Filed under: personalfinancenewsss.wordpress.com | Tags: home, Improve, Life, your
Our environment is the foundation of our life.
Boy, would I like to take credit for that little gem of a statement, but it belongs to designer Stephen Saint-Onge. In my hour-long conversation with him, I was acutely aware that I was talking to someone who is very much self-actualized. The way he sees it, home design isn’t something to inflict or dictate, but to empower and uplift and set the stage for a lifestyle. And he is clear about his role in that process.
“It’s a personal connection,” Saint-Onge said. “I’m not judging them. Homes are personal spaces. It’s up to me to help them make it better. Good design has the power to change people’s lives.”
This took on an enhanced meaning when the economy took a nosedive. Many people have had to shift from “dream home” mode to making improvements to their current home, while others who are selling their homes are trying to gain an edge through more stylish staging.
“You can’t control what’s happening in the outside world, but you can control your home,” said Saint-Onge, whose brand is all about family-friendly design. “Bottom line, people can make their home anywhere they want. It’s about what you surround yourself with. I’m a big believer in that.”
Saint-Onge – already a media splash with appearances on Oprah, The View , CNN, FOX News, ESPN and TLC as well as mentions in publications like House Beautiful , In Style , Real Simple and the Wall Street Journal – is now a regular contributor to Better Homes and Gardens magazine and has teamed with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate to do home improvement videos (http://www.bhgrealestate.com/Views/Live/Video.aspx) that have his signature warm, inviting vibe.
Someone who can’t afford to flat out hire a designer can get the professional touch by watching those and implementing his tips. Or they can take it a step further by having a sort of virtual consultation with him for $175. You mail in photos of a room, fill out the form on his Web site, and in two weeks you get “a specific list of what could be done with the room, a floor plan to illustrate what Stephen thinks you could do and even some products or services that he thinks might help you in your redesign plan.”
The beauty of working with Saint-Onge is his comfort level with doing what he was born to do as an artist. His eye and his sensibility have been very much informed by his passion for old movies and that World War II philosophy of appreciating simple things. He loves passing that on through his work. He recalled a moment that crystallized for him his true gift.
“Oprah said, ‘You can see the potential in any space,’” Saint-Onge said. “I can. I see the end result, beyond the clutter. I realized it’s something I can do.”
It is something he can do, in fact, that many people find stressful. He has been to homes where there are six paint swatches on the bedroom wall and they’ve been there for six months because the homeowners can’t decide.
“A lot of people have the same dilemma,” he said. “They can’t see beyond what they see every day. The energy or mood of a person changes when there’s somebody that says you can do this, this and this to make this room better. I leave them with a to-do list. Then they wonder, ‘What was I waiting for? Now I have a whole new space and I’ve done it myself.’”
The idea is to create moments. Do you see yourself writing a novel in that corner or baking a pie in that kitchen? Saint-Onge likes to ask people their favorite movie as potential inspiration. For example, the Hamptons-style beach house in the film Something’s Gotta Give is very popular and, in fact, its writer, Nancy Meyers, received a lot of interview requests about its décor. Saint-Onge also gets requests based on another Meyers movie, The Holiday , which features personality-filled homes for characters played by Jude Law and Kate Winslet.
“I tell them to freeze frame scenes and see what they like,” Saint Onge said. “The conversation begins. They’re communicating about design in a different way.”
That brings to mind for me a scene from the movie French Kiss , when Luc (played by Kevin Kline) gives Kate (played by Meg Ryan) the language to describe wine by having her smell various herbs, fruits and flowers while blindfolded. When she tastes the wine, she then immediately gets the subtle notes, like lavender.
Same concept for design. Saint-Onge finds if this approach doesn’t work, it challenges him to find a different way to communicate.
“They need to have an idea or an essence of what the room is going to be,” he said. “It could be tear sheets from magazines. Get a Look Book created. It could be a three-ring binder or a sketch book that includes settings you think are fantastic.”
The environment, the foundation, the life – they all flow from there.
Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.
Filed under: personalfinancenewsss.wordpress.com | Tags: Dream, Great, Land, Ways, your
Even as jobs become harder to find, too many job-seekers rely on a tunnel-vision strategy that makes use of only one or two job-search methods. That strategy may eventually land you a job, but it’s likely you’ll spend more time being frustrated than interviewed.
So should you rely on job fairs, Internet job boards or social media for employment leads? The answer for most successful job-seekers is all of the above and then some.
A multipronged approach makes the best use of your time and energy. Check out these eight ways that people search for jobs.
1. Internet job boards
Mainstream Internet job boards such as Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com were once the go-to resource for job-seekers.
Although these job boards have been around for about 15 years, they are quickly running out of steam, in part because there are fewer jobs to post and overwhelmed employers often take jobs offline after receiving thousands of resumes in a single day.
Monster.com advertises on its Web site that it has over 70 million personalized accounts. So if you’re not first in line once a company posts a job, it’s likely that your resume may turn into digital vapor, says Todd Bermont, author of “10 Insider Secrets to a Winning Job Search.”
“Maybe 5 (percent) to 10% of all people get jobs through a job board,” he says. “It’s not to say it’s a waste of time, but you don’t want that to be your sole job-seeking activity of the day.”
Bermont, whose job-hunting courses have been featured at the University of Chicago’s Graham School and at Loyola University, says employers often look at the first 100 or so resumes while the rest fall by the wayside.
Job-seekers may be more productive using industry-specific job boards. Job-hunt.org is a good resource for finding these Web sites.
2. Networking through personal contacts
Personal contacts are the most effective way to job search. More than 80% of jobs get filled via referral, says J.T. O’Donnell, a career strategist and consultant based in North Hampton, N.H.
Networking means more than name dropping. “It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you,” she says.
Whether you’re using social networking Web sites like LinkedIn or Twitter or personal referrals, it’s important that people know your strengths, skills and the value you bring to a company before they refer you, says O’Donnell.
