Make Money and Save Money

I have this mind set about money that tends to get me into some hot water with friends and family at times. I can easily recall a hand-full of “discussions” about personal finances that led to my close friends not speaking to me for long periods of time. See, I do not support frivolous spending and if asked my opinion I usually give it truthfully. I have watched too many stale situations go horribly wrong in very small amounts of time and this has caused me to be extremely frugal with my own finances.

Money is not something you should feel entitled to, by that I mean just because you work for it does not mean one should spend it any way they choose. If one has financial obligations like rent, mortgage and car payments one should pay them BEFORE one buys that new CD or pair of shoes. If one feels as if they need to choose between needs and wants then one should rethink their current employment. My advice to everyone and anyone will always be: Pay for your needs first, if you have money left over pick up that CD. If you do not make enough money to pay for your needs, then choosing to not pay for those necessities will only make the situation worse in the long run.

Think about this one; bills grow over time if not paid but that CD will become cheaper as time passes. Sure, you may not have bought it when you wanted it badly but at least you still have hot water.

My stance is even hardier if one has children, never should one think of themselves before ones child when it comes to finances. That does not mean I think a child should be financially spoiled. If ones child needs glasses and one decides to purchase a Playstation 3 instead of improving the child’s eyesight, I see that as an ultimate example of selfishness and poor financial judgement. Skipping the water bill to splurge on fast food is in my own opinion almost neglectful when one has children.

Sorry for the tirade today, I have been bombarded with poor me sob stories lately that come to light later being an example of wasted money and twisted financial thinking from adults who should know better. In the end they had the money to pay the bills and decided they worked for that money hence they should be able to blow it if they want and should have no negative consequences.

I know I have been quite over here for a few days, what with my work schedule and the PC recovery I performed this week I just seem lost in update land. I want to address the fact that most of my posts on taxes are US specific; I am not forgetting that many readers are from different countries I just need to do my research before I feel comfortable posting contry specific information. I am currently looking into Canadian income taxes and will share helpful links as I put a few more together.

I don’t want to share a site unless I am comfortable that they share relevevant and helpfull information. At the moment I am surfing and saving links as I come across them, my next country to research will be Germany.

I will release the second part of my Financial Planning series as soon as I complete the worksheets I want to share.  I will also be posting tips on tracking your self employment records easily and accurately. I plan to create a few worksheets for you that will help make it simplier to track your income and expenses with a tutorial on how to use each one.

I hate to cook, I am not sure what about it makes me detest doing it, I just don’t care to spend my time at the stove for long periods of time. I however get tired of eating the same set of meals repeatedly, and love him as much as I do, my hubby only has so many meals he can whip up. I learned a long time ago that just a little extra tweak, or love, put into a meal can make it seem like an extravagant difference.

My children love cold sandwiches, they request them often in fact. Two or three days later they will pick at the sandwich they so eagerly requested days before. If I want to keep to something easy and cheap I whip out my Forman grill and treat them to a gourmet sandwich (at leaste they think so). I am not sure if it is the melted cheese or the fact that it is warm, either way they eat every bite and savory it while they are eating it.

Turkey Melt

Take two pieces of bread and lightly butter the outside of them. Heat your skillet or in my case Forman grill and warm the meat for about a minute depending on thickness. Lay the bread on the surface and put a slice of cheese on each one. Let it melt into the bread and add the meat. Put the top piece of bread on and continue to cook until the breads turns a nice crunchy (not burned) golden brown. Add a dill pickle spear and some cottage cheese as side dishes and you have a filling and tasty meal.

The IRS requires that you claim any self employment income that meets or exceeds $400 in one year. That includes the money you earn online through PTC, article and review publishing, Adsense and other advertising earnings,  paid Blogs (like Today.com) and digital sales. This is reportable on a Schedule C: Income or Loss From Your Business or Profession.

You should receive a 1099 MISC (Independent Contractor) if you made $400 with any one company, if you do not receive one that does not necessarily mean you do not have to report your earnings. As an independent contractor, which is what the IRS considers someone who is not paid as a W-2 employee, you are solely responsible for keeping records of income and expenses.  It is in your best interest to keep diligent and accurate accounts of your business activity, the IRS can require that you provide these in the future to prove your income and expenses.

