Setting Up Your Home Office

As the April 15 tax filing deadline approaches, it's important to separate fact from fiction when it comes to preparing your returns. "Tax laws are often summarized for [the] sake of quickly explaining a potential benefit—or conflict," says Andy Phillips, Vice President of H&R Block’s Tax Institute. "When details are omitted, it’s easy to misinterpret law or consider the advice of a trusted friend versus taking time to do firsthand research." Blindly following someone else’s bad tax advice could cost you precious time and money. "I can file my tax return with the details from my last paycheck stub." The figures listed on your last paycheck stub may be close to what …

Buying a house has always been a stressful experience. It involves a lot of money for most people, and it’s where you’re going to live, the most meaningful space in your life. Finding the house that ticks all the financial, physical, and emotional boxes can be a challenge. And it’s a challenge that a lot of people fail: 82% of home buyers experience buyer’s remorse. House hunting should be relatively straightforward—you need X number of bedrooms, X amount of square footage, in this specific area, at this specific price, with this short list of features and amenities. But we often let our emotions mess us up, usually without even realizing it. Considering how much of your …

Canceling memberships has become an everyday thing for a lot of people. We cycle through streaming services, we sign up for trial memberships, we find cheaper, better options for everything from television to gyms and jump whenever it makes financial, emotional, or psychological sense for us to do so. We’re pretty much at a point where the moment you sign up for a service or subscription, the countdown to your inevitable cancellation begins. And everyone knows that canceling those subscriptions and services can be a challenge, even with new rules in place that are supposed to make it easier. If you’ve ever tried to cancel something and found it very difficult, or even out…

Most people still rely on banks for most of their financial needs: In fact, 96 percent of the country has at least one bank or credit union account. (And if you use a bank to deposit your salary and pay your bills, you should even consider having a second bank, just in case something goes wrong.) But what happens if your bank fails? Bank failures aren’t common, but they do happen—two failed just last year, and 2025 has already seen one bank failure back in January. While your money is probably generally safe even if your bank fails, a bank failure can still cause you a lot of trouble because your funds may be unavailable for days (or longer) as the Federal Deposit Insuran…

If you’ve ever hunted for a house, you know that it can be a long, involved process. While a lot of that time is taken up just finding the right house, another big chunk of that time is taken up by the negotiation. Most people focus on the price of the home, which makes sense—it’s a huge purchase for most people, so getting the price right is crucial—but you can negotiate for a lot more than that. You may already know that you can (and should) ask for repairs or financial credits if the inspection reveals problems, but it never hurts to ask for concessions or contingencies that can make your new home more appealing, comfortable, and affordable in the long run. Here are si…

Rest is a crucial part of strength training. Depending on the exercise and your goals, you may find yourself resting 30 seconds, or one minute, or three to five minutes. So what do you actually do during that time? Let’s talk about your options, both in terms of training effectiveness and gym etiquette. Literally do nothingAs awkward as it may feel at first, this is the best option for most people, most of the time. Actually rest. Don’t stretch, don’t work a different muscle; just allow your body to recover. Some gyms will have stools, benches, or folding chairs near the platforms where people are lifting heavy (and thus need the longest rests). I’m mostly thinking of po…

Owning a home is great, except for the utility bills that come along with it. The average cost of gas and electricity in the U.S. is $206.22 per month, and if you're eager to pay less, you’ve probably done the obvious stuff—conserving your use, sealing (or replacing) your windows and doors, or even using your appliances at off-peak times. But if you’ve covered the basics and your bills still seem too high, it’s time to dig deeper. Sometimes the reasons behind an unusually large utility bill aren’t obvious at all, and have nothing to do with your behaviors or usage patterns. Here are six unexpected—but not entirely unlikely—causes for a higher bill. Your appliances are old…

Browser extensions can potentially see a lot of what you're up to on your computer—so you need to be careful when it comes to choosing which of these add-ons you install and allow to access your browser. While plenty of browser extensions out there are legit and genuinely useful, some of them aren't. Browser security analyst John Tuckner (via Ars Technica) recently posted about discovering dozens of suspect extensions that have overly broad permissions and seem to be mining browser data. These extensions are apparently being used by around six million users. Most of these extensions are unlisted in the Chrome Web Store, so users need to be directed to the exact URL to fin…

