Budgeting for the rest of us

Category: Making Money

  • Where to Sell Your Unwanted Gift Cards from the Holidays

    Where to Sell Your Unwanted Gift Cards from the Holidays

    Pixabay

    And just like that, Christmas season is officially over.  Most probably, you’re left with a stack of gift cards that may or may not be put to good use.

    Gift cards are always given with good intentions but sometimes, receiving cards that you can never see yourself using is inevitable.  I mean, your next-door neighbor had no idea that you’re not a coffee drinker.  And your boss probably didn’t know that you’re on a low-carb diet.

    As a result, it just ends up inside your drawer, collecting dust and eventually expiring.

    Whatever the reason is, these unwanted gift cards should not go to waste.  Instead of letting collect dust inside your drawer, why not make money out of it?  Yup, you can always sell those unwanted gift cards for cash through these trusted online portals.

    Cardpool 

    Get up to 92% cash back on Cardpool from those physical and online gift cards where you can choose between two payout options –  Amazon eGift cards that you can redeem from your email address within 1 business day or a paper check that will be mailed directly to your address after 5-10 business days.

    Once you accepted the offer presented to you, your payout will immediately be processed.  If you don’t want to make your transaction online, you can visit one of their physical stores and walk out with cash or credit.

    Cardkangaroo

    Just like the Cardpool, you can also receive up to 92% of your card value when you sell through this site. But aside from selling (and buying) gift cards, you can also opt to trade it for a gift card that you will surely use.

    As for payout options, you can get your money through Paypal or Check. Once your gift cards are verified by the company, your payment will be sent immediately if through Paypal, 3-7 days if you choose check via USPS First Class mail.

    For trade ins, you can choose between exchanging it for an electronic gift card (that will be sent to your email immediately) or be mailed as a physical card (which can take around 2-5 business days).

    And oh, if you have a stack of cards to sell or trade, make sure to contact them beforehand because they offer a different rate for Bulk Selling.

    Cardcash

    Next is Cardcash.com, a site that also offers up to 92% selling value, and much higher for trade ins. You can get your payments through check, ACH deposit and Paypal. Make sure your gift card doesn’t have an expiration date because they have restrictions around certain promotional gift cards that work only in certain locations or on specific products.

    If you don’t want to sell through these sites, there’s always Ebay or Craigslist to put your cards up for sale.

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  • Choosing Your Entity Type

    Choosing Your Entity Type

    Self-Employment can be complicated!

    One of the best things you can do for yourself, if you have any sort of side gigs, blogging for money – any type of self-employment income, is to formalize the relationship of your work, by choosing your entity type. As an individual, you can easily file a Schedule C, using your regular 1099 income, deducting the direct expenses, and being done with it.

    If, however, you want a better tax environment, you might want to create a more formal business structure to receive your income and protect your assets.

    There are several entities you can use to help do this; some are more effective than others. The main types are:

    • sole proprietorships
    • partnerships
    • limited partnerships
    • LLC’s
    • Corporations (both C-Corp and S-Corp)

    Depending on your state of residence, and the state where you choose to establish your entity (they don’t necessarily have to be the same), some of these entities may or may not actually be available to you. There are a number of websites that can help you do a proper job of choosing your entity type and they can also help you form it. While they are not going to do this for free, these companies can save the money you spend a dozen times over by helping you avoid some common traps that as an inexperienced person, you might not realize are there.  Keep in mind that there will be state registration fees as well, so this is not a process to be undertaken lightly.

    What type of entity is best?

    Sole proprietorships and partnerships are the simplest of the types, and they are the least protective. That is: you pay taxes on your share of the income, and you are personally liable for the entire amount of any business debt and claims.

    Limited partnerships are expensive to obtain and maintain; I wouldn’t recommend this to the budding entrepreneur. An LLC has a general manager who handles all the details of day-to-day operation; however the limited partners are not liable for business debts or claims.

    Corporations and LLC’s do limit the owners’ personal liability for any court judgments or debts created by the business, but they are a bit more complex and difficult to set up. And in fact, the corporation is an independent entity that survives independently of the owner who controls and manages it. The C-Corporation pays tax on its own profits, and the business owners only pay tax on their personal tax returns for money they receive from the corporation (in salaries, bonuses, etc.). The S-Corporation does not pay tax on its profits (at a federal level, though states laws can easily differ), and the income flows directly through to the individual who reports it on his income tax return.  The C-Corporation files a separate tax return on a Form 1120, and the S-Corporation (even though it doesn’t pay taxes) reports its income on a Form 1120S.

    Observing the corporate formalities

    Today, the President and Treasurer of my corporation, Pro-Count, Inc. observed the corporate formalities. What does that mean? A corporation, being a separate entity with a separate life, must be run by elected officers. The elected officers of my corporation are me (the President) and Mr. BFTROU (Treasurer). We both hold director status, and once a year, the Board of Directors must hold an annual meeting. Since our corporation was formed on approximately this date in 1996, we hold our Board of Directors meeting around this time every year. It’s a good time to plan what we expect for the coming year and make corporate resolutions. So, that’s what we did.

