It’s no secret that our economy is in tough shape. And whatever your particular financial situation, wouldn’t it be great to create romance “magic” without spending an arm and two legs? So, perhaps you’ve done the old “flowers, candy and chocolate” routine already last week. Well, here are a few modest and occasionally tongue-in-cheek suggestions for a sizzling follow-through … that won’t torch your wallet!

Be Green – Save Money and the Environment at the Same Time!
With the economy taking its toll on virtually every industry, even the high-rollers are looking for ways to spend their cash more effectively. One Hollywood studio saved $40,000 on cards and postage by doing e-Cards and videos for all of their clients and friends.

Seem cheap? Spin it this way – you’re being green by not using snail mail – that’s so 20th century anyway. You’re keeping with the times, utilizing powerful technology and reducing your “footprint” at the same time! What environmentally-conscious woman could resist?!

Make a Video.
You can use the video setting on your digital camera, and create a heartfelt message of love for your sweetie. Then, you can post it to YouTube, or another online video-sharing site and send it on! Um, just be sure to adjust that YouTube setting to “private” unless you want to share with the world your dying love for your honey (hopefully with clothes on!).

Learn a Romantic Song and Sing it to Your Sweetheart.
Well, I’m no singer, so I can’t say I’ve tried this … but I hear it works well. Even better, if you can’t sing, your more-than-a-valentine will give you kudos for the effort! You could step it up by writing an original song and then sing it. Or, for the slightly-less courageous, you could pull a page out of John Cusack’s book in Say Anything and hold a boombox (or iPod) above your head and blare Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes”. That seemed to work.

Not a singer? More of a writer? Or artist? For the artistically and/or musically inclined:

- You could pen a poem on nice paper
- or even paint it
- You can paint a picture of your honey. Just be sure it looks good.

The “Mix Tape” (or Playlist)
This is an old standby of high school kids everywhere. Except these days, the “tape” part is a bit less convenient. Instead, make a CD or mp3 playlist of Sweet Love Songs and make a cover list/ liner notes on the memories of you and your honey from the songs. And you can make a Personalized Photo Album using a service like Apple’s iBook service and iPhoto.

Romantic Picnic
Surprise your love with a ‘picnic’ in the park, at the beach, or any other outdoor nature spot. If the weather isn’t ideal for outdoors, you could bring the outdoors inside -find a fake palm tree, flowers, sand, beach umbrella, radio, towels. Nothing says “I love you” like fake palm trees!

Write a Message To Be “Stumbled Upon”
Well, perhaps not *literally* stumbled upon, but try a nice outdoor surprise. If you do have snow outside, you could stomp out the message and fill in the letters with spray paint or flower pedals or rocks. If there’s no snow, you can use sidewalk chalk to write a message to your sweetie.

You see, anybody can go out and “buy something” – but it takes effort and thoughtfulness to make it personal … and it doesn’t require a lot of money!

Just remember … follow-through is everything!

Financial Planner Richmond
Financial Advisor Richmond
Financial Planners Virginia

Unfortunately, with the way that most tax professionals and CPA’s present themselves to the world, it seems like we’re all the same. We all seem to offer the same services, for pretty similar fees. If I weren’t working every day in this industry, I’m pretty sure I would think that all accountants and CPA’s were the same. Nothing could be further from the truth.

You see, each tax professional does have certain qualifications. Some might be experts at this sort of tax law, or in working with farmers or with getting money back through IRS representation, or a whole variety of different things…but are they really providing what you, the consumer, wants?

What do you want from a tax preparer?

When I sit down and talk with regular consumers, here’s what I discover:

You want to be able to work with a caring professional…NOT one of those “cattle call” shops, where you’re squeezed in with a bunch of other people, and seen by harried, poorly-trained employees that just took a basic tax course.

You want an accurately filed tax return. You want the whole thing broken down in terms that you understand, and in a way that you don’t need a translator to communicate. You want there to be processes in place to ensure that the most money is kept out of the grasping hands of Uncle Sam, and in your wallet (legally).

You want a “heads up” about future ways you can legally add deductions and make sure that you can get even more money back in the future. You want assurances everything your tax preparer is doing for you is valid and correct, so a guarantee(s) is essential to the process.

And of course, you want to do it fast. Look, I know this is a big deal for consumers…you don’t want your accountant pushing back at you all the time, saying “give me more time”, when you know it’s not because they’re working hard on your behalf, but that they’re so poorly organized that they’re not getting ANYBODY’S work done on time!

Oh, and if you ARE getting a refund, you want a tax firm who can get you the most money back the fastest … with the most electronic filing options available.

Here’s the bottom line: You want professionalism … accuracy … you want clarity … you want to be aware of beneficial tax options … you want peace of mind … you want an efficient use of your time …. you want your refund money back in your hands fast …. And at the end of the day, you want to KNOW you got the most money back from Uncle Sam AND know that the IRS will stay off your back so you can sleep like a baby at night!

If the accountant or tax professional you are talking to can’t do these things, you need to call one that can.

Financial Planner Richmond
Financial Advisor Richmond
Financial Planners Virginia

The “Free” Online Options

Did you know that we accountants like to joke to one another about how good these online software programs (TaxCut, TurboTax, etc.) are for our business? Firstly, they are not as “easy to use” as claimed, and secondly…they cost you an arm and a leg.

