advice

Planning Your Financial Year

As we draw closer to the end of 2022, there is a feeling of hope in the air: tomorrow always holds the potential for us to be better, happier, and more successful than we were yesterday. One of the biggest advantages of embracing hopeful energy is that it motivates us to plan and prepare for the future we desire. With hope on your side, anything is possible!

With that in mind, I’m excited to share with you some easy steps for planning your financial year. It may seem daunting at first, but it’s surprisingly easy and quick to plan a financial year that will bring you joy instead of tears. The key to planning anything is breaking it down the big goals into smaller, more manageable pieces. Then, once those pieces are defined, take action daily in order to make your dreams come true. I’m getting ahead of myself: let’s start at the beginning.

Ask yourself, What do I want? Vague goals get vague results. Get specific and stop excluding yourself from your desires: eliminate the word “can’t” from your vocabulary. If the goal feels so huge that you doubt that it can happen, then take it down half a notch, but never make it so realistic that it doesn’t excite you. Your goals should light you up: if it feels lackluster, it isn’t big enough. Big, dreamy, specific goals are what you need to keep you motivated throughout the year.

Ask yourself, What will it take to get what I want? Break your big, dreamy goals into smaller, specific steps. If any part of your goals rely on luck, specify that, but also focus most of your attention on the actions that are within your control. If you identify a step that feels a bit overwhelming, then break that down into a much smaller, more manageable sub-steps. The objective of this exercise is to make your big goals feel obtainable (because they are!)

Ask yourself, What can I do today to get closer to what I want? Consistent, daily action is what takes a dream or plan and turns it into reality. The biggest problem I’ve seen people encounter on the path to their goals is believing that they need to take grand actions in order to make progress. If you wait for the right time to make big moves, you’ll find yourself frustrated, stuck, and feeling like a failure. Rarely do we get a “perfect” time to take big actions: we either sneak up on our goals or we hope for the stars to align before we make moves (I don’t recommend that you do the latter).

I’m still thinking of my big, dreamy financial goal for 2023: once I’ve identified that goal, I’ll share it here, and give you all my process for achieving it. Look out for those posts in the next few weeks!

I’d love to hear what your financial goals for 2023 are: please let me know all about them in the comments below!

5 Income Sources You Can Create For Yourself Now

Happy Finance Friday! I hope you all had a great, prosperous week. If not, then I hope this post gives you some ideas for turning your money story around, and for majorly upleveling your finances.

Many of the discussions around money center around making more (which is what I’ll be talking about today) and spending less (to be discussed soon). These are the cornerstones to creating financial freedom, so the quicker you can implement them, the better your results. But when it comes to quickly implementing money-making strategies, there is usually this looming sense of overwhelm and a lack of clarity regarding where to start first.

Never fear: here are 5 income sources that you can create quickly, so you can start making more money NOW. I’m keeping it simple, giving you links and sources that you can explore right now, to start making money quickly and to give your finances a boost.

Tutoring – There are many online tutoring platforms, but I recommend Cambly for its ease of use. Once you’ve signed up and your profile is approved, you can sign up for Priority Hours, which guarantee that you will get priority student placements (basically, students are routed to you first) and you are guaranteed to receive partial payment for the hour, even if you don’t get any students routed to you (this is rare, but it can happen). It pays about $10 per hour, so it won’t make you a millionaire, but if you do one hour a day, that’s $300 per month that you can use to treat yourself, knock out debt, or invest in your future.

Make printables – if you’re creative, this is a fabulous way to make money without having to keep a bunch of physical inventory. Design cute templates and printable documents using free online software (like Canva), then upload the designs to your own website or to another platform (like Etsy). You can be making money within a few hours, if this interests you.

eBay store ownership – Sign up for an eBay account, take pictures of your stuff, then upload and set your price. Yes, there’s a little more to it (writing out descriptions, figuring out what has to happen once the items are purchased, etc.). However, this is one of the quickest ways to make money with what you already have.