    While this year, our meeting was held at Chili’s, we did set a formal goal to have one of our directors’ meetings not too far in the future, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Sounds good to me! For us, cruising’s where it’s at.  We also decided that we are going to establish a Section 105 Healthcare Reimbursement Arrangement, so the corporation can pay our medical expenses for us.  While this will definitely save us in tax money, it’s not exactly “free” money.  Somebody (mostly Mr. BFTROU) has to actually earn the money before it can be spent on health care or anything else.  We just hope that there’s enough to pay the healthcare costs AND actually, you know, have some left over for us to buy groceries.

    After this meeting, we will draft a document detailing the minutes of the meeting, just as someone would with any formal meeting, we will both sign it, and we will have observed the corporate formalities. This is very important because the IRS takes this sort of thing very seriously. If you are going to obtain the tax advantages of having a corporate entity, they want to see that you aren’t doing it just in name, but in actuality behaving as a business. If, in fact, you don’t observe these formalities, the IRS can perform an act called “piercing the corporate veil” which will change all that corporate protection into personal liability for every aspect of your business.  That is not an appealing thought.

    Due to the vagaries of Mr. BFTROU’s employment, we have always needed a corporation to maintain organization. So, as President and Boss Lady of the corp, I am happy to make sure we Observe the Corporate Formalities every year at this time.

    If you should decide to use a Corporation or LLC to “contain” your business activities, be sure you observe the corporate formalities too.

       To Recap:
    1. Choose an external entity type to hold your business dealings
    2. Set it up according to the rules (and if you don’t know how, find a business to help you get it right)
    3. Observe the formalities required by the form of business you have chosen, to protect yourself against any piercing of the corporate veil.

     

  • Joining the Unemployed – On Purpose!

    Joining the Unemployed – On Purpose!

    I took that big step, and now I’m joining the unemployed.

    Not that that’s a bad thing, but I am not entirely sure whether it’s a great thing yet.

    I don’t think we’ll starve. First of all, neither of us is underweight. Secondly, we have quite a bit of reserve in the bank – else I’d never have taken this step.

    Still, it’s scary. REALLY scary. Because, despite the fact I’ve not used my health insurance in so long I didn’t even know what pharmacy was covered under my plan – you never know, do you?

    So, what brought all this on? Now that I am officially no longer associated with the company, I can say a little, but bad-mouthing isn’t my intent. Honestly, I might want to go back to work there in the future – just definitely, DEFINITELY in a different department. And the skill I have as a result of working for that company makes me highly re-employable there. Despite my unhappiness in the current position, I took care not to burn any bridges.

    I have been reading for months – years, really, about how some people earn enough money through their online efforts to take care of – and in some cases, WAY MORE THAN take care of – their financial needs. I want to be one of those people, because, well, what could be better than working for myself? At home. With no tolls to pay, no gasoline to buy, and all my equipment is high-tech and paid for. Oh, and how could I help but love my boss? But -it’s clear that there are some things I do well, and other things I am not so great at. Which is which? Well, I don’t mind telling you:

    1. I’m a CPA but I haven’t had (nor do I want) recent tax preparation experience. (CPA’s actually DO do other things besides taxes, BTW.)
    2. I can write.
    3. I’m a pretty good editor too. I have learned a technique that makes it much easier to actually see the words I am reading, rather than just glancing over the mistakes and “reading” words that aren’t there.
    4. I have the world’s most supportive husband. NEVER underestimate the value of a supportive spouse, especially when things are bad.
    5. I’m an introvert. (Yes, that goes under the good GREAT side!)

    Oh my. I thought I had a longer list than that of good things!! Maybe I need to work on adding to them. Now for the bad:

    1.  Marketing. I hate marketing. I don’t even know how to do it, but if it involves contacting people and asking them to do something for me (like read my book) I just can’t do it (see item 5, above – the one about being an introvert).
    2.  I’m not all that imaginative. Most of my writing involves factual stuff, rather than stories, though I have been able to string together a coherent story or two. I just can’t do it on a regular basis – or, if I can, I don’t know it yet.
    3.  I don’t join all that well with the rabble (or as Niall Doherty would say: the rabblement*) OK, in all honesty, this is the reason for joining the unemployed.  Just the very idea of sitting in a huge room with no personal space all day, with people milling about, making all sorts of noise (on purpose) and actually trying to concentrate and get something done …I wish I could, but I can’t. Agile, thy name is evil, but in truth, there are people who thrive on this atmosphere. I am (almost) sorry that I am not one of them.

    For the next few months, I am going back to work for the same company (yep, but in a different department) as a contractor. This is the department I originally worked in and transferred out of more than two years ago for what I thought would be a better opportunity. So, I can go in, do the work they ask of me, leave whenever I get good and ready, get paid well, get some real appreciation, and don’t have to participate in office politics. Not a bad deal! I went in for four hours on Friday, and the change in atmosphere was almost palpable. From the warm welcome I received, I have reason to believe the other workers at least tolerate me. It’s good.

    Aside from the issue of health insurance, I’m actually reasonably satisfied with my lot these days. It’s a good thing, too, because who put me there? Nobody but me!