Be specific about the kind of companies you want to work for and why you’re interested in them. It will help your personal contacts have a clearer sense of who you are and make it easier for them to refer you to the right person.
3. Career consultants
Career consultants may not get you a job per se, but they can be effective in helping job-seekers brand themselves, a trend that is becoming more important in an economic climate where competition for jobs is intense.
Career branding is a way to market yourself much like companies market their products. You are selling yourself as a valuable commodity to employers.
Embarking on a job search without a sense of your personal brand is akin to going on a road trip with no destination in mind, O’Donnell says.
Career consultants can be effective when job-seekers are looking for higher paying jobs. Fees can range from $99 for basic resume services to $2,000 for extensive coaching, says O’Donnell.
4. Recruiters, private employment agencies
Recruiters, sometimes known as headhunters, are hired by companies and organizations to fill open positions. Many times they are hired to fill executive positions, and they are always paid by their clients, not the job-seeker.
Executive headhunters can be effective because the incentive to get a person placed is high. Fees typically represent a percentage of the job-seeker’s salary.
Private agencies such as Manpower, Kelly and Olsten provide another avenue toward employment. Also funded by employers, they generally supply temporary workers to employers for prescribed periods of time. The temporary agency gets paid an hourly fee, which is usually much higher than the pay temp workers get from the agency.
They are worth checking out, especially those that specialize in your field of interest. The arrangement gives both employer and employee a chance to get acquainted before any commitments are made. Oftentimes temporary workers will be offered permanent employment.
5. Internships
Internships can be great ways for students to gain real world experience in their area of study.
Some interns are paid a salary and the internships often lead to full-time employment upon graduation.
In 2008, almost 70% of college interns received employment offers from their internship hosts, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
“I’ve seen strong results with internships,” says Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter, a certified master resume writer and a career consultant who heads Career Trend in Kansas City, Mo.
“I value them highly because they give you great experience and opportunity, so interns should do their best to be a resource for the company.”
The downside? Many internships are unpaid, which can be a financial burden to students who rely on summer work to make ends meet.
Students contemplating an internship should not be afraid to ask specific questions about work schedules, duties, pay and performance reviews, much like any job-seeker would do.
6. Job fairs
Job fairs have gained a lot of visibility lately.
In healthier economies, they typically attract hundreds of job-seekers but lately the numbers have escalated to thousands.
Still, job fairs should be part of a multipronged approach to meet employers in person and possibly find jobs. However, they may not be as effective if you are looking for something other than entry-level work.
“I think for face time it rates highly, but do a little research before you go to a job fair,” Barrett-Poindexter says. “Sometimes they’re industry specific while some are broader than that.”
Author Bermont says job-seekers may be able to get more traction by joining industry-specific associations and network that way.
He says the broader job fairs can be costly to attend in larger cities and it’s hard to get noticed by a company because thousands of people attend them.
“It’s not focused toward any one industry and it’s an expense,” he says.
“If you’re going to a job fair in a city like Chicago, you’re going to pay $15 to $20 to park and you have absolutely no idea if there’s going to be a single job that you’re looking for.”
7. School career placement offices
Most colleges and universities have career placement offices. The problem is many students either don’t know they exist or don’t effectively utilize them until they are ready to graduate.
Career placement offices help students with resume writing, interview coaching, job postings and other services, but not all are known to be a good resource for job-seekers.
“Although it’s something that you pay for as part of your tuition, there’s not a lot of accountability within the colleges for the career center to make sure that every student understands that they are there and knows how to leverage all their resources,” O’Donnell says.
Nevertheless, some career placement offices have excellent reputations.
Career placement offices at Northeastern University, Claremont McKenna College, Wabash College and the University of Texas at Austin ranked the highest in the 2009 edition of the Princeton Review’s Annual College Rankings.
Take advantage of your school career placement office by using it as soon as you arrive on campus, not at the end of your senior year. Better yet, make it a point to stop by the career office to see what services they offer before committing to a college or university.
And long after you graduate, you may still avail yourself of your alma mater’s services. Many larger universities offer career placement services to alumni, too.
8. Government employment services
States provide employment services in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration.
They help job-seekers with career counseling and occupational testing services and will often help match you with available job openings at no cost.
Local offices can be found on the Internet or in a telephone book under “job services” or by looking for your state’s department of labor and workforce development.
Information about federal government jobs is available from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s USAJOBs Web site, or fedjobs.gov.
Hiring by the federal government more than doubled from 1.5% to 3.2% between February 2008 and January 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
However, government jobs can be very difficult to nail down. Application guidelines are rigid, competition is fierce and some jobs require the applicant to obtain security clearance.
More from Bankrate.comMake the best of lower card limitsSeeking a share of an ex-spouse’s 401(k)What’s $29,000 worth after 18 years?What are your tax e-paying options?9 smart personal finance moves in 2009
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Filed under: personalfinancenewsss.wordpress.com | Tags: Career, Sabotage, Ways, your
True story.
A group of young workers were staying in an upscale hotel in the business district of a major city for a week of corporate training. On their first evening together, they all enjoyed a night on the town. Later, when they returned, one of them, in a drunken stupor, made a fatal mistake — a real career killer.
She set off the fire alarm. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Hundreds of hotel guests were evacuated into the street at 11 at night while, at the same time, a senior vice president, also staying there, wandered into the lobby from his own night out. He asked one of the trainees what was going on and discovered the perpetrator had been someone from his company.
Security tapes were reviewed, people were questioned. The woman who sounded the alarm did not show up at training the next day — or at her job except to clean out her desk.
Moral of the story? It can take only one really dumb decision to derail your career.
Major career meltdown moments aren’t the only ways to sink a career though.
“Careers are rarely sunk by a single incident and if they are then it is clearly something dramatic,” says Will Robinson, co-founder of VirtualJobCoach. “Most damage is usually longer term.”
Bash your employer in public
Forget about ever getting a glowing letter of recommendation if you tell the world how you really feel about your job and employer.