You might think they’re cheap. And on the surface, you might be right (though, last year, a $1 Billion class action lawsuit was filed in the federal court in Philadelphia alleging gross misstatement of fees and deceptive standards of the federal “FreeFile” program … so even on the surface, it wasn’t always cheap). But I’m not even talking about the money for the service itself.

Using those programs can end up leaving hundreds, or even thousands of your dollars in the coffers of Uncle Sam … even if you follow all of their instructions to a tee. I see it all the time–frustrated clients bringing in their prior year’s tax return, astonished at all the “hidden money” my staff and I are able to find for them!

Even worse…

Choosing the wrong method, or forms, in filing your taxes can place you directly in the crosshairs for an audit.

Even if I don’t owe a ton of back taxes, I still don’t want my record to show some IRS agent that there has been some discrepancy in the past so that red flags start to fly, and more bureaucratic people begin looking through all my past tax filings and current income holdings … basically taking my social security number and poking around in my private life.

(If you think they won’t do this, read a little online about the increased “enforcement” measures the IRS is taking this year.)

They can do a lot of things you won’t want them to do. However, if you keep a clean slate (no IRS correspondence with you related to filing your taxes correctly), the opportunities for them to mess with your personal stuff will be limited.

Here’s another reason why this is so important … now more than ever. New government regulations in 2010, delays in Congressional action, and issues with refund “loans” from the big chains are creating a mess in the tax industry… and the “Big Brand Names” (you know who I’m talking about) do NOT want you to know about it. In fact, they’re doing all they can this year to hold on to their business, and trust me — it is not good for you.

Yes, it can be seductive to “go it alone”…to trust a piece of software to point out possible deductions. To trust your work to poorly-trained preparers in a big box office.

But it can be a big trap.

Just ask Tim Geithner.

Financial Planner Richmond
Financial Advisor Richmond
Financial Planners Virginia

I’ll spare you the stories, but needless to say: I’ve seen so many otherwise-loving and wise parents somehow forget to ready their children for the financial realities of adult life. Instead, they simply hand them credit cards, pack up their cars and head to school.

I’ll go out on a limb here, but I believe that it is this deficiency in financial education which has led, in part, to an adult population that spends beyond its means, engages in unsafe borrowing practices, and accumulates record amounts of debt.

Still, if we decide to instruct our kids how to responsibly manage their money — much as we teach them how to read, tie their shoes, and ride bikes — then perhaps they might avoid a Great Recession-like event in their own adult lives.

Sure, that all sounds good in theory, but how do you go about instilling proper financial values into your children?

1) Tackle the task as if you are once again teaching your kids to ride bikes. You first need to let them get comfortable on training wheels, and prepaid cards are the training wheels of personal finance. So co-sign for prepaid cards, load a certain amount of money biweekly and allow your children to spend freely. This will force them to learn how to budget and, since most prepaid cards allow online account management, you will be able to review their purchases with them.

By the way, I did some online searching, and these are some good choices for pre-paid cards for teenagers, etc.

Visa UPside: http://www.upsidevisa.com
MasterCard Facecard: http://www.facecard.com
American Express Pass: http://bit.ly/heWJRS (shortened link)
Visa Buxx: http://usa.visa.com/personal/cards/prepaid/visa_buxx.html

2) Once you are confident that your kids have exhibited responsible prepaid card use for at least a year, you can graduate to monthly cash allowances. This progression, which is tantamount to taking one training wheel off their bikes, will provide them with greater financial independence (given that you cannot monitor their spending with cash). It will also more thoroughly test their responsibility because the odds of losing money or exhausting too quickly are heightened with a monthly cash allowance.

3) If your kids demonstrate the requisite discipline after a year of cash allowances, you can take the other training wheel off. Do so by co-signing for and opening checking accounts in their names and depositing slightly higher monthly amounts while requiring them to pay for more of their own expenses.

With checking accounts, children will garner much needed experience writing checks and purchasing with debit cards. They’ll learn how to avoid overdrawing their accounts and bouncing checks — and if they can’t learn these lessons quickly enough, you can screw that training wheel back on and regress to cash spending. After all, when you took that last training wheel off, you didn’t let go of the bike completely! You still had a grip on the handlebars and were providing assistance as needed.

4) If your kids’ financial balance seems solid after 6-9 months, you can release the handlebars and either co-sign for student credit cards or give them small lines of credit as authorized users on your credit card accounts. Doing so will help teach them the principles of responsible credit use, such as spending within one’s means and paying bills in full each month. Remember though that you are simply taking your hands off to see if your kids can ride. If they wobble, catch them.

This financial education progression will instill within your children various skill sets that will surely serve them well when they leave the nest. It’s important to employ such a practical approach because it lets kids learn and inevitably falter while the stakes are low. Additionally, you can ensure that your children know how to handle their money before becoming independent, providing yourself with the kind of peace of mind that is valuable to any parent.

So before sending your kids out into the world, make sure they are ready for the financial implications of that independence!

Financial Planner Richmond
Financial Advisor Richmond
Financial Planners Virginia