Employers are required to send W-2 wage statements to their employees no later than January 31 of each year. Many employers send W-2s earlier (some by a couple of weeks) in order to allow employees to complete their tax return as early as possible. That W-2 is critical to completing your tax return … without it you’re sunk. But what if you don’t receive yours on time? What if you’re hearing your co-workers talk about completing their tax return and you’re still waiting on that uniquely shaped envelope that contains your W-2?

What to do if you are missing your W-2

If the January 31st deadline passes and you still haven’t received your W-2 from your employer, take these steps:

1. Ask your employer or employers when the W-2 was mailed. If it was mailed, it may have been returned due to an incorrect or incomplete address. After contacting your employer, allow a week to ten days for the W-2 to be resent and go through the mail system.

2. Ask your employer if the W-2 can be reprinted while you wait. One year mine didn’t arrive on time and our payroll clerk simply printed one for me on the spot. Another alternative is to ask if it can be emailed to you as a PDF.

TurboTax vs H&R Block: which one is better?

3. Call the IRS for help. If your employer claims to have sent your W-2 and cannot reprint it or email it and you still haven’t received your W-2 by February 14, call the IRS at 800-829-1040. When you call, you’ll need to provide:

• Personally identifiable information such as your SSN
• An estimate of the wages you earned
• The amount of federal income tax withheld during the year
• The dates you worked for that employer during the tax year

This information should be based on the year-to-date numbers from your final pay stub for the year or your leave-and-earnings statement if you are no longer employed with this employer.

4. REMEMBER! You still must file your tax return or request an extension to file by the deadline, even if you do not receive your W-2. If you have not received your W-2 by the tax due date, and have completed steps 1 and 2, you may use Form 4852, Substitute for Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement. Attach Form 4852 to your return, estimating income and withholding taxes as accurately as possible. Understand that any refund you’re owed may be delayed while the information you provided is verified.

5. You may have to amend your return. If you may receive your missing W-2 after you filed your return using Form 4852, and the information may be different from what you reported on your return. If this happens, you must amend your return by filing a Form 1040X, Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return.

Have you received your W-2?

Links to products or services may be affiliate links. See my disclosure policy on the site or on my About page.

I despise wasting money and especially wasting money on energy. And with reports that electric bills have soared $300 per household in the last 5 years, it’s becoming more and more important to only use the energy we need if we want to avoid wasting energy … and dollars.

“Making money is like digging with a needle, spending it is like pouring water on sand.” ~ Confucius

And so it is with our energy usage. It’s so easy to consume energy and to waste it! But with skyrocketing energy costs, if you’re like me, you are constantly looking for ways to reduce your family’s energy consumption and put that money in your pocket instead.

I have a confession to make – I’m not “green.” I don’t drive a Prius, don’t recycle that often, and don’t subscribe to any of the global warming alarmist rhetoric. What I do subscribe to is saving money and if there are cost savings to be had, I’m definitely on board.

My personal electric bill runs anywhere from just over $100/month in the spring and fall to over $200 in the summer and winter. We have some pretty hot summers where I live (well over 100 degrees in the summer with 90% + humidity) and with an open floor plan type of home and three kids coming and going, it isn’t easy to seal off parts of the house. Also, we’ve already had over 12 inches of snow in early December so we can get pretty cold as well.

Do You NEED to Save Money On Your Electricity Bill?

That may depend on where you live. You can sort the table below by either the State or Cents/KWH.

Electricity Costs Per KW Hour by State

You can check out a visual of electricity rates at USA Today.

No Cost and Low Cost Ways to Save

The thing about making money or saving money is that both require changes in behavior. Some changes are easy to make and cost nothing, or almost nothing, to implement.

