Budgeting? Go a little deeper!

All of us are probably rethinking our personal “micro economies” given the changes in the “macro economy” of our country. It isn’t always a bad thing.

Currently, my husband and I have sworn off the expense of eating out frequently and have begun to prepare meals and eat at home on an almost regular basis. For the past weeks we have tried out new recipes and sat down for relaxing dinners with our family again! It’s been wonderful. We’ve reconnected with our kids and feel like accomplished gourmet chefs! We’ve baked bread, made our own mixes rather than buying them, shopped at the Tacoma and Proctor farmer’s markets for fresh produce, made meals in advance or cooked in the crock pot if we foresee a delay in our ability to prepare a meal for that day. Our kids are looking forward to meals again and we never have to call them twice! What could be greater than that?!

My simple advice to everyone seeking to remedy their personal economies is to get back to basics. It hasn’t been very long ago since I was a heartbeat away from homelessness. I remember as a single woman making a pittance of a wage and barely making enough to make my rent, much less anything else. Thankfully I found something I loved doing and did it. I began working at a bank and discovered I loved it! I loved the work, I loved the people, and the environment that came with it. I took advantage of tuition reimbursement, grants and other benefits, and worked my fanny off to finish my bachelor’s degree in business—and I DID! It took 5 years to finish off 2 years of junior and senior level classes, but I DID IT! The satisfaction from that remains today, although I’m never complacent. There is still a lot to learn! There are also many things I wish I could do (like a LOT more volunteering), but I simply don’t have the time right now. I am a new business owner. I am personally responsible for my life with no boss to run to for time off or a raise. If I want it, I have to do it prudently on my own. I also have two children (15 and 19 years old) that my husband and I are trying to guide through their life discovery phase!

All this to say: Jobs are not just a paycheck or a means to an end but the beginning of an exciting journey! While you are figuring out your “micro economy” and putting the budget numbers to paper, do some serious thinking about what it is you do to meet your budget numbers! Have you reached a point in your life where you might need to reinvent yourself or try something off the grid? Think about it. Seriously.

Next time: Real budget crunching

Taking Control of Your Finances

If there is one single thing that will most assuredly guarantee success with your money, it is keeping track of what you spend to make sure you don’t exceed your “manageable threshold.”

Many Americans far exceeded their manageable thresholds over the last few years and now they are experiencing financial crisis. They had no idea that spending beyond their means would eventually result in disaster. If they had determined their threshold and then had the intestinal fortitude to stick to it with all their might, they would have been insulated from the current economic crisis. Ponder perhaps that there would be no crisis if Americans (and American businesses) had controlled their use of credit.

How do you determine your threshold? It’s not rocket science! Simply take what you earn after taxes, deduct your necessary expenditures (mortgage, utilities, giving, saving, food, etc.) and that number is what is left. If there is nothing left, then you are at your threshold! If you are not giving or saving, then you have surpassed your threshold. To stay centered, you must give and save.

Society bombards us with ads to buy this and that and make us feel inferior if we don’t. We have to insulate ourselves from that because there will always be something to buy, always be someone to judge us if we don’t buy, but never enough money to buy it all—no matter how wealthy.

Economic theory teaches that the level of satisfaction derived from purchasing begins to decline after awhile.(1) What’s the old R&B song? “The Thrill is Gone.” There are also economic studies now that reveal that levels of happiness or contentment in some third world countries are higher than in the USA!(2) Why is that? Because in America we have reached the spending saturation point! Spending no longer brings us the thrill it once did. We make our purchases without a lot of contemplation, put the purchase on a credit card using eventual dollars we can’t afford to spend, and derive no lasting joy from the purchase. Even our daily latte’ has become a routine transaction. We have become spending zombies!

Making more money doesn’t necessarily make us happier either and, in fact, perhaps the price paid to bring in those extra dollars far outweighs the benefits.

All that to say that we need to take the time to carefully evaluate our income and expenses and make some tough choices. We need to stop spending money on things that bring us no lasting joy.

Let’s get motivated now to change the way we think about money!

Next issue: Starting the process.

(1) Law of diminishing marginal utility
(2) http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/24392; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Planet_Index

What does Alpha Business Services do?

System. We organize your records and set up a unique management method tailored to your needs that guarantees every bill gets paid accurately and on time. We want your financial life to work smoothly and efficiently--just as if it were our own.

Identify. We identify any problematic areas that arise and work with you to find solutions. It is a dynamic process.

Monitor and maintain. We make sure your accounts are balanced each month and that there is sufficient cash flow to meet your obligations.

Prepare. We create a system that considers your unique tax situation. Tax reports are run at year end, then provided to your tax professional for easy business or personal tax preparation.

Liaison. We can act as your representative with the professionals in your business and personal life so you can focus on the important things.

Information. We can provide full disclosure at a moment’s notice about what is going on with your finances. We also provide referrals if you need an excellent attorney, accountant, investment, or insurance professional in the Seattle-Tacoma area.

Facilitate. For everyday situations or if you have a special project or assignment, we provide the support to get it done.

