Selling Covered calls is a great strategy to help you create consistent cash flow from the stock market. It can significantly help you to increase the return of just buying and holding.

So what are the advantages?

1. It gives you cash Flow

By selling calls on a stock every month you can create a somewhat consistent cash flow from that stock. Selling options is the only way to create an income from the market that is consistent and covered calls are the safest ways to sell them.

2. Help you During Down Times

If you own a stock and just hold it for the long term, eventually that stock will have a rough time. It is pretty hard to see one of your investments take a dive. But by selling calls on that stock you can recapture some of the losses that occur during a bears market, poor earnings, or just downward pressure.

3. Easy to manage

As far as trading goes covered calls are very easy to manage. All you have to do is sell a call on your stock and wait until expiration day. You do not have to manage the trade by constantly monitoring it and adjusting stops.

It is also a lot less stressful then something like swing trading which can really be hard to handle emotionally at times, especially for new traders.

4. The Returns are pretty Good

There are times when it is possible to get a 5% return or more in a month by selling calls on a stock. It would take a whole year for you to get that kind of cash flow from dividends.

For more on covered calls visit http://www.stocks-simplified.com/covered_calls.html

For some times to avoid selling covered calls visit http://www.stocks-simplified.com/Selling_covered_calls.html

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After almost two-year bull market, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks both A and B shares, recorded a dismal performance since October 2007. In 2008, The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) suffered an annual loss of over 60%, plunging 2560 points and being the worst performing market in Asia. No doubt, the primary mission of the SSE is to maintain stability in market development. Trading security and smooth operation of the market, the construction of blue chip market, market trading mechanism, product innovation such as the SHSE-SZSE300 Index ETF, and the bond market are among the priorities.

Shanghai, a city historically with deep ties to the western world, has been an international business center, but the Chinese capital market in some ways is still relatively isolated from the international markets. To fulfill China's goal to build Shanghai into an international financial and shipping center by 2020, Shanghai is taking steps to develop more sophisticated investment products, offer favorable tax policies to attract international investors, build a multi-layered financial market system, and promote the opening of financial services in the city. Investors embrace the idea of building Shanghai into an international financial center, which resulted in an instant Shanghai indext's 3.1% increase to 2361.70. One action to note is, for the first time ever, China will allow foreign companies to list in Shanghai. Foreign companies would be allowed to raise money through the Shanghai Stock Exchange and also to issue bonds in China. This could mean new territories for companies that are interested in extending their business to China or Asian markets. As the financial system of the third largest economy opens up and becomes more global, players of the financial world will become more interrelated.

China does not take this route without caution. To nurture start-ups, China has cautiously developed Growth Enterprise Market (GEM), which is an experimental, technology-based, Nasdaq-style stock market. Only more mature firms that have met requirements will be first listed. One can also judge by where GEM is planned to open, possibly in 2009: on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Shenzhen has traditionally been a test ground for new programs before they were rolled out to the broader market. Investors are cautious but remain interested, with vivid memories of the 2006/2007 SSE's over 300% gain as well as more than $3 trillion of loss in value from listed companies during the downturn; and it all happened when the Chinese economy still had a growth of 9% in 2008.

A growth of about 8% is widely expected. Investors keep a close eye on companies like Baidu (BIDU), China Mobile Ltd. (CHL), and both recently posted strong quarterly growth with warnings. Baidu reported a better-than-expected 23.5% increase in first-quarter net profits, but warned the global downturn was affecting online advertising including paid search listings, keywords, and ads on Baidu's pages. Holding over 60% of China's online search market share, Baidu, however, faces competitions from Google. China Mobile had a 5.2% first-quarter net profit increase, but warned about its slowing subscriber growth. On April 23, Baidu, the China search engine giant, has a market capitalization of 7.2 billion and a P/E ratio of 47.5x, and China Mobile, China's largest provider of mobile telecom services, 179 billion and a P/E ratio of 11x, although P/E multiples may not be as reliable in a downtime if forecasted earnings is used. In the territory of wireless technology, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology estimates that 170 billion yuan, or about $25 billion, will be spent on 3G networks in China in 2009. In 2009, China Mobile, will spend around 58.8 billion yuan, or US$8.6 billion in 2009 to build out its 3G network, while China Unicom (CHU) and China Telecom (CHA) will spend around 30 billion yuan, or US$4.4 billion each on building 3G networks. Two companies that are worth mentioning are Huawei and ZTE, which are winning contracts as China rolls out its 3G wireless technology, taking more market shares from their foreign competitors.