• Turn off the switch: The fastest, easiest, and least expensive way we can start saving money on our energy bills is to turn off lights when we’re not using them and shut down the computer or TV if we’ll be away from it for more than a few minutes. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t take more energy to turn a light or a computer on and off a couple times than it does to keep it running for hours. That idea is based on outdated technologies (like a lot of commonly held myths). These days, it’s cheaper to turn the power off and on as needed. You can save $25–$75 per year by activating power management features on your desktop computer alone. By putting your computer to “sleep” for 12 hours per day, you can save about $45 per year.
• Turn your temperature up or down: Adjusting your thermostat just a few degrees lower in the winter and higher in the summer will save you more money than you may think. Consider wearing an extra layer in the winter instead of turning up the heat, and supplementing your air conditioning with portable fans in the summer. But better yet …
• Install a programmable digital thermostat: Switching to a programmable digital thermostat takes just a few minutes and usually costs less than $75, depending on what kind of thermostat you buy. By setting your thermostat so that your home is cooler during the winter, when you’re away, and when you’re asleep, and warmer during the summer and when you’re home, you’ll save hundreds of dollars a year. As a bonus, you’ll always wake up and return to a comfortable house. Of course your cat may not like it …
• Insulate: Do you feel a cold draft coming from under the door or a window that won’t close properly? Such openings cost you money in lost heat. Stuff holes with cloth, or use duct tape or sticky tape to block the breeze. Windows and doors are the places through which a house loses most of its heat. An 1/8 inch gap around an exterior door has the same surface area as a hole nine inches in diameter. Would you tolerate a hole that large in the side of your home?
• Use storm doors and windows: Don’t keep your storm doors and windows in the basement every winter—use them year-round. They help insulate your house, making it cozier and cheaper to heat.
• Seal windows with plastic: You can find plastic for home sealing at most home improvement stores. Using plastic is even more effective than stopping up a drafty window during the cooler months. Easy to install, this extra layer of insulation (formed by the air that’s trapped between your window and the plastic) is a great alternative if you don’t have storm windows—and another protective layer between you and the elements, even if you do.
• Use window treatments: Close curtains and blinds at night in the winter (when it’s coldest) and during the day in the summer (to keep the sun out). Those extra layers will keep the heat in during cold months and out during warm ones. On winter days, open draperies to take advantage of the sun’s natural heat.

All this is EASY to read and talk about

It’s putting it into action that’s difficult. Are you ready and willing to save some serious cash by reducing your energy needs? Let’s get to it!

Links to products or services may be affiliate links. See my disclosure policy on the site or on my About page.

The world’s investment markets are notorious for their wild swings up and down, but savvy investors know the underlying fundamentals of each business (stock) they buy and they analyze them before purchasing (fundamental analysis). Great investors know WHY they bought and what made the company appealing to them. They know the conditions of the industries they invest in, the management team running the show, and the company’s long-term prospects for the future. They know the numbers, they know at what share price they’ll buy more … and at what has to change for them to sell their shares.

Fundamental Analysis

Analyzing a stock’s fundamentals simply means examining a company’s financial numbers to uncover any prospects for the company’s future and to size up its stock value. Your goal when conducting fundamental analysis is to find stocks whose share prices are below where the market should be pricing them. Since markets aren’t always as “efficient” as many experts would have you believe, using fundamental analysis to uncover these undervalued gems can result in superior returns. Another strong benefit of fundamental analysis is that it removes much of the emotion associated with valuing a business and allows investors to make a rational buying or selling decision.

Rarely will you ever find a business with perfect numbers in every category you examine … I know I haven’t! But by actually taking the time to learn about a company’s financial numbers and then determining the market value of it’s stock, I can then decide to buy only when I have a large margin of safety. That is, I buy only when the stock is priced at less than half of what I determine it’s value should be.

Generally, when investors speak of a company’s fundamentals, they’re referring to the company’s financial well-being, as determined by three principle factors:

• Profits (earnings): The total amount of money the company actually earns after expenses
• Debt: The company’s outstanding financial obligations to suppliers, banks, and so on
• Assets: The company’s valuable property, including cash, inventory, real estate, etc.

Data about a company’s fundamentals is easy to find, as every publicly traded company is required to report it quarterly to the SEC. One good place to start is online. I like to use Yahoo! Finance (finance.yahoo.com).

I invest with Scottrade because of their Knowledge Center, local branches, and $7 commissions. Click HERE to find out more.

