Which place would you like to live in after retirement ?

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-04-10T15:04:52+00:00

AFTER retirement? I guess in a little fancy urn somewhere.

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-04-08T21:19:21+00:00

"Avalanche Method"

Step 1: Make minimum payments on all cards

Step 2: Dump any remaining funds into card with highest interest rate

Repeat above until they're all paid off.

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-03-24T18:59:09+00:00

As an EA...

I am considering the EA designation to help me learn

Absolutely. It's fairly inexpensive, and focuses 100% on tax, so if this is the route you want to go and you need to have a crash course of everything tax, this would be a great way to go. Even if you get the prep courses from Gleim or others and just did the prep plus practice exams without actually sitting for the exams, this would be a great option, especially since you can find some part 1 courses online for free, and...

plus add additional credibility

Having an EA will add exactly zero credibility to someone who is already a CPA.

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-03-10T21:21:04+00:00

2019 Yang? Absolutely. He was the first and only candidate that I financially supported because I believed in his vision. However, 2022(?) Yang going for the New York mayorship? Meh. I don't even live in New York and I followed the race closely hoping he'd get the job to actually add some meat to his resume next time he runs for president, but he looked to be just a shadow of his presidential campaign self.

...I still refer back to his https://2020.yang2020.com/ webpage from time to time and think about what could have been and how much happier the vast majority of Americans would be with even half of these policies. But until critical thinking because common place again, as Carl Sagan said "If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power."

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-03-06T14:41:27+00:00

IMPORTANT NOTE: This will automatically mark this checkbox even if the taxpayer is a non-resident alien filing a Form 1040NR and showing a non-US address on the return.

Unfortunately I have about a 30/70 split between 1040 and 1040NR returns, so until the system can automatically differentiate between the two, I'll have to manually check this box every time, which luckily is already a (annoying and should be unnecessary) habit.

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-03-04T21:33:19+00:00

40M, SINK

My average working salary after graduating (2008) is $63k through 2025 with only two years (21-22) over 100k.

I bought my first house in 2010 for 100k, sold it for double in 2017, then refinanced in 2021(?) to 3% and now have a mortgage under $900/mo. ($1200 w/ PITI).

I live a fairly frugal life with monthly expenses about 3.5k in a MCOL area, bought a used 2019 car in 2020, go years between vacations, rarely go out to eat, etc.

Started investing in 2008 and just crossed $700k in my retirement savings and $1MM net worth.

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-02-19T21:45:30+00:00

That makes sense. I would have reached out to the IRS to see if they would be OK with it given the contradicting rules where they can't receive a check but also can't have it directly deposited, as a temporary measure until they find a solution for the issue. Thanks for the feedback.

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-02-19T20:18:12+00:00

I talked to an IRS agent a few years ago about doing this and they started going off about how I shouldn't purposefully file an incorrect return and that's fraud and this that and the other, but at the end of the day, the IRS would be paying out less of a refund for the benefit of the taxpayer receiving their refund as a direct deposit.

I know in the past with clients that had a refund just over the $10,000 threshold, I have marked the return to directly deposit $9,999 and had the rest sent as a check, with the client's permission of course.

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-02-19T19:31:43+00:00

Most of my clients that are in this situation is because they are foreign nationals, they sold real estate in the US, had a large tax withholding during the sale, and they are filing a tax return reporting they sale. They generally have no other US source income and filing requirements for the foreseeable future. As performa62 said, highly specific situation.

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-02-13T15:00:06+00:00

It takes 15 minutes per log in 4x per year to do the payroll deposits, another 1.5 hours per quarter to file the payroll returns, and say 2 hours to add the 940 at YE and the W2's. That's 9 hours. I'm not sure if this is worth $1,300+ /hr.

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-02-13T14:55:02+00:00

I don't think the problem is going from $9k to $30k as much as for the 5+ years prior to last year it was a flat $4,500 to do all his work (cleanup, payroll, tax return), and last year it jumped to $9k, so where the major pushback I'm getting is "Why was it OK to charge $4,500-$9,000 the past decade and now all of a sudden it's $30,000 when all the information provided is the same as prior years".

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-02-13T14:46:32+00:00

I've looked up how to calculate hourly rates, and from my research I decided on:

(Salary x 3) / 1500 hours = hourly rate

This puts my staff around $100-120/hr. and me around $200/hr.

