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Can't they just have their bank accounts auto send you a check every month? I think you missed the part where the OP wrote that the tenants don't have bank accounts. I wouldn't give them deposit slips. Meet them at a bank central to the two locations. The meeting them is the hard part. Between thei...

We have two rent houses and both renters pay us every month in cash. They don't have bank accounts. We live about 10 miles from one and 30 miles from the other. Every month we have to meet up with them somewhere to get the rent. It is kind of a hassle. Interestingly enough both of them live right by...

I own a small business (LLC) with ten employees and have a simple IRA set up with it. I recently formed another LLC with no employees other than me that is totally unrelated and in a separate field than the first LLC. Can I set up and participate in any type of retirement plan simple/sep/solo 401k w...

I don't know how much you owe, but you are in MUCH better shape if it is not five figures. I know that from personal experience. If it were only 4 figures he wouldn't have a problem paying it. How much easier is it to pay $9,999 than $10,001? How much does it cost to reduce a 5 figure debt to a 4 f...

Thanks for all the advice.

I am definitely filing on time and am going to visit with accountant on options.

The amount I have due on April 15 is 5 figures but I will be able to pay over half maybe 3/4 of it on time. The remainder I should be able to pay in May or June.

I am self employed. Have been for many years. I made all my quarterly payments in 2012 but just heard from accountant that I will have a large tax bill. I made a lot in 2012 but did not think the taxes would be this bad. Most of the money we made was used to pay off debts and then we had a major bus...

I have a general question. What are the specific reasons for checking credit history of a prospective tenant? Will a low score deter you from renting or are you more interested in checking their bill payment history? Not necessarily just the score but what is on there. A credit history will also sh...

We are going to be renting out a house soon and are looking for a good online service to do a credit/background check. This is in Texas. Any recommendations?

I have a composite math / science minor. Took some graduate level math classes. I did not start as late as you but I did not really take any prep math classes in high school and was just kind of thrown into it in college. This was back before they had the placement tests or likely I would have not s...

I will add an example to clarify what I was saying. Lets say you are a Doctor and you have an S corp for your practice. Your net revenue is 300k / yr. It would be hard to justify a 30k salary since you are making the big bucks because you are a doctor. On the other hand lets say you bought a 500k bu...

200k has worked well for me and has satisfied the irs and my cpa over the years (as pres of a small yet profitable company) even with multiples of that left for distributions in good years. Of course if the S-corp made 100k, then 70k may be enough. That seems way high and defeats the purpose of the...

Anyone know much about flood zones / insurance? I bought a house in 2010. At the the time the lender determined it was not in a flood zone and flood insurance was not required. I have the flood certification showing this. The certification is based off a 2007 map. In 2011 I refi'd and the lender sai...

That is about what I was thinking. I was figuring installed price.

I used to be all about principle and often lost money because of it because I was going to do what I thought was right regardless. Now I look at things and do what is most financially prudent.

We have a distant relative that has a house they are wanting to sell. They live in a different town and were renting it out. The tenants moved out and they don't want the hassle of being long distance landlords and just want to sell. We are looking at buying it for an investment property/rental. Her...

Water heaters are what $500? I am sure if it is bothering your tenant it is bothering the people who own it as well. Not that it is right or that you should have to do it but it may be cheaper to make some kind of deal with the neighbor to help them replace it. Offer to pay half or something. Would ...

From the OP it does not sound like there has been any confrontation on this yet? Has the contractor even been asked to fix the ruts yet? More than likely the contractor had knucklehead employees out there doing the work and is not even aware of the problem. Call them and calmy describe the problem a...

Yes there are no Coverdell's at Vanguard. I have my kids coverdells at scottrade but buy Vanguard funds with them. When we started the accounts 2k per child was about all we could afford and I liked the fact the coverdell was really simple, just like an IRA. You did not have to mess with any state s...

I was getting ready to do the contributions for the kiddo's 2013 Coverdells and I was wondering if anyone has heard anything about the limits. It has been $2000/yr forever but was supposed to go down to $500/yr with all the fiscal cliff hoopla. I have not been able to find anything on if the $2000 w...

One fallacy I see is everyone assumes if you pay of your debt you will be broke and have zero cash. That wouldn't be smart. You need an emergency fund and good cash buffer. Don't pay off all of your debt if it leaves you penniless. I am saying I think it is not smart to paying interest on a loan whe...

On the other hand, holding on to the tax payment for another year (also questionable, aren't you supposed to pay estimated taxes quarterly?) in this interest rate environment is not going to be worth it that much. My 2012 income so far (excluding this check ) is about double 2011. Required quarterl...

The IRS will not allow you the option of arbitrarily deciding in which year income is taxed. Under the "constructive receipt" doctrine, income is taxable in the year the payment is received without restriction on its use, not in the year the check is deposited. Technically you are correct...

Has nothing to do with Dave Ramsey. I don't even agree with a lot he says. Maybe for me it is because I am self employed. I was always stressed about how I had to pay the mortgage, pay the student loan, etc. I often would take on projects with my business that I knew were not very profitable just be...

I have a small business. We did a large job that the balance due represents about 1/3 of our annual net income. The customer is supposed to be mailing the check the day after christmas so likely I will receive it right at the end of the year. I could deposit it right away and owe taxes on it this ye...

The other thing I will add is the 2.5% you pay on your debt is guaranteed.You WILL pay that. What you earn on your investments is a crap shoot. You might make ten percent you might lose ten percent. Using this example if your investments gain you will feel smart making the 7.5% spread but if they lo...

