Finance

Costly Consequences

2024-03-22T22:05:13-05:00April 9th, 2024|Tags: , , |

Just when inflation was subsiding, California announced their plan to increase the minimum wage from $16 per hour to $20 for most fast-food restaurant employees. When payroll taxes are added, this will increase restaurant labor costs over 27%.  Because businesses exist by making a profit, employees will be laid-off and menu prices will increase. The people impacted the most will ...

Residential Real Estate Changes Are Coming

2024-03-01T20:25:59-06:00March 13th, 2024|Tags: , , |

When a Kansas City jury delivered a $1.8 billion verdict against the National Association of Realtors’ longstanding commission practices it started a chain reaction. Lawsuits against real estate brokerage firms are surfacing nationally, requiring the real estate industry to take a fresh look at its business model of how buyers and seller’s agents are compensated.    In any business, dramatic changes ...

How Much Should I Give?

2023-12-14T18:52:01-06:00December 29th, 2023|Tags: , , |

When Kathy and I returned to church, we would throw $5 in the offering plate mostly out of guilt. As our church engagement grew, we began giving about 2% of our income to the church.   As I began studying the Bible on tithing, the Holy Spirit began convicting Kathy and I to increase our giving to 10%.   Since that time ...

What Should I Give?

2023-12-14T18:43:33-06:00December 28th, 2023|Tags: , , |

My view on charitable giving was originally limited to giving cash to my church. But when I began accepting donations to UBN, I learned that giving can take different forms.  Over the years, we’ve had generous people donate stock, copy machines, IRAs, and even a $20,000 luxury car! Business owners can also donate stock in their businesses, real estate, or ...

Avoiding Problems

2023-12-14T18:03:15-06:00December 26th, 2023|Tags: , , |

Bill’s small-town business was out of cash and owed the IRS a significant amount of money. Without knowing how he could repay such a large sum; Bill had avoided the issue.  After a lengthy discussion, I shared with Bill some practical steps to move forward. But the hardest issue was the IRS debt.   I urged Bill to call the IRS, ...

Preparing for Business Cycles: Part III

2023-12-09T09:56:31-06:00December 13th, 2023|Tags: , , |

When times become lean for small businesses, cash reserves are critical. Business cycles come and go and often leave devastation behind them. Having cash reserves is crucial for surviving those inevitable seasons of drought.   If we study history, we can quickly realize that recessions do happen. On average, recessions occur about every seven years. To prepare for these looming downturns, ...

Debanking: A Dangerous Trend

2023-07-07T15:53:48-05:00July 19th, 2023|Tags: , , |

Former Senator Sam Brownback learned the hard way about debanking after opening a bank account for his organization, National Committee for Religious Freedom. The bank closed his account because of its religious nature.   Debanking is when a bank closes someone’s account, due to factors that they believe are risky. It has become more common for banks to debank organizations due ...

The Talk

2023-05-19T15:21:19-05:00June 6th, 2023|Tags: , , |

This month is when many graduates begin their career and receive their first paycheck. Dale Alexander, author of The Talk, believes this is the perfect time to help these young people avoid financial bondage.  In his book, Dale urges young people to immediately save 20% of their pay, give 10% to charity, and live on 70%.   These three disciplines will ...

A Freelancer’s Nightmare

2023-03-24T20:54:47-05:00April 18th, 2023|Tags: , , , |

According to Statista, freelancers have grown from 57 million to 73 million workers since before the pandemic. Almost half of the employed workers in America are doing some level of side hustle vs working only one job.  Freelancer’s biggest nightmare is Tax Day. It’s often a huge shock when freelancers discover that the IRS wants 15.3% of their profits for ...

Buying Influence

2023-04-15T11:36:03-05:00April 15th, 2023|Tags: , , |

Billions of dollars have reportedly gone missing from Sam Bankman-Fried’s high profile company, FTX. As the best-known leader in the cryptocurrency world, Sam Bankman-Fried, often called SBF, used other people’s money to gain influence.  His so-called Effective Altruism approach deceived people to believe he made lots of money so that he could generously give it away. Instead, SBF illegally ...

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