China's fiscal $586 billion stimulus and its planned spending of a third of the stimulus on railways, highways and power grids-related projects tends to benefit companies like China Zhongwang Holdings Ltd., Asia's largest aluminum-extrusion manufacturer by capacity, which has a railway compoent in its business and is promoting its IPO. Foreign investors are welcome in this market especially as joint-venture partners. China's government spending on infrastructure will certainly have an impact on some international players.

For information on business resources, stocks, real estate, business travel, culture and entertainment in Shanghai as well as shopping for Shanghai, China, or Asia related products and services, please visit http://shanghaipinnacle.com/

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Mutual funds are the average or inexperienced investor's best friend. They are designed for every-day people who want help from professionals in managing their investments. To get technical, they are "open-end investment companies" that pool investors' money and manage it for them.

Investing in mutual funds is quite simple. Tens of millions of Americans trust their money to these investor-friendly investments. Let's take a look at how investing in mutual funds works.

Jack has a $10,000 CD maturing at the bank in a joint account with his spouse. He also wants to start investing about $5000 a year in a Roth IRA. He is looking to earn more interest on his CD, and wants more investment options for his IRA than his bank offers.

Jack does not really know how to invest his money, so he asks his old friend Jim for advice because he knows that Jim is an experienced investor. Plus, Jack is thrifty and does not trust salesmen, and that includes those who charge you to invest with them.

Jim suggests mutual funds with a major no-load fund family that he does business with. Jim knows how to invest, and helps Jack with the mutual fund applications. This required two different applications. The first was to open a joint account with the $10,000 CD money. The second was to open a Roth IRA.

The $10,000 was spit evenly with half going to a high-quality bond fund, and half to a money market fund. They did this because Jack wanted safety, but also wanted to earn higher interest than he could get at the bank. Jack would not receive the interest income the funds paid in dividends, but decided to have it automatically reinvested to buy more shares, so his investment would grow.

They opened a Roth IRA and set things up so that $400 a month would automatically flow from Jack's checking account to the IRA with the mutual fund company. Half would go to a balanced fund that invested in both stocks and bonds, and half to a money market fund. Once again, all dividends (and capital gains) would automatically be reinvested to buy more shares.

Jack wanted growth, but Jim knew him very well. Jack did not know how to invest, he was cost conscious, and he avoided risk whenever possible. That's why Jim had half of Jack's money going into money market funds. These funds pay competitive interest rates in the form of dividends. If interest rates in the economy change, the rate paid by money market funds change in step. Plus, they have a great record for low risk and high safety.

For now, Jack is happy, especially since all of this cost him nothing in sales charges or fees. For example, he sent the fund company $10,000. All of his money was invested to buy shares, with no sales charges. Plus, he has $400 a month going into funds in his Roth IRA. Once again, all of the $400 is going to work to buy shares, with no sales charges or fees.

The only cost to Jack is yearly expenses. Every mutual fund takes these costs directly from fund assets. Jack wouldn't even know this if Jim hadn't told him. On the other hand, Jack's expenses were very low compared to most funds.

Jim explained to Jack that on average, his yearly expenses for the type of funds he was in would amount to almost 1% a year with most mutual fund companies. Jack was paying about one-fourth of that, which put a smile on his face.

A retired financial planner, James Leitz has an MBA (finance) and 35 years of investing experience. For 20 years he advised individual investors, working directly with them helping them to reach their financial goals.

Jim is the author of a complete investor guide, Invest Informed, designed for average investors or would-be investors of all levels of financial background and experience. To learn more about investments and investing and his new financial guide go to http://www.investinformed.com

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What is the best way to invest $10,000? If this is something that you really want to know, know that there are plenty of ways in which you can invest this money. First, you have to determine how long you want to sit on this money. When do you want to see a return? You know that the faster you want to see a return the higher the risk that you are dealing with.

So let's say you want to sit on this money for 5 years. You can take your money and put it in a growth stock mutual fund. These may include international, aggressive growth, stable, etc. There are several different kinds. You just have to make sure that what you are investing in are stock mutual funds. Now, if you can't leave your money alone for a period of 5 years, then you may need to consider a CD or a bond.