It is hard to describe how being 100% debt free feels. There is no math to describe it. We have always been smart with debt and did ok but once we paid everything off it was like life changed. It is hard to describe but it is definitely worth it. It is amazing how fast you can build up money once yo...

Thanks for the info.

We have a $1000 deductible on our insurance. My wife was driving the other day and the person in front of her was pulling a trailer and some boards flew off the trailer and hit her car causing about $1500 in damage. The people pulling the trailer did not stop but my wife good a good picture of them,...

Thanks a lot for the advice and the links. Definitely saved me some money. As for the purpose of this money it is not really retirement money and not really emergency fund. It is just kind of there if needed. Maybe some sort of unknown business opportunity or something comes up and it would be used ...

The highest yield Vanguard fund that I see that is open is VWESX at 3.94% and this is not tax free.

Seems like I would be better off paying the higher fees on the american funds or am I missing something?

Currently all my investing is done in Vanguard funds. I use a mix of total stock, total international, total bond, and reit. This is done in our simple ira accounts and traditional ira accounts. We recently became totally debt free and are looking for where to put extra money. We currently have abou...

I am needing some advice. I am 35 and wife is 31. We have two kids 1 & 9. We max out our simple IRA's at the company (~12k/yr each). We also do 5k each to a traditional IRA (non deductible due to income). We max out coverdell ESA's for both kids. Everything is invested in a four fund vanguard po...

I have a small business. Made more than I ever have before in my life this year. I am worried about the tax implications. I have an accountant I have been using for several years and no issues but I wonder if it might be useful to get a second opinion? Maybe I (current accountant) is overlooking som...

I used to do everything myself. I own a business with 8 employees and I often found myself performing all sorts of tasks at night so that I didn't have to pay my employees to do them. Now I am starting to see the big picture and how my time is more valuable than that. Now I look at things with that ...

I was talking about receipts for expense for my own business. It is an LLC. How long do I need to keep those?

KCJayhawker wrote:I'm a CPA .......... I don't keep any receipts, not even reimbursed business expenses.

Am I not required to keep business receipts to substantiate my tax return? I just assumed I did but was not sure.

No one said it or if they did I missed it but if you are going to own gold don't by a fund or an etf. Buy physical gold. One of the allures of gold is protection in case of a massive currency crisis. If that happens I would much rather have the actual metal in my hands than credits somewhere on a co...

I bought a new desk / filing cabinet/ etc and figured it was a good time to go through everything while I am moving it. How long should I save old tax returns? I have stuff back into the 90's. What about stuff like medical receipts for money spent out of a HSA account? Receipts for a business? Etc, ...

This feels like much more of a gray area to me. I think you need to provide more specific info about the project before anyone can help decide whether this company should pay for the work you performed. I think the bridge analogy actually supports that they should not pay you. There is no way that ...

Look into Ridgid tools from home depot. I don't necessarily think they are the best tools but they are nice. They offer a lifetime warranty which includes coverage for the batteries.

Thanks for all of the replies. I have been away from the computer for several days. To answer questions: There is no way to go up the line. I am dealing with the owner of the company. They are a multi million dollar operation but not a big company as far as number of employees go nor or they well kn...

The job took about 15 days and I had several employees there, we were out of town staying at a motel, etc. The job actually took longer than we expected it should have only took 10 days.

My profit on the job if they paid in full would be about 5k. So If I accept half I am losing 5k.

To further elaborate: I know they will never hire me again and I don't want to work for them again either. So maintaining customer relations is not an issue. Legally speaking I think my contract is sound and covers the fact if things don't go well due to something beyond my control I am not responsi...

It is my occupation and primary business. I have been in this line of work for many years with no problems like this. I had no idea their plan would not work. Obviously they didnt either. They did not contact me wanting my advice, input, etc they basically handed me a blueprint and said "do thi...

I did job for someone about 6 months ago. I was simply hired as a contractor to do the job. They owe me about 20k for the work and have not paid. They definitely have the money. The reason they are not paying is that the project did not turn out well. It is not my fault as I did exactly what they hi...

OP I am just like you. I think the bottom line is that you are content. If not spending money makes you happy then so be it. Just don't sacrifice things that you want to do because you think they cost too much. I live in a rural area where 40k a year is considered good money. My income varies a lot ...

As said above there are a ton of rules on who you can pay as a 1099. I would say most of the time people do not meet the qualifications. Things like you performing the services for other people and not just your employer, you not being told what to do just results obtained, etc. Companies want to 10...

madbrain wrote:

rec7 wrote:Would the answer change if someone owned a cheap mobile home lets say under 15k?

Wouldn't the premium would be proportionally lower ?

That is what I posted. If it was proportional on a 15k home then it would be $30 a year.

I think that would be a good deal.

It is all about the cost of the insurance and the potential loss. $450 to insure 225k is dang cheap. If you divide that out you would have to go 500 years without a total loss to be better off not being insured. Fires while rare are certainly a possibility. As stated above you also need to think abo...

I will just add to what everyone else is saying. No way I would take on that much mortgage on that income. NO FREAKING WAY. Our household income is over 200k and I would not take on that much mortgage. They are not going to own that house it is going to own them.

Maybe I am a simpleton but being debt free is a big plus in todays world. Start you marriage and lives off with the avoiding debt mentality. To me that is more valuable than a few percentage points here or tax advantages there. We are only talking about two years. I am afraid with that high of an in...