Our Gift to You This Holiday Season

Holiday stress got you frazzled? Here’s a gift for you.

When faced with the pressures of life, emotional turmoil is only one aspect of the problem. Hormones like adrenaline and cortisol accelerate the heart rate, tense major muscle groups, and can even thicken the blood. All that can be beneficial as a short-term thing, when you need that “fight or flight” edge adrenaline is famous for. But bathing in those hormones over an extended period can cause cardiovascular disease and other illnesses. Prolonged stress is simply unhealthy.

What’s the solution? Quit your job, leave your family, and live on an island paradise? We don’t advise it. Sometimes, attempts to get away from it all merely create a new set of stressors. As long as we’re alive, we’ll have problems to deal with. The trick isn’t escaping the drama, but knowing how to deal with it.

Our gift to you this holiday season is a three-pronged key to reducing the damaging effects of stress in your life.

1) Find your stress buttons.

Usually we think of this in broad terms. For instance, many people will tell you that money is a major stress trigger.  But that’s too vague. What is it, specifically, about money that troubles you? Do you have too much month at the end of the paycheck? Does mounting debt make you suffocate? Are your accounts in such disarray you don’t even know where you stand? 

Whether the trigger is financial, familial, job-related, or otherwise, once you isolate it, you’re better equipped to meet it head-on. If you’re not sure how, don’t be afraid to enlist the help of an advisor, be it a financial planner, a family counselor, or a professional organizer. That’s what they’re there for!

2) Slay the dragon of self-defeat.

Once you grab the bull by the horns, you might find the critter has some unexpected allies. Interruptions, unplanned expenses, illnesses or injuries, car breakdowns, or sewer back-ups are just a few of the things that can make you lose your grip. When sewage happens, your mental response is vital to staying above it.

In these tense situations, beware of the “woe-is-me” attitude that casts you as a helpless damsel in distress. For example, instead of thinking This could only happen to me! or I don’t have time for this, see yourself as a stalwart knight who’s up for any challenge. This is unexpected, but I can manage it or I can adjust my schedule and it’ll work out fine.

3) Know when to take a breather.

Some days, no matter what your attitude, everything seems to go wrong. At such times, the best option can be simply to take a break. Separate yourself temporarily from the stressors to whatever degree is practical. The distraction can give you a chance to regroup, think more clearly, and ease the flow of stress hormones surging through your system.

Phone a friend who always makes you laugh. Work a brain-teaser, or write a poem. A longer-term solution might involve exercise. Take a brisk walk, go to the gym, or enroll in yoga classes. Get out and play in the sun. These activities relieve stress and also fire up the brain’s reward center. People who exercise regularly show greater self-confidence during stressful situations and are calmer in general than those who neglect physical activity.

Life happens; there's nothing we can do about that. Our wish is that this gift can help you take charge of your life in the coming year.

A Parable

Your philosophy professor sometimes uses visual aids to explain a concept.

Today, he stands before the class, an empty gallon jar on the podium beside him. It reminds you of a store your grandmother used to take you to sometimes, where they sold pickles in bulk. Your mouth waters at the memory of biting into that sour, juicy cucumber.

As you wonder what’s up with the pickle jar, he opens a box of golf balls and places them, one by one, into the jar until it can hold no more. He looks up at the class. “Is the jar full?”

Of course it is; anyone with eyes can see that. “Yes,” you all say, though personally, you’d like a pickle.

He nods, then sets the box down and grabs another from behind his desk. This one is filled with pea gravel, which he pours over the golf balls. He stops two or three times to shake the jar to allow the pebbles to filter down, but he keeps pouring until all the spaces are filled with gravel.

He looks up again. “Is the jar full now?”

You and your classmates glance at one another sheepishly; you’d all thought the jar was full before! He’s right, though; it wasn’t then, but now it is. “Yes,” you all say.

He nods and picks up yet another box. When he tips it over the jar, you see he’s now adding sand. Which, of course, fills in all the tiny spaces between the gravel. Clever.

