AARP Offers Lots of Free Tax Help

AARP offers online help as well as personal counseling via its Tax-Aide program. Lots of basic questions are answered in its FAQ section. Wondering about your sale of securities, or which form to use? Those questions are answered here.

Across the country, AARP has over 30,000 volunteers at 8,500 locations. (At the site, if you input your zip code, you can find the closest Tax-Aide location.)

Here, IRS-certified volunteers provide both counseling and preparation services to millions of low- and middle-income taxpayers, with special attention to those ages 60 and older. These Tax-Aide folk also can be scheduled to visit with your group; this can be arranged online. Or, you can send in your questions online, and file electronically if you choose to do so.

The cost of all this help? Zip. It's free. All of it.

Freebies Online - A Freebie Directory

Volition.Com heralds itself as the oldest freebie site on the Web. With its organization of freebies by topic (fonts, software, magazines, music, movies, etc.) it's a phenomenal source for great deals.

Are You Brave Enough to Read Empire of Debt?

Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin have a website, The Daily Reckoning, as well as a free e-newsletter. Both are good reads. They've also written past New York Times' bestsellers Demise of the Dollar, and Financial Reckoning Day, and have just hit the bestseller list again with Empire of Debt.

Their take on our current economy isn't cheery. It's probably not anything that you haven't already considered, though. And, they offer advice. Buy gold. Rent, don't buy. Things like that.