If your Property and Casualty Insurance is up for renewal, Rob’s comments can save you thousands of dollars. Be sure to listen carefully!
We’d love to add you to our list, where we send out bookkeeping and tax saving ideas as well as good business building practices. Just click here to sign up today.
Great news on the retirement front! According to Fidelity Investments, managers of retirement savings plans for over 11.2 million workers, this quarter brought an increase in the amount of money people put into their 401(k) accounts for the first time in a year!
Workers raising the amount they placed into funds actually outnumbered those reducing contributions. This is a huge step in our economic recovery, and emphasizes the importance of maintaining equities. The average account balance rose 13.5 percent, which Fidelity attributes to both the rally on Wall Street and higher worker and employer contributions. It just goes to show that maintaining a long-term outlook will reward you in the end!
We’d love to add you to our list, where we send out bookkeeping and tax saving ideas as well as good business building practices. Just click here to sign up today.
You may be using Quickbooks, but are you looking at the right reports?
Listen in as Robert shares how to make sure you are getting the best information so that you can make good business decisions.
If you are interested in an even more detailed explanation about the reports the really successful business owners are reading, be sure to go to the website at www.RimbergOnlineBookkeeping.com and sign up for the free report there.
We’d love to add you to our list, where we send out bookkeeping and tax saving ideas as well as good business building practices. Just click here to sign up today.
Forget mailers and ads in newspapers; advertising on the net is the way to go.
Yes, with the recession came a decrease in spending on advertising budgets, but how are small businesses coping? With a trending shift toward online ads!
According to research firm The Kelsey Group, this is the first time ever that small businesses are spending more money on online advertising than traditional. The even better accompaniment of this trend is that with an increase in spending for online ads, comes an overall decrease in spending.
With our current economic situation, overall advertising spending decreased by 23.5 percent; spending on websites increased by 26.8 percent. More and more companies are utilizing digital space for an increase in value with video ads, mobile targeting, and promotional websites.
Steve Marshall, director of research at The Kelsey Group, says that the trend of using online ads more than traditional media is an indicator of a broader shift to online platforms, and that small businesses are not going to revert back to traditional methods after the recession.
“A ‘new normal’ is being established for the ad mix,” says Marshall. Small businesses are more weighted toward online than print, and this shift to new media will be permanent. So take our advice and start experimenting with new media and online trends. After all, it is the new normal!
We’d love to add you to our list, where we send out bookkeeping and tax saving ideas as well as good business building practices. Just click here to sign up today.
I promised to keep you updated through the Cash for Clunkers chaos and now – the least surprising end to the story – the program is kaput!
On Monday, August 24, the government ended the popular Cash For Clunkers program because it has already run out of its second round of funding. In order for dealerships to be reimbursed, they had until 8 pm EST on Monday to submit the 13-page application for any rebates processed. This deadline can only mean one thing, swarms of people headed to showrooms over the weekend.
The program did succeed in bringing a surge in demand for cars, but many dealers are actually happy with the end of such a confusing program, which took too long to process reimbursements.
As of August 20, the Transportation Department had repaid only seven percent of the money dealers had requested. With the program at an end, the government will add on to the size of the work force assigned to handle reimbursement applications.
Even with the extra $2 billion added on to the program, it took almost no time for funding to deplete again, and the government does not plan to add on a third installment. Some dealers could end up having to write off the unpaid credits if funding is exhausted before all reimbursements are made. So, hopefully, if you are in the market for a new car, you headed on over to a car dealership this past weekend!
We’d love to add you to our list, where we send out bookkeeping and tax saving ideas as well as good business building practices. Just click here to sign up today.
The market may go lower and this may be a great time to rent with interest rates starting to climb, but according to this information, it may be time for you to buy a home!
In my previous blog post on May 27, 2009, I told you why this year could be a great one to buy a home thanks to The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and an increase in home buyer credit. But, a new report from IHS Global Insight says that the average U.S. home is now undervalued by 12.2 percent, which makes it even a more opportune times for buying!
Cities once considered “bubble markets” now contain houses priced well below normal — undervalued between 30 and 40 percent.
The most undervalued area in the country is Vero Beach, Florida, undervalued by 42.5 percent! Other cities with home prices below expected include Las Vegas, NV, Cape Coral, FL, Houston, TX, and Vallejo, CA. As for NYC, the median home price is still just about right (same goes for LA and Chicago).