Once you’ve gathered this data, you can use a variety of simple statistics and ratios to assess a company’s fundamentals and determine whether the company’s stock is worth buying. The most commonly used ratios and statistics are:

• Earnings per share (EPS)
• Price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio
• Price-to-earnings-growth (PEG) ratio
• Debt-to-asset ratio
• Price-to-book (P/B) ratio
• Beta

Fundamental Analysis Example

The best way to understand how to calculate and use these ratios and statistics is through an example. The fictitious company in the example below, Big Red Bullfighting Capes, Inc. (stock symbol “TORO”), has financial numbers as follows:

• Assets: $120,000
• Debts: $20,000
• Publicly traded shares: 1,000
• Share price: $100 per share
• Profits (prior year): $10,000
• Stock dividend payments (prior year): $4 per share
• Projected earnings growth rate (next ten years): 10%
• Beta (explained below): 0.8

Let’s analyze TORO’s fundamentals and the value of its stock:

Earnings Per Share (EPS)

• Definition: The portion of a company’s earnings (profits) that each share of the company’s stock contains.
• How to calculate: Divide earnings by the number of publicly traded shares.
• TORO example: $10,000 in earnings / 1,000 publicly traded shares = $10.
• How to evaluate: If all other factors are equal and two stocks have the same profits, investors generally favor the stock with fewer publicly traded shares and therefore higher EPS.

Price-to-Earnings (P/E) Ratio

• Definition: A way to determine the value of a company’s shares compared to its peers by comparing its current share price to its current EPS.
• How to calculate: Divide the company’s share price by the company’s EPS over a specified period of time.
• TORO example: $100 (share price) / $10 (EPS) = 10 (P/E)
• How to evaluate: Investors generally favor stocks with low P/E ratios relative to other stocks in the same industry. Given two companies in the same industry with the same profits, investors tend to buy the shares of the company with the lower priced stock—in effect, paying a lower price for the same amount of profits. If too many investors flock to the lower stock, however, the price will naturally rise!

Price-to-Earnings-Growth (PEG) Ratio

• Definition: A comparison of a company’s share price to its earnings growth rate. Some investors consider this ratio more useful than the P/E ratio because it factors in futureearnings, not just past earnings.
• How to calculate: Divide a company’s P/E ratio by its projected earnings growth rate (in percentage form).
• TORO example: 10 (P/E) / 10% (earnings growth) = 1
• How to evaluate: If all other factors are equal, given two stocks with the same P/E ratio, investors tend to favor the stock with the lower PEG ratio, since it predicts higher future earnings growth. Investors generally consider stocks with a PEG below 1 to present a good value, though this can vary from industry to industry.

Debt-to-Asset Ratio

• Definition: A ratio of a company’s assets that have been secured through debt as opposed to equity (assets minus debts).
• How to calculate: Divide the company’s debts by the company’s assets.
• TORO example: $20,000 (debts) / $120,000 (assets) = 0.16
• How to evaluate: A debt-to-asset ratio greater than 1 means that the company’s assets have been financed primarily by debt. Investors favor stocks with debt to asset ratios less than 1, since these companies have fewer liabilities and therefore present less risk.

Price-to-Book (P/B) Ratio

• Definition: A stock’s book value (equal to its equity) gives an indication of what the company is actually worth “on the books” after all debts have been subtracted from assets. A company’s book value is equal to its assets minus its debts. The price-to-book ratio helps investors get a sense of the discrepancy between how the market values a stock and what the stock is actually worth.
• How to calculate: Divide current share price by book value per share (book value divided by number of shares).
• TORO example: TORO’s book value per share = ($120,000 in assets – $20,000 in debts) / 1,000 shares = $100. TORO’s Price to book ratio = $100 (current share price) / $100 (book value per share) = 1.
• How to evaluate: Stocks with P/B ratios equal to 1, such as TORO, show a strong correlation between the company’s underlying value and the value that the market currently places on the stock. A P/B ratio of less than 1 suggests that the market has either overlooked some value in the stock or doubts the value of the company’s underlying assets. Stocks with P/B ratios greater than 1 command a premium from the market. Investors tend to buy these stocks only if they believe that the premium is justified based on actual earnings expectations, as opposed to speculation.

