Archive By Section - Business Columns
Common IRA mistakes
You have worked hard all your life to build your retirement assets. And, you want those assets to work hard for you throughout your working career and your retirement years, and then for your family and heirs after that. IRAs are wonderful products, with lots of benefits and flexibility, but those benefits come with certain rules and regulations you need to keep in mind.
Only you should row your business’ oars
Ask yourself: Are you paddling or floating your canoe down the river of your business life? If you're floating, then you're on the defense. If you're paddling, then you're on the offense.
Keep your support payment receipts
What happens if you have faithfully paid all of your court-ordered child or spousal support but many years after the fact, your ex brings you back to court claiming you paid nothing at all?
Does gruesome retirement lie ahead?
I have been preparing a lot of retirement plans lately for clients. It seems that those who have been coming in for this service are the ones who have adequately prepared financially for their retirement years.
Twenty questions to improve your sales effectiveness
Times may be tough, but the people who are in sales for a living will tell anyone who is listening, "Times are GREAT!" but what they say on the inside and really want to say out loud is, "It sure is tough out there!"
Income solutions in retirement
Retirement should be a reward for a life of planning, sacrificing and saving. It should be a time to start a fulfilling new career, explore volunteer services, build a new home and travel to new places. It means getting involved with all those activities that there was never time for before you retired. But every reward seems to come with a challenge. Inflation, market volatility and ever-increasing taxes can erode purchasing power. And continuing good ...
Information highway saves gas, stress
It seems that I'm "banging the drum" a lot about entrepreneurs working from home at their own business, but with the high cost of gas, high food prices and high employee layoffs, it just makes sense.
How to prepare for retirement
One of the most common mistakes investors make in dealing with their IRAs is to name or change a beneficiary. In this changing world and with our fast-paced lives, many people overlook the important feature of passing on one of your most important assets. The IRA beneficiary designation form serves as an important estate planning document.
Decide: Short sale or foreclosure?
In today's housing market, many people are upside-down with their mortgages. Not to mention, many homeowners have an adjustable rate mortgage that has the payment skyrocketing.
Is your policy good to go for wildfires?
Fire season: Are you prepared in the event of a disaster? Most people would not be able to remember everything they own if they were asked to list them all out from memory. What would happen if they were destroyed by a fire? Now is the time to prepare an up-to-date home inventory. The inventory will help you get the back-up information for your income tax return, the processing and settling of your insurance claim ...
Reinforcement does an employee good
After 90 days or so on a new job, I pointedly asked my not-so-new boss, "I've been here for just about three months, how am I doing?"
What are characteristics of entrepreneurs?
To be a successful entrepreneur you must have patience, perseverance, honesty, fidelity and the personality of a self-starter. There are many who have fine staying qualities, but poor starting qualities.
Marriage: Yours, mine ... and now ours
In California, where spouses are concerned, property rights are determined by looking at the basic principle of "yours, mine and ours" - what's yours is yours, and what's mine is mine (separate property).
Consider naming a corporate trustee for your trust
The most important decision to make in establishing a trust may be the selection of the trustee. The trustee's role is to carry out the terms of the trust and fulfill its objectives. While there are several different types of trusts, this column will focus on the most common type, the revocable living trust, and the selection of a successor trustee.
Priorities mean better time management
Keeping a handle on our lives and time are key to being able to succeed. Many of us make "to-do" lists, but few of us take the time to weigh the things on that list for their relative importance, both professionally and personally.
Articles by Section - Business Columns
Ken Keller: Getting crystal clear about your business
There is a terrific exchange in the courtroom drama "A Few Good Men." Colonel Jessup, played by Jack Nicolson, turns from being a witness in a court martial to being the prosecutor when he asks Lieutenant Kaffee, played by Tom Cruise: "Have you ever spent time in an infantry unit, son?"
Disaster recovery — is your business prepared?
Is your business prepared for a disaster? While it is not something any of us like to think about, businesses should have a disaster plan in place.
Joe Klocko: The conundrum: supply and demand, wages and the skills gap
Most people understand the basic economic principle of supply and demand and incorporate it into their daily decisions. They may not do it consciously, but economic decisions are made every day by each and every one of us.
Ken Keller: Learning from the Pumpkin Patch
Last week I provided the Pyramid of Business Success, a nine layered structure. Layer seven was the Growth Plan.
Bob Khalsa: State’s pending sales at four-year high, share of distressed sales drops
The recent rise of pending home sales to the highest level in nearly four years supports experts who believe California's home resale market will achieve full bloom this spring.
Ken Keller: The Pyramid of Business Success
I've long admired Coach John Wooden's "Pyramid of Success." In business, whatever blueprint, instructional manual or paint by number kit being used before the enterprise launches is quickly tossed aside once the doors open. After that, it becomes a freelance-thing or a free for all, for those lacking mentors, a Sherpa or the time to figure it out.
Peter Bellas: Now that we’ve been forecasted
Once again we are upon the season of forecasts. A quick perusal of any investment website will turn up some very rosy and optimistic forecasts for the coming year and a least a few doom and gloom predictions.
Ken Keller: Keeping yourself motivated
One challenge of being a business owner or holding a position of leadership is keeping motivated.
Bob Khalsa: Real Estate Talk
January is typically a dormant time of year for the residential real estate market in the Santa Clarita Valley, yet this market recovery is so unusual that no one was surprised when statistics showed January posted the highest sales total for the month in six years.
Buying distressed properties
Real estate development during the Great Recession has proven to be a very challenging endeavor. Even seasoned professionals have found themselves struggling to service debt on projects that are producing monthly net negative cash flows.
Ken Keller: Do the right thing, quickly
Last week I wrote about the 2012 Gallup Poll where only 21 percent of U.S. adults rated business executives with high or very high in honesty and ethics.
Ken Keller: What is it that you believe in?
In the course of working with business owners and leaders, I have observed that the organizations that are the most successful over the long run are the ones that have a strong focus.