Lynne A. Sarikas, director of the MBA Career Center at Northeastern University in Boston, relates a story about a senior vice president who came into the office one morning obviously upset about something. “You could all but see the steam coming out of his ears,” she says.
“Apparently, he had been riding the T (a subway in Boston), and one of the employees was on the train talking to someone — in a loud enough voice to be overheard — bashing his manager and the company.”
The senior vice president relieved the employee of his misery. He was fired.
Employees are, of course, entitled to their opinions and can’t be forced to love where they work. But they’re also ambassadors for their company. Refraining from publicly trashing the organization or the people that you work with is just common sense.
Unfortunately, common sense is often anything but common. Compounding the issue for employees and employers alike is that the public realm has grown to encompass all of cyberspace.
Companies have begun to go online to research employees and prospective hires. Damning evidence online is a quick way to weed out candidates during the recruitment process.
Jennifer Mounce, founder of Coach Effect, a career coaching and consulting firm, recalls a client who found two candidates for a position, and ran a check on different social media sites.
“One of the two candidates actually had a video online talking about how they hate their job and their company. Suffice it to say, if something is going to tip the scale, having a video posted about how much you hate your company is it.
“That certainly is not going to fare well with a new employer,” she says.
Just changing the privacy settings on your MySpace or Facebook account may not be enough, warns Dan Kilgore, principal at Riviera Advisors, a human resources consulting firm.
“Although (online social media sites) are for members, some employers have been going in and getting into different accounts under fictitious names to throw off the candidate.”
Bottom line: “Don’t discuss anything about your current job or employment on the Internet in a bad light,” he says.
Mix pleasure with business
Commingling a work life and sex life can be inadvisable for most professionals. Although workplace restrictions on office romance vary from company to company, the wisdom of engaging in extracurricular shenanigans may call into question the judgment of the employees involved.
Such behavior lacks discretion “if, for a period of time, you’re prepared to prioritize an attraction over whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing,” says Alanna Fero, career coach and author of “Love Made Visible: Values-Driven Approaches to Work/Life.”
It goes without saying that downloading pornography on the job is the kiss of death.
Most companies explicitly prohibit downloading pornography to their work computers. Unless you’re involved in the adult entertainment industry, being known as the porn guy will never be good for your career.
“That is one of the really stupid things that people do. I guess people think they can never be caught, but charging $400 worth of pornography as a business expense…. No, you can not use client money to buy pornography. If you make a decision like that, it’s hard to recover,” says Robinson.
Fudge the truth
Everyone wants to look as good on paper as they know they are in real life, so some slight fudging on a resume is understandable, though not wise.
Out-and-out lying on your resume can be grounds for dismissal from a current position or can result in getting passed over for a job offer.
Interestingly, it’s not a rare occurrence. A sizable number of job seekers are guilty of stretching the truth or fabricating credentials.
“We actually have a 56-percent discrepancy ratio between what someone puts on their resume and what we find when we go to do an education or employment verification,” says Nick Fishman, chief marketing officer at employeescreenIQ, a background screening company.
Alittle fudging on salary or job dates is OK, but a lot of fudging can buy you walking papers, says Fishman.
An applicant who claims to have made $205,000 per year when in reality he earned$200,000 could be acceptable, he says. One who made $50,000 and claimed $150,000 will continue his job search.
Education is also a hot spot on resumes. The Internet has spawned a number of diploma mills where educationally challenged go-getters can order a degree. The companies have elaborate systems for verifying the degree to fool background checks.
Anyone with a computer and a phone could be tempted to set up a system to get by an unsuspecting employer.
One of Fishman’s clients wanted to promote someone, and had to do a complete background check on the employee. Long story short, the employee claimed to be a graduate of the University of Maryland, but the university had no record of the employee. The employer checked with the employee, who then furnished a name, phone number and e-mail of someone at the university who could verify the degree. The employer called and everything checked out.
“After a month going back and forth, we did a trace on the domain that was given to them, and the person had set up the phone number and e-mail address on their own and registered it to themselves. They had directed the phone number and e-mail to someone that would verify the degree,” says Fishman.
The employee was fired for lying. The worst part, Fishman says, is that this person wouldn’t even have needed a degree for the promotion.
Be real regardless of the culture
Not every company is the right place for every worker. Corporate cultures vary from highly formal and regimented to laid back and creative.
If visible tattoos and brightly colored hair are an intrinsic part of your personality, then an uptight corporate setting probably won’t be part of your career path.
Fero advises her clients to either get with the program or find a new job if it’s not the right fit for them.
“I had a client recently who was unhappy with her boss and felt like the job had become too constrained. So she pierced her nose,” she says.
“I had a conversation with her and said, ‘Is this that important that you are prepared to take a stand over it when you’ve already had three people at work say they really don’t think it’s working?’” says Fero.
The client lost the nose ring and the attitude.
In tough economic times, considering cultural fit may not be a top priority for job seekers, who might happily take a job shoveling coal in Hades just for the paycheck. In the end, it’s the employee who has to work to fit into the environment. Not fitting in may be enough to get canned.
“Performance is usually secondary to whether you think this worker is a good guy and you want to work with them,” says Robinson.
“How you interact, your communication style and what you say all have bearing. A lot of people want to believe that the workplace is a meritocracy, and they’ll be judged only on their work. But I can tell you point-blank that while that is a great environment to aspire to, it’s not found in the workplace today,” he says.
Even if the workplace isn’t your style, learn to fake it convincingly — at least until you have another job lined up.
Just say no to opportunities
Even though bosses may tell you they want honesty, the truth is they also want acquiescence. They want you to get ahead — but on their terms.
Depending where you work, you may have up to two opportunities to say no to a project or assignment. After two turn-downs, your career could become a layer of sedimentary rock — as in stuck at that level forever.