Americans spend almost $28 billion on interior decorating every year, and there are good reasons why. Our homes are incredibly personal spaces—they’re where we walk around in our underwear, where we talk to ourselves, where we spend intimate moments with our families. That’s why decorating our homes isn’t frivolous—it’s important that the space we live in feels comfortable, usable, and, maybe most importantly, personal. Making your home beautiful while reflecting your personality can seem daunting, though. Design shows on TV offer an impossible standard of supposed taste, and it’s easy to believe that you need a professional interior designer or your house will look tacky…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Home renovations are expensive—and exciting. It’s never cheap to rip out the old and install the brand-new, but a quality renovation can turn your house into a dream home, or at least solve some nagging problems that have bothered you for years. While not every renovation project gives you the results you’re looking for, there’s no doubt that putting some work into your home usually results in a happier, more valuable place to live. But renovation projects aren’t “set it and forget it.” You’ve hired people to come into your private space with tools and materials, to rip out old stuff (that sometimes doesn’t want to be ripp…

Although home burglaries are trending downward overall, there are still more than 800,000 break-ins every year. Aside from the potential damage to your property and the loss of your belongings, there also the concern for your family’s safety—no one wants criminals wandering around your house. The obvious solution is to go with technology—alarm systems and security cameras. While these kinds of systems can definitely help defend against unwanted guests on your property (and give you peace of mind), there’s more you can do to keep your home secure. Your landscaping is a surprisingly key element of your home’s security—or it can be, if you plan it thoughtfully. Here are a fe…

Chromecasts were one of the most useful little gadgets that Google ever made, so of course it decided to ditch the product line. The Google Cast functionality lives on in the Google TV Streamer and Google TV devices and televisions, but sadly we won't see another Chromecast go on sale. If you've got an older Chromecast hanging around, it'll still work fine for now. However, you might soon be moving on to a newer streaming device—or perhaps you already have—and that's left you wondering what to do with your older hardware. In fact, these small dongles are more versatile than you might have realized. While streaming content from the likes of Netflix and Apple TV is going to…

It’s official: Skype is dead. The long-lived (by internet standards) voice-over-internet app has been put out to pasture by parent company Microsoft. Though Skype was once considered the way to call someone online, it's now going the way of Google Hangouts and dozens of other trendsetting apps before it. Come May 5, it’ll officially be replaced by Microsoft Teams. It’s truly the end of an era. Launched in 2003, Skype quickly became synonymous with video calls online, with “skype-ing” entering the lexicon as its own verb. It has supported countless long distance relationships, podcasts recording sessions, and remote D&D games, but after being supplanted by apps like Z…

I never enjoyed the experience of reading long threads on Twitter (the same goes for X), and I don't think any of its successors have done a particularly great job making them easier to read. Since Bluesky is the preferred home of X-pats, I've been reading a number of lengthy threads there, and after I encountered multiple threads with 10+ posts, I went looking for a tool that would make it easier to follow along. That's when I came across Skywriter, a utility that unrolls long threads and converts them into an article format. Skywriter turns Bluesky threads into articlesThe next time you encounter a long thread on Bluesky, drop the link to the first post on Skywriter's …

We may earn a commission from links on this page. The expected release of glasses from huge players like Apple and Google has industry analysts predicting sales of smart glasses will rise from six million units in 2025 to 20 million in 2026. In other words, this year is looking like an inflection point, where tech-enabled spectacles make the transformation from tech wear for early adopters to everyday gear for regular folks. Whether you're looking for a pair of audio-first glasses, display glasses, or full augmented reality, here's what to expect from the major players and smaller operators in the smart-glasses space. CES's major smart glasses announcementsThis year's Con…