    So my plan from here, other than contract work, is to do the best I can picking up freelance jobs and earning money blogging (see Crystal’s book advertisement in my sidebar – she has many wonderful suggestions for people who are interested in earning money this way.)

    And we’ll see what effect joining the unemployed has on our household budget.  I’ll be reporting here – the good, the bad, and the ugly!

    **Niall Doherty has a wonderful blog, Disrupting the Rabblement, where he exhorts his readers to “think for yourself, live your dreams, piss off some zombies.”  His ongoing story of how he is traveling around the world **without flying** is fascinating.

  • How I Make Money Blogging – Book Review

    How I Make Money BloggingIf you are new to this blog, you aren’t alone. I am too! Although I have several other blogs that I write for and administer, both by myself and with my husband, I am really late to the party with a personal finance blog. That may seem a bit strange, since I am a licensed Certified Public Accountant. It seems like finance and budgeting would be native language to me.

    And they are.

    So, why didn’t I start a personal finance blog a long time ago? I think the main reason I didn’t was that there are already so many excellent personal finance bloggers, I felt like my little “me too” voice would get lost in the wilderness, since I am very new and there are so many.

    And maybe it will.

    So, why me and why now? There are a couple of reasons.

    For one, I have been following Crystal Stemburger at Budgeting In the Fun Stuff for several months, and the detailed income and expense reports she used to provide in the blog to track her success drew me like a bear to honey. (Due to some rude readers, she is no longer comfortable publicly providing that information in as much detail, but for me, that’s OK. I got the gist of it the first time she wrote about it – she’s a success!)

    And then, there’s my friend Wendy, of The Budget Professional. Besides just being a friend I know in person, Wendy is a very accomplished writer and extremely well versed in the tax and finance arena. She has a long history of internet marketing, writing, and is, well, just an awesome person! I mentioned Crystal’s blog, Wendy looked at it, and that’s when things started popping. Crystal was looking for new bloggers to mentor, Wendy volunteered, and together with four other bloggers, they are working through Crystal’s plan as detailed in Crystal’s new book “How I Make Money Blogging: The Beginner’s Guide to Building a Money-Making Blog.”

    So, just in case you see something either here or there you don’t like, feel free to blame Crystal and Wendy! :-)

    Since I already knew that Crystal was successful, I wasted no time picking up her ebook and and reading it from beginning to end. It’s a relatively short book (printed, about 32 pages, and yes, I did print it). While Crystal is chatty in her blog, I think she pared the book down so people could get the information they need and want without wading through a bunch of personal information and asides. As a result, she has produced a book that is very utilitarian without being dry and boring. (Although the question arises: who would be silly enough to be bored when someone’s telling you step by step how to be successful as an internet marketer?)

    Topics Crystal covers are

    • Choosing a name, a host, and a platform
    • The basic elements of a successful blog
    • Search boxes: who needs ‘em (answer: you do, and she tells you why!)
    • Disclosures are important
    • How to get traffic, with a slightly different and refreshing take on SEO
    • Essential plugins
    • Ads and how to get them
    • Tracking your efforts
    • Other ways to get blogging income

    Crystal finishes up with a numbered and detailed action plan that will tell you exactly what to do and how (and when) to do it, followed by some additional suggestions on how to get help if you need to outsource some of your work.

    There are many things I like about How I Make Money Blogging. Among them are the fact that it is:

    • Concise
    • An easy read
    • Interesting (who doesn’t like reading about how to make money?)
    • Not a sales gimmick to get you to buy a bunch of extras
    • Short, sweet, and to the point: no hyperbole!
    • Covers all the really important things you need to know

    There are also a few things that I think could be improved in future versions:

    • This book needs to go on the Amazon platform to get wider distribution  Update:  I just heard from Crystal – the book IS on Amazon, but in a very basic format.  The original purchase from the link on this page includes an Excel spreadsheet that shows you how to keep track of all your work. It’s excellent and makes all the difference between just the book and the book with a true-life example of how-to!
    • At $27.00, the price is a bit higher than what you normally see for this type of book (but keep reading for a discount!)
    • While it’s impossible to detail all the plugins available, there are some pretty useful ones she doesn’t mention. I would recommend a wider range of plugins and a description of how they’re used.

    Since the book is relatively new, Crystal has generously offered a $10 discount to anyone who purchases her book during the month of August, so the total price is $17.00 instead of the original $27.00. Use the code “thankyou10” at checkout. After the end of August, the price will rise to its normal $27.00.

       To Recap:
    1. The book is for beginners, but has instructions that help even a seasoned blogger get a better handle on the money-making process
    2. It’s written clearly and doesn’t have a bunch of extraneous junk – just the facts, ma’am
    3. Ok, this isn’t a recap of something I said previously, but the truth is that this book has made me want to do even BETTER and work more efficiently on my own blogging efforts

     

    Buy This Book! You won’t be sorry (but if for any reason you are, Crystal will give you a no-nonsense refund!)

    (As a reminder, I have an affiliate relationship with Crystal on this book. However, if I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t risk my reputation just to get a few bucks!)