Shop Locally

Shop locally is usually used in terms of farmers, but it's also appropriate for bankers.

The people at the local branch want to keep their jobs. They are more likely to give you the help you want than someone from another country, or even another state. Go to your local branch office for any problems or questions or to learn new features, such as the following:

• Back bank statements at no charge
• Copies of checks or deposits at no charge
• Bank Fee reversal
• To find out how you can reduce or stop paying bank service charges in the future?
• Setup a new way of paying, like bill pay or an automatic check.
• New deposit and other electronic options.

If you're a local business owner, ask for the branch manager. He or she is a good person to get to know in your community.

Financial Institutions and Email

I've moved again--finally settling down in Issaquah!

I changed my address for all my financial institutions today. The salesrep asked me if I wanted to give my email address so that they could email me important information? I said, "No, thanks. I prefer you use U.S. mail to contact me."

I know if any email coming in "looks" as if it's from my bank or credit card company, it's spam, because none of my financial institutions have my email address. That's one way I protect my security.

WA State B&O Taxes, Small Business Credit

Lots of small business owners will overpay this year, because the first familiar B&O Small Business Credit page has the old credits. The new better credits are on the 2nd and 3rd pages, Table 2.

Here's the deal. If 50% or more of your taxable B & O Income is reported under Service, and your B & O tax is anything up to $841, you get a credit for ALL OF IT. It steps up from there to $1681.

Look for it. You deserve a (tax) break today.

East West Bookstore Seattle Event

Saturday, Feb 4th at 7:00 - 8:30, at East/West Bookstore Seattle, I presented a talk on "Making Peace with Your Finances".

http://www.eastwestbookshop.com/events/3325

East West Bookstore sells the physical book, "Radically Simple Accounting" for the same price as Amazon.com, so you can have your copy today!


My plan on how you can "Make Peace with your Finances" is to understand a few spiritual laws of money. One is that money is currency, it flows, so if you want to hold onto it you need a container--an accounting system.

The next one is...well, you just had to be there. I'll do this every year in Jan, as a way to give back to the community that has so richly supported me. Naturally I answered questions, and there were lots of questions on filing systems, and how to improve income.

We covered how to create categories to setup up an accounting system. Accounting is software independent, so you can use QuickBooks, Excel, or any software you chose.What counts is that you've "Got Numbers".

Credit Unions vs Banks

My friend told me that he loves his credit union, since his banker does his bank reconciliation for him. That's terrific. A shout out to Mallory Thrush at Oregon First Community Credit Union for helping the guys stay on track with their bookkeeping.

My experience with a local credit union, BECU, was not so good. I wanted to buy a car with financing, so I lined up some loans. BECU came in at 4.5%, as did Key Bank, and another place came in at 5%. I chose BECU, since it was a credit union. They would only qualify the loan for 30 days, and it took me 4 months to find a car, so I had to re-qualify over and over again. I was at the auto dealers, closing the loan, only it came in at 5%. I was stunned, since weeks before I had gotten a qualifying letter stating 4.5%. BECU said my credit score had gone lower in the last couple of weeks. I think my credit score went lower because they pulled my score so many times. The .05% difference will cost me $1200 over the life of the loan.

Overall, credit unions are the better bet, since they aren't for profit. More money stays in the bank,  so they can offer more and better loans. But in this one case, it didn't work out better for me.

Radically Simple Accounting is a Textbook

Radically Simple Accounting has been used as a textbook for awhile. Recently, it's been picked up at the university level. And not just any University, but Northeastern University in Boston, MA. Believe it or not, that is the university I attended for my freshman & sophomore year. I was an older student, turned 21 in the dorm, so I was more motivated than my classmates, studied hard, and became valedictorian my sophomore year. And now they're the first university to use my book as a textbook. It's a small world!

Northwest Enterpreneur Network (NWEN)

Last night I won this fabulous, rather large gift basket from the Northwest Entrepreneur Network (NWEN) event, thanks to Pacific Real Estate Partners. 


NWEN supports entrepreneurs bringing new products to market. Link to Northwest Enterpreneurs Network

My father was an inventor. He worked at DuPont and invented Tyvek on their time, their dime, so no royalty checks for moi. It's a risk to take your own time to invent a product, and be willing to take it to market with your own equity. I respect anyone who's willing to take the risk.