Does Open Source Software Help Terrorism?

I saw an article today titled “Open source invites terrorism

Are you running a business or are you self-employed?

One of the points that so many people get confused about is whether they’re running a business, or if they’re self-employed. I’m not talking about the IRS code here, but the actual realities of running a business. One of the points that so many people get confused about is whether they’re running a business, or if they’re self-employed. I’m not talking about the IRS code here, but the actual realities of running a business.

The first question you should ask if you want to know if what you have is a business is whether you could take a year off and come back and you’re business is still functioning. This is an important goal to set, if you’re not already there. Your business should be able to keep itself running without you being present.

Another measure is how much you could get if you were to sell your business. If nobody would be interested in buying, then what does that tell you? Talk to a business broker about it. You don’t have to sell, but you might find it interesting what you’d learn in talking to one.

Another mark of a successful business is when you’re able to hire people to work for you and maintain an acceptible profit-margin. When you get to the point where you value your time more than you can pay someone else to do the job for you, you know you’re on the right track. I’ve never heard of a successful business that didn’t have employees.

Do you run a business?

PS: MLM can never be a business, unless you’re the one who founded it.

Talk about it here

Where’s Our Balanced Budget Mr. Bush?

Forget Iraq, I’m more interested in what’s going on in our own country. Republicans are supposed to be better with the economy, and in favor of small government. These are among the top reasons I like Republicans. What I don’t like about them is that they’re typical politicians and say one thing and do something different. Have you even heard the phrase “balanced budget” coming out of George W. Bush’s lips since he became President? He’s not even making a pretense of trying to be fiscally responsible. Spending is way up, and it’s not just because of Iraq, though I do question why we’re spending so much money to reform they’re economy and so little to reform our own.

I can make a million in a New York minute

You can too. Read how. Made you look!

Actually, it’s true, but it’s not what you’re thinking. It is easy to make a million dollars. What’s not easy, is keeping your profit margins up while doing it. The dot-bomb companies proved that you can make tons of money on the web, the problem was they spent even more. So, to get back to my sound byte, I can make a million in a New York minute, it will just cost you two million.

When I set my company’s revenue goals for this year, I did it along with a profitibility goal. In my mind, you can’t separate the two. I’d rather have a $50,000 a year company with 99% profit margin than a $5,000,000 a year company with a 1% profit margin (or worse, a negative margine). Actually, I’m over simplifying this to make a point, if the five million a year company included a million a year in my salary I’d be pretty pleased with it.

Anyway, I just want to get people thinking about profitibility. Are you happy with the profitibility of your company?

__________________

Discuss this here:
How to make a million in a New York minute

nigritude ultramarine

This is a nonsense word, “nigritude ultramarine” I just read about at slashdot. Apparantly, some people thought it would be fun (and it’s a great idea) to have an SEO contest based upon a nonsense term, and they chose nigritude ultramarine. The person who’s site gets the best ranking in Google, gets the prize. Follow this url to see the original post.

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/09/1840217

Converting a Residence to Rental Property

For various reasons, you may consider converting your personal residence to rental property. This decision is often made as a result of hte inability to sell the property at a gain, the desire to retain the property for future personal use, or the strenght of the rental market in your area. However, a decision to convert to rental also should consider economic factors such as your marginal tax rate and the potential loss of your ability to exclude up to $250,000 ($500,000 if married) of gain from teh sale of your principal residence for federal income purposes. For various reasons, you may consider converting your personal residence to rental property. This decision is often made as a result of hte inability to sell the property at a gain, the desire to retain the property for future personal use, or the strenght of the rental market in your area. However, a decision to convert to rental also should consider economic factors such as your marginal tax rate and the potential loss of your ability to exclude up to $250,000 ($500,000 if married) of gain from teh sale of your principal residence for federal income purposes.

