care of them.

Happy New Year … Live Long and Prosper!

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Another Free Financial Calculator!

12/28/2003, 8:23 pm

Nine days after releasing Free Loan Calculator on December 19, 2003, Wheatworks has released Pay Down Debt or Invest Calculator. And it’s free, too!

What’s it do? It answers the classic question as old and debt and windfalls.

You wind up with extra cash and wonder, “Should I invest this money or use it to pay off debt I already owe?” It’s a decision we often make without a great deal of consideration. But it’s a decision that carries consequences far into the future.

This free financial calculator from Wheatworks Software, LLC is designed to show you the future effects of an investment versus the future effects of using extra cash to pay down a current debt.

It’s easy to use. You need only three numbers: the amount of you have to invest, the annual interest rate you’re paying on your current debt, and the annual return you expect to make on the investment you are considering.

With these three numbers, you can quickly determine whether investing a windfall makes more sense than paying off a debt. (Hint, hint: It’s usually better to pay off your debt first.)

By displaying the long term consequences in a columnar format, Pay Down Debt or Invest Calculator makes it obvious whether paying down or investing is the better choice.

It’s free! Get it by visiting Wheatworks’ web site at www.wheatworks.com/pddoi.htm. You’ll be glad you did.

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My Favorite Non-Financial Software

12/21/2003, 8:16 pm

As a software developer I sit in front of a computer for more waking hours than not.

And while my favorite financial software includes Wheatworks‘ own products (and several others I’ll mention in a later post), I also use a lot of non-financial software.

I create web sites, monitor web logs, edit text, transfer files to and from various servers, develop help files, maintain more passwords than I can recall, zip and unzip files, submit applications to download sites, manage my clipboard … you get the idea.

In short, I use a lot of stuff!

Here in the holiday season I’ll list “a few of my favorite things”.

In alphabetical order and with apologies to the developers (those unsung heroes of this digital age) for any mis-directed links, my favorite non-financial software includes:

ClipMate by Thornsoft Development, Inc

CSE HTML Validator by AI Internet Solutions

FTP Voyager by RhinoSoft

HelpScribble by JGSoft (Just Great Software)

NoteTab Pro by Fookes Software

Password Agent by Moon Software

PicoZip by Softchitect

RoboSoft by Rudenko Software

TopStyle Pro by Bradsoft.com

Weblog Storming by Dataland Software

Visit these sites and take a look at what I think are some of the best software products … best values on the Internet.

This is great stuff and the developers who put these applications together have some of the digital shoulders I stand on every day when I sit down in front of my computer.

So, Chris, Albert, Mark, Jan, Eric, Ahto, Christopher, Mykola, Nick and Vladimir … Thanks, guys!

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Free Loan Calculator

12/19/2003, 8:13 pm

If you need a free loan calculator for Windows, we’ve created one for you. And we’ve aptly named it, “Free Loan Calculator.”

This free loan payment calculator for Windows allows you to quickly calculate your loan payments based upon variable payment frequency! It offers Daily 365/year, Daily 360/year, Weekly, Biweekly 26/year, Bimonthly 24/year, Monthly, Quarterly, Biannual, and Annual payment periods. Free Loan Calculator is a financial calculator designed for Win9x/ME/NT/2000/XP systems. It offers integrated help, provides automatic hints, and offers Wheatworks’ integrated Upgrade Center for easy, free, online updates.

Why is it free? Two reasons. First, we want to say, “Thank You!” to those who are already Wheatworks customers. And second, we want to introduce our software to those who haven’t yet discovered Wheatworks’ financial calculators.

Download and enjoy our Free Loan Calculator!