The first supermarket, the Piggly Wiggly in Memphis, opened its doors in 1916. It was the first time people could wander around a store and pick their items from a shelf instead of handing a list to a clerk who would gather everything for them—typically without any choice of brand or style. Grocery shopping remains a daily or weekly ritual for most people, and it can be a real chore—especially if you’re shopping for a large family. My own grocery lists aren’t all that long, but I still find myself juggling my phone and a scrap of paper as I walk around the store, checking for digital coupons and trying to do quick math. So when I read that one of the local grocery stores …

I didn't know it until recently, but apparently boxed cake mixes are a popular store-bought ingredient to experiment with. Thanks to you, the good people reading my food hacks, I’ve been made aware of yet another ingredient that can masquerade as an egg in cake mix. Honestly, who needs eggs when you have soda? Replacing eggs in baking can be trickyEggs continue to be unreasonably expensive, which is especially frustrating for a person like me who used to rely on them for most of my protein. I’ve made some adjustments, though, and now I try to use them only for the recipes that really require them. It might take a few failed attempts, but it's becoming easier and easier to…

There was a time when we all had dedicated alarm clocks on our nightstands to wake us up in the morning. Now, I'd wager a smartphone does the job for most of us (whether we like it or not). The thing about alarms, though: They kind of need to work every time they're scheduled to go off. There's no acceptable percentage of failure, as, presumably, you're setting that alarm at a specific time for a good reason. You might have work, an interview, an appointment, any number of other important obligations, and not all of them are going to tolerate "my alarm didn't go off" as an excuse. So, alarms need to work, and right now, alarms set on a Google Pixel can't be trusted. Alarm…

All batteries age, and the lithium ion battery in your iPhone is no exception. Overtime, the battery degrades, meaning it can no longer hold as much of a charge as it could when it was new. After a few years of using the phone, you may notice your phone needs more frequent juice-ups throughout the day. When the inevitable happens to you, you don't need to buy a new iPhone. Instead, you can simply replace the battery at a relatively inexpensive cost. Depending on your iPhone, you may not only notice an increase in time away from the charger, but also a boost in performance, since iOS slows down the processing power of your iPhone when its battery is too degraded. Though re…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Amazon’s Memorial Day Sale is already happening, and plenty of fitness trackers and smartwatches are on sale. This event intersects with some recent Garmin price drops, too, making it a really good time to shop for a new watch. Here are the best deals I’m seeing. Pixel Google’s Pixel Watch 2 is on sale for just $149.99, down from an original price of $249.99. This is the slightly older version, launched in 2023 and replaced two years later by the Pixel Watch 3 (which I reviewed here). The Pixel Watch 2 has most of the same features as the newer mod…

We may earn a commission from links on this page. The only thing I didn’t love about the Mammotion Luba robot lawn mower I tested last summer was its size. It’s a hulking four-wheel-drive robot and I live in the city, where we don’t have huge lawns. Enter the Luba Mini, a halved version of the Luba meant for smaller lawns (and tighter budgets). In fact, if you paid attention this spring, miniaturized versions of some of my favorite technology were everywhere. These mini-me versions seem to be driven, according to the companies themselves, by two market needs. While smart home tech is incredible in terms of functionality and independence, it often comes at a steep cost. Bu…

Google has been taking its crusade against adblockers to a whole new level lately, and users are speculating that unskippable multi-hour ads are its latest weapon. Over the past week, Redditors have been sharing screenshots showing that they’ve been served ads with runtimes as long as three hours, with no skip button in sight—and that's to watch videos that are much shorter than the ads themselves. Android Authority was the first to report on the phenomenon, linking to threads from users Lin1ex and Standard-Slip6572, who complained about the feature-length interruptions, complete with images of their screens with the ads in full view. The publication also pointed to comme…

If you use the internet, you've probably had at least some personal information go missing. It's just the nature of the web. But this latest discovery, as reported by Wired, is something different. Security researcher Jeremiah Fowler found a public online database housing over 180 million records (184,162,718 to be exact) which amounted to more than 47GB of data. There were no indications about who owned the data or who placed it there, which Fowler says is atypical for these types of online databases. Fowler saw emails, usernames, passwords, and URLs linking to the sites where those credentials belonged. These accounts included major platforms like Microsoft, Facebook, …