Archive By Section - Business Columns
'Tis the season to harvest your tax losses
While the economic reasons for buying and selling in the stock market are critical, strategies to minimize your tax burden must also be considered.
What I learned about finance
One of the best educational experiences during my tenure in corporate America was the two-and-a-half years I spent crunching numbers for one of the largest consumer products companies in the country.
Couples need smart retirement strategies
The odds are overwhelming that a wife will live longer than her husband. She is also two and a half times more likely than the husband to live alone. Needless to say, she has to be self-sufficient and the money has to last longer.
Coping with the stock market decline
Stock market declines are an inevitable part of investing. We have all heard of strategies to stay the course and stay on track.
The great mystery of creativity
Why do the best ideas arrive in the shower? There you are lathering up, when, bam! Inspiration strikes. The perfect marketing plan, or the solution to your cash-flow problems are suddenly crystal clear and you go dashing through the house looking for a pad and pencil, dripping all the way. So what's the deal? Is there something magical about the water, the steam or the soap? Scientists have some theories about the phenomenon. One clinical ...
Ways to keep lid on expenses abound
Here are the next 12 tips for keeping your business expenses under control: n Invest excess cash in an interest-earning account. It's amazing how many businesses let their checking accounts build up to ridiculous levels. Big corporations manage their cash by keeping enough in the checking account for immediate needs and to waive service fees, but investing excess cash in interest-earning accounts. n Shop for the best terms on ...
Don’t let anger dictate legal strategy
There is a saying by an unknown author that "anger is one letter short of danger."
Is your trust account federally insured?
Due to recent bank failures and the overall economic climate, I have received several calls recently from clients wanting to know whether their bank accounts that are held in the name of a trust would be fully insured by the government if their bank failed.
Increasing taxes won’t rescue economy
With the presidential election approaching, we find one candidate wanting to redistribute the wealth from the rich to the poor by raising taxes on the "rich," with the other candidate wanting to lower taxes across the board. As you may have surmised, I do have more financially conservative leanings. I did vote for George Bush and now feel betrayed by his spendthrift policies.
Stay true, succeed like Jerry Maguire
It's been said that movies are created with at least one, and up to three, combinations of plots. Those plots involve: man versus man, man versus the environment and man versus himself.
Tuition is expensive at tough times U
Imagine that your life as a business owner is going fine. Clients are buying and paying, your employees are happy and you've got money in the bank for rainy days and opportunities.
Federal bailouts: one for them, one for you?
Everyone else is getting a Federal bailout, why not you? If you are a small business owner, you may be able to enjoy an interest-free loan from the government. Employer contributions don't need to be made until the filing date of the tax return, including extensions. This means that for a calendar-year taxpayer with extensions, the actual contribution does not have to be made (depending on the type of retirement plan) until Sept. 15, 2009 ...
Common IRA mistakes: Part 3
This is the third and final part in a series of columns about 10 common IRA mistakes. Naming trusts as beneficiaries of IRAs may become a tax trap. Although it eliminates the spousal IRA option, estate planning attorneys frequently use trusts as beneficiaries of IRAs. If the trust is not structured properly, however, and does not qualify as a look through trust, the IRA assets will be paid out within five years after the owner ...
Put the lid on business expenses
One of the biggest mistakes business owners can make is saddling themselves with too much overhead.
Plan ahead - and plan your funeral now
Disputes among family members can arise when funeral arrangements are made after the death of a relative. Everyone may be trying to do the right thing, but disagreements and anger can continue long after the funeral. Families in our American culture don't want to talk about death, especially in advance.
Articles by Section - Business Columns
Bob Khalsa: Rising Home Sales Boost Economy
With the return of traditional homebuyers in ever-greater numbers, the powerful impact of an improved housing market on the local, state, and national economies is, quite frankly, palpable.
Ken Keller: Here are ten mistakes that business owners make
A former leader of a large Fortune 500 company was quoted in an interview that "People who do things make mistakes. The biggest mistake is doing nothing."
Ken Keller: Front line makes bottom line
Once a month, like clockwork, a gentleman comes to my house in the early morning and sprays for insects and bugs. We've spoken a few times and he always hands me his card, telling me to let him know if he needs to come back between visits. I think I have called him once in the last decade.
Bob Khalsa: Rising prices lift sinking homeowners
Local home resale prices last month hit the highest level in five years, with each leap up in prices rescuing legions of underwater owners, in effect, throwing them a life preserver and pulling them to dry land.
Ken Keller: Lessons learned in college apply to business
Thirty-six years ago this month I graduated from college. I didn't study a major that paid immediate dividends, meaning a job, and I wasn't ready for graduate school.
Ken Keller: Permission to argue is granted
Peggy Noonan wrote a column in the Wall Street Journal on April 20 about her attendance at Margaret Thatcher's London funeral service. She commented that Mrs. Thatcher was often frustrated with her staff. Thatcher once said to her aides, "I don't need to be told what, I need to be told how."
Bob Khalsa: Statewide median home price at five-year high
Heated market conditions fueled by a tight inventory and strong sales in higher-cost coastal regions drove California's median home price in March to its highest level since May 2008. Local prices, right here in the Santa Clarita Valley are headed higher, too.
Ken Keller: How one company turned it around
This week I'd like to introduce a company in a far different place compared to just a year ago. The organization has gone from despair to celebrating success. At the end of the first quarter of 2013, the owner said his company had "…Increased sales, reduced costs and improved our overall financial position in terms of positive cash flow and profitability, as well as reduced debt."
Steven Tannehill: What do businesses want, anyway?
This is part two of a two-part column.
Bob Khalsa: Feds ease loan modification rules
Some homeowners who are still struggling to avoid foreclosure may soon benefit from streamlined rules that offer an easy way to lower monthly payments and modify their mortgage without requiring financial or hardship documentation.
Ken Keller: Here are the vitamins a leader must distribute
Looking back on those individuals who were my bosses, a clear distinction comes to mind.
Holly Schroeder: New homes benefit more than just buyers and builder
The only people who benefit when a house is built are the family members who get to live there, and the builder who constructed and sold the home, right?
Steven Tannehill: What do businesses want anyway? Part I
This column is part one of a two-part column.
Ken Keller: Lessons to be learned from lack of feedback
In 1970 I started my first official job. I worked nine hours a week at a small grocery store. For the next two years I grossed $11.25 a week.
Bob Khalsa: Prices, sales rise as SCV’s housing market continues its recovery
The residential housing resale market in the Santa Clarita Valley continued to recover during February, with sales and prices up to their highest levels in years.
