Professional New Year’s Resolution Ideas

It’s that time of the year again. We are sure 2016 wasn’t that great, or maybe it wasn’t too bad for you, but the most important thing to remember now is to learn from everything you have experienced in 2016 and cherish those moments when you were most happy. One thing to keep in mind however, is that sometimes New Year’s Resolutions are somewhat not going as planned. According to Amanda Zantal-Wiener 45% of Americans make New Year’s Resolutions, however, only 8% are successful in achieving them. Interestingly, University of Scranton’s Journal of Clinical Psychology stated that the top 10 resolutions of 2015 included losing weight and falling in love. Although those goals are great, the question you should ask yourself is, are they really going to make you better at what you do every day?

Again, Amanda Zantal-Wiener has stated some tips on some professional New Years Resolution Ideas incase you are short on what ideas. The challenge here is to see if you can come up and stick to professional New Year Resolutions. These tips will drive you to become more “creative, productive, and generally more content at work.” Here they are:

–          Assign times throughout the day to make an electronics- free zone.

• Our bodies are trained to respond to light and dark signals. According to National Sleep Foundation, these signals send us important signals, like the time of the day. Once you add phones and electronic screens to your day, our brains recognize the brightness from phones, and other electronic devices. Ever wonder why people usually never get enough sleep? Its because many of us have a hard time to fall asleep when we’re exposed to too much screen time at night.

 

• HOW CAN WE ACHIEVE THIS? : Everyone can relate to this issue, and it is in fact a very hard resolution to achieve. If you like to watch movies, tv shows, or play video games before going to bed, try to lower the amount you do each night. For example, if you watch tv for about 2 hours before you sleep, reduce that amount to 1 hour and 30 minutes and keep going until you finally can finally sleep without it. Replace the lost time of tv by reading a book, journal. Perhaps read an accounting book, learn how to become a cpa, or better yet, read books on how to save money!

 

–          Write about anything everyday! Perhaps a diary

• According to Amanda Zantal-Wiener, the quality of writing in the U.S has been going around the news and headlines for awhile now. Many viewers and consumers are looking for better writers, however, the trouble is that they are having trouble investing the time to do so. According to Neil Patel, he said writing for 30 minutes a day (of course skipping the weekends) will greatly improve your writing skills. Practice makes perfect!

 

• HOW CAN WE ACHIEVE THIS? : Pick a question everyday and write about it. You can get topics by asking friends, a customer, or a topic that has always been floating around your head for awhile. It really helps you bring out your diction levels while increasing your conversation skills. You can even write something that makes no sense, the point is to improve your writing.

 

–          Always ask for help.

• You’re probably wondering, doesn’t that make me feel needy and less important? Not at all! Zantal-Wiener states that Care.com took a survey of working mothers and the findings was about the concept of asking for help. Around 30% of respondents felt guilty of doing things without asking. Also, about 79% also felt like they were falling behind at work, and 75% saw an overall reduction in stress when they did ask for help. Obviously, these numbers goes beyond working mothers, but as Zantal-Wiener states, “there’s an epidemic of fear when it comes to asking for help at work.”  So if you need help with anything, for example, taxes or accounting, you can contact a cpa firm and ask any questions when you have any financial problems!

 

• HOW CAN WE ACHIEVE THIS? : This was a very good quote that Zantel-Wiener posted : “The most successful people ask for help when they need it!” Always remember this, this will lead you to success. Don’t ever assume that your questions are dumb, if people say that it is, just get the answer and don’t ask them again, those people are not good people, unless they are joking.

 

–          Read more.

• Remember, the most successful people never stop learning. 70% of adults in the professional or managerial roles continue their education. It is one of the best ways to constantly update yourself with industry trends, learning from experts, and expand the spectrum of creativity. Some of the best ways to learn is to read outside of a classroom setting. Reading accounting blogs, reddit blogs, or some other blogs that are notable really provide useful information that may help you in the future.

 

• HOW CAN WE ACHIEVE THIS? : There is a ton of content out there, however, some content that would be worth reading. If you need some useful information on how to save money or cut tax spending, perhaps reading our older blogs at sonnycpa.com would be helpful. There are many others you can Google, there is so much content out there. If you have any questions about something, simply ask it, or check out our older blog posts.

 

Well that’s all the tips we have for you, we hope you guys have a Happy New Year! Look forward to 2017 and enjoy what we have now! 

A Smart Business Decision Maker = A Successful Entrepreneur

Many successful business leaders all share a common skill that most people do not posses. Although this skill comes in all forms and is dependent on the amount of opportunities given to them, they all still have to undergo a process whether it takes a long time to process or a very short amount of time. That skill, my fellow entrepreneurs is: Smart Business Decision-making. Every day people from all over the world make decisions. You may not realize it but you, the reader, just made the decision to read this article (Thanks by the way!). However, let’s take it to a business perspective; business leaders, (including yourself) “make dozen of decisions a day” that creates an impact to the success of their company while creating an influence factor to employees as well. “Developing such a skill requires a combination of education, experience, and intuition.”

