My clients have survived the Malibu fires, the subsequent mudslides and floods, the Rodney King riots, and several earthquakes—and that’s just here in California. Others have experienced Hurricane Katrina and other equally devastating storms and floods. Why start out a blog about organizing paperwork by telling you about disasters? Because we spent months trying to [...]
Are you feeling the squeeze? If your children are going off to college, or if they are getting married, they’re likely incurring heavy-duty costs. At the same time, your parents may be getting older and starting to need more care, time, and attention—and, perhaps, money. Or you may have siblings or relatives who are incapable [...]
My husband was flipping channels recently (as men like to do) and found the Me-TV Network and the This TV Network. Both channels are running those old shows from the ’60s, like Leave It To Beaver and Father Knows Best. Do you remember those magical shows where families could live on just the dad’s income [...]
Sometimes I feel like there’s a tax credit for everything—but the tricky part is finding out for which tax credits you qualify and how to receive them. One interesting and important tax credit that may be available to you is the adoption credit. Why do we care so much about the adoption tax credit? The [...]
A client just asked me about reviewing her payroll, which fluctuates a great deal throughout the year. Her request is perfectly timed—there’s still plenty of time to adjust her withholding before year-end and filing taxes. When you pay your taxes via withholding, the IRS will treat the payments as if they had been made throughout [...]
Everyone has at least one vice, whether we are willing to admit it or not. Looking at Dante’s list of seven deadly vices, I am certain that I have fallen prey to nearly all of them at one time or another—and enjoyed them heartily. Shhhh…. But those aren’t the vices we’ll focus on today. We’ll [...]
It’s always worthwhile to plan for saving money, even when the stock market is tanking. The fact is that you don’t need to put your money into anything risky—there are always savings accounts and certificates of deposit, for example. You may not earn much with these options, but you won’t lose anything either. Folks who [...]
I met Roger B. Adams on the Internet, and he quickly became one of my best friends. At the time, he was just learning about taxes as a volunteer at the U.S. embassy in Lisbon, Portugal, helping Americans overseas file their tax returns. During the first couple of years of our acquaintance, Roger got hooked [...]
At my 20th high school reunion, I learned that one of my classmates was homeschooling her two children. I was fascinated with the concept, though my main concern was about her children’s socialization with others their own age. No worries here—her children were actively involved with their own age group in church and in clubs. [...]
This is the time of year parents are rushing around, frantically buying up supplies for their children returning to school. I remember the days of cutting up brown paper bags to make neat, clean covers for all our precious schoolbooks. Do you still do that? Recently, we talked about the tax-free days in certain states, [...]
