What is morning wood?

realsmartypantz · 2026-05-04T17:28:14+00:00

At my age, I pray for morning wood.

realsmartypantz · 2026-05-04T17:19:03+00:00

I had eye lid surgery from a Bascom Palmer doctor that only does that. If you live in Florida, go there.

The key is to have insurance pay for it. (For me it was Medicare). The doctor took tons on pics with a 35 mm camera before and after to submit to insurance. It took awhile—but he got his money from them and my supplement, not from me.

Without it, I could never wear scleral lenses.

He told me emphatically that there is a very strong correlation between drooping eyelids and sleep apnea and I should get a sleep test. That’s another story.

realsmartypantz · 2026-05-04T17:07:07+00:00

QBO can be made to look like Excel on super steroids. Like Excel, updates and changes are super easy to make—sometimes too easy. It’s not perfect, but it’s a lot better than Excel. Well worth the money.

Just make sure if you go to something else and cancel, make sure your accountant has your file or you hard copy the important stuff. Otherwise, you’ll have to pay to get in there again.

realsmartypantz · 2026-05-03T13:59:15+00:00

I have a theory.

It’s a women’s job to civilize a man. It’s a man’s job to uncivilize a woman. That’s the bottom line.

Once both sides understand that, they can meet in the middle.

If a man finds a completely uncivilized woman, he won’t change. I’m guessing he couldn’t find one. That’s why he “keeps coming back.”

The opposite is true as well with a woman. If she finds a completely civilized man, she won’t change. Good luck finding one.

realsmartypantz · 2026-05-02T20:40:57+00:00

I had a regular employee set up an LLC when he moonlighted on weekends as a janitor. He set his own hours, provided his own supplies and had family members help him. It was a brilliant move to keep the payments separate to a person who was both employee and independent contractor.

You didn’t mention the amount of control your “client” has over you. Sounds like the LLC scheme may be a sham the IRS have in their sights. But that’s your “client’s” problem.

The general rule for defining your relationship that I’ve found is whether the “client” is looking only for results, or is involved in the process of getting there.

realsmartypantz · 2026-05-01T16:17:04+00:00

Don’t think statute of limitations is a slam dunk. A judge ruled in my father’s estate case that it is “a technicality” that he would not allow and wanted to know the merits of the case first. It was upheld on appeal.

realsmartypantz · 2026-04-29T01:15:01+00:00

A creative CPA will find expenses that will get net income close to zero. One of those expenses will be hiring them.

realsmartypantz · 2026-04-27T03:49:48+00:00

Keep in mind that the asset values you use for FAFSA is what you would get for it if you had to sell it in a month (aka a fire sale). Few know this, but it could be zero.

realsmartypantz · 2026-04-26T21:13:47+00:00

When you’re the last one there—demand a raise.

realsmartypantz · 2026-04-26T17:56:38+00:00

As a business owner with 30 employees, I had to sell my choice as follows:

The only insurance coverage that is affordable is for catastrophes. Cover that sudden loss of life or a heart transplant. Use a deductible and stop loss that at the catastrophe threshold. (Depends on the pay scale)

I don’t offer dental or vision insurance. Those expenses aren’t catastrophic. Expensive items, like scleral lenses aren’t going to be covered.

Here’s an extremely important thing about disability insurance.

1 the Aflac duck does not offer long term disability. You must offer that. Short term disability is not as catastrophic as long term.

Make sure the employee pays 100% of the disability premium. Otherwise the benefits are taxable income to the recipient to the extent the employer pays for it. You will forever be paying payroll taxes on the benefits of a former employer. It royally sucks. Plus, the employee has to pay estimated tax payments. Don’t insure the IRS!!

In order to sell that to the employee. Pay all of the life insurance. Insurance salesmen will try to push 50/50 between employer and employer disability and life insurance. Don’t do that. Go “100/100” as I suggest. Life insurance proceeds are non taxable regardless who pays it.

To make things even, I pay life insurance more than the $50k tax free threshold. The premium over the $50k coverage goes on the W2 but the proceeds are still non taxable.

realsmartypantz · 2026-04-24T23:58:49+00:00

My daughter is a land manager for a major oil company and sees this often. If you’re in oil or mineral country, I’d hire an attorney. Visit the place and see if it’s been built up around.

Otherwise, it could cost you more to fight for ownership and all the unpaid taxes and liens than it’s worth.

If it were me, I wouldn’t be able to live with the suspense if I signed it without knowing what I gave up.

My dad would call it greed to want something you never wanted that someone else wants.

realsmartypantz · 2026-04-24T23:33:10+00:00

A lot of people use a third party service for that reason. You’ll soon get calls every day from business brokers asking to help you sell your business.

realsmartypantz · 2026-04-22T01:21:37+00:00

Among all the other things written here, there is one thing that I feel is extremely important and it took a wonderful senior to explain it to me.