You all anticipate his question this time. Almost before he asks, “Is the jar full now?” you answer, “Yes.” Because now, of course, it surely is.

But your professor’s not finished yet. He takes the Styrofoam cup from which he’d been periodically sipping and pours the coffee into the jar on top of everything else. When it’s all trickled to the bottom, he pulls another cup from behind the podium and empties it in, too.

You all laugh. It was a neat trick.

The professor scans the room, meeting each student’s eye. “Anyone care to tell me what lesson this illustrates?”

The student in front of you, who happens to be on the golf team, raises her hand. “Even when you hit a lot of balls into the bunker, there’s still room for coffee?”

You all laugh again, including the professor. But he shakes his head. “Though that’s true, it’s not my point.” He lays his hand on the jar. “This is your life. The golf balls are the things that you hold most dear, whatever that may be. Golf, for some—“ he gestures toward the student in front of you. “And for others, God, family, friends, whatever your passion. The things that you value so much that if everything else were lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.”

You nod. That makes sense.

“The pebbles represent other things that matter, like your job, house, and car. Without them, your life would have big gaps. The sand is everything else. The small stuff. Things that might be good or fun, but if they didn’t exist, you’d be none the emptier.”

He picks up the box that had contained the sand. It was still more than half full. “If I’d put the sand into the jar first, I’d have had no space for anything else. No gravel. No golf balls. Same thing is true of your life. Spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, and you’ll have no room for the important things.”

It sinks into your mind like sand filtering down through the pebbles.

“Now,” says the professor, “who would like to articulate today’s lesson?”

The golfer raises her hand. “Where life’s priorities are concerned, golf comes first.”

You all laugh again, but the professor sobers quickly. “If that’s your passion, you can make that choice. But for the rest of us, it would look a little different. The lesson is this: we must first fill our lives with the things that are most critical. Our family, our health, our faith. There will be time for the other necessary things, like doing the laundry or changing the oil. But give priority to your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

You rub your jaw. Yes, it all makes sense. But you have a question, so you raise your hand.

“I get that,” you say. “But what’s with the coffee?”

The professor smiles. “Glad you asked.” He picks up one of the empty cups. “No matter how full your life is, there’s always room for coffee with a friend.”

Makin' a List, Checkin' It Twice

The winter holiday season is fast upon us, for better or for worse. But before we make our gift (or Grinch) lists, we business owners have another important matter to attend to: collecting documentation for our visit with our CPA.

You have made an appointment, haven’t you? And you’ve scheduled it for well before the end of the year? Because it’s important to discuss your situation now, so you’ll know if you should do anything to reduce your tax burden (such as buying equipment or funding a retirement account) before December 31.

Let's say your appointment is set for just after Thanksgiving. What will you need to take with you? That depends on your individual circumstances. The following list isn’t comprehensive, but it’s a good start:

o   Your most current business Profit & Loss  and Balance Sheets.

o   Estimates of your expected income/expenses to complete the year.

o   Anticipated Schedule K-1s from other companies you may have an ownership in, and W-2s from other companies you may be receiving income from.

o   Anticipated cash balance at the end of the year. As mentioned above, you may need to go ahead and purchase now those large items you have planned for the future, in order to reduce your 2012 tax liability.

Note to business owners with inventory: Don’t take your computer’s word for it that you have X number of items A, B, and C. Take a physical year-end inventory to monitor “shrinkage” caused by theft (whether external or internal), breakage, or whatever. We'll will need accurate information to prepare your Business Personal Property Tax return.

Finally, don't forget to make a list of questions and issues to discuss with your CPA, like: 

o   Any “life change” you have experienced in 2012 – marriage, divorce, new baby, adoption, new dependent, etc. 

o   If you’ve sold your home, bought a home, made investment gains or suffered losses, made new investments in a partnership or company… just to mention a few.

o   Questions about how upcoming changes in tax law will affect you, such as those associated with Obama-Care.

o   If you’re approaching retirement, you might discuss whether to take Social Security as soon as you’re eligible or if it would be more beneficial to wait.

