Are you looking for unique gift items? Check out http://www.facebook.com/l/79379;www.tbowtowel.com for a T Bow towel. Tell then I sent you.

By LAMAR THAMES

I have been a Jacksonville Jaguar season-ticket holder since the beginning. Until this year. Try as I might, I just couldn’t bring myself to sign up for another season. It just wasn’t in the cards.

Can Tim Tebow save the Jaguar franchise? It is a big responsibility, but I think he can do it.

Or should I say, the budget.

I’m sure you have heard of a little thing called the Great Recession? Well, I am one of the victims of it, going on almost a year now. The $700 tab for a pair of tickets for my wife and I was just a bit too steep for our financial portfolio. I know, we could get a four-pack or the new thing they are calling the flex pack, but we have passed on it for now.

I am sure that we will attend some of the games, but I just don’t want to invest several hundred dollars in tickets right now since one source of our family income  — unemployment checks — will be drying up soon. I would rather keep that money in an income-producing vehicle for the time being until one of two things happens: 1) I get a job, or 2) I win the lottery. (The odds of the latter happening are probably greater than the former, if only I would buy a ticket.

Anyway, I feel really bad about not renewing our season tickets. Especially since I keep getting emails from Jaguar owner Wayne Weaver telling me how much he wants me back.  I hate to disappoint him like this, but the reality is that these are tough times. Maybe next year. Read the rest of this entry »

Every year when I prepare my income tax return, I check it once, twice, three times, and sometimes even four, to make sure I didn’t make an arithmetic mistake or leave something off the form that should have been there. And every year I hold my breath (not literally) until the return comes back and I get my refund, afraid that the IRS will find a mistake. Maybe I am just too cautious, I don’t know. I just know I don’t want to tangle with the IRS over my tax bill. I wish some other people would exercise that kind of caution, especially congressmen and new members of the president’s cabinet.

I was impressed with President Obama’s confession on NBC Nightly News Tuesday night when he said, “I made a mistake, I screwed up.” He was talking about the failure of his vetting process that led him to pick Tim Geithner and Tom Daschle for his Cabinet when both of them had failed to pay back taxes, or report income that would have been taxed. I was feeling good that the president was taking the heat for making the wrong choices, quite a turnabout from former President George Bush’s firm denials that he ever made a mistake. Then Obama said something that didn’t set well with me. He said he didn’t think Daschle intentionally did anything wrong by not reporting all the income and benefits he had received. Read the rest of this entry »

Hi, folks. Since I am new at being “retired,” I thought I would ask you for some advice. I am already learning how to cut expenses while living on a fixed income, but if any of you have any tips for me, I’d appreciate it. Actually, I have always lived on a fixed income (fixed by how much my employer has been willing to pay me) but it is more fixed now. As in zilch, nada, zero. Read the rest of this entry »