Beta

• Definition: A measure of a stock’s historical volatility relative to the broader market’s volatility, which is represented by a beta of 1.
• How to calculate: Calculating a stock’s beta requires advanced math and considerable amounts of data, so consult websites such as Yahoo! Finance to find the latest beta information for stocks you’re researching.
• TORO example: Beta = 0.8
• How to evaluate: Stocks with betas greater than 1 are more volatile than the broader market—they tend to move up and down in price more often and in greater extremes than the market. Stocks with betas of less than 1, such as TORO, tend to be less volatile than the general market. If the market drops by 1%, TORO should drop by 0.8%; however, if the market rises by 1%, TORO should rise by just 0.8%. High beta stocks offer more potential profits to investors but also more risk.You can calculate the average beta of your portfolio stocks to try to keep your holdings in line with your risk tolerance and financial goals. For instance, a portfolio designed to beat the market should have an average beta of greater than 1.

Don’t neglect the option of using a professional, fee-based financial advisor.
WiserAdvisor can easily match you with the ideal financial advisor for YOU.

Determining the stock price

You’ll need a few more pieces of data to determine the stock’s value:

• The analyst’s estimated ten year growth rate
• The rate of return you want to achieve

You’ll also need to be able to use and understand Future Value and Present Value calculations. These are both pretty easy to use with a spreadsheet.

I take the analyst’s ten year growth rate and the current EPS and calculate what the EPS should be in ten years. When I calculate that number and then compare it to the P/E ratio for the industry, I’m able to get a rough idea what the stock price should be.

TORO example: The future value of a $10 EPS over the next ten years at a 10% growth rate = $25.94. Many investors conducting fundamental analysis use a P/E ratio of double the growth rate so in our case it would be 20. With that P/E ratio, the stock should be valued at $518.80 in ten years. Now we switch to present value calculations and since I want to achieve a rate of return of 15%, the present value of $518.80 is $128.24. That’s what I value this stock to be today based on the numbers I have available.

To buy or not to buy? I wouldn’t buy this stock unless it’s price dropped to $64.12. Why do I use a 50% margin of safety? I may have made a mistake in my calculations somewhere or I may just have a streak of bad luck! Also, because valuation is an imprecise art, the future is unpredictable, and humans do make mistakes, a large margin of safety insures that I don’t lose money.

In the end, fundamental analysis is much more reliable that other measures in determining whether a business is worthy of my hard earned dollars as an investment. What method or methods do YOU use to make your investing decisions?

Links to products or services may be affiliate links. See my disclosure policy on the site or on my About page.

Have you used an investment screener? Stock, exchange traded fund, options, covered call, and mutual fund screeners are designed to allow you to determine the unique criteria that match your investment standards and interests. They then search for investment opportunities that fit your personal strategy and leave everything else out. Most online brokers and financial data sites and have screeners to help you filter out the investments that don’t meet your pre-defined criteria or they will only show certain investments that DO meet certain criteria. They’re extremely useful … if you know what you’re looking for. And as I’ll mention later, they can be useful even if you DON’T know exactly what you’re looking for.

What can be filtered through an investment screener?

As a Scottrade customer, I can easily use:

1. The stock screener
2. The exchange traded fund (ETF) screener
3. The mutual fund screener

The Stock Screen

Stock screens can filter investment opportunities by:

• Market Segment – you can easily search stocks by their sector, which index they’re a member of, various exchange components, international investing opportunities, or market capitalization.
• Sales and Profitability – set your own minimums (or even maximums) for sales and profitability.
• Fundamentals – you can also search according to price/earnings ratio, return on sales, inventory, investment, or equity, free cash flow, return on debt, or liquidity ratios.
• Analyst Estimates – find out what the experts believe and predict for a company’s growth rate.
• Price Performance – check out the 52-week high and low or a price-to-S&P 500 comparison.
• Earnings and Dividends – find only those stocks that have the dividend yield you want.
• Technical Analysis – for those who love the charts.

Ssearch for stocks, options, covered calls, spreads, mutual funds and ETFs based on the factors that you choose with optionsXpress by Charles Schwab.

For ETFs, you can screen according to:

• ETF Basics – examine by asset type (equity or fixed-income), classification or fund family, even commission free funds.
• Performance – check out the fund’s past performance over the last month through the last ten years.
• Fundamentals- easily apply fundamental indicators to your screen and use that analysis to measure different funds.
• Morningstar Rating – search funds for rating, risk or return score, or category rank over various time periods.
• Technicals- use technical indicators to measure a fund’s performance.