But if you do plan on leaving it alone and you plan on investing in growth stock mutual funds, you will find that the risk to return ratio is quite amazing. You could make more in individual stocks, but you have to determine if the risk is worth it. But with stock mutual funds, the risk to return ratio is what you want to focus on. In the end, you may net more money due to the fact that the risk is lower.

So if you're wondering how to invest your money, this is a great way to go about that. So go ahead and invest and have a great time doing it. You might be quite pleased.

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I've been looking at a couple of growth funds, as well as some no-load funds to get started. Since I don't have a lot of capital to invest at the beginning here, I figured that these types of funds would be my best bet. They'll allow me to diversify my portfolio to an extent that wouldn't be possible if I simply bought stocks on my own, and this will of course protect me from short-term market fluctuations. By using mutual fund ratings to identify good investment opportunities, I'm giving myself an excellent head start.

Mutual fund reviews can come from a variety of sources, including financial journals, investment magazines, and the Internet. Since I don't have much experience with the stock market, I've been sticking to trusted names for my information, such as The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, Kiplinger's Personal Finance, and Money. All of these publications regularly feature comprehensive mutual fund ratings, and I can even access recent archives by visiting their respective websites.

I've also found a number of independent websites that publish their own ratings, but I'm a lot more wary of following any advice from these places. After all, sometimes it's hard to tell if a particular site is part of a class project for a 19-year-old college student or if it's actually run by people who know what they're doing. The last thing I need is to follow terrible advice and lose all my money!

I know that fund ratings are only the beginning, and even funds that score the highest in these reviews carry a certain amount of risk. But by reading as much as I can about these investments before putting my money in, I'll be in a better position to assess the risk vs. reward ratio and will be able to make smarter decisions that will hopefully pay off in the form of a nice, big retirement account that will sustain me through my golden years.

If you're in the same boat and want to start planning for a secure future, I recommend that you review fund ratings from trusted sources before you invest your hard-earned dollars. The extra research will be worth it!

Chris Jonas is a chef working in Soho, New York.

Check out these great Mutual Fund reviews and articles or the more specific Mutual Funds Comparisons articles and resources.

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First off, why should you invest in mutual funds? Mutual funds are helpful for those who have limited time and resources, and would prefer to leave the management of their money to someone else. Mutual fund managers offer the expertise to invest in highly specialized areas such as international equities, and may thus be attractive if you would like to gain exposure to these markets without having to do the legwork yourself.

With such a wide array of mutual funds, choosing among them can be difficult. Nonetheless, there are three major criteria you should use to evaluate any mutual fund: the mutual fund's investment objectives, investment track record, and the mutual fund's expenses.

Mutual Fund Objectives

Choose mutual funds based on whether you are comfortable with their investment objectives. Different mutual funds have different investment objectives: growth, value, income, international exposure, contrarian investing. These will dictate the type of strategies followed by the fund - are the fund managers value investors? Or do they invest primarily for growth? Other funds adopt a strictly contrarian approach.

Extreme investment objectives naturally lead to more risky investment strategies - these are specifically the type of mutual funds you should be careful about investing in.

One indicator you should become familiar with is the Sharpe ratio. The Sharpe Ratio compares performance to fund volatility and is a good measure of risk. The lower the ratio, the better. The Sharpe Ratio is a very important measure of the level of risk you would expose yourself to.

Mutual Fund Performance

While past performance does not necessarily imply future success, it is nonetheless an important indicator. Compare the mutual fund's performance to the overall market and sector performance. Note that more than 70 percent of all mutual funds underperform, so scrutinize the performance figures carefully. What is the time span, what did the fund compare itself against, and what is the mode of comparison?

Mutual Fund Expenses
The third major factor you should carefully evaluate is the mutual fund's expenses. Look at the expense ratio. This ratio sums up all the costs of investing in the fund, which typically include the management costs, 12-b-1-, operating costs, loads and other miscellaneous costs.

For specific information on each mutual fund and to retrieve the different ratios mentioned above, Yahoo Finance and Morningstar are my personal favorites.

Yuen is a financial expert, personal finance specialist and motivational speaker who writes for the Financial Freedom Guide and other major financial blogs. His writing emphasizes financial independence and the creation of long term residual income streams. Learn how to emulate his success at Site Build It Reviews.

