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Browse every published article connected to Justin Krane, or search within this exact expert archive.
Your taxes only end up stinking if you put them off till the last minute. You are trying to back away from them but their stank is just ridic? They have no idea how bad their breath is! Especially when they eat the onion bagel with lox cream cheese! You’ll do anything to avoid their halitosis.
Don’t let your marketing dollars get stuck in the vending machine. It happens to everyone. It’s like a rite of passage. You go to the vending machine to buy your raisinets and get your major chocolate fix. You put your money in the machine but your candy gets stuck. You’re bummed out. You weren’t expecting this to happen. You’re faced with the decision of putting more money in the machine to get what you want – or calling some number to complain, (do they ever answer?) knowing you will never get your money back.
When it comes to your business, make sure you show all your cards. It’s come down to this. Where have all my pillowcases gone? Anyone else lose pillowcases, or just socks? I had been dreading the day that I would have to set foot in a Bed Bath & Beyond (BBB) store (they were all out of pillowcases online) and go shopping for pillowcases. Talk about dry heaving in a brown paper bag.
Credit unions have their perks. Monopoly. Loved it. Did you love being the banker? The one with the big wad of cash? Those were the good old days when it was cool to be the bank. Today, it ain’t so cool to be the bank. Why? * All of the pens at the bank that you use to fill out the deposit slips are out of ink. Seems like the banks could care less. * The bankers have the worst ties and have spilled a bottle of cologne all over themselves. * There is only one teller available and all of the others are on a break.
Solid time management skills will make your life much easier. Me: Hey how are you doing? How are things? Joe: Great. I am soooo busy. Crazy busy. Where does all of the time go? Me: How’s business? Joe: I’m doing really well. Just got back from New York. I have tons of things going on this week – a bunch of meetings and a few events. Hey I gotta run. Let’s catch up soon. I will find you on Facebook. Me: Sounds great. Be well. This happens all of the time. We are so busy being busy. And we love to tell people how busy we are.
How about some fireworks for our financial independence? We just celebrated our country’s independence. During the fireworks show, I got the chills listening to everyone celebrate and cheer for our country. It’s a great feeling, right? Now let me ask you this. When is the last time you celebrated your financial independence?
According to the U.S. Dept of Commerce, 95% of franchises are still in business after 5 years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the SBA, only 50% of small businesses survive within 5 years. So why do franchises succeed? One reason is that they follow an operations manual the franchisor created for them. An operations manual is a written plan for how to run your business. It should be written so a complete stranger could walk into your company and take over the duties of any job you’ve hired employees to do.
What Is Correlation and How It Effects Your Portfolio You just got on the freeway and are going 65 miles per hour. All of a sudden you hit some traffic. You’re now driving 10 miles per hour and you decide to change lanes. Whoops – bad move. The lane you change into slows down, and the lane you just left now goes faster. So you decide to change back to your original lane and the same thing happens to you again. You’re really frustrated and mad at yourself because you just made 2 bad decisions. Some people invest like they drive.
Invest in Gold. Still a Smart Move for Your Portfolio Wow, another reminder to invest in gold! Debka.com is reporting that India will use gold to buy oil from Iran. India spends around $12 billion dollars a year to buy oil from Iran. China is expected to use gold as the unit of currency to buy oil from Iran as well.
The Occupy Wall Street movement came out of nowhere. In just 4 weeks we have a movement that has gained some real traction. Here is where I agree with them. • Whatever happened to the executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? The company executives made gazillions of dollars at the expense of shareholders. • How about all of the mortgage companies that allowed people to borrow money, put down 5 or 10% with little documentation? • How about all of the investment bankers who packaged mortgage loans into securities that they were going to sell and which they knew weren’t solid?
Credit Card Debt Traps Less U.S. Consumers CreditKarma.com has reported that consumers cut their credit card debt by 11%! The average credit card balance for 2011 was $6576, compared to $7404 in 2010. This is good stuff! The way we get into credit card debt in the first place is by spending more money than we have. For some reason, some of us decide that we will deal with the debt later, or that it will magically go away. Poof! But it doesn’t and the feeling of getting out of debt weighs on us. Then we retreat and turn to poverty thinking mode.
Not Selling Your Business? You Are Leaving Money on the Table Many of you business owners don’t realize that your business can be a great source for adding money to your retirement nest egg. Because of that, you don’t take the necessary steps and plans for selling your business as you near retirement. Talk about leaving money on the table! Selling your business before you retire is like falling into a boatload of cash with a lot of perks. It would allow you to spend more money now and not have to save as much.
The Facebook IPO Is Coming Soon But How Public Is It Really? You love Facebook. You believe in it. You want a piece of it. So you want to get in on the Facebook IPO. But to do that, you have to be an “accredited investor,” meaning that your net worth needs to be above $1 million, your annual income needs to be over $200k and you must be able to certify that you have experience investing in private companies. Whew!
You are swamped. You are 2 days behind on your emails at work. You have a presentation in 3 days that you haven’t even started. Client meetings that you haven’t prepared for. Your nanny just called in sick and you are scrambling to find coverage. Things are falling through the cracks. You are fahreekin out! What’s wrong with this picture?
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
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.