“If your employer offers you a project or assignment and you turn it down, you only have that option twice and then you’re dead in the water and will never get promoted again in your life,” says Don Asher, author of “Who Gets Promoted, Who Doesn’t and Why: 10 Things You’d Better Do If You Want to Get Ahead.”
In tech positions, you usually get one shot at the brass ring.
“In high tech, if you turn down any assignment, you’re dead. If people don’t know this, they naively turn down something, thinking that something will follow. The reality is that if they turn down these interim opportunities, they don’t come back to you,” he says.
Robinson agrees. But accepting a chance to get ahead may involve considerable sacrifice.
“(There was) one guy I saw who was a rising, up-and-coming star in management consulting. The leader of the practice wanted him to go to Siberia for a year and he, a family guy with kids under five, said no, very politely. He did not make partner the next year and that was the direct result,” he says.
Though the ramifications may not be as dramatic as not making partner, when plum assignments are being handed out, bosses will think of workers who succeeded with less appealing or less prominent projects.
React poorly to stress or fear
Especially during times of economic turmoil and rampant layoffs, fear can drive employees to behave in ways they would not normally.
“The single most common way that employees totally unintentionally torpedo their job is by hunkering down,” says Robert Capwell, chief knowledge officer, Employment Background Investigations.
“They think, ‘If I don’t stick my head up, they won’t see me.’ But the employee still exists and is still on payroll. If the only value they add is a great attendance sheet then when the higher ups say what else has she done, the answer is nothing,” he says.
Flying under the radar can be one career-limiting coping mechanism, but some other employees take a more combative approach when stressed.
Yelling and throwing things when things go awry are obvious career limiters but more insidious are the angry behaviors that slip out when people just can’t control their bad moods from seeping out into their interactions with co-workers.
“Anger in the work place is not really allowed, and it is not appropriate for us to be in the office and scream and yell. So we kind of suck that up and then it comes out in other ways. We start sniping, we get sarcastic,” says Linda Dominguez, CEO and executive strategist with Executive Coaching and Resource Network.
Everyone has stories of co-workers who couldn’t quite hold it together under pressure. They cry, whine, shirk duties, mistreat customers or throw temper tantrums that send co-workers running for job boards.
No one enjoys working with bullying co-workers, or the emotionally erratic or consistently angry, negative people. On a day-to-day basis, these kinds of behaviors can really wear down the goodwill of co-workers and erode office morale.
At the end of the day, if someone is just plain grating, annoying or intimidating, they might find themselves looking for a new job — multiple times throughout their career.
“Fifty-three percent of terminations, not layoffs but terminations at higher levels, are not due to quality of work but due to personal style,” says Dominguez.
To stay on track and moving forward, employees have to learn how to play the game. To some degree that requires drinking the corporate Kool-Aid but also keeping a clear enough head so that they can see where they’re going and navigate the field intelligently.
More from Bankrate.comMake the best of lower card limitsSeeking a share of an ex-spouse’s 401(k)What’s $29,000 worth after 18 years?What are your tax e-paying options?9 smart personal finance moves in 2009
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Filed under: personalfinancenewsss.wordpress.com | Tags: refund, What, Wrong, your
Most of us get refund checks at tax time. And most of the time, those refunds are just what we had been eagerly awaiting.
But occasionally, the amount on an IRS check is not what we expected.
In some cases, it’s less than we figured on our 1040s. Every now and then, it’s more.
Regardless of whether the refund discrepancy goes against you or favors you, some steps can be taken to resolve the matter. That way, even if you and the tax collector aren’t necessarily satisfied with the eventual amount, you’ll at least understand the mathematical misinterpretation.
Explanation en route
First, don’t panic. There’s usually a logical explanation for why you and the Internal Revenue Service came up with different numbers.
The IRS will send you a written explanation for the unexpected amount. The only problem is that the explanation doesn’t always accompany the check. Such coordination of cash and comment is particularly difficult with directly deposited refunds, which are likely to show up unexplained in your account first.
Why your refund might be an unexpected amount:Math errors made in computing your tax bill.Incorrect credit or deduction claims were made.Estimated tax payments not credited properly.Other federal debts, such as a student loan, are collected.
“Sometimes the letter comes first,” says Beth Wiggins, a CPA in Houston. “Sometimes it follows a few days later. If the check comes first, you can always call the IRS.”
The main IRS toll-free number is (800) 829-1040 or (800) 829-4059 (TDD) for the hearing impaired. You also can call or visit your local Taxpayer Assistance Center. The IRS Web site has an interactive locator page to help you find the nearest one.
Wiggins says she’s discovered the best time to call is about an hour before the IRS office is scheduled to close. “Mornings are not a good time to call,” she says. And during tax-filing season, you’ll probably be in for a wait on hold at any time of the day.
Cash or hold the check?
As you’re waiting for the explanation letter to clear up the refund issue, you also have to decide what to do with the more, or less, money you got.
“It’s usually not a problem to cash it, especially if it’s a smaller difference” says Bob D. Scharin, senior tax analyst for the Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters.
In fact, if the check is less than you expected and it turns out that you were correct, once you and the IRS resolve the matter in your favor, the agency will make up the difference (plus a bit of interest if it takes more than 45 days to correct the error) and send you another check for the balance due.
If, however, the difference is larger or your refund is much more than you believe you should have received, it’s generally a good idea to hold off cashing the check until the issue is resolved.
“Recognize that you could be asked to send it back if the amount is more than you expected,” says Scharin. That’s easier to do if you still have all the IRS’ mistakenly refunded money in hand.
Documentation of the difference
Once you get the official word on why your refund is not what you had expected, it’s time to figure out what happened.
A typical notice will show you some basic 1040 information: adjusted gross income, taxable income and total tax due. In each of these categories, the IRS will indicate what you entered and what the agency came up with. A major difference in one of these areas will pretty clearly show you where the problem lies.
The document should also note how much tax you paid and any over- or underpayment. Additional charges or credits, such as interest and penalties, also are taken into account.