The most confusing part of self employment can be deductions, what is and is not considered a legitimate deduction. The simplest determination is this: Is the expense ordinary and necessary in your business? Ordinary is defined as one that is common and accepted in your business, and necessary is defined as one that is helpful and appropriate to your business. A farmer would not reasonably deduct the new copy of Photoshop he purchased but a Graphic Artist would.

Basically, just because you purchased it does not mean you can deduct it; and just because it is listed on the Schedule C does not mean you can claim it. Most online earnings do not incur mileage expenses, this is one example of a deduction that although it is listed on the Schedule C, I as a Digital Scrapbook Designer can not legally claim. I also can not claim printing expenses; such as photo paper, toner or ink because it is not necessary to my business.

I will leave the floor open for any questions you may have at this point and return with more information on this subject tomorrow. If anyone has a specific question they would like answered please leave a comment and I will answer it in the next post. For those who are visiting for the first time, I am an Office Manager for a Tax Service with 6 years of tax preparation training and experience. If I feel that I can not answer your question I will seek the appropriate response from my colleagues who have experience in that area.

I just worked a thirteen hour shift as an office manager of a very busy tax service and will be working 77 hours a week for the next few weeks. I am excited yet a bit overwhelmed at this point people are streaming through the doors eager to get an early start this year.

I have a feeling that this season will be one of the busiest and profitable ones for the banks that fund the loans that are offered through many tax services. So many need that money as soon as they can get and they are shrugging the expense away due to necessity.

The economy (I know can we not find something else to talk about) feeling as shaky as it is right now tends to make people nervous and wary. This time of year is one alot of wage earners look forward to all year long. They tend to overspend during the holidays almost banking on their tax returns to pay it all off. I think it might be time for a change in thinking, especially for me. I need to stop thinking of it as a fresh start and start thinking in terms of “What if there were no tax refunds?”.

This thread of posts is quickly becoming my favorite, I never thought of cooking as a way to save until I started here on Today.com. I just planned my meals according to my budget and didn’t realize I had started budgeting the meals themselves. Lets go vegetarian today since I have been preparing more of them for my now non-meat eating husband.

Dairy Salad

1. Head of Iceburg Lettuce
2. Large Red Onion
3. Medium Cucumber
4. several small green peppers(or an assortment of colored)
5. Bag shredded carrots (or shred your own)
6. 10 radishes shredded
7. 8 oz. Large Curd Cottage Cheese
8. 4 oz. Four Cheese Blend Shredded Cheese
9. Red Wine Vinegarette Salad Dressing
10. Chopped walnuts

Prepare the veggies as you would for a typical tossed salad and refrigerate until ready to serve. Keep several large leaves of lettuce intact and set aside. Lay the lettuce leaf in the bottom of your salad bowl and scoop in a generous amount of cottage cheese. Add the salad mix around the sides of the bowl covering the cottage cheese slightly. Top it all of with the chopped walnuts, shredded cheese and drizzle the red wine vinergarette over it all. This is a tastey little salad, on that you have my word.

Here is the main reason I do not list the pay to click sites that I particiapte in, they are not reliable avenues of income. This site was paying me 1 cent a click but only allowed me 4 clicks per day, I was at $3.86 when they closed down after the Holidays. I will never see that money and neither will anyone who had earnings when they shut down.

This is just one of many pay to sites that I have watched come crashing down and take everyone’s earnings with them. One site, can not think of the name right now, was closed down within a week of lauching. This is just one of many reasons I prefer to use Traffic Exchanges over pay to click sites.

Some Traffic Exchange sites offer you cash prizes and bonuses for active surfing, as a matter of fact I have earned over $30 using a hadfull of exchanges. I always convert my earnings to traffic credits, it is just the smartest avenue for me.

I am not one to get into the political side of anything, I do not like politics and I do not trust anything to do with political figures. I am reasonably intelligent and I can say I know more about politics than most of my friends (hubby  makes sure I am well educated in that department), usually my main interest in politics and law changes focuses on income taxes.

I watched the news this morning, there was my first mistake I guess, and what I heard has actually angered me. The Federal Commission wants to raise the gas tax, we finally get a break from the disgusting gas prices this war and greed have caused and they want to punish us for our conservatism.

