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Have you ever had a “light bulb” moment?  I have been driving for many years. I’ve driven at least a million miles and I own a few cars (I collect certain types), and when driving my spouse’s car or one from the collection that I haven’t driven in a while, inevitably it’s time to gas up. I pull up to a pump and get out and realize that the gas cap is on the other side, back up the car, turn it around with a sigh and fill it up. Then this year the “light bulb” moment. While trying to figure out the dashboard “iPhone” charger fuse location, I happened to be looking at the diagram of the fuel gauge in the manual from

Don’t let your stockbroker off the hook when it comes to tax planning. Many people work with brokers when they buy and sell stocks. Many people now, because of the internet, also have become their own stockbrokers, doing their own research and trading on various platforms. Whether you use a professional or do your trades yourself, you still need to hold your stockbroker accountable. What do I mean? If a broker is helping you buy and sell, they had to take a Series license of some kind. Sometimes, an RIA (Registered Investment Advisor) has taken a Series 65 exam. If it’s a representative of a broker/dealer, perhaps they’ve taken a Series 6 or a Series 7 exam. There are other possibilities, but the point is, these exams are

Many of our clients are business owners and we often have conversations with them in and around the value of their business. It’s easy to pin a value number on a business based on emotion; after all if you have built a business from scratch or bought somebody else’s business and made it your own, it becomes your baby. Of course, family is worth more to you than anything on earth, but your business ends up coming in a close second. But your emotional value doesn’t have any bearing on the actual value, and when dealing with banks, insurance companies, and the various other people that help your business grow and operate, they often need a number based on a

The answer to that might surprise you. Because, for the most part, the answer is yes.  However, sometimes they are only fair if you know how to “play the game”. Most people think only the wealthy can avoid paying income tax because they know how to play the game. Well, at a much lower level, everybody knows some of the tricks to “playing the game”. For instance, you might be contributing to your 401(k) at work. Well, you’re playing the game. However, you might not know that even though you’re contributing everything you can to your 401(k) at work, you’re still allowed to open an additional private IRA, and take another several thousand dollars off of your taxable income. The trick is “knowing the rest of the rules

When you start tax planning with a new client, the first thing people often ask is why the accountant or CPA they are using doesn’t think or act the way you do in discussing the hunt for possible tax savings. After all, the current CPA is smart, trustworthy, running a successful accounting business and well respected in the community. So, why are you telling them all these wonderful new tax savings ideas that their CPA has never mentioned? There are many explanations, but the simplest is how the accountants themselves view the job that they do. Often, accountants think that the profession of accounting in its simplest form is the job of telling the story of money that has already