“Get out your return and try to reconcile it that way,” says Scharin. If you used a tax professional to file your return, call that person for help in clearing up the matter.
In many cases, the notice will include a phone number. Scharin says a personal inquiry directly to the IRS could also help.
“You might want to call before sending documentation,” he says. “You might find in speaking with a person, any confusion is cleared up, for good or otherwise.” At least, you’ll know exactly what the agency needs from you to resolve the issue.
Common refund discrepancy causes
“Most likely it is an arithmetic error,” says Scharin. In these cases, the IRS simply corrects your calculations and sends you the proper refund amount.
Even tax software doesn’t make you immune to addition and subtraction issues.
Scharin recalls one individual who “did his taxes on a computer and forgot to press recompute. So even though he entered in everything correctly, he didn’t finish the process.”
You also might have claimed something that, based on your income, you’re not entitled to, says Scharin. “Income phase-outs, based on your adjusted gross income, affect several credits,” he says.
But it just as easily could be an IRS error.
“You may have made estimated tax payments, and one was not credited properly,” says Scharin. “From your records, you overpaid or paid properly, but the IRS doesn’t think so. So send them a copy of the canceled check.”
Wiggins also has found estimated tax payments to be a major culprit in divergent refund amounts.
“Usually, the tax due is calculated correctly, but the filer and IRS come up with a difference on the amount of tax paid,” Wiggins says. “You made $250 in estimated payments when it was only $225 on the form. We can match those up because they show those payments on the letter of explanation.”
Other numbers that cause problems are those nine Social Security digits. When any of those are wrong (such as transposed numbers, or they don’t match other records, perhaps involving name changes after marriage or adoption), problems with your tax return — and refund — appear.
“I’ve seen refund issues recently when names of dependents don’t match Social Security numbers,” says Wiggins. “Husbands and wives have different names, as do their children. For example, you’re Kay Bell, married to John Smith and your child’s last name is Bell-Smith.”
“If it’s just listed on the return as ‘Smith,’ in these cases the IRS disallows the dependency exemption because of the mismatch.”
Other debts collected from refunds
Your tax check also might be a direct path to other money you owe.
The government can go through your federal refund to collect if you owe money to other government agencies. The most common cases involve court-ordered financial payments associated with a former marriage or unpaid student loans.
“If there are any child or spousal support payments, then the county of residence can go and claim their payments from your refund,” says Wiggins. “And it’s not an issue here in Texas, but in other states, tax officials there can go after your federal refund for state income tax debts.”
The IRS will even make sure it gets prior federal tax debts that you didn’t clear.
“I also have seen cases where taxpayers have a payment arrangement in place with the IRS, and the agency collects from the filer’s current refund,” says Wiggins. “The agreement says they can apply any refund you have against what you owe.
“So even if you’re making timely payments on your agreement with IRS, they can still apply the refund to that prior debt.”
Self-correcting your mistakes
In a worst-case scenario, you might not even get a refund.
“You’ll get a letter telling you to refile,” says Scharin.
You also should refile your return and refigure your tax bill and any refund if you find a mistake that the IRS overlooked in processing. If the IRS does eventually notice the error, you’ll face penalties and interest on the amount you didn’t properly pay on time.
In these cases, file an amended return, Form 1040X, and send the original, incorrect refund check back to the agency.
The IRS says to include a letter of explanation with the check. The agency will issue you a refund for the proper amount when it processes your amended return.
On the back of the check where you normally would endorse it, write “void.” Send the check and your letter detailing why you’re sending back the check. Be sure to include your name, Social Security number, mailing address and a daytime telephone number in case an agent needs to follow up with you.
Send the check back to the issuing center; you’ll find that location on the front of the check. Before you drop it in the mail, make a copy of the check and your letter for your files. It’s a good idea to send the material with a return receipt for additional verification for your records.
You also can call the IRS’ toll-free number and ask to speak to taxpayer accounts. Explain that the original refund check has been returned uncashed so the agency will know why it’s issuing you a second refund.
It’s no fun to return tax cash, but by making sure you get your payment and refund records straight, you’ll know you won’t have to worry about unexpectedly hearing from the IRS in the future.
More from Bankrate.comMake the best of lower card limitsSeeking a share of an ex-spouse’s 401(k)What’s $29,000 worth after 18 years?What are your tax e-paying options?9 smart personal finance moves in 2009
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Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Financial, from, Hide, Kids, Problems, them, your
Tell the truth: Did you emit an audible moan when you ripped open the third-quarter statement from your 401(k) plan? Have you and your spouse had a heated argument over how much was charged on your joint credit card last month? Do you work in the financial, auto or another industry making headlines about lay offs?
Don?t think you can hide the financial stress from your kids. They?re more perceptive than perhaps we?d like to admit. Regardless of the ages of your children, ?It?s a safe assumption that if you and your spouse are stressing about money, they are picking it up,? says Eric Tyson, author of ?Personal Finance for Dummies.?
While even a teenager probably doesn?t grasp the issues surrounding the current problems with the economy (most adults couldn?t tell you either), the messages they?re getting from the media, at school, and possibly at home are that things are bad, going to get worse, and could last a long time.
A friend of mine who works for a money management firm — and whose job is quite secure — was taken aback recently when his 16-year-old son came home from school one day and asked, ?Dad, are we going to be OK? Will I still be able to go to college??
According to Dr. E. Mark Cummings, professor of psychology at Notre Dame University, ?The most important issue for a child is psychological and emotional security. Can they rely on their community and their family to be there for them? Disruption in the financial markets suggests they might be less safe.?
In other words, it?s not about whether the family ski vacation will have to be cancelled or how many presents they can expect this holiday. ?What disturbs kids is not the dollars and cents of it, but that mom and dad are upset with each other,? says Cummings. ?Children are very sensitive to conflict between dad and mom. If there?s fighting, anger, it will affect a child much more significantly than what?s going on in the outside world.?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bill, change, Delayed, Obama, plans, Will, your
SAN FRANCISCO–Taxpayers’ bills will very likely change under President-elect Barack Obama’s administration, but don’t hold your breath for major tax changes as soon as he takes office.