So if you’re looking for affordability and availability, this may be the time for you! For a list of the 10 most undervalued cities or more information on House Prices in America, check out IHS Global Insight.
We’d love to add you to our list, where we send out bookkeeping and tax saving ideas as well as good business building practices. Just click here to sign up today.
Cash has always been king – long live the king! Use cash and then reimburse yourself, you’ll spend less and have better record keeping.
No More Company Lunches for You, Mr. Small Business Owner!
Thinking about taking your clients out for a business lunch or hiring some new employees? Are you ready to expand your small business? Well, because of the new crackdown on credit limits, if you’re a small business owner – think again.
According to the National Small Business Association, 59 percent of America’s small businesses rely on credit cards for daily operations. This number is almost triple what it was just 15 years ago! Over the past six months, credit limits were cut abruptly (some for credit delinquents, of course, but some just for the average small business owner) and now — forget about expanding — business owners have to find other means to just stay afloat!
Over the past few years, there was a push for small business toward credit cards — good deals, great marketing, no interest, fabulous rewards — and now, many are stuck. With the onslaught of surprise limits, many proprietors are reverting back to the old school methods of running a business: cash. Who knows? Maybe a little taste of traditional business is exactly what we need. As with most things, only time will tell.
For a positive perspective on the reduction of credit lines for small businesses, check out Is the Credit Card Squeeze a Blessing in Disguise?, in which Jay Goltz, small business owner and contributor to The New York Times, on his “You’re the Boss” blog, explains that cutting credit for small businesses may not be the worst idea. He recommends against carrying a balance no matter the scenario, and gives some suggestions on how to avoid such a situation. Definitely worth checking out!
What networking group/s will you join?
Hopefully when it’s your turn to collect social security, the funds will be available. Here’s a few links which will help you to figure out what is your best strategy to collect the maximum that you are legally entitled to. If you have any questions, call me.
Social Security: Why Wait?
It may be tempting to collect Social Security as soon as you’re eligible, but experts say you should resist. Yes there’s the claim “why not collect what is rightfully yours,” but if not only for the risk that you will live a long life, there are also monetary benefits.
You can claim Social Security anytime between ages 62 to 70; however, the longer you wait, the larger your check! You get the most when you wait at least until your full retirement age, which is different depending on what year you were born.
The bottom line is that if you can hold out, you should— strategize for a long life. Of course, the question of waiting varies for each person and each situation, but check out the Social Security retirement estimator to get a precise idea on how to maximize your benefits.
Have you been thinking about YOUR Social Security? Got Questions: robert@rimbergonlinebookkeeping.com
Robert
Do we live in a great country or what? The government is now in the automotive business. They want you to trade in that old gas guzzler and buy a brand new hybrid. What they need to do is come up with a comprehensive plan that is going to make this country energy self sufficient in 10 years. Instead, they keep putting band aids on the problem. If our leaders would stop treating us like mushrooms and start treating us as partners, problems would be solved, instead of held over for future generations to deal with. Some inheritance, we are leaving for our children. God Bless America!
Cash for Clunkers
Have you been feeling guilty about that old SUV you bought and the damage it may cause with its awful fuel economy? Or maybe you’re just sick of spending so much money on gas every fifth day? Well this summer might be the perfect time to buy a new, more fuel-efficient car!
Last week, President Obama signed a law passing the “Cash for Clunkers” program essentially giving government subsidies when you “trade up” your old, environmentally inefficient car for a new, environmentally-friendly one.
While the premise sounds great, the parameters are a little stricter. Your old car must be drivable and made within the last 25 years, with an average fuel economy of 18 mpg or less. In exchange for turning it in, you get money toward the purchase of a new car.
If the mileage improvement on your new car is 4 mpg or better, you get $3500 toward the purchase; if it is 10 mpg or better, you get $4500 toward the purchase. The money is slashed off the purchase price at the car dealership and reimbursed by the government.
Of course there are clear benefits as this program will stimulate the auto industry and remove old, inefficient cars from the road, but there is much opposition to the program as well. It takes away from car donations, the pollution caused by manufacturing all the new cars may as well outweigh the benefits of removing old cars, and the program only has $1 billion in financing which officials estimate is only enough for about 250,000 consumers. It might be better than nothing though – any stimulation of the auto industry should be enough to outweigh the negatives. What do you think?
For more information on the “Cash for Clunkers” program, check out the official website at http://www.cars.gov. To find out your vehicle’s fuel economy rating, you can go to http://www.fueleconomy.gov.