That partly reflects a traditional year-end rush to tidy up banks' balance-sheets but also nervousness about lending directly to others.

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Unlike a pre-tax healthcare flexible spending account, where you forfeit any unused balance at the end of the year under the use-it-or-lose-it rule, you can roll over any unused balance with an HSA, building a tax-free healthcare retirement kitty.

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The RMD is calculated based on an IRA owner's age (older folks must take out more) and the IRA balance at the end of the previous year.

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Banks have been hoarding cash, preparing their balance sheets for the quarter-end and year-end.

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If MCIcan emerge from Chapter 11 (it hopes to do so by year-end), it will have one of the cleanest balance sheets in telecom.

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Health was the biggest area of uncertainty, with local health boards often requiring extra funding to balance their books at the end of the year.

BBC: Wales budget affordability doubts raised

The new health minister said on Monday that he had not ruled out the possibility some Welsh boards could fail to balance the books by the end of the financial year.

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Its balance sheets have shrunk by several hundred billion dollars since its year-end highs.

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According to Goodwin, a customer's checking his bank balance is a great cross-selling lead (awaiting a year-end bonus, perhaps?), and cost-conscious banks that forward callers to outsourced operators may be missing the plot.

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