For mutual funds, you can screen:

• Mutual Fund Basics – screen by load type, availability, fees, asset type, classification or fund family.
• Performance – filter funds based on performance over the last month through the last ten years.
• Fundamentals- measure funds by the fundamentals. Choose from price to earnings (P/E) ratio, price to book (P/B) ratio, distribution yield, 30-day SEC yield, alpha, beta, Sharpe Ratio, R-Squared and standard deviation.
• Morningstar Rating – just like ETFs, you can screen funds for rating, risk or return score, or category rank throughout various time periods.

The difficulty with using investment screeners

Here is a snapshot of the Pre-Defined Stock Screen I found tonight on the Scottrade website. As you can see, there are thousands of investments that match the criteria listed.

Far too often, I’ve utilized a screen with too many filters and didn’t find anything. You CAN be too picky! There probably isn’t any investment you can find through a screen that will give you every single thing you want – high returns, outstanding growth, glowing estimates, high cash flow, incredible returns and ratios … and a price that’s about 20% below where it should be. It just doesn’t exist.

What does exist … and is extremely helpful … are pre-defined screens. Scottrade and all the other online brokerages (as well as most financial services sites) have screens pre-loaded and these are easily accessed and used to help you and me make our investment decisions.

My personal favorite is the Strong Growth and Value Stocks (with 109 matches today). Once you select this screen, you can then view the summary page with basic information on these 109 companies, their relative price performance, their earnings and dividends as well as their fundamentals including:

• PEG ratio (Price/earnings to growth)
• Profit margin
• Trailing 12 months P/E ratio
• Price to sales ratio
• Price to book ratio
• Price to cash ratio
• Return on equity
• Return on assets
• Debt to capital

This predefined screen is one of the most helpful in my opinion. It features some companies I’ve heard of (and even own) as well as some that I never knew existed.

Start your Scottrade portfolio today and begin using a stock screener!

So I’d encourage you to check into investment screens. Play around with them and get comfortable using them. See what criteria or yardsticks you can use to get different results. I’ve known some people who used screens to find stocks that were at the top of their 52 week high … and then shorted them! The sky is the limit once you learn to use a screener to filter investments to meet your standards.

Links to products or services may be affiliate links. See my disclosure policy on the site or on my About page.

Be aware of the differences in zero percent credit card offers so you aren’t disappointed when you get your first bill.

I received this email question in my inbox from a reader named Colin:

I was approved for a car at an introductory rate of zero percent but after I transferred my balance, my first bill showed that I was charged interest. What gives? Is this a scam of some sort?

No, Colin, it probably isn’t a scam as long as you’ve applied with a reputable and well-known card issuer like Discover or American Express. Credit card issuers often charge different interest rates on different programs. You could have one rate for a balance transfer, another for purchases and even a third for cash advances. The advertisement you responded to may have been for new purchases rather than balance transfers. Unless the card you applied for actually advertised a zero percent balance transfer, you may be stuck with it unless you wish to change cards. Even if that WAS the offer you saw, it’s always a good idea to read the offer from front to back, top to bottom to make certain you’re clear. Fine print, though it’s grown in size recently, is still dizzyingly complex and a sheer bore to read.

Despite the credit crunch, many card issuers still offer a zero percent introductory rate on balance transfers and purchases. If you’re dissatisfied with the card you presently carry, consider a card like the Discover® More® Card which is currently offering 0% intro APR on purchases for 6 months (then the variable purchase APR of 11.99% – 20.99%) as well as 0% intro APR on balance transfers for 18 months (then the variable purchase APR of 11.99% – 20.99%). Additionally, you can get 5% cash back in changing categories like travel, gas, groceries, restaurants, home improvement stores and $0 fraud liability plus automatic mobile and email fraud alerts. The better your credit score, the better your rate will be, but at least you’ll get zero percent interest on your balance transfer for a year and a half!

Another possibility is that your credit score dropped from the minimum your current card issuer required for the zero percent rate. Make sure you know what your credit score is by checking out GoFreeCredit.com.

Do you have a question you’d like answered? Drop by my contact form and send it on with the subject line “Reader Question” and I’ll answer it as best I can, both to you personally and on this site.

Links to products or services may be affiliate links. See my disclosure policy on the site or on my About page.