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It seems a little odd to compare stocks to mutual funds. Actually, mutual funds are largely composed of stocks. It is important to make the distinction between the two as there are some very real advantages to using mutual funds.

It is fun to invest in individual stocks because each company has its own story to tell. However, you want to focus on making money! Investing is not a game and should not be taken lightly.

When you invest in mutual funds, you are able to diversify and reduce your risk of losing money. Do you think that those wealthy investors out there just put their money in a couple of stocks? No! Either they are investing in mutual funds or are buying large numbers of stocks.

When you purchase mutual funds, you are hiring a professional manager at a relatively inexpensive price. It would be a little off the wall to think that you have more knowledge than a mutual fund manager! Most managers have been around the track a number of times and have the academic credentials to back up their knowledge.

Mutual fund companies have the advantage of capitalizing on economies of scale because they pool investors’ monies together. Since these companies have large amounts of money to invest, they usually have personal contacts at many brokerage firms and often trade commission-free.

Mutual funds are easy to take care of. The bookkeeper is much more challenged when there are hundreds of stocks to keep track of!

Mutual funds are very liquid. Put in your order for money in the morning if you are short on cash, and by the time the market closes you may have a check waiting for you. Stocks, on the other hand, are much more difficult. It all depends upon what you have invested in. CDs are not at all liquid and bonds are difficult as well.

If you are new to investing then mutual funds may be the way to go. You can invest small increments of money at regular intervals and not have to pay a trading cost. If you invest in stocks, you will find that they carry high transaction fees. This makes it quite difficult for the small investor to realize a profit.

If you are a wealthy stock investor, then you have it made because you get preferential treatment from the brokers. Wealthy bank account holders usually get the red carpet treatment from the banks. However, mutual funds do not discriminate. Whether you only have a paltry $50 or a huge sum of $500,000, you all get the same manager, the same investment and the same account access.

Generally speaking, mutual funds have a much lower risk than stocks. This is largely to diversification which was mentioned earlier. With stocks, there is always the worry that the company you are investing in will go belly up! With mutual funds, that is next to impossible.

As you can see, there are many advantages in investing in mutual funds over stocks. It is not to be said that you should never invest in stocks, but if you are just getting your feet wet with investing it would be best to go with mutual funds!

The Stock Market If you want to discover your pot of gold in the stock market, then you have to know it inside out. And for all the inside-out information on the stock market explained in simple, concise, layman terms, all you need to do is click on this link: Stocks Versus Mutual Funds. Learn How To Find stocks Which Will Double. Simple enough, huh?

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Comparison between Mutual Funds and Stocks

Diversification

Mutual fund companies invest in a variety of stocks, bonds, and money-market investments, so mutual funds carry much lower risk than stocks.

Professional Management

Mutual funds enable investors to pool their money and place it under professional investment management. These managers have been around the industry for a long time and have the academic credentials to back it up.

Greater Upside Potential

Individual stocks have a greater upside potential than most mutual funds. Fluctuation in stocks is greater than mutual funds, so you have greater chance to earn more return.

Risk and Return

In general, Risk and return depend each other, the greater the risk, the higher the potential return; the lower the risk, the lower the expected return. Mutual funds try to reduce their risk by investing in a diversified group of individual stocks, bonds, or other securities.

Efficiency

Mutual funds have large sums of money to invest and often they trade commission-free and have personal contacts at the brokerage firms.

Conclusion

By investing in stocks you can get more return than mutual funds but, by investing in mutual funds your risk is lower. Mutual funds are great for funding retirement plans and investors that don't have the time or energy to consider individual stocks.

It is noticeable that most expert traders in stock market invest in mutual funds too. I recommend investing in both of mutual funds and stocks but, if you have experience, time and energy you can invest most of your money in individual stocks.

By Mostafa Soleimanzadeh. Investing in the Stock Market Tips, Learn how to Invest in Mutul Funds.

