Personal Finance Advice and Commentary

While you impatiently wait for the long weekend ahead of you, think about the five things you can learn about your money today on Bankrate.com.

Financially, the middle class hasn’t fared well in the past 10 years.

The House Republican budget proposal for 2013 calls for reducing the current top income tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent, resulting in Democrats accusing the Republicans of protecting rich taxpayers at the expense of the middle class.

Uncle Sam wants your income.Under the new budget, introduced by Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, there would be two individual tax brackets, 15 percent and 25 percent. The alternative minimum tax, which was designed to eliminate deductions that favor the wealthy, would be eliminated. It’s not the first time the AMT has come under fire since it began sweeping in more middle-class taxpayers instead of targeting only the wealthy.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney defended his comment last week that he’s not concerned about America’s poor by explaining that his campaign focus is the majority of those in the middle class. But in an interview with CNN, he also said he’s not concerned about the very rich either, because they’re “doing OK.” The very