The first thing on Obama’s plate will be jump-starting the ailing U.S. economy, economists and tax experts say. “Most bets are out the window until we get the economy and the financial markets straightened out,” said William Gale, an economist and senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution.
“The mandate for the new president has to be to get the economy going again, and following the dictates of particular proposals just doesn’t seem as important as solving the problem,” Gale said.
Speaking in terms of individual taxpayers’ bills, that’s good news for high-income earners. “I don’t think there are going to be any tax increases in the next year or so,” said Len Berman, director of the Tax Policy Center.
Though a ballooning deficit has some expecting the government to increase revenues by hiking taxes soon, many economists say stimulating the economy, even if it means a record-level deficit, is more important now, for the short-term, than balancing the budget.
“We had deficits of 4% or 5% or even 6% GDP back in the 1980s,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the nonpartisan Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. “Six percent of GDP now would be $900 billion. We might run something close to that next year, but we’re not going to keep it there … Would we be happier with a balanced budget and 15% unemployment? We’d be crazy.”
If Obama’s administration and Congress follow that line of thinking, then tax hikes may well wait. But spending probably won’t. The economic crisis likely means another fiscal stimulus package, many economists said. But unlike the fiscal stimulus earlier this year, a new bill probably won’t include direct rebates to a broad swath of taxpayers.
“The problem of sending checks out is people saved a lot of it and they’d probably save even more in the current environment,” Baker said. “That doesn’t help the economy.”
Instead, many experts said a new fiscal stimulus likely will include aid to local and state governments, extending unemployment benefits or suspending income tax on those benefits, spending on infrastructure improvements and energy conservation. Another possibility, Baker said: Tax breaks to businesses who offer health insurance to people who are currently uninsured. See Vital Signs.
On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that a two-stage fiscal stimulus package – part this year, part next year – would include a “permanent tax cut” in 2009, but she didn’t specify what kind of tax cut. See WSJ story.
One tax perk related to the financial crisis is expected soon for retirees: Some form of help to avoid required minimum distributions from their individual retirement accounts. “We think there will be a very serious effort to put some provisions in [a new stimulus bill] to take care of the RMDs,” said Clint Stretch, managing principal of tax policy for Deloitte. “People are very sympathetic to the plight of retirees who are forced to take money out at the depths of the market.”
Another tax change expected in 2009: The estate tax. Under current law the estate tax completely disappears in 2010, so look for Congress to act in 2009. Lawmakers may opt for a quick solution — a one-year patch that holds this year’s exemption amount and tax rate in place – or they may put in place a permanent estate tax law. Obama’s proposal: A permanent estate tax rate of 45% and a $3.5 million exemption.
Tax cuts coming — but when?
What about one of the central tenets of Obama’s tax plan — tax cuts for families earning less than $250,000 and individuals earning less than $200,000?
Under Obama’s proposals, for instance, a married couple with two children under 17, a household adjusted gross income of $76,000 and no capital gains or dividend income could see their tax bill drop by $1,000. A married couple with no children, household income of $130,000 and no capital gains or dividend income would see a similar $1,000 cut, while a single taxpayer with no kids and $180,000 income ($9,000 of it from capital gains) would see his tax bill decrease $100, according to an analysis by Deloitte.
Experts said Obama may push some of his middle-class tax breaks early in 2009, though it’s a matter of some debate how soon that push will come, and what form it will take.
Likely suspects for a push in early 2009 include Obama’s refundable tax credit, called “Making Work Pay,” which essentially returns FICA taxes to some taxpayers – specifically, 6.2% of up to a maximum of $8,100 of earnings — and increasing the Hope credit for college tuition costs to $4,000.
An Obama spokesman declined to comment regarding an expected timeline for such proposals.
“We think we may see some move to cement the middle-class tax cuts early on, although that might cause a fight over higher-income taxpayers,” Stretch said. Obama may not want to venture into that fight early on. Still, both the work-related and education credits “have broad-based appeal and might be early candidates,” Stretch said.
But Obama is unlikely to push his planned tax increases on higher-income earners, Stretch said. “If he comes with taxes on high-income people as an early issue, that might be taken as a signal by conservatives that he’s not interested in doing business with them. He may come with other things where there’s greater hope for common ground.”
Still, tax hikes are coming – eventually. Obama’s plan is to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire for high-income earners in 2010, but make those cuts permanent for taxpayers in the lower tax brackets. That means the top income tax rate will likely rise to 39.6% by 2011.
According to Deloitte’s analysis, a married couple with two children under 17, household income of $1 million ($500,000 of it from capital gains or dividends) could see their tax bill rise by $34,900. “That’s a real increase,” Stretch said, with that couple’s effective tax rate rising to about 28% from about 24% now. “It’s higher than the Bush years but where it was in the Clinton years.”
Eventually, higher-income taxpayers “will definitely be paying higher taxes,” Baker said. “I can’t imagine [Obama] turning back on that.”
Obama has also said he’ll increase the capital gains tax rate for higher earners to 20% from the current 15%, though many agree that won’t happen soon. “If he decided to raise capital gains tax rates right now, the financial markets would probably go crazy,” Berman said.
The message for higher-income earners? Don’t panic, Stretch said. “Yes, your tax rates may go up. Think about what you want to be invested in, think about the costs of repositioning your portfolio,” Stretch said. “If you have a large holding with a small gain on it, it’s not going to be sensible to incur a transaction cost to save a little bit on the cost of the gain,” he said.
“The places where we say it is worth taking a look are assets with very low basis and high value — businesses that you build up with sweat equity, real estate that’s appreciated very well in the commercial sector,” Stretch said.
