Browse published articles attributed to Justin Krane, with full-archive search.
Want Smooth Sailing for Your Tax Planning? Get Your CPA On Board. Taxes, tax planning, estimated tax payments, your CPA. Feeling nauseous yet? Need a brown paper bag? It doesn’t have to be this way. Like most people, you are not wired to deal with this tax stuff. You are not supposed to be great at tax planning! You are busy doing other stuff.
Don't Wait for Disaster to Hit. Business Insurance is a Must for Every Business. You think it will never happen until it happens to you. That's exactly what happened to small businesses in five states this week. More than 150 tornadoes devastated people's homes and personal lives as well as many small businesses.
You May Be Subject To Alte ative Minimum Tax and Not Even Know The Consequences The Alte ative Minimum Tax was introduced by the IRS in 1969 and instituted for wealthy people who were eligible for special tax benefits – and thus owed little or no taxes. Based on a number of factors, more and more of us are now subject to AMT. Ask your accountant if you are subject to AMT. If you are, you’ll be surprised that you can’t deduct: 1) Property taxes you pay on your home 2) Miscellaneous “tier 2” non reimbursable business expenses 3) Investment Advisory Fees 4) Tax preparation costsr
More of the same equals more of the same. You want a different financial life for 2013? Shake it up a bit. Shake that booty. Stir the pot. Seriously, let’s get this pahtay started right now, Pirate’s Booty style. Check that. Gangnam style. Different actions could yield different results . . . Think how much better you could feel if you actually had a financial plan for your life. . . Here’s my list of actions to shake ya booty for a different financial life:
Your portfolio is about risk tolerance We all want to make money when we invest. We start out investing as long term investors and think we can ride out the crazy stock market. Sometimes we think we are more aggressive risk takers than we actually are. We are prepared to take risk and make big money. But when the ship hits the fan and we are down serious money, some of us get white knuckles, cash out and sell.
You want to pay down your debt. But you’ve been making the same money for the past 2 years. You know that something has to change. Or it’s just going to be same sh** different day. You totally want to upgrade your website, hire an employee, get a MacBook Pro, and invest in social media. But your credit cards/ other debt are killin’ you. Why, because you are spending $200 a month in interest. That $200 could go to a new logo or some software you really need.
When it comes to investing, many of us are so conce ed about losing money that we forget why we are investing in the first place. We are investing to reach some goal, some goal that we set in today’s dollars in our minds. When we plan for a goal that is far away, say 10, 15 years in the future, like retirement, we need to be reminded of the bigger risk to not achieving that goal– inflation. Remember when it used to cost $5 to go to the movies, or $20 to fill up your car? How about when the price of a stamp was 20 cents?
Most of us think that our portfolio, home equity or business is our largest asset. But what about our ability to produce income? Assume you and/or your business earns $200,000 per year: The present value of making $200,000 a year for the next 5 years is $890,364. In other words, if you were given $890,364 today, and made 4.00% on that money, and withdrew $200,000 a year, you would run out of money in 5 years. So if you could not work for 5 years if you were disabled, the present value of that loss in earnings is $890,364. Please note that taxes are not taken into consideration here.
If you work at a public company, chances are that your company offers you a way to buy stock in your company at a discount. It’s a way of saving and investing automatically where your investment gets deducted from your paycheck. There is no tax deduction – you are using after tax money to buy your company stock. The discount can range from 5-15%. Most plans allow their employees to save between 1-10% of their pay (or a specific dollar amount) which is withheld to buy stock during an offering period.
4 Reasons Why Bonds May Fit In Your Portfolio We’re going to take a peek at how bonds could fit into your portfolio and why you would want to buy them. 1. Your portfolio lost over 30% in 2008. You are approaching retirement and you don’t have the earnings power to make up huge losses anymore. 2. You have realized that your tolerance for risk has decreased for whatever reason. You just can’t stand to lose as much money as you did in your earlier investing years.
Each time my kids achieve something for the first time that they have been trying to do for a while, they become proud of themselves and gain confidence. Whether it's tying their shoes or writing their names for the very first time, they see that they can overcome an obstacle and succeed at something. But what if a child is different? What if a child needs a safe, secure environment, and extra special encouragement? I have seen kids that need help with reading, writing, and speaking struggle when the care is not provided to them.
For most of us, when we think of the word risk, we think of losing money. We think of the unknown and what could go wrong. Have you ever heard of the term standard deviation? It may be the measure that you are looking for to assess the overall volatility of your portfolio and your financial risks. It measures how widely portfolio values fluctuate around an average value. The larger the difference between the closing value and the average value, the higher the standard deviation.
Philanthropy is Full-Anthropy Has anyone ever asked you what you would do if you had all of the money in the world? Most commonly, people respond with, "I'd buy a bigger house or travel." This is often followed by, "I'd donate more money to charity." People who are charitably inclined usually are living a rich, full life. We all have some affinity to a specific charity we like to support. As a Financial Life Planner, I have come to learn that charitable giving is an important goal for most people. Yet most of us don't have a process for funding this goal.
9 Key Points to Better Understand Bonds Out of all of the investment conversations I have with my clients, it seems that most of them don’t understand what bonds are and how they could fit into their portfolio. Do You “Get” Bonds? 1. A bond is debt. When you buy a bond, you lend your money for a specific period of time to someone, and they pay you interest in return. You are a creditor. At the end of the term, you get your money back, and you received the interest along the way. 2. The interest you receive is usually paid twice a year.
Has the volatility of the stock market got you thinking about what to do? Now may be the right time to make your own lemonade stand. Consider doing some tax loss harvesting.
Learn from the Weight Watchers program: 6 Ways to Get What You Want With Your Personal Finances 1. The point system keeps you in check and provides flexibility. You can eat some foods that you love just as long as you don't go over the allotted points per day. Develop a saving and spending plan that will give you some wiggle room when it comes to budgeting your personal finances. But there does need to be a limit set based how much you can spend today, so there is money set aside for tomorrow.