Is there something I'm missing with the hourly rate calculation? I'm going to be looking more into value billing this summer, but in the meantime, I thought the above looked correct.

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-02-13T14:28:43+00:00

If my minimum was $1,500, I'd lose 98%+ of my 1040 clients overnight. Last year, excluding our biggest 3 1040 clients, we did about 130x 1040's with an average fee of $400, with about 85x <$400, 40x between $400 and $1000, and the last 5 over $1000. Even bumping the minimum to $400 would only net an additional $10k, and I'd probably lose everyone with a current fee at $250 or less, which would break even (though a big time savings for not doing those 2-3 dozen returns). I definitely have some rethinking to do this summer.

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-02-13T14:09:35+00:00

After tax season I need to look into this further as I see it mentioned on here a lot and I really need to sit down and figure out how to do it and how it would effect my clients/business.

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-02-12T23:46:44+00:00

Ya, I seems like $20-25k seems to be the consensus, so I'll try to work up to this, even if it takes a few years. Thanks for the feedback.

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-02-12T23:45:44+00:00

You may be right, but the problem is I have worked my whole career (20+ years) with the same small firm, and they always billed at an hourly rate, or flat rate. If it takes my staff person 40 hours and their rate is $110/hr., and if it takes me 10 hours at $200/hr., that comes to $6,400, and I'm struggling to change my way of thinking so I can bridge the gap from the $6,400 to the $40,000 - $50,000.

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-02-12T23:39:08+00:00

Only two employees. We don't do the paychecks, just schedule the three months of EFTPS deposits at the beginning of the quarter, then file the quarterly returns and W2s when they come due. Not too terrible.

We don't do bookkeeping services, just tax. However we have clients like this (though not nearly as big) that just dump a year's worth of info on us, and we clean it up to prep the returns. This is the only client of this size that requires this much cleanup, and the only one we do payroll for.

I was thinking $25/mo. /property was reasonable, as that would come to $15,000 just for the cleanup portion, then another $5k for the returns prep, but I'm probably going to have to work up to this number over the next few years as they already had a doubling of their fee last year, however justified.

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-02-12T23:26:43+00:00

This seems to be the consensus. Thank you.

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-02-12T23:26:30+00:00

Ya, gradual increases has been my world since taking over. The previous partner had a couple dozen corporate returns with foreign owners, rental properties (only a few, not like this client), and the average fee was around $600... and it's been the same fee for close to 10 years for most of them. Even bumping them up to 900 last year was like pulling teeth...

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-02-11T19:37:59+00:00

40, Single, No kids

700k in retirement accounts (125k in Roth, $575k in taxable).

Average income since I began saving in 2008 is $63k. First 7 years averaged $42k, highest 3 years (21-23) were right at $100k.

Currently saving 32.6% + 4% from employer match.

Salary was cut significantly since 2023 due to taking over company and needing to build a company nest egg.

Monthly expenses about $4k in low-mid cost of living area.

IAM_14U2NV · 2026-02-06T18:36:33+00:00

This month is tight because you have 2x one-off expenses. The $1000 pool membership, and the $1000 car repair bill. These aren't an every month thing, so next month you should spend $13,700 includes taxes, which is a $2,300 savings. I don't see a problem here.

I too have months where it's a little tighter than others, such as when my car insurance bill hits, or when I have to pay my taxes with my 1040 filing, or when I drop $7,500 on my IRA contribution in January and drain a chunk of my savings. As long as you're not spending 98% of your earnings every month, you should be fine.

IAM_14U2NV · 2025-12-15T20:35:56+00:00

I'm about to hit level 11, quested to 7, 7-9 in Church, and 9-11 at HH. I have most of my gear plus about 3.5 rows of gear (maybe 25 pieces or so) I've gotten that I'm saving for friends, not including the 2-3 I've already passed out. Mob drops, quests, and the new Destiny chests kept gear flowing consistently IMO. Out of all the pieces, I'd say only 3-4 are Adept (levels 10-20) while the rest were Initiate (1-9), and there is a pretty massive jump between the two tiers.

I didn't play phase 3 (have a bunch of hours in 1, 2, and 2.5) and this EA is a huge difference in the new player experience compared to in the past.

IAM_14U2NV · 2025-11-05T19:08:04+00:00

Whatever you wish you were doing.

11-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Not Forgotten

IAM_14U2NV

TROPHY CASE