We'll be honest: young people nowadays learn a lot more now than when we, ahem, more "experienced" folks were their age. But while many of today's young adults are comfortable with texting, Skype, Twitter and such, the skills one needs to live in the Real World are frequently a little lacking. Just because they know their way around Facebook, doesn't mean they can keep a checkbook balanced, for example.

So you got your income tax return done and sent on time. Congratulations! You may be enjoying that nice refund about now. But before the joy of the moment overwhelms your memory, think back to those days before April 17^th, when you were fighting to get that return completed and sent in.

The IRS has opened its filing season successfully this month, and refunds have started going out to many taxpayers. As with the start of any tax season, there are system validations that occur requiring some fine-tuning of our systems. As part of this, some taxpayers will receive refunds approximately one week later than initial projections they may have received, but these are still in line with historical refund delivery times.

You've put away the Christmas decorations and swept up all that confetti left over from New Year's. NOW it's time to work on that "elephant in the living room" - your taxes.

2011 is coming to an end but it's not too late to make charitable contributions. Individuals and businesses making contributions to charity should keep in mind several important tax law provisions that have taken effect in recent years.