Ed Icionsub

Have a good friend who is an actor and he lives in Philadelphia, which is why I titled this post “Always Sunny. . .” like the hilarious TV show. Keith loves that show and has actually hung out with the cast and is in a couple of scenes as an extra.

I would not think there is that much work for actors in Philadelphia. But actually, it is not far from NYC and is a lot cheaper to live in Philly than to live in New Jersey or New York. So when he gets work in NYC he gets a short term apartment in New Jersey. New Jersey is actually nice once you get away from NYC and the banks of the Hudson River. In fact, most of New Jersey has nothing to do with New York City.

My favorite spot in New Jersey is Atlantic City. Most people probably think of Atlantic City as a min-Las Vegas, but i think of it as the beach and the boardwalk. I spent many summer weekends on the beaches of the Jersey Shore, swimming is the surf and walking for miles up and down the boardwalk and the beach looking for seashells. And I promise you, my summers at the beach were nothing at all like the TV series, Jersey Shore.

Keith’s parents live in rural New Jersey, about an hour east of Philadelphia and that is too far for him to commute to NYC for acting jobs. They have a small dairy farm and we were out there visiting his family over the holidays. I flew into Philadelphia and Keith picked me up at the airport. Then we drove out to his family’s farm in Jersey. That was a nice drive – nothing but open fields and a lot of cows. It was nothing like the opening scenes in “The Sopranos” when Tony is driving from his home in New Jersey across the river into the city.

I’ve know Keith and his family since college and they are like a second family to me. I’ve been to their farm several times and they always make me feel like I am one of the family and very welcome. On this visit, we hung out with Keith’s dad a lot, while his mom was busy shopping and baking – getting ready for Christmas.

Keith’s dad was telling us about Arosa Energy, a company that helps homeowners, farmers and businesses with New Jersey solar power. He says that there are a lot of ways to be able to afford switching to solar power or adding solar power to your property. Now there are federal tax credits and rebates from the state, which really help with the initial cost of installation.

His dad is planning to work with Arosa Energy to add solar panels to the dairy barn and the farmhouse. He was told that there will be so much energy generated from that many solar panels that he can actually sell the excess energy to the electrical utility provider company. I think that New Jersey solar energy is going to prove to be a great investment for his dad and the farm. We might end up back at the farm in April to help with the solar panel installation. I wouldn’t mind going back to help – I think I would learn so much from working on it – and it would be great to spend time with Keith and his folks, too.

Tags: airport, Atlantic City, beach, energy, farm, installation, Jersey Shore, property, solar, utility

Seriously wish one of the candidates for President would promise to get rid of the IRS. I would vote for that man regardless of his position on other subjects. I absolutely hate doing taxes and yet I firmly believe that every citizen should be able to complete their forms on there own and file them without fear of an audit or questioning by the IRS because they could not understand the complicated tax forms and tax law.

Thankfully, we citizens do have the ability to get help with our taxes. There are people who are trained and licensed to help us prepare taxes, and they have to stand behind their work. If someone other than the taxpayer prepares the tax forms, that person has to sign the form along with the taxpayer. If you were smart and hired an enrolled agent to help you prepare your taxes, the enrolled agent can appear before the IRS if you get audited, and they can even negotiate with the IRS on your behalf.

Becoming an enrolled agent requires formal training, which is available online now. You have a variety of courses that you have to take, such as the enrolled agent ethics course and about 50 hours of study on a list of required courses.

A lot of people like to file their taxes as soon as they receive their W-2s in the mail, around the end of January. These are usually the people who are expecting a refund. However, a lot of other people wait until the first or second week of April to even look at a tax form and try to figure out whether they will get a refund or have to pay in. I know that I need to get busy organizing my home filing system and get the receipts sorted so that when my W-2 comes in the mail I can do a rough estimate and find out if I need to start saving up to pay in, or if I can expect some money back for a change.

Tags: agent, estimate, mail, negotiate, trained

Every January our corporate offices host an annual convention and trade show for all the brokers and agents in Las Vegas. Every office is required to be represented and all brokers and agents are encouraged to attend. We have a three day sales convention and trade show, with free promotional products from our vendors, a selection of keynote speakers and seminars run by industry professionals.

Last time I went to the annual convention, I came back with a huge tote bag filled with trade show promotional items. Even the tote bag was free – a gift from one of our suppliers when we checked in at the convention center.

The sales convention is always excellent. We have a variety of speakers, from Million Dollar Club brokers to CEOs of mortgage and finance companies, to sales training professionals and motivational speakers. Some of the motivational speakers over the years have been the highlight of the event. My personal favorite was General Colin Powell. Another memorable speaker was Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, who played football for one game at Notre Dame and was the subject of a movie that was the story of his life, called, “Rudy.” After his 30 minute speech about going for the gold, so to speak, he spent another hour in the ballroom, talking to people, shaking hands, having his picture taken with anyone who asked. What a nice guy and a very inspiring story about overcoming all odds.

This time I am going to be on the hunt for specific freebies and giveaways. I want an insulated, travel coffee mug and if I can get two or three of them I will consider the trip to be a success.

My favorite coffee mug is one that I did not buy. It was a SWAG item from the local radio station. The radio station has a huge closet of promotional items printed with their logo and radio station call letters. The mugs that I got were from an old format and they couldn’t use them after the format changed from rock to classic country. There were going to throw them out, so I asked if I could have a couple of them.

The mugs are made from ironstone – not the traditional ceramic mugs that you see in souvenir shops. The shape is also a little different – more of a cone shape than a typical coffee mug. The  narrow bottom keeps the coffee at the bottom warmer than the coffee at the top, which once it gets to sipping temperature, you can drink the entire cup at the same even temperature.

This year I have to ship several packages of Christmas gifts and I am very concerned with the expense of using either the post office or UPS. I know the post office has been losing money, but they have a lot more issues than that. For example, there are exceptions to the express mail and priority mail deliveries that mean you might pay extra for next day delivery, but in reality that package can take anywhere from 3 to 5 days to arrive at its destination. Those kinds of problems chase away customers.

So many online retailers are offering free shipping that it is much cheaper to buy the items online and have them shipped for free by the retailer directly to the recipient, instead of shipping the items to my house for wrapping and then me taking the items to the post office to pay a small fortune for shipping charges.

As a rule of thumb, for every pound your package weighs, it will cost you about $4 to ship it. So a 4 pound package will cost about $16 to ship, unless it is books, which can go at a reduced book rate.