Other economic factors to consider include the expected growth rate for rental property in your area, lenght of time the house will be rented before being sold, cash flow from renting, effect of the pasive activity rules (which limit and defer tax deductions), and the expected rate of return available on other investments. Generally, the economic advantage from converting a personal residence to a rental rather than selling it is increased as your marginal tax rate increases, the growth rate of the rental property increases, and the rate of return on alternative investments decreases. But, each situation should be throroughly analyzed given its particular facts and circumstances.

If selling your personal residence would result in a nondeductible loss, you can seriously consider converting hte residence to a rental property. While tax savings opportunities are gneerally limited for residential rental conversions, primarily because of the passive activity loss rules, converting a personal residence into rental property may allow you to eventually recognize a loss on the property’s subsequent sale if hte property continues to decline in value.

The fact that a residence is rented at the time of the sale does not automatically preculede gain from being excluded under the gain exclusion rules. Instead, the exclusion of gain depends on whether the taxpayer meets the ownership and use requirements and the one-sale-in-two-years test at the time of the sale. In all cases, however, gain exclusion cannot be claimed to the extent of depreciation adjustments attributable to periods after May 6, 1997.

The decision to convert yor residence to rental property is complex, and the ramification sof this decision are far-reaching. Anyone considering this course of action is best advised to contact their CPA to discuss the many financial issues involved in a conversion.

Palm Springs Real Estate has numerous 2nd home opportunities.

Tips on avoiding internet scams

I just got this in my email, a list of warning signs, how to avoid getting ripped off by internet scams. Danger Signs to Look Out For

1. Fast money - Making money fast is a goal for many people. If you’ve been on the Internet for a while, you’ve probably seen the “Make Money Fast” emails that have circulated for years.

People still fall for this nonsense, and the lure of fast money — with little or no work — lives on.

2. Guarantees - If someone tells you a particular stock or investment is guaranteed to double or triple in price, run.

No reputable financial advisor or stockbroker will ever guarantee a rate of return, unless it’s an investment such as a term deposit or government bond. Every investment carries some degree of risk, no matter how small.

3. Foreign Investments - Certainly not all foreign investments are scams — far from it. Nonetheless, if a foreign investment goes bad, it can be much more difficult to recover any money, since the investment will be beyond the jurisdiction of your country, and will be difficult for officials to investigate and prosecute. Be extra careful.

4. Buzz Words - A hot company that suddenly springs up, offering to capitalize on a current issue (terrorism, child safety, anthrax) may be legitimate, or it may simply be preying on fears to bilk investors. Use the resources at the end of this newsletter to check it out.

5. High Pressure Tactics - If someone (especially someone you don’t know) pressures you to act now, run!

6. Hot Tips and Rumors - Ignore these. Sometimes scammers issue fraudulent press releases as part of “pump and dump” scams. Rely on real facts and official press releases only.

Google Ranking Monitor

This tool helps you track your search engine results at Google. I’ve spoken many times about tracking my sites results in Google. It occurred to me that most people don’t realize what great tools there are to automate this for you. This is the one I use, http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools built by someone I found over at Sitepoint. The great thing is he’s providing it for free. I have a list of around fifty keywords I track a couple times a week. It helps to give me an idea what of my efforts at SEO are working, and helps me plan my future strategy.

Jobs and Growth Tax Relief and Reconciliation Act of 2003

I was just reading how the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief and Reconciliation Act of 2003 increased the bonus depreciation rate from 30% to 50%, of hte adjusted basis of qualified property. Jobs and Growth Tax Relief and Reconciliation Act of 2003

I was just reading how the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief and Reconciliation Act of 2003 increased the bonus depreciation rate from 30% to 50%, of hte adjusted basis of qualified property. I thought people here might benefit from knowing a bit about it.

The bonus depreciation is determined without any pro-ration based on the date the property was placed in service. This means that if you put in service on 12/31, or whenever your tax year ends, you’re eligibel for hte full 50% bonus depreciation.