by Leif Jensen | Feb 22, 2017 | General |
With all the talk and it is currently only talk, there is a question of what will happen with the gift tax? Most expect it to stick around in some form or another. It is considered to act as a backstop to help prevent income shifting from donors in high...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 21, 2017 | General |
Last Year I meet with a young man who was a financial advisor. I was impressed by how he presented himself but also how he described his process of working with his clients. It was not materially different from others I have worked with, but a certain earnestness...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 20, 2017 | General |
The Federal Reserve will be under tremendous pressure for the next few quarters to raise its benchmark lending rate faster than is has recently. Which will then have the trickle effect on higher costs on lines of credit, HELOC’s, mortgages, credit cards and down the...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 15, 2017 | General |
A couple of years ago, a couple of family members suggested going back to Disney for our vacation. So being the dutiful husband and father, I looked into it and the costs of a Florida trip and they were terrifying! The airfare and hotel costs were over double what a...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 14, 2017 | General |
The minimum wage continues to be a major issue to politicians as well as small business owners. But I was reading recently that in a 2014 study from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, it was found that raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 13, 2017 | General |
I have spent some time in the past quarter working with clients on their first business budget. They are looking to grow to the next level and a budget is a good tool for the assistance for this measure. But, drilling down a budget to its essence is really...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 8, 2017 | General |
Over my professional life I have run into a number of people who complain that they are successful, but are not happy. I sit and listen to them, but I have learned to keep my mouth shut. Because they obviously are not successful. They are successful by a measure...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 7, 2017 | General |
Do you handle your investments or do you hand that aspect of your life to a professional? Or do you have a professional investment advisor and still dabble with your investments? I am in the latter category. If you are like me, have you ever wanted to...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 6, 2017 | General |
I was reading an article and the author quoted some research from another author of self-published books. “Author Thomas C. Corley’s five-year study of self-made millionaires discovered that a majority of them have multiple streams of income. In fact, 65 percent...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 2, 2017 | General |
There appears to be a new war on cash and it is not limited to the US. In India there was a removal of old 500 and 1000 rupee notes, curbing the cash economy. In the US a withdrawal of $3,000 or more from any of your bank accounts in cash now requires the bank to...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 1, 2017 | General |
As Millennials give their elders grief about texting and verbal communications, it seems that some have an irrational fear of the telephone. Which is a basic piece of technology that their elders consider to be absolutely necessary for day to day communications....
by Leif Jensen | Jan 31, 2017 | General |
IRS Wraps Up the “Dirty Dozen” List of Tax Scams for 2016 IR-2016-29, Feb. 19, 2016 — The IRS today wrapped up its annual “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams with identity theft topping this year’s list but with phone scams and phishing...
by Leif Jensen | Jan 30, 2017 | General |
It is estimated that in 2013 there was 4.4zettabytes of data. This data apparently is growing at a rate of 40% a year. So for 2020 it is estimated that there will be 44 zettabytes of data available. So how much of that data is just a glut of useless...
by Leif Jensen | Jan 25, 2017 | General |
The city of the future will be a “Smart City”. The camera and sensors and all of the other measurable that are being implemented will minimally be looking to monitor the following: Air quality Pedestrian traffic Energy production Energy usage Health and...
by Leif Jensen | Jan 24, 2017 | General |
Time is our most precious resource. We all have an expiration date; we just don’t know when that date will occur. Surprisingly one of my kids has recognized this much sooner than I did when I was young. He has quit low paying jobs, believing that his time was...
by Leif Jensen | Jan 23, 2017 | General |
Death, one of the inevitable constants in our world, next to taxes. Do you have a plan for how to deal with yours? My in-laws told my mother and her husband about their plans to be cremated, and that they had already prepaid for this service. So all that...
by Leif Jensen | Jan 18, 2017 | General |
How many phone apps do you have on your cell/smart phone right now? I bet you have no idea. I know I don’t. DO you have apps that you have never used? I know I do, I have 3 Sudoku apps that I have never used. I gravitate to one and only use that one. ...
by Leif Jensen | Jan 16, 2017 | General |
If the combined value of the couples’ estate at the first spouse’s death is less than the Federal exclusion amount, the surviving spouse and the other heirs of the estate are not likely to spend the time or money to prepare a Federal Form 706 to make the deceased...
by Leif Jensen | Jan 11, 2017 | General |
There is a project in the works to determine if the US can line up with underdeveloped countries, such as Kenya and Honduras. The goal of the project is to capture data that reveals if free money on a regular basis (basic income) really does help people escape...
by Leif Jensen | Jan 10, 2017 | General |
I was recently at an ICPAS Chapter meeting where an IRS Special Agent (the ones who carry guns) was discussing the increase in payroll withholding cases. There has been a 33% increase in investigations into payroll tax issues. This is where employers do not pay...