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Mutual funds simply are a method through which people invest. People often asking, "What are mutual funds paying?" The truth is that mutual funds don't pay anything! People also say, "I don't like mutual funds because they're risky." But there's no such thing as a "risky" fund. Nor has anyone ever lost money in a mutual fund. Mutual funds are not good, and they're not bad.
A mutual fund, in fact, is merely a mirror - a reflection of something else. Thus, if you invest in a mutual fund that invests in stocks, and you are as likely to make money or lose money as any other person who invests in stocks.
In fact, you can use mutual funds to buy virtually any kind of investment: stocks, bonds, government securities, real estate, gold and other precious metals, international securities, foreign currencies, natural resources, even hedge positions and money markets. You can find funds that engage in virtually any type of trading activity, including options and futures contracts, derivatives, and even selling short.
Technically, mutual funds are called "open-end" investment companies because they forever buy and sell their shares. In industry jargon, mutual funds "sell" shares to the public, and when you want your money back, the fund will "redeem" them for you.


About the author: Tony Reed is the author of " Mutual funds are not investments", please visit his website Mutual Funds & Stock Trading for more information.

This article is free for republishing as long as you leave the article title, author name, body and resource box intact (means NO changes) with the links made active.

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Is your age anywhere between 18 and 35? Are you someone who just finished your graduation? Are you someone who just started your career?

If your answer is yes to those questions, then you must be thinking about investing some money for your future. Of course, retirement plans and pension plans are not for you. You must be thinking more aggressively! At the same time, you should be careful not to lose out. So what can be done? How do you get enough money for the next few years (reasonably fast) and not lose out?

One possible place where you can invest is in mutual funds. Of course, not every fund meets your objectives and shares your long (or short) term vision to generate money. Some of the possible types of funds that you can look to invest are the described in this article.

The Emerging Markets Funds

Emerging markets funds invest in economies that grow very fast (like India, China, Brazil, Russia, Mexico etc.). These economies create wealth both at home and also for foreign investors. These funds have posted impressive returns. Many funds have given more than 50% return. However, in the current world economic scenario, such returns may not be possible consistently for a long time. But these funds tend to diversify their portfolio across different countries and mitigate several risk factors. Hence investing in emerging markets funds is a quick way to earn money.

Small-cap and Mid-cap funds

These funds are for those people who tend to take more risk than an average investor. Recent history says that the small-cap and mid-cap have consistently outperformed large-cap stocks. But there is no guarantee that it may continue to do so in the future too. These funds concentrate on growth stocks and therefore have larger returns but the major drawback in such stocks is their volatility. Therefore it is always better to invest in small-cap and mid-cap funds for a smaller period of time. Investment should be made in funds that have a diversified portfolio and smaller asset base (it means that the fund has enough flexibility).

Target 20XX funds

If you are an adventurous person who wants to do a lot of things in life and at the same time see your money grow over a period of time, then target 20XX funds are the ones that you should be looking to invest. The portfolio of these funds will be biased in favour of equity to provide higher returns in the initial years. But over a period of time, it will be revised and more funds will be shifted to bonds to ensure safe returns before maturity. Hence these funds are the ideal foil for the passive investor who wants to have an adventurous life (or whatever) and get some money at a later date.

A smart investor is always on the look out for growth. Share prices are directly proportionate to the respective company's worth in the stock market. So, it is always wise to seek companies which are rising in value. When you hold on stocks of companies that manifest relentless growth, handsome stock market returns are achieved.

But in this aspect don't always focus on the projected growth rates. If all of a sudden the stock market start to lose faith in the said company's prospects, the result can be horrific.

The characteristics of the best growth stock are a combination of potential upward growth along with sizable safety margin. They ought to satisfy three conditions:

1. A good growth rate

It is preferable if the company has fast growth instead of a slow one when the rest of the factors are equal. This is because even the minute relative changes in growth rate can make a substantial difference to the investors.

2. Sustainability

Stretch your vision beyond the growth estimates. Not the 'estimate' but the 'sustainability' of growth is more important in order to achieve great returns. This is a common mistake done by even the clever growth investors. They focus so much on the growth rate that they stand to ignore the logical sustainability of that growth. This myopic vision is the prime reason behind the tech bubble. People get allured by the high growth projections but fail to notice that the company has negligible or few competitive advantages. When the bubble pops, the company disappears and the investors bite the dust.

3. A good price

Don't end up paying far too much for growth. It makes sense if occasionally you pay a hiked up price, because you can rely on the sustained growth of the company. But take care not to defy logical calculations that it makes virtually impossible for you to uphold even a marginal profit even in the situation where the growth is not hampered. It is a good idea to select a growth stock which is fairly priced or undervalued. A discounted cash flow (DCF) calculation will aid you to calculate the fair value of a growth company.