You. With our help, you can rest assured your financial matters will be taken care of in an efficient, honest, and accurate way.

Call us today for a free consultation ~ (253) 380-1973

What is crucial for financial success?

Many people do not want to deal with their business or personal finances. Businesses are at an all-time failure rate and individual bankruptcies are on the rise because of lack of cost controls, planning and organization. Identity theft is also increasing exponentially with the economic downturn. More than ever it is important to carefully manage your finances. We saw that business owners and individuals needed our help in this area, so we formed Alpha Business Services to fill this void. We work with you to manage every aspect of your small business or personal finances—account monitoring, bill paying, bank reconciliation, cost control, budgeting, tax reporting, and any other financial matter you don’t want to deal with.

Getting started is easy!

• Contact us (253-380-1973) for a free consultation to determine why your present system isn’t working and discuss what you would like to see happen.
• We will prepare a sensible strategy designed exclusively for your needs and goals.
• We will implement the strategy and work with you to perfect it to your specifications.
• We can do it all for you or work with you to make sure your system is working effectively and you are comfortable with it.

We will help you put all the pieces together. Please give us a call today!

Tax Day Tacos at Taco Del Mar

Did you know that Taco Del Mar is giving away free tacos on Tax Day? Put a little spice in your day and check it out. Thanks to Twitter followers @ Taco_Del_Mar and @DivaTink for sharing this with us!

Printable coupon for FREE Tax Day Tacos at Taco Del Mar

Talk to A Tax Pro Early If You Are Having a Financial Crisis

Don't wait! If you have lost your job, have poorly performing investments, or having general financial difficulties please talk to a tax professional right away. Most will offer a free initial consultation and may be able to provide some helpful tax advice if you are going through a crisis. Don't avoid paying your taxes. Please seek help.

If you are a small business owner who needs tax assistance, there are some great resources here: Small Business Tax Workshop

Facing Tax Day

Don't forget...Tax Day is April 15!

Many people will spend this weekend trying to get everything together to meet the deadline. Tax professionals will be overwhelmed and charge their clients accordingly for expedited returns and extensions. However, by staying organized throughout the year, you can avoid the last minute rush and save yourself some money too.

Consider Using Software
Ideally, having your personal finances in financial software is the easiest way to beat the tax monster. Each tax-related transaction is entered throughout the year and by 12/31 you can run a summary tax report for yourself or your tax professional. Also make sure to keep the associated documentation together (and organized!) throughout the year as well. Some software will even export into tax prep software, bringing you even closer to tax completion nirvana!

Use Tax Checklists
Most tax professionals will provide a checklist of items you will need to pull together before you come to their office. W-2s, 1098s, 1099s, donation statements, medical bills, etc. are all necessary to prepare your return and give you the maximum deductions. If you use the same tax pro each year, they will even tailor your checklist to your exact tax situation and you can round everything up for your preparer by mid-February! Yes, it can be done!

Keep Mileage Logs
You should keep a small notebook in your car to keep track of miles driven for charitable, medical, moving, employment seeking, or business purposes. If you donate your time to a charity on an ongoing basis, keep track of the miles to drive to their location or associated event. Certainly if you are a business person you are familiar with keeping mileage logs for any business-related driving you do. These miles can be deducted as long as you are not also reimbursed for the mileage by your client or if your employer provides your vehicle. For further details on any mileage reimbursement that may apply to you, check with your tax preparer or http://www.irs.gov/

Eliminate the Piles of Paper
If you can think of anything positive about tax season, you might consider it as an opportunity to rid your files of accumulating statements and bills by clipping these together for the year and adding them to your tax document archive after your return is filed.

For example, if one of my clients needs a bank statement for July 2007, I know I can find this item in the box containing their 2007 tax archives. If you have gone paperless, make sure you save a PDF of each statement or bill throughout the year and then transfer it to a flash drive, CD or DVD. If you haven't gone paperless, maybe 2009 is the year to try. It's better for the environment and is certainly less chaotic than dealing with the inevitable accumulation.


If you start with the ideas above, you'll be well on your way to an (almost) effortless tax season. You can concentrate on what's important and your tax pro will love you.

Getting Started

After over 25 years in the financial world, I decided to launch my own business last October. In this economy, you ask? Absolutely! Now more than ever people need serious financial guidance! Thinking like a business person has become second nature to me, but many others haven't got a clue about this. I recently counseled a couple who formed their own LLC and they had no idea that business funds were supposed to be kept separate from their personal funds. They allowed their child to purchase college textbooks on the company debit card. Managing finances was not their area of expertise--building and remodeling was--but because they were a fledging contracting business they could not afford to hire a cadre of professionals to guide them through each step of the start-up process. That's where Alpha Business Services can help.

My clients would give any or all of the following reasons why they would need my services:

1. I simply don’t have the time to deal with my finances
2. I would rather do other things that are important to me
3. If I overdraw or miss a due date, I just pay the fines and penalties
4. I need to grow my business, not deal with financial matters
5. I don’t know where to begin

We help individuals and businesses turn their financial chaos into an orderly and manageable system. Can we help you?