You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Money' category.
Congress recently passed the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, which President Bush signed on Feb. 13, 2008. If you normally file your income tax return, then there is nothing that you need to do, but for those that don’t normally file, especially our elders that receive social security payments, to be able to receive this payment of $600 they must file a 2007 Federal Income Tax Return. Most people will not know this, and If you know of anyone that would qualify, please pass this information to them. Below is information from IRS.gov.
Even if you aren’t normally required to file a federal income tax return, you must file one if you want to be among the 130 million individuals who will receive a check from Treasury beginning in May of this year. The IRS will use information on the 2007 tax return filed by the taxpayer to determine eligibility and calculate the amount of the stimulus payment.
In most cases, payments will range from $300 to $600 for individuals and $600 to $1200 for joint filers. Parents and anyone else eligible for a stimulus payment will also receive an additional $300 for each qualifying child (subject to income phase-outs).
“We want to make sure everyone who is eligible for these payments receives them,” says IRS Executive Julie Rushin. “Most eligible taxpayers do not need to take any extra steps to receive the payment. All they have to do is file a 2007 federal tax return and the IRS will automatically do the rest. No other action, extra form or call is necessary.”
You Must Have a Valid Social Security Number
Taxpayers must have a valid Social Security Number to qualify for the stimulus payment. If married filing jointly, both taxpayers must have a valid Social Security Number. Children must be eligible under the Child Tax Credit and must also have a valid Social Security Number to be eligible as qualifying children.
You Must File a 2007 Federal Income Tax Return, Even if You Normally Would Not
Low-income workers who had at least $3,000 in earned income (such as wages) and other qualifying income in 2007 but do not otherwise earn enough to be required to file a federal tax return need to file a return to qualify for the stimulus payment. Other qualifying income includes Social Security benefits, certain Railroad Retirement benefits, or certain veterans’ benefits.
Do you find yourself developing a business plan because someone else wants you to do so? Perhaps the bank is requiring it before giving you a loan, or an investor or venture capitalist needs one to decide whether to finance your business, maybe your attorney or accountant said you must have one, or your company president requires a strategic plan for your new division.
I guess these are good reasons enough, but entrepreneurs are self-motivated people, used to setting their own goals and determining their own tasks. They undertake endeavors not merely to please others, but because they understand the importance of an activity in reaching their overall objectives, but creating a business plan only as a response to someone’s request makes the process seem like a burden instead of an opportunity.
Meeting needs is the basis of all business. You can create a wonderful new machine, but if it doesn’t address some real and important need or desire people won’t buy it, and your business will fail. Even Thomas Edison recognized this fact when he said, “Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent.”
Typically, entrepreneurs get their original business inspiration from one of four sources, such as previous work experience; education or training; hobbies, talents, or other personal interests; or recognition of an unanswered need or market opportunity. Occasionally the motivation comes from the business experience of a relative or friends.
Virtual office is a new concept to me, but imagine if you want to invest in a foreign country, but just don’t feel 100% confident about the economy or business that you’re in; I guess this is an ideal situation for someone like me that don’t like to take too much risk, but expect huge return, and still want to have some level of comfort. Assuming that I’ve decided to open a business in Thailand, I obviously don’t want to set up an office, imagine having to buy all the office supplies, hiring employees, and having to pay rent. There is no need to do all that because there is a company that provide virtual office service, Regus is a company that service over 70 countries, and Thailand is one of the countries. I checked to see if Laos was one, sadly no, but you never know in the near future, they might because the company is expanding, I’ll be sure to check back at a later time.
What is a Virtual office?
I’ve always wondered how rich people live, more like what types of sofa they sit on. My GI Joe sister has a reupholstery business (this site explains what she does), which she works for a famous interior designer in NYC. The last furniture set that she delivered left her speechless, that people actually sat on such loveseat and sofa (covered with bed sheets), she told us stories such as this all the time, but we didn’t believe her so this time she took the before and after photos, which I was amazed. My GI Joe sister said that the owner is in her early 70s’, lives in a mansion in Granite, Connecticut. Does your sofa or loveseat looks anything like this?
This is what her husband drives…which also left my GI Joe sister speechless.
I’m sure we all heard the term ‘working hard or working smart’. I use to think that the only way that you’re going to get anywhere in life is to work hard at it, I’m not so sure anymore. In this world, there’re people that work very little but make a lot of money, and there’re many people that work a lot, but make very little money; I’m sure we all want to be in the first category that work very little but make a lot…then again it’s easier said than done.
I’m not sure which category I belong to, if you’d ask, I’d say the later one, but at the same time like to think that I belong in the first category, if not now, maybe someday. If you ask me, what’s my job title? I’d say I’m the clean up crew at my work, a miscellaneous person because I’ve to do things that people can’t do (sometimes I fell like they don’t want to do); lately I’ve been asking myself, it is worth it? Is it worth my time because here I’ve to do their work, while they do other stuff that I won’t go into detail. Let us just say that many times I’m working hard, while others are working smart by delegating their work that they couldn’t do to me; sometimes-knowing more is not always a good thing.
Another thing is blogging, I blog because I love to write and not even thinking about putting Ads on my blog, which I’ve had offered but I’ve my mind set that I’ll never put Ads on my blog (sounds stupid, but that’s my philosophy). I’ve noticed lately that there are many blogs ( scraper sites) that set up with many Ads and linking to many of my posts that might have the key words of ‘Laos, Thai, 100 Vanh, Vietnamese family, Hmong, Thai tattoo, Ghost, Fashion…etc’ (Darly sites are exception that I’m happy for her to link, and also any bloggers such as myself). The owners of these blogs (scraper sites) don’t have to do any writing, just searching, obviously, I’m the one that have to work hard, but they’re working smart by taking my work, and also collecting Ads revenue for every hit that they get. Is that fair? It’s like farming on someone’s back which these (scraper sites) are set up solely for the purpose of earning revenue through advertising. I guess it’s somewhat annoying to me, but not enough for me to do something about it, if you’ve noticed, I’ve (cc) Creative Commons, which is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike, which I want to share my work with others. Did these blogs (scraper sites) violate my license, probably because they’re generating revenue from it, but not totally, because they’re linking back to my blog, but bottom line, I’m working hard, and they’re working smart.
Recent Comments