Once you’ve made your appointment, created your list, and located the pertinent documents, you’ll be able to relax, kick back, and 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

On Not Being a Turkey This Season

November. The word evokes a variety of images: Turning back the clocks. Bare tree limbs chattering in chill winds. The warm glow of a stuffed turkey on the table with the family gathered round. Gorging on feasts of college football. Organizing your financial records.

Say what? You mean that last isn’t part of your typical November? Maybe it should be; tax season’s just around the corner, you know.

Whether that groan was in response to what I just said or from overeating, buck up and get moving. Much like the mess in the kitchen, bookkeeping responsibilities don’t go away if you ignore them. Let them sit too long and strange, fuzzy things can creep out of them.

But this strikes no fear into your heart because you’re already on top of things, right? A place for everything and everything in its place, color-coded, arranged newest-to-oldest, clearly labeled, and bound.  Kudos! We love our OCD friends.

For the more relaxed of us, though, there’s still time. We don’t really gain an hour with the passing of Daylight Savings; those sixty minutes merely shift to another part of the clock. Let’s put them to use for something other than sleeping. You’ll be glad you did when you pull up your tax forms and have to decide what numbers to put in the boxes.

Better yet: if you set up a simple system this year for keeping organized in the future, you might be able to actually sleep that extra hour next November.

When gathering your yearly records, do you scrounge around the kitchen, laundry room, and den searching for errant papers? Once you find them, see where they’ve tended to congregate. That’s where you should put a meeting place for them—a box, a large envelope, or whatever works best. Keep it accessible and use it daily, and organization will be easier in subsequent years.

But when choosing the right depository for your records, bypass the bushel basket; there’s no need to keep every scrap of paper that crosses your palm. How can you know what’s important? For a starting place, get out last year’s tax return and see what you needed to prepare it. Then add documentation for any new real estate transactions, inheritances, investments, losses, etc.

To make things even simpler, separate your business records from personal, if applicable. For a home-based business, some of these might be the same, such as if you claim a portion of your real estate and utilities as business expenses. In our next post, we’ll discuss tax planning with your CPA before the end of the year so there are no surprises! Call and make an appointment now for December.

Oh, yeah, one more thing: while you’re at it, don’t forget to organize your electronic files too. Sure, the computer has a handy search feature, but that’s only for emergencies. It’s more efficient to be able to put your cursor on what you want the first time.

Wise decisions concerning time investments are as important as financial ones. With the days growing shorter before tax season descends, let’s take both seriously. You’ll be thankful you did.

A Glassful of Attitude

Little things matter big time.

But then, we’ve known that since we were kids. Remember the Little Engine That Could? Attitude made the difference between his getting to the top of the hill and sliding down backward.

Choices are important too, of course. We talked earlier about how following self-imposed disciplines and wisely choosing our proverbial hats can help keep chaos at bay. But our attitude is what directs our choices.

It’s not as cut and dried as the proverbial half-full or half-empty glass. Sometimes we see the glass is half-empty, but know it can be filled again.  This is neither blind naiveté nor stormy pessimism. It’s the sort of realism that accepts the facts and takes positive action.

When the level of wine in your life’s glass is sinking, what do you do about it? Do you drain the glass, and then, refreshed, put it in the sink and go your way? Refill it then take it to your desk to sip from as you work? Water a houseplant with the remainder?

What if it slips from your hands and breaks? Do you go to pieces with it, or clean up the mess and look for another glass?

Everyone’s wineglass holds a unique vintage. Only you know how the analogy relates to your situation. Whatever the parallel, it’s a good idea to analyze your circumstances impersonally, as you would a glass of wine. Decide the best course of action based on the opportunities available, and implement that choice as you’re able. Remember, it’s a glass of wine, not whine.

Your realistic attitude can determine whether you live a drama, or a dream.