10 Things That Affect Your Individual Taxes in the United States
Taxes are a part of life that many people would like to avoid. However, individual taxes in the United States affect all citizens and their individual situations. Certain individual taxes can be lowered by taking advantage of certain credits and deductions, while others cannot be changed at all. This blog post will break down 10 …
Getting Out of Debt: How to Avoid Bad Debt and Use Debt Wisely To Grow Your Financial Situation
Debt is scary, I should know. I woke up on January 1, 2020, to $33,000 worth of medical, personal, and credit card debt. For some people, debt is the bane of their existence. For whatever reason, it keeps coming back and never seems to go away. It holds them back from achieving their financial goals …
Should You Rent or Buy a Home? Here’s a Simple Go/No-Go Matrix to Help You Decide
I didn’t think the option was possible. In early 2020, I did some quick math in my head and thought there was no way I could afford to buy a home. Instead, I’d be left paying $2,100 in rent for the rest of my life. However, that mindset was quickly shattered as I dug deeper …
How to Get the Most Out of Your Business Credit Card Rewards Program
It seemed almost too good to be true. After all, Uncle Sam is supposed to know everything and everything about your business finances, how could he let an opportunity to pinch a little extra pass by. I called up my accountant friend, Alex. “Alex, how much is my credit card rewards points taxed?” “They aren’t.” …
How to Create Your First Personal Budget in 8 Easy Steps: Instructions, Examples, and Apps
Have you ever thought about what your life would be like if you could finally create a personal budget? No more stress wondering if you have enough in the bank to cover rent. No more inaccurate guestimations at the check-out line. No more wondering where your money keeps going month after month. In essence, the …
The Laws of Nature Have Spoken: Always Have a Rainy Day Fund
Expect the unexpected. That might be from a car commercial, it might also be the single most important piece of advice you can drill into the malleable minds of a young adult, fresh off the adolescent conveyor belt. Without getting too sciencey on you, the Universe is hellbent on causing as much chaos as possible. …
The No-Nonsense Guide to Budgeting
To many, budgeting is a tedious task of number crunching and filling out spreadsheets. To some, it brings about a sense of existential dread and the sad realization that money never seems to stick around for long. But budgeting, when you think about it, is nothing more than personal accounting. And accounting is derived from …
How Much Money Should You Charge as a Freelancer?
It was my first day of self-employment, I had just walked away from my corporate job a mere hours earlier and found myself on a video call with a potential client who needed a new website. I pitched them my ideas, we discussed deliverables, and settled on a timeline. Then came the question: How much do …
Is Term Life Insurance Better Than Whole Life Insurance?
I have this habit of texting my accountant friend Alex anytime — and I mean anytime — I stumble across a money thing I don’t quite understand. Being that he’s an accountant and a money nerd and my friend, Alex is prompt and knowledgeable in his response (which is my nice way of saying brevity isn’t one of his …
Better Your Chances and Start a Mastermind Group
There’s no lonelier feeling than telling your friends and family that you aren’t “going back to your desk job” because you’ve decided to go forward with your entrepreneurial plans. “But what about a steady paycheck?” “How will you pay for health insurance?” “Are you sure?” Sure, they were all for you chasing your dream and …
“Can I pay you in Bitcoin?”—What to do if your client pops the question
It might happen sooner rather than later. You’ll finish up a project with a client and they’ll pop the question: “Can I pay you in Bitcoin?” As a solopreneur you know how important it is to get that next check, but what if it’s not a check? What if it’s not even real money? What …
Debt Financing Ideas for Small Business Owners
I’ve spent the past 15 months paying off over $30,000 of consumer debt. My wife and I are relieved that we’re no longer shackled to nearly $2,000/month payments anymore. Needless to say, when I hear the word debt, I don’t feel warm and giddy inside. There is a lot of stigma around debt in today’s society, …
Don’t Become a Solopreneur Without Mastering Financial Responsibility
The black metal box wasn’t a safe, per se, but for 15-year-old me, it protected my entire net-worth nevertheless. The day I cracked three figures, I kept opening and closing my little black box, counting and recounting the cash inside, exhilarated that I had finally earned more than $100 from my lawn-mowing operations. I called …
How to Beef Up Your Business Financial Literacy
A wise oracle once said: I got the dough, got the flow down pizatPlatinum plus like thizatDangerous on trizacks leave your a flizatI don’t know what they want from meIt’s like the more money we come acrossThe more problems we see We’ve heard it all before, mo money, mo problems. But that doesn’t apply to …
5 Ways to Lower Your Tax Burden as a Small-Business Owner
When I left my comfy full-time job back in 2017, I coincidentally landed my first freelancing client that very same day. I named a price, they said yes, and 24 hours later, a cool stack of cash was digitally piled in my PayPal account. At first, I was annoyed by the pesky PayPal fees — but the …
The Case for S-Corp Election for Digital Entrepreneurs
You have courses to conduct, content to create, and clients to consult, the last thing on your mind as a Digital Entrepreneur is your tax burden. When I left my full-time job in 2017 to venture out into the world of digital entrepreneurship, I was — how do I say this gently? — naive. I had a …