These three central ideas shouldn't lead you to think that value investment strategy is to look for unpopular penny stocks You need to look for growth stocks from strong companies that possess reasonable positive growth prospects. And when you get growth stocks at a reasonable price offering sustainable growth, you can rest assured about your long term profits.

In order to buy options on stock splits and to make the investments on these stocks worthwhile, it is imperative that a proper understanding of what stock splits are should be in order. Simply put, what is referred to as a stock split or a stock divide is the way in order to increase the number of shares in one company, but the market capitalization of the company remains and no dilutions happen in the process of the split. This can be best understood by way of an example. Say a company with 20 shares is priced at $10 each. If the company decides to do a 2-1 split, then there will be now 40 shares that are available to the company's stockholders. After the split, the price of each stock will be adjusted.

With the split, the cost of one stock stands at $5. Any ratio can be used by the company but the ratio that is usually used is the 2 for 1 split, the 3 for 1 split and the 3 for two splits. Some people will argue that with buying options on stock splits come higher stock prices. Research and experiences suggest that this isn't true. One good thing that can be done by splitting the stocks of one company is that this can increase the liquidity of the stock. In layman's terms, the stock will move better and stocks can exchange hands faster. Investors will snap up stocks that cost $ 5 dollars fast than stocks that cost $10 each.

If the effects of buying options on stock splits can't be substantiated by research and experience, then why do a number of investors buy options on stock splits? This could be explained by psychological factors.

For example if investors will expect and believe that stock splits can increase the price of shares, then stock prices may increase as well. Often stock splits can be a vote of confidence of the company, as a split can signify that the management of the company has confidence in the company's future. The stock split has a number of so-called stages. These stages include the pre-announcement, the announcement, the dormancy, the pre-split run, the split execution and the post split depression. The pre-announcement of the split will tend to have an impact on the stocks as stocks will climb faster than usual. The announcement of the split will usually be the time when the price of the stocks of the company jumps sharply. And the valuation of the stocks may increase for a period of time. After announcement of the stock split comes dormancy. This is the time when the price of the stock of the company will level off.

There are some instances when the stock of one company doesn't enter this phase as the price of stocks tend to increase some more. The split execution can be a great time to buy stocks on split as well. The post split depression is where the excitement tapers off. This is also the stage where the short sellers and who has low-risk opportunity to profit from the brief pull back. Most stocks will retreat after this time, but some will continue to post gains. This is the challenge to those who may want to engage in buying options on stock splits.

Many people groan at the word "taxes", and usually do so with good reason. First of all, having to pay taxes on an annual basis often presents a financial burden for people. Each time you examine your paycheck, you might feel abused or cheated, considering the withholding amounts of federal income tax (that's not even mentioning state taxes, Social Security or Medicare taxes).

Even though taxes can be boring and tedious remember that there are some tax regulations that may benefit you. Be aware of all the possible tax deductions that are available and see if you are qualified for any of them. There are some deductions that let you take some of your financial output off your reportable income and some give you the right to not report certain income at all.

Tax Credits and Tax Deductions

There are currently five tax areas where tax deductions and credits can be taken and receive special treatment under the US tax laws:

1. Tax-free income is money you get that you do not have to pay taxes on. Tax exclusions or exemptions are examples of tax-free income. Most of the time, you do not have to report items such as these to the IRS since it does not affect your tax calculations.

2. Capital gains are profits you get from selling or exchanging property that has been held for at least a year or more. These capital gains, which are considered long term, will be subject to reduced tax rates, in comparison with taxes for other types of income, like salary or income from interest. Regular stock dividends, as well as stock mutual funds, get taxed with the same lower rates as capital gains.

3. Tax-deferred income is not currently taxed, but will become taxable at a later date. You could accumulate a larger amount, as income is growing, without incurring taxation.

4. Tax deductions are payments or expenses that reduce your taxable income. There are two classes of deductions: "above the line" deductions are subtracted from gross income, and can only be claimed if you file an itemized statement rather than the standard deduction (which will be explained later).

5. Tax credits are used to offset taxes owed, usually in a dollar-for-dollar exchange. There are usually separate forms that need to be filled out when claiming tax credits.

You can get your taxes done easily and quickly, while decreasing the amount of your money that goes to Uncle Sam.