Marci Martin, author of Business News Daily who wrote the article “How to Make Effective Business Decisions” has stated a great quote: “There are many things that influence how an individual makes decisions. They include emotions, perceived personal and professional risks and rewards, preparation through experience or education, deadlines, stress and a host of others. It is important to mitigate the irrational and embrace the rational.”

Many decisions always comes with a process, as mentioned above, there are many factors that come into play before coming up with a conclusion. Some of those decisions usually come from a “gut feeling” while others come from undergoing a long process of asking others, and a more common form would be the opportunity cost (Is it more beneficial to me than the cost?). As Martin mentioned, the “bottom line is that being an effective decision-maker requires practice.”

Gayle Abott, President of Strategic Alignment Partners, a human consulting firm, has implemented a four- point strategy to deploy whenever you must act:

–          Identify the problem.

–          Analyze the possible solutions

–          Evaluate the possibilities that are likely to bring you closer to your goal.

–          Make the decision.

However, as easy as this 4 point system sounds, this type of strategy does not come easily for any beginner. As Abott has said in Business News Daily, it takes years of practice to master this skill. Many people who have become masters did not simply start off as talented decision makers, they made many mistakes in the past, learned from them, and simply moved on. The most crucial part in any decision making in a business, is the ability to learn from them. It is not easy as you think it is because people still make the same mistake, whether it’d be motivated by an emotion, by influence, or by stubbornness. The reality is that, it will not be easy to become a smart business decision maker until you have made enough decisions to consider yourself a smart business decision maker. 

You Can Save $20,000 on IRA Rollover Even You Miss The Deadline!

A new IRS rule could save you $20,000 or more if you miss the 60-day deadline for an IRA rollover. A 60-day rollover allows an individual to move money from one retirement account to another. Missing this 60-day deadline could lead to a massive tax bill. Originally, the appeals process for missing the 60-day deadline required a private letter ruling from the IRS, which charged a fee of $10,000.  Add on professional fees to prepare the ruling and the total cost of appealing could be $20,000.

Under the new IRS rule, people will be able to complete a late 60-day rollover without penalties if they meet the three requirements below:

1. The late rollover must caused by one of the following 11 excuses:

• An error was committed by the financial institution making the contribution or receiving the contribution.
• The distribution was in the form of a check and the check was misplaced and never cashed.
• The distribution was deposited into and remained in an account that you mistakenly thought was a retirement plan or IRA.
• Your principal residence was severely damaged.
• One of your family members died.
• Your or one of your family members were seriously ill.
• You were incarcerated.
• Restrictions were imposed by a foreign country.
• A postal error occurred.
• The distribution was made on account of an IRS levy and the proceeds of the levy were returned to you.
• The party making the distribution delayed providing information that the receiving plan or IRA required to complete the rollover despite your reasonable efforts to obtain the information.

2. The late rollover must be completed as soon as practicable.

3. A written letter of certification for late rollover contribution must be sent to the receiving company.

 

Baby Boomers- It’s Time to Spend Your 401(k) and IRA – Pay Taxes or Not

A generation crosses a magic finish line and finds the IRS waiting. Here are some tips to minimize the bite.

At age 70½, the bill comes due on all those tax-deferred savings accounts we’ve been building, and this week the oldest baby boomers will begin to reach that finish line—with many millions more to follow.

Those waves of retirees will be required to start pulling money from their IRAs and 401(k)s. Following an Internal Revenue Service formula, these annual withdrawals can push you into a higher tax bracket, so CPA can put a lot of energy into building strategies to minimize the tax bite.

To be most effective, you need to plan far in advance of the magic age. So anyone with sizeable savings may want to get familiar with how these required minimum distributions work.

1. While you have the option of tapping tax-deferred retirement savings accounts without penalty starting at age 59½, you are required by law to start taking distributions from your IRA, 401(k) and other kinds of tax-deferred accounts a) by April 1 of the year after you turn 70½. From then on, you have to take money out before Dec. 31 every year. b) If you are still working at that age and participating in your employer’s 401(k) plan, you may be able to defer required minimum distributions from that account.

2. The amount you must withdraw is tied to an IRS formula based on life expectancy. For example, you just turned 70½ and have one $600,000 IRA. An IRS sets your distribution period of 27.4 years. Your $600,000 divided by 27.4 equals about $22,000. Whether you want it now or not, that’s what you have to take out.

3. The penalties for noncompliance are steep. If you forget to take a required minimum distribution, or don’t withdraw the full amount, the IRS wants 50 percent of the amount you didn’t withdraw. You can avoid this by having your CPA to calculate your required minimum distributions for you and automatically transfer the money to an account with them or your bank, a service many offer.

4. You can make “qualified charitable distributions” of up to $100,000 a year. That way, required minimum distributions won’t be included in gross income. You have to be careful.  The company holding your tax-deferred account must send the money directly to a qualified charity.   You need to consult with your tax professionals.