They say because the funding for road repairs and other transit projects have decreased due to motorists driving less, they need to increase the tax to compensate this deficit. What? If we are driving less does that not cause a reasonable decrease in the amount of wear and tear on the roads?

They are proposing a 10 cent increase for gas and a 12-15 cent increase for diesel all in the name of keeping our roadways driveable. The gas tax rates are already at 18.4 cents and diesel is at 24.4, with the increase don’t they foresee a bigger decrease in travel. I for one did not drive anywhere I did not have to when the gas prices where up, and I doubt I will travel much with the increase to the tax.

They want to hit us where it will hurt and then they want to complain about the economy going to pot, who is going to spend on consumer products when they can barely afford gas to go back and forth to work?

This will affect more avenues than they have considered. What about the minimum wage workers who have children? Already their paychecks are eaten by the cost of transportation and childcare. This will cause an increase of welfare applicants which always seems to anger taxpayers who do not receive it. What about the retirement community who already have to work to make ends meet? Small buisnesses will take a major hit, their costs will go up so our cost will go up and few will walk through their doors.

So many will be impacted negatively by this proposed increase, will they care to listen? Will they consider the working class individuals that earn lower pay? Will they consider the dual working families who struggle to make it even with two wage earners?

I often joke that I will be the first female president and that my platform will be Free Gas and Utilities for All, for it seems only those lucky enough to own those conglomerates are making money these days. If we did not have to pay for these necessities we would have more money to sink into consumerism, this would cause the economy to rise and more jobs to be produced. Well it makes sense to me.

The day they put a price cap on gas is the day they quit buying oil from overseas and start using our own reserves, as you could surmise this is unlikely to happen until the suppliers overseas run out. I guess I can understand their thinking in this endeavor, buy and use everybody else’s until it is gone then make them depend on us for it in the future. Hmm, United World of America anyone?

The Holidays are over and we are all taking a deep breath of relief; not so fast, it is time to start preparing to file your federal and state income taxes. The majority of us will be waiting for our W-2’s until the end of January to the beginning of February at which time we can file our taxes and some lucky few have a dedicated Human Resource department and will receive their W-2’s sometime in the next week.

If you have your taxes prepared by a tax professional, either by an accountant or a service such as Jackson Hewitt, then having all your proofs and documents set aside before you walk in their doors will save you time and frustration. While each persons tax situation is different their are a handful of items that everyone will need to have their taxes prepared; such as personal identification, wage documents, dependant information and deduction information.

Here s a small list of items you will want to bring to your tax preparer:

1. Property Taxes Paid
2. Mortgage Interest Paid
3. 1099’s (this includes DIV, MISC, INT etc.)
4. W-2’s
5. Unemployment
6. Tuition Statements
7. Charitable Contributions
8. Social Security Statement
9. Self Employment Income and Expenses
10. Union Dues and Fess Paid
11. Job related magazine subscriptions cost
12. Uniform costs if job required(can not be able to wear outside the workplace, i.e. safety goggles, steel-toe boots, scrubs.
13. Last years tax preparation cost
14. Safe Deposit Box fees
15. Childcare Providers cost and Employer Identification Number (EIN)

Well, that should get you close to having everything together when you wall through the doors to have your taxes prepared. Call you service beforehand and ask if they offer a checklist of items you should bring to your appointment. Most willing hand them out to eliminate needless waiting and running for information that can cause your filling to be delayed.
 

It is New Years Eve, for me I have forty six minutes until 2009 officialy starts. This year my only resolution is to secure my families financial future. I vow to open savings accounts for eah of my children and grow it by fifteen percent by the end of the year. I vow to start putting money into a retirement fund for my husband and I. I vow to spend wisely and earn vigorously.

The economy tonight is shaky as it has been for what seems like forever and nothing is certain. When large icons like Ford and Chevrolet need to be bailed out by the government one tends to become a little aprehensive about what tomorrow may bring. I do not want to be in the percentage of of that find ourselves struggling to live day to day, I must provide stablity for our children.

Tomorrow is almost upon us; the first day of the new year has come so fast. My lists of goals have been pinned to the bulletin board and I have hundreds of possible solutions running loose in my head. By this time next year I will have my finances under control, they will NOT control my life anymore.