Business Tax Forms

I found a cool web site for completing 1099 and w-2 forms for only $2.95 each.  This site is great for small businesses who need to file these forms and it enables you to easily get the job done affordably.  www.QuickEmployerForms.com

From their website:

Quick Employer Forms is for small business owners who have employees or use independent contractors to help them get their work done.

If you operated a business (including a Schedule C/Sole Proprietorship, an LLC, Corporation, S-Corp, or Partnership) and you had employees or independent contractors, you need to send a W-2 to employees or 1099 to independent contractors before the end of January. Quick Employer Forms makes it a lot easier to create and file these forms with the IRS. There’s no need to buy forms or worry about special printing requirements, including colored ink.

Quick Employer Forms is an online tool that allows small business owners to quickly and easily create W-2s and 1099s (as well as other required forms). It asks you easy questions, and then completes the forms for you automatically. It even e-files the forms and can mail required copies to your employees and contractors (you can of course mail them yourself if you prefer). It also creates other forms required by law, such as quarterly (Form 941) and annual (Form 940) payroll forms.

Unfortunately, the deadline for filing these has passed for 2009, but you can definitely bookmark this url for next year.

Cash Vacation

We have been working very hard paying off debt for about a year and a half now, so it was definately time for a vacation.  We started saving at the begining of the year since we realized that if we wanted to take a vacation this year, we would have to save for it.  We socked away a little every 2 weeks and we were actually able to have a nice little get-a-way to the beach with the kids.  It was very hot, but it was still relaxing and the ocean was beautiful.

This was our first time to pay cash for a vacation and I can tell you, it is so much better knowing your vacation will not follow you home. (On your credit card statement that is)

We are diverting our savings for the rest of the year into a Christmas account so we can cash flow Christmas again this year.  We also were able to get a great deal on a new to us dining room table and chairs by paying cash and finding a good deal in the classifieds.  Yay, now we can all sit at the table at the same time.  We have been struggling with that since two of our old chairs decided to collapse.

We weren’t able to make as much of an impact on the debt this month as we wanted, but we did accomplish a lot.  I have also updated our freedom stats.

Freedom Stats Updated

I have finally updated our freedom stats. We were able to make a huge car payment this month due to an awesome yard sale we worked very hard to pull off. We basically emptied the garage that had been packed almost to the ceiling with junk we were wanting to sell.

Ups and Downs

I have updated our freedom stats. Sorry for the late post. It has been a rough month. I hope things start to turn around soon.

Financial Peace Here We Come

Today we started our Financial Peace course! Lindsey surprised me and bought us the course. Thanks Hun! I am so excited to get to take this class. We recently started getting the Fox Business channel and now Lindsey watches Dave Ramsey more than me. (I listen to his podcasts when I am in the car.)  

She has also started a blog