“Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough.” -Charles Dudley Warner There was a recent “Freakonomics” podcast about the folly of prediction. Fascinating stuff — and (predictably) one of the most valuable conclusions? The experts are usually wrong. When you study how experts make opinions and, more importantly, the characteristics of those who make GOOD predictions, … Read More
“A Tax Hike For You?” Northridge Accountant Advises
"Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity." – Goethe Monday morning, we all woke up to a new deficit-reduction plan from the White House: raise taxes. (Story here: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-deficit-20110918,0,2819262.story ) I’m not here to beat anyone’s political head on the wall, so I’ll restrict my comments to a few key points — for YOU: 1) It’s not a … Read More
Kindergartners With A Credit Card?
"Good, better, best. Never rest until good be better and better best." – Mother Goose Google tells me that Mother Goose didn’t *actually* exist — but she sure was smart, eh? We’re heading into spring … and just a couple weeks remain here in "tax season" (what we tax professionals call it). I do hope that, by now, you’ve taken … Read More
Posting This Again
“I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.” – Lucille Ball Well, last week I departed from my normal area of expertise, and wrote a real-world guide on preparing your family and home for a true disaster. Got lots of feedback — thank you! But, I thought I should re-enter the fray of my … Read More
Are You Working Without A Net?
"Then give to the world the best you have, and the best will come back to you." – Madeline Bridges Before I get to what I wrote this week, I wanted you to know that there are a few important "announcements", following my Note, which affect your tax situation for 2010 (i.e. the taxes we’re helping you prepare NOW), or … Read More
A Friendly Tip (Not About Taxes)
“It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked.” – Kahlil Gibran Last Monday, there was a certain holiday to attend to, and it’s pretty easy to let things sort of slide on by after that point. But here’s my advice for you: Don’t stop there. Yes, yes — the old canard: EVERY day is … Read More
Health Care Reform will affect you like this
What is once well done is done forever. – Henry David Thoreau Well, as promised, I’m breaking down the new Health Care legislation in this week’s blog post. Polls show that this legislation isn’t popular–but it’s now the law of the land, so we all should get used to it. Families WILL be affected by it, and it’s a good … Read More
Now what?
“It’s income tax time again, Americans: time to gather up those receipts, get out those tax forms, sharpen up that pencil, and stab yourself in the aorta.” – Dave Barry Every year, around this time, I find myself blogging about “procrastination” and its dangers, as well as observations from tax season thus far. But this year is different. I’m writing … Read More
Just making sure…
“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” – Michael Jordan Well, we’re nearing the home stretch in tax season. Since the deadline for individuals (April 15th) is just under a month out, we’ve been “packing them … Read More
Commonly-overlooked breaks
We are not in a position in which we have nothing to work with. We already have capacities, talents, direction, missions, callings. – Abraham Maslow We’re getting closer and closer to D-Day (April 15th: “Done Day”) around here, and we’ve already had quite a tax season. This truly is our favorite time of year–we get to sit down with our … Read More