For those eager to know more about their tax future, patience may be required. “With all the other issues at this point in time there may not be substantial tax legislation in 2009,” said Randy Frischer, a New York-based tax partner with BDO Seidman. “Probably next year is going to be a very big year for tax planning. We’ll have more knowledge of what the administration is contemplating on the tax front,” See TaxWatch on year-end planning.
Copyright 2008 MarketWatch, Inc. (more…)
Sometimes it?s the seemingly innocuous invitations that turn out to be zingers.
Last weekend, I was invited to sit in on a training session for about 15 people at the Grand Hyatt in Manhattan. These people were well into a yearlong program to become professional coaches through a company called Accomplishment Coaching.
Those taking the program sat in a square-shaped table configuration, while those invited to witness sat around the perimeter. We were welcomed by CEO Christopher McAuliffe and then ?ignored? once the training began, so as to let the classroom setting unfold and allow us to be observers.
What set the tone for the nearly two hours that followed was one student, let?s call her Carolyn, who shared that she was choosing to put aside some potentially debilitating health problems in order to be effective as a coach. Her classmates, one by one, challenged whether she was indeed putting them aside and carefully probed. At one point, McAuliffe asked Carolyn what really living life would mean to her and part of her response was ?traveling around the world.? He then drew her out for specifics.
Carolyn continued to be coached by her peers and the instructors. At times it felt like we were eavesdropping rather than just observing, such was the power of the exchange taking place. As it wound down, McAuliffe asked the coach trainees what ?project? Carolyn should take on. She had previously revealed ongoing projects in building her coaching practice and writing books. Two students took a crack at it and whiffed.
?Traveling around the world,? McAuliffe said.
But of course. (Did I gasp out loud?)
As a professional coach, I should not have been surprised and yet sometimes it takes someone else to say it. If a client, or in this case Carolyn, just finished saying that to her ?really living life? involves traveling around the world, then setting a goal in that is part of what we do as coaches. We make real to them what they?ve only imagined might be possible.
Now of course, in a situation outside this classroom, suggesting this goal to a client would likely produce responses like, ?In this economy? Yeah, right? or ?When will I ever have the time to do that??
As a coach, I say, if not now, when?
Even the most optimistic experts tell us we?re going to be dealing with this grim economy for years. Are we going to start ?really living? in four, eight, 10 years? By now I?ve written a few columns talking about using this time to assess your attachments to material goods and to really examine your relationships. Here, I am suggesting a no-holds-barred answer to the question, what does really living life mean to you?
Last week a former client wrote me for advice because he doesn?t know what he wants his next career path to be. He has done assessments, introspection, networking, you name it, but he is temping at the moment. Here?s what I wrote: ?I know this isn’t really an answer, but I feel you have a lot to offer. Maybe life is telling you to go out on a crazy limb right now. What might that look like?? His response included some thoughts of a geographical move.
Just days later, I was reading the Style section of The New York Times and a bit in the ?Vows? column (on the wedding announcements page) caught my eye. The bride, in her 40s, was the type who lived her own life and wasn?t sitting around waiting for Mr. Right. In 2006 she decided to put 20 years of New York living behind her and move to Dublin for a job with a three-year commitment. While there, she booked a weekend getaway to Glasgow, ?which is where she crossed paths with a frisky cocker spaniel dragging a buff Scottish policeman behind it.?
I think you know where the story goes. And for that matter, where this column is going. In keeping with the travel theme, I have a friend in the South of France who?s invited me to visit. Before I could even voice an objection about money or time, he said this, ?All you have to pay for is the airline ticket. You have a place to stay. And you?d have to buy food whether you came to France or not.?
Sometimes really living life is that simple. Give your goals some wings.
Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com. (more…)
During the second quarter of this year, the delinquency rate (at least one month overdue) on residential mortgages (defined as those whose payments are at least one month overdue) hit an all-time high of 6.4%, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.Nearly 3% of all outstanding mortgages were in foreclosure.
However, these national figures don’t really tell the story. While choking on credit card debt is a nationwide problem, mortgage difficulties are primarily concentrated in six states: California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Ohio, and Michigan.
The first four areas are suffering from the glut of overbuilding and greed we saw a few years back. Buyers included speculators intending to turn a quick buck, as well as those intending to occupy the residence.Both were so anxious to grab a house, they were willing to pay just about any price and often funded the purchase with adjustable rate mortgages.
As we’ve learned form the subprime debacle, lenders often bent the rules and issued loans to folks who were bound to be unable to make their payments if interest rates went up.When that happened, new buyers disappeared and housing prices plunged, leaving many owners with mortgages they can’t afford on homes worth far less than they paid.
A different set of factors is at work in Michigan and Ohio.Both of these Midwest states have been hard-hit by the downturn in the U.S. auto industry. Plant closings and layoffs mean incomes have been severely reduced. People simply cannot afford to make their mortgage payments any more.
Regardless where you live, if you’re finding it difficult to pay your mortgage, the first step is to contact your lender.Your goal is to see if you can get them to either lower your interest rate or re-negotiate the terms of your loan.
Frankly, lenders report being swamped by these requests, so you’ve got to be your own advocate.
While you’re waiting to hear from the mortgage company, call the “HOPE Now” hotline: (888) 995-HOPE. It’s part of the Federal Housing and Economic Recovery Act that was signed into law by President Bush this year.The Act created the Hope for Homeowners (H4H) program, which kicked off Oct. 1st.The government estimates that as many as 400,000 homeowners could receive relief in the form of lower, more affordable loans.
Speculators need not apply.If you bought at the peak of the housing bubble intending to “flip” the home in six months and reap a profit, you’re on your own.The Federal Housing Administration makes it clear that H4H is designed for owner-occupied residences.