Personal assistant work – Fiverr, TaskRabbit, and Upwork are just three of the platforms where you can advertise your skills as a personal assistant. Yes, even TaskRabbit has options beyond yardwork and furniture moving: you can find gigs for errands and clerical tasks. Once you set up your profiles on these websites, you can start making money.

Host virtual cocktails – This is great if you’re social and want to quickly monetize your popularity. Come up with a fun cocktail idea, set up a FB event page for it, work out the Zoom (or other meeting platform) details, then start selling tickets. Yes, it will take a few moments to set up a way to receive your payments, but that’s what PayPal, Zelle and CashApp are for. If you’re a fabulous hostess, you can make a memoral event happen from the comfort of your home.

These are just a few ideas for generating money quickly so you can start hitting your financial goals. Look out for another post in a few weeks, discussing 5 ways to spend less money, so you can hold on to more of what you earn. Have a great weekend!

Keeping Track Of The Good Stuff

After a few weeks of keeping tabs on the highly misinformed conversations surrounding the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA 2022), I decided that I needed something lighter, but still beneficial, to discuss over here. Now, if something big comes up with IRA 2022 that I need to discuss, then of course I’ll share it (staying informed about tax legislation is what I love to do). But for today, we’re taking a break and doing something refreshing.

Many times, as we talk about finance, money, budgets, and the like, most of the conversation centers around the tasks needed to create more cash and less stress. Conversations about money almost always come from a place of restriction, instead of abundance. Most of us to taught to focus on what we eliminate, and how much we hold on to, to measure our success with our budgets and our financial freedom journeys.

But what if, instead of only focusing on what stays in our grasps, we focus on what flows in with ease? What if we counted the non-monetary “wins” alongside the others, like when someone gives us priceless information, or when find the perfect parking space, or when the store is fully stocked with everything that you want and need to buy?

What if we kept a log of all of the good stuff that happens each day?

Well, let me tell you all: I’ve done this very exercise as part of my work with my business and lifestyle coach. And this approach has really opened the floodgates of abundance into my life.

The more we realize that everything is interconnected, the more we can see and believe that small, positive changes in one area absolutely creates positive changes (small and large) in other areas of our lives. Nothing exists in a bubble, and calibrating our minds and lifestyles for goodness creates fertile soil for welcoming even more of the things we want (like more money coming in an enjoyable way, more time to do the things we love, etc.,).

So, for a week, try keeping a Goodness Log. Write down every good thing that happens to you – whether it connects directly to money or not – and see how you feel at the end of the week when you review it. It does wonders for shifting your mindset and opening you up to more possibilities, better emotions and, yes, more abundance. I will keep a log this week, too, and share my results in a future post!

Aretha Franklin’s Messy Estate – Key Takeaways

A couple of weeks ago, it was announced that Aretha Franklin’s estate has settled a nearly $8 million tax bill, and the way has been cleared for her four sons to start receiving payments from the revenue generated from the use of her image and music. This outcome was a long time coming: Franklin passed four years ago, and her heirs have been unable to settle the estate issues until recently. This development is excellent news, as this opens the way for her sons to start receiving the benefits to which they are entitled.

I won’t rehash all of the details of the case, however, I will highlight some key takeaways that I gleaned as I learned about the messy estate left behind by the Queen of Soul:

  • Destroy previously executed wills. For most people, their end-of-life planning only covers the execution of a will (if they’re proactive). Sadly, some people don’t even do that much planning: far too many people die intestate, leaving their estate planning in the hands of the state where they lived and died. But I digress . . . Leaving a will clarifies how you want your property to be distributed after your death. However, this distribution becomes unclear if you have multiple versions of your will floating around. So, consider destroying previously executed wills whenever you make a revision. The estate is currently comparing 3 different versions of Ms. Franklin’s will, and I’m sure the probate courts will have a field day trying to figure out which one is the one that will be honored.
  • Set up a trust. If you only have a will, you’re doing better than many people. But if you really want to simplify how your assets will be handled, a trust is what you need. Trusts can be established to distribute assets before and after death, they can help avoid certain types of taxes, and they can provide an extra level of clarity that may not be accomplished through the execution of a will alone. Consulting with a trust attorney is a great idea, even if it turns out that a trust isn’t advantageous for your specific circumstances. These attorneys can answer many of the questions you may have related to other estate or end-of-life financial issues.
  • Consider gifting some of your possessions while you’re still alive. The current ceiling for tax-free gifting is $15,000 per person that you choose to gift. Even if you aren’t giving everyone you know $15,000, you can certainly gift some of your possessions now, so that your heirs can avoid gift and estate taxes later.

Those are three of my takeaways from the tax agreement between IRS and Aretha Franklin. I’ll keep an eye on this case to see if any additional developments arise, and if so, I’ll be back with updates. Take care!

Take Advantage of the Summer Slowdown – Major Money Tips

Hello friends! We are roughly 6 weeks post June 15th, the most recent major IRS deadline for a large group of taxpayers. This time of year is generally among the slowest for tax professionals, and the perfect time for taking a well-earned vacation. Likewise, many business owners that have non-seasonal businesses may experience a slump in activity, as well.

Aside from going somewhere lovely for a vacay, there are a few other ways to take advantage of the summer slowdown. When enjoying this downtime, it’s easy to forget that there are things that can be done now, in order to make the remainder of the year a bit easier on you. If you’re lucky, taking action now may create some additional pockets of downtime even during the busier seasons! Here are some things both tax practitioners as well as taxpayers can do during this quiet period:

  • Start compiling the documents needed to complete the next scheduled quarterly estimated tax payment (for people that do not pay taxes through wages – the next quarterly due date is September 15, 2022)
  • Contact any clients that have filed extensions, and provide a quick checklist of documents to have before completing their returns. If they need to request missing documents, this is a perfect time to do so. If you’re not a practitioner, then reviewing IRS’s records for your most recent tax year is also a good idea: as a taxpayer, it’s helpful to know what figures and income statements IRS has, so that you can ensure that you have all of the documents reported under your tax ID number.
  • Conduct a review of 2022 business activities up to this point, and identify 1-3 areas for improvement. Come up with one small, concrete step that can be taken today, to move toward that improvement.
  • Reach out to clients to express appreciation for continued support (this applies to tax practitioners as well as individuals that have goods- or service-based businesses).
  • Start and finish reading one book related to your area of expertise. Select another book or two to read during the last 4 months of the year.
  • Digitize any paper records that have been missed, and save these documents in secure ways.
  • Find one thing to outsource either for the summer or the upcoming fall and winter seasons. Set up a payment arrangement to cover the outsourced service until the end of the year.
  • Set your remainder of the year goals (September to December goals). Get a head-start on some of those goals now.
  • Review your paper calendars (or digital calendars) for the past three months. Complete anything that was inadvertently missed.
  • Create a business vision board (I’ll be upgrading mine and sharing it in a future post).
  • Write out your business vision for 2023, and use the remainder of the summer, as well as the upcoming seasons, to arrange your affairs for a smooth transition into your vision.
  • Check on the completion status for required continuing professional education courses (CPE). Schedule and take those necessary CPEs while you have free time.
  • Review your current memberships and affiliations to see if you’re taking advantage of all of the benefits of being a member. If not, start using those perks today. If the organizations you’ve joined aren’t providing enough benefit, reconsider whether you should remain a member (cancel memberships if appropriate).

I am already scheduling most of these activities for myself, because these are tasks that I have been neglecting for a while now, and I know my life and business will improve drastically once I work on these. If you’re doing any of the things listed above, let me know about it in the comments below! I’d love to hear about your plans.