How To Divorce Like You Are Buying A TV

Written by Liz Wertman


The facts are that 75% of all US and 50% of all Canadian marriages end in divorce. Divorce is rated number two onrepparttar scale ofrepparttar 112805 most life altering stressors. During this difficult time you have to deal with everything thrown at you, all at once. It is a difficult, confusing and intimidating time to sayrepparttar 112806 least.

Initiated or not, both spouses are put inrepparttar 112807 situation of requiring a lawyer, usually forrepparttar 112808 first time. At $100 to $300, sometimes more per hour, you fight to get 50% of your assets, only to give a large portion of it to your lawyer. It could amount to 10% or more of your half ofrepparttar 112809 assets. That means you are really dividing 80% ofrepparttar 112810 total marriage assets, instead of 100%.

Why are you sharing 20% of your marriage assets with your lawyer? This money is yours and you children’s!

Understandably, both sides are unprepared, having multiple issues to deal with at once, so they hand over control of their lives to their lawyer. They feel their lawyer will only think of and work for them. You must realize your lawyer has hundreds if not thousands of clients. You are only a file number to them.

If you saw your lawyer atrepparttar 112811 store there's a good chance he or she will not recognize you. Your lawyer took your case,not because they care about you, but because they care aboutrepparttar 112812 income you will provide. The lawyer would have taken your spouse's case had he or she gone to them first.

Why then would you let your lawyer make these life altering decisions for you? Knowing this, why would you hand over control of your divorce, your life, your future to your lawyer? Under this situation, whenrepparttar 112813 divorce is over, both sides feel taken advantage of by their spouse and their lawyer. They have spent $100’s to $1000’s of dollars unnecessarily.

This scenario can be avoided by preparing for your divorce inrepparttar 112814 same manner as you would buy a TV.

When you decide to buy a TV, would you go torepparttar 112815 store and tellrepparttar 112816 salesman to pick a TV, any TV for you,repparttar 112817 leaverepparttar 112818 store knowing you'll get whatever TVrepparttar 112819 salesman wants you to have?

NO WAY!

You wouldn't give a salesman that much control over your money! He or she would certainly take advantage of you. You would have spent $100’s of dollars unnecessarily.

Your Best Tax Strategy - Start a Side-Business

Written by Doris Dobkins


I'm busy enough! I don't have time to start a business!

What good would it do me anyway?

Well, having your own business is one ofrepparttar best ways to save money on taxes and considering that many of you just finished paying Uncle Sam all your wages from January to May 2000, I thought you might be interested in this topic.

Consider this example.

If you work for someone else (as in a JOB), your finances flow somewhat like this: 1. Earnrepparttar 112804 money 2. Pay Taxes 3. Spendrepparttar 112805 money

When you have your own business or corporation, you: 1. Earnrepparttar 112806 money 2. Spendrepparttar 112807 money 3. Pay Taxes on what's left

Do you seerepparttar 112808 difference here? I'm going to recommend a book for you to read if you want to understand this process better. It is called "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. It is a great book and I highly recommend it. Now, back to our article.

When starting a business, The IRS requires only that you keep good records, conduct your affairs in a business-like manner and show that you are trying to make a profit. There are also some new tax laws that are even more in favor of those "home offices" than in previous years.

Old Tax Law: If your home office is your principal place of business, then you could deduct home office expenses.

New Tax Law: If you have a space at home that you use "regularly and exclusively for administrative or management activities" in your business, you may now qualify for a home office deduction.

Previously, if you worked outside of your home, you weren't allowed to deduct your home office because it isn'trepparttar 112809 "primary" place of business. Now you can. For more information, seerepparttar 112810 Internal Revenue Service publication #587 onrepparttar 112811 IRS Web site, http://www.irs.treas.gov

There are a lot of deductions associated with home offices. Some things that might be deductible include a percentage of your mortgage interest, property taxes, rent, utilities, insurance, garbage collection, second phone line, cleaning fees, magazines/newspapers, office supplies and equipment.

If your home isrepparttar 112812 principal place of business, you are allowed to deductrepparttar 112813 mileage for all your business trips. You can countrepparttar 112814 mileage from your home torepparttar 112815 place of business (i.e. post office, bank, client site) andrepparttar 112816 return trip. The IRS requires that you keep good records of your driving. Keeping a little pocket calendar in your car or handbag is an easy way to track mileage on a daily basis. At 32.5-cents a mile, every 307 miles of driving will earn you a $100 deduction. This can add up very quickly overrepparttar 112817 course of a year. I know it does for me.

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