If you qualify, you will be able to borrow as much as $550,440 via a 30-year, fixed rate mortgage.But whatever your loan amount, the first criteria is that you can realistically afford it.The following must also be true:
1. You took out your current mortgage before January 1, 2008
2. You did not lie or falsify information in order to get your original mortgage
3. You did not intentionally default on your payments
4. You have not been convicted of fraud in the past 10 years
5. Your payment is greater than 31% of your gross monthly income
6. You do not own any other residential real estate
You can learn more about the Hope for Homeowners program at http://www.hud.gov/fha/home080730.cfm. Click on the link for your state to get started.
Or, call the HOPE Now Hotline, which will put you in touch with trained counselors in your area.They can help you explore your options.
The newly-passed Emergency Economic Stabilitzation Act (EESA) expands eligibility under the H4H program and gives federal agencies more tools and money to assist families keep their homes.It also directs federal mortgage agencies to modify the loans that they own or control.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by debt in general, consider signing up with a nonprofit credit counseling service.In exchange for agreeing to a budget plan, they’ll contact creditors for you.As I wrote in a previous column, due to the number of for-profit scammers out there, look for an organization affiliated with the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (nfcc.org).
But don’t expect a miracle.
“Counseling isn’t for everyone,” says Travis Plunkett with the Consumer Federation of America. He says that while a credit counseling agency “can provide some breathing room” by negotiating reduced payments with your creditors, “if you’re really in serious financial trouble, they can’t provide enough breathing room to help.”
Both Plunkett and Gerri Detweiler, author of several books on consumer credit, say that if your situation is especially dire, filing for bankruptcy may be your one recourse. If you think you might be headed down that path, Detweiler recommends making an appointment with a bankruptcy attorney as soon as possible.
However, you’re probably not going to be able to simply way away from your home and leave your lender holding the bag. She cautions that “simply turning in your keys is not going to cut it. You may still be on the hook for the difference between the loan amount and what the house is worth.”
Moreover, new bankruptcy regulations passed in 2005 spell out exactly the type of bankruptcy for which you qualify. Far fewer individuals can opt for chapter 7, where you are essentially absolved of almost all of your debts. Most will have to file under Chapter 13, which requires you to pay back much of what you owe.
In addition, under either type of bankruptcy, you must complete a credit counseling course given by a federally-approved organization. And your bankruptcy filing will remain on your record for 10 years.
If you feel your current financial problems are temporary and you really, really want to hang on to your home, don’t give up. “The challenge is what when you’re under financial stress, it’s harder and harder to make the calls, handle the rejections, and be willing to keep going,” says Detweiler. As she put it, you have to “be a bulldog about it.”
Had enough of reading resume tips and budget-cutting strategies in these stressful times? Ready to funnel your energy into something fun that is also useful?
Sounds good, right? In Julia Cameron’s highly successful book, The Artist’s Way, she calls for an exercise at the end of her chapter called “Recovering a Sense of Connection.” As she notes, and I have also found with my life coaching clients, this is a favorite activity both for its process and because of the results it produces. It goes like this:
Gather a stack of magazines, some scissors, glue or a stapler, and a piece of cardboard. Now put your brain in “take-it-easy” mode. Put a 20-minute time limit on yourself and start ripping images and words that appeal to you out of the magazines. Then take the stack of images and arrange them on the cardboard in a way that pleases you.
What you now have is a collage that has been assembled from a subconscious place. This is not to be confused with a vision board, another tool I discussed in a previous Game Plan column that takes a more conscious, thoughtful approach to planning your future. Think of the difference as the contrast between stream of consciousness writing and essay writing. Loose vs. structured.
Seattle-based Melissa Wadsworth, an inspirational speaker on this very topic, calls these collages “dream boards” and conducts talks and seminars that take participants through the process of creating and then deriving meaning from them. In our recent interview, she discussed her conscious-living philosophy “What You Notice Matters!” and why she is so passionate about dream boards.
“I’m anxious to help people develop intentional awareness,” Wadsworth said. “The idea of the dream boards is seeing what emerges. It’s intuitive. Some people really sit with their board to get messages coming through, sometimes for weeks. You get connections between the conscious and the unconscious. Then you get the a-ha moments.”
Some examples are in order. One of my most memorable collage experiences was with a student in my Artist’s Way class who created one filled with images that conjured up faraway lands. I observed to him that it didn’t seem to reflect his urban life in New York City at all. He smiled and shared that he had been dreaming of taking time off and traveling through Africa, but he hadn’t realized how strong the urge was until he did the exercise. Several years later, I received regular email updates from him when he made that journey.
Wadsworth cited an example of a woman who had a lot of beaches on her board and kept circling around the idea that “life is a beach.” Upon deeper reflection, she had the insight that she tends to complicate things in her life and that her board was trying to say work can be fun, that life can be a beach. She went on to use that metaphor in advertising as she developed her business.
“You can find very practical info in your board,” Wadsworth said. “This gave her the tools. She tweaked it to work for her.”
Imagine a corporate executive whose board reflects a lot of physicality, perhaps yoga or hiking. Only she can sit with it and find its messages. Perhaps she has a dire need to go on a yoga retreat to an exotic place and delve deeper to think about her life’s direction. Or maybe what she really wants is to get on a track to teach yoga and open her own studio. It could also be something in between, like indulging in yoga more frequently as part of her weekly routine.
Isn’t this a perfect time — when so much around you feels out of control — to release your unconscious desires about your life?
“What people might want to do, if they can quiet their mind, is set an intention and then do the board,” Wadsworth said. “Go into it with the question, ‘What’s the best thing for me right now?’ Turn off the ego and the internal editor. The ego wants to go, ‘danger, danger, risk!’ The ego doesn’t even like considered risk. Ego talk can derail you. The brain likes to expand, the universe likes to expand, the soul likes to expand, but the ego doesn’t like to expand. Creating a board can quiet the chatter and worry.”
So it’s a no-brainer, right? That’s your task for the weekend. Need more convincing?
“No one comes up with horrible nightmare boards,” Wadsworth said. “These are very hopeful for people. It’s a way of seeing how powerful you are.”
You have nothing but a few magazines to lose, and a whole lot of insight to gain.
Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.
