After taking the GMAT back in August, I have been researching the many different schools and subsequently working on the applications. The process is quite involved, and applying to each university is a unique process. So here is the progress to date.

The first application I submitted was To Arizona State University since it had the earliest deadline for their first round of admissions. Once the application was in, an admissions officer took me to lunch since she was out here for a conference and conducted an interview. This took about 2 hours and I was then informed that she wanted to finish the interview with a current student and that she would call me the next week to set up a phone interview. This next interview lasted about 45 minutes and now I am just waiting on a response.

I next submitted my application to the University of Texas at Austin. Shortly thereafter, I was contacted by email to set up a time to conduct an interview either on campus or off. Since I live quite a ways from Austin, I opted for an off-campus interview to be conducted by an alumnus in my area. I met him downtown and the interview lasted about an hour. Now the complete application will go to the admissions committee for their decision and I am again just waiting for a response.

My third application is in at Ohio State University. I have only recently been contacted about an interview and have scheduled a phone interview in about a week and a half. This should be the last step in the process and then I’ll have to wait on a decision from them as well.

Hopefully I’ll hear something soon from these schools as I’ve been working on this since the end of August. It has however, been quite the learning experience. If you are also thinking of going for an MBA and you have any questions about the application process or anything else, feel free to contact me. I’ll be glad to help with anything I can.

I was watching CNBC the other day at a friends house (I don’t have cable) and they were making a big deal about gift cards, discussing the pros and cons. I’m not going to regurgitate their conversation here, but I will offer my own thoughts on the subject.

First off, I’ll start with some of the negatives. Some gift cards will come with different fees associated with them. Among these are fees to purchase the card as well as possible inactivity fees. These aren’t typical fees for most cards, but will usually be associated with gift cards purchased from credit card companies and cards for a certain mall or shopping center. Standard gift cards for a single store usually don’t have these conditions. The other negative with gift cards is that they can potentially expire. If they aren’t used within a certain period of time, the recipient will lose the ability to redeem them.

Now for the positives. While some people would actually prefer to receive cash as a gift, it’s not generally considered an acceptable gift in our society. Gift cards are a great way to compromise in this area. You can gift a certain dollar amount and still let the person pick out something for themselves. As far as the recipient is concerned, they’re then able to use the card as cash at a place that they assumably regularly visit.

Whatever your personal thoughts are on this subject, we ought to realize that they’re just a gift from someone. We should be grateful that they thought enough of us to get us a gift instead of scrutinizing their “gift-giving etiquette”. And if you’re worried about whether you’ll be looked down upon for giving a gift card, you ought to reevaluate who you choose to associate with. Just have a happy holiday season and enjoy whatever gift exchange that occurs.

Even though most everyone with an income pays taxes, not everyone has heard of tax brackets. And just because someone has heard of them, doesn’t mean that they understand them. Hopefully I’ll be able to clear up some of the confusion on the subject.

As explained by Wikipedia, Tax brackets are the divisions at which tax rates change in a progressive tax system. Different levels of income are taxed at different rates. This is why you may have heard people say that getting a raise has bumped them into a higher tax bracket. This, however, is the source of most confusion since people think they will be getting taxed more on their income, and this is only partially true.

The tax bracket you are in is the rate that you pay on the last dollar that you earn. It is not the rate at which all of your income is taxed. Therefore, you really shouldn’t ever be worried about moving into a higher tax bracket. In order to fully understand how it works though, it’s best to see an example. We’ll use the tax rates for the case of married filing jointly.

The first $15,650 is taxed at 10%. Any income over this amount up to $63,700 is taxed at 15%. Any income over this and up to $128,500 is taxed at 25%. It works the same as you move up through the tax brackets.

So, let’s say that you and your wife earn a combined income of $150,000. The tax that you are responsible for is $24,972.50 plus 28% of the amount over $128,500 which is $6,020 for a grand total of $30,992.50. This works out to a tax rate of approximately 20.7% which is significantly lower than the 28% tax bracket that you would be in.

As you can see, the actual tax rate that someone pays will be different than the tax bracket that they are in. Essentially everyone will pay their own effective tax rate based on their level of income. Just remember that this only applies to the Federal Income Tax rates. Their is also Social Security payments and state and local taxes which must also be factored in to determine your total tax bill.

Payday loans are meant to be a quick and easy way to hold you over between pay days when there is a financial need and should only be used as such. PayDay Loan Quotes would like to aid consumers looking for this type of product by providing a loan fee calculator and multiple quotes on Faxless Payday Loans. Check them out to use their calculator and learn more about what they have to offer.

The following is a guest post from The Rogue League. If you’d like to have a guest post featured, submit an article by email.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn the difference between an earning asset and a depreciating asset, read this story. The article from Reuters is re-published here for your convenience. Enjoy.

By Michelle NicholsNEW YORK (Reuters) – Deal or no deal? A woman’s online bid to find a rich husband in New York earning more than $500,000 a year has caused an Internet stir with a mystery Wall Street banker publicly assessing her hunt for romance as a business deal — and a bad one at that.

So much has been written on the topic of saving money. You can find articles talking about how to save money, ways to save money, and the benefits of saving money. It would seem that this is one area of personal finance on which everyone could agree. But that’s not the case. There is a contrarian viewpoint however, that one ought to at least consider before deciding what is best for their situation.

There are those who don’t really believe in saving money. It’s not that they think it should just be spent frivolously, but that there are better things to do with it than just saving it and having it sit there. Just take a look at the following quote.

“There is nothing in saving money. The thing to do with it is to put it back into yourself, into your work, into the thing that is important, into whatever you are so much interested in that it is more important than money.” -Henry Ford

As you can see from this statement, it’s possible that investing in yourself and trying to further your own efforts may be more beneficial than putting your money in some account at a bank. It’s apparent that this statement from Ford has an entrepreneurial slant to it, but you get the idea nonetheless.

This belief, as some may think, is not just a passing thought from Henry Ford. This is something that he really believed in. It is also interesting to read another quote from him on the same subject.

“Old men are always advising young men to save money. That is bad advice. Don’t save every nickel. Invest in yourself. I never saved a dollar until I was 40 years old.” -Henry Ford

Whatever your thoughts are on this subject, I think it’s at least interesting to see a different perspective. Maybe you’ll want to continue on the same path that you’ve always been on, but you may also want to include this advice in your plans, at least to some extent.

For those of you who live in the UK or who do business in the UK, there’s a website that offers you free loan quotes for Commercial Mortgages. They have access to many different commercial lenders to help provide you with the best deal possible as they can shop the application around. All you have to do is fill out their short form and submit it online. They are also able to provide you with commercial mortgage advice if that’s what you’re after as well. So, check them out if you’re in the market for, or looking into a commercial mortgage.