Employer-provided life insurance can be a great benefit, with the cost of part of it excluded from an employee’s taxable income. Participating employees need to be aware that this exclusion only applies to the first $50,000 in coverage, and the employer-paid cost of the excess will be reported on the employee’s Form W-2. This is true even if the life insurance is never received. A sidebar reveals how the value of that taxable income is determined.

Traditionally, important tax and financial records have been stored as hard copies in desk drawers, filing cabinets and safe deposit boxes. These days, it has become increasingly popular and easy to digitize documents and store them electronically. This article explores the advantages and risks of this approach.

Inventory is expensive, so it needs to be as lean as possible without compromising revenue and customer service. This article provides some suggestions to help businesses trim the fat from inventory and some useful inventory ratios for benchmarking and evaluating product mix.

A good family budget should be simple yet comprehensive. As this brief article explains, this objective can be accomplished by addressing both the near term (such as day-to-day items) and the long term (such as college education and retirement).