I read an article recently which provided an extremely alarming statistic. Apparently the average retirement savings held in 401Ks for individuals between the ages of 55 and 65 in the United States is only $100,000.

If you haven't heard yet, your fellow Americans in the District of Columbia celebrated a holiday on April 15th.  Emancipation Day, which marks the day President Lincoln signed a law in 1862 that freed over 3,000 slaves in D.C., is usually observed on April 16th but was moved to the 15th this year so it wouldn't fall on a weekend.

By law, local holidays in D.C. affect tax deadlines the same way federal holidays do.  So this means that your federal income taxes aren't due until today, April 18th.  You got an entire extra weekend to pay the tax man! I hope you took advantage of it.

But what if you still haven't gotten your act together in time to file your income tax return?  No need to worry, because you always have the option to file an extension and get a reprieve until October.

As I was driving back from my recent vacation to North Carolina, I did something I’ve never done before—I bought a lottery ticket. The jackpot was $137 million and as I talked to the woman behind the register, I could tell she was amused by my clear naïveté in this venture. I chose my numbers, paid a dollar and got back on the road. I viewed the dollar I’d just handed over as, at worst, a donation to the state of North Carolina or, at best, the luckiest dollar I’d ever spent. My wife and I passed the next hour of driving discussing what we would do with the money if we won. Would I keep my job? How much would we give away? Would my friends and family judge me if I insisted on riding a gold Segway everywhere I went?

Real estate values continue to do a big cannonball in the deep end, and some lenders are trimming their exposure to home equity by shutting down idle lines of credit on their books.