Economics Finance

If you are like most people you are trying to do whatever you can to lower your expenses. As gas prices and movies go up in price along with everything else we are always trying to cut at least one of our bills and save some money. Well, I have a way for you to possibly save a couple of hundred bucks a year if not more and it doesn’t involve cutting out your morning coffee or anything drastic like cutting your heat off in the winter.

No, you can reduce one of your largest expenses by simply signing your name if you are a homeowner. What I am talking about is your property taxes. Each year you must pay your property taxes whether it is escrowed thru your mortgage company or you pay it out of pocket yourself. The amount of property taxes you must pay each year is set by the county’s tax assessor’s office. They decide how much you will pay based on what your neighbors are paying and what amenities your home has compared to theirs.

For example, if you have a 1200 square foot house and your neighbor’s house is 1400 square feet then in theory, your neighbor’s taxes should be higher. But if your in cook county this isn’t always the case. So normally what happens is if you believe that you have a higher than normal tax bill you are able to challenge the assessment that is used to figure out your tax bill. If the board of review finds that you are paying more than your fair share of taxes then they will lower your assessment and thereby lower your tax bill. If they find out that your taxes are not lower than everyone else they will not reassess your property and your taxes will not be changed. Continue reading ‘How to Lower Your Property Taxes Quickly and Easily’ »

Before we start, let me ask you something. How many times did you pay someone to do something for you and they delivered what you expected? If you are like most people, the number of times you were disappointed and felt like you have been ripped off is by far larger than the times you were pleasantly surprised. Especially today, with the Internet, it is so easy to misrepresent and under-deliver, so everyone should learn the facts first.

If you could be convinced through discovery of the facts that with the right tools and support you could do it yourself faster and cheaper than any other way, would you at least try to learn more about it? Giving you the important factual know-how and easy to use tools to do it yourself is and always will be the best way to have the power and be in control over the things that are important for you like repair credit rating. Continue reading ‘Credit Repair Services – Don’t Even Start to Repair Credit Rating Before You Learn the Hidden Facts’ »

During my career I have found that most succession plans fail. The plan itself might or might not have achieved the family’s objectives for farm succession and transition to the next generation, but it ran out of gas before it was ever completed.

It ran out of gas because there was no one in charge – no one without an axe to grind that is, who was willing to ask the hard questions and push for the answers – so the plans could actually be created and implemented based on good information.

Most succession plans or estate plans or whatever you choose to call them are sold. That is, someone sold you or your folks or whoever is in charge on the idea that planning for the future succession of the farm is a good thing to do and they are just the person to help you do it.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with that, often we must be “sold” in order to break the inertia that surrounds us. When we were kids we had to be “sold” on taking a bath, brushing our teeth, and putting our toys away. Nothing really changes – the things we know down deep we really ought to do won’t get done unless we’re sold on the benefits of doing them right now.

It’s just that we we’re sold something we either have to stay sold or we’ll lapse into whatever “someday it will all work out” frame of mind we feel comfortable in. Continue reading ‘Farm Succession Plans Almost Always Fail’ »

Tax deductions are what gets you bigger refunds. If you itemize your tax return you need to have a good idea of what you can deduct. This checklist covers most of the major tax deductions.

Tax Deduction checklist

* Form 1098, or your mortgage statement.
* Form 1098 if you purchased a home in previous tax year, and prior tax return if you refinanced in prior year and are deducting points on that loan over its life,
* Investment interest expense: Brokers’ statements showing any margin interest paid and loan statements for loans taken out to purchase investments
* Losses due to theft etc. with description of property and insurance reports showing reimbursement or any cancelled checks showing value of property.
* Charitable donations: bills receipts or cancelled checks for cash donations, mileage records for charitable purposes, receipts from charitable agency with estimated value in the case of property donations, prior years’ tax returns for any unused charitable contributions. Continue reading ‘Tax Deduction Checklist – Did You Miss Any of These Deductions?’ »

Many people know that taxes are due on April 15th, but what if you miss that deadline? What then? The poor house? Jail!? What most people don’t know is that you can easily file for a tax extension, a simple process that could save you thousands in auditing fees.

Has this ever happened to you?: you planned your vacation over tax day and forgot to file. Or maybe you forgot until you saw lines of people at the post office. Or maybe you didn’t have the money to pay the IRS
right then, but would have in a month. Maybe as a result of those actions, you got audited and lost thousands in accountant fees and to the government.

Always remember that tax extensions are available. Tax extensions are the best way to make sure you give the IRS your tax money without getting in trouble. Never worry about missing April 15th ever again. Continue reading ‘How to File Tax Extensions (It’s Not Too Late!)’ »