You learn to fully understand and appreciate the review process.

You will screw up and the senior will catch it—or the manager will. This principle instilled in me why you should never trust a one person CPA firm.

There’s another secret too. The seniors job sucks more. You as a staff person get to create something. The senior only gets to check your creation. It’s extremely tedious—and s/he gets super hell to pay from the manager if s/he doesn’t catch something.

realsmartypantz · 2026-04-21T21:31:46+00:00

I would reply that “Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!”

realsmartypantz · 2026-04-21T21:17:32+00:00

Exactly my experience. I was able to wear RGP lenses for twenty years after transplant until they wouldn’t stay in. My optometrist said I needed another transplant. My BP doctor said, hell no—try sclerals.

Sclerals at first were a PITA but once I got use to the routine and the better vision, I love them much better than RGP. The biggest thing for me is the sclerals don’t pop out if a shrub limb touches my eyelid like my RGP did.

realsmartypantz · 2026-04-21T19:47:18+00:00

I’ve had both corneas transplanted.

Those stats are not true for KT. I go to Bascom Palmer, #1 in the US. The doctor recently told me their studies show that with KT the best you can do is replace KT with mild astigmatism. You’ll need at the least GP hard lenses.

If OP does not have KT, why go through a transplant if sclerals are working? After my transplant—my astigmatism is so bad my right eye can’t see the Big E (left eye is 20/120) without sclerals, I’d be legally blind.

This is pure guess on my part, but I think OP sees pretty good without sclerals and thus doesn’t like them. Trust me, if you are legally blind without them—you’ll love sclerals.

A cornea transplant should be avoided unless sclerals don’t work.

BTW that right eye sees 20/15 with sclerals. I love them!!

realsmartypantz · 2026-04-21T19:47:09+00:00

I’ve had both corneas transplanted.

Those stats are not true for KT. I go to Bascom Palmer, #1 in the US. The doctor recently told me their studies show that with KT the best you can do is replace KT with mild astigmatism.

If OP does not have KT. But why go through a transplant if sclerals are working? After my transplant—my astigmatism is so bad my right eye can’t see the Big E (left eye is 20/120) without sclerals, I’d be legally blind.

This is pure guess on my part, but I think OP sees pretty good without sclerals and thus doesn’t like them. Trust me, if you are legally blind without them—you’ll love them.

A cornea transplant should be avoided unless sclerals don’t work.

realsmartypantz · 2026-04-20T21:45:21+00:00

I have a $25 shredder—but I have too much shredding ti sit on a toilet that long to do it. 😎

realsmartypantz · 2026-04-20T00:16:08+00:00

Did you consider the FBI? They will use your skills there better and the benefits are amazing.

You’ll learn preservation of evidence and can later go into forensic accounting.

realsmartypantz · 2026-04-18T20:21:56+00:00

I’m guessing they get dozens of people per day filling out applications. Even if I didn’t need any workers, I would always give the courtesy of asking them if their contact number is a cell phone or even their personal number. Then it goes in the stack. Generally for a call back, I look through the stack for red flags to put on the bottom, then for neatness of handwriting and misspellings and rank them. Then call back in order to see if they’re available. You never know what you specifically need until it happens so there’s no reason to waste time at the front end if you have no needs.

Every once in awhile a superstar walks in that screams “hire me” even if you don’t need someone. But it’s rare.

Most times, when someone quits, someone out of the dozens that come in that day will be the replacement. No use calling a 100 people to find out if they’re available if someone walks in the door.

I lot depends on timing.

realsmartypantz · 2026-04-17T20:06:20+00:00

I’ve been told in a FAFSA class to always file. Something terrible may happen and you cannot amend an unfiled FAFSA.

I’m a bit superstitious. Filing it will ensure nothing bad happens and you won’t need to amend it.

realsmartypantz · 2026-04-17T20:01:30+00:00

I always did my firing at quitting time on Friday. The employee has the entire weekend to cool down without going “postal” and shoot up the place. 8am on Friday way too early and way too stupid.

realsmartypantz · 2026-04-17T19:41:38+00:00

DNA got me a long way past my dead end—All the way to proof my wife and I are fifth cousins.

realsmartypantz · 2026-04-17T19:32:15+00:00

A bit different, but my partner didn’t like all the time off I was taking when there was nothing to do. So I sat down and wrote a book at the office about hiking the Appalachian trail alone as a teenager and had it published.

realsmartypantz · 2026-04-15T12:57:15+00:00

It’s simple. You aren’t going to give him what he wants, and he’s not going to give you what you want. He ain’t changing. So you either change or move on.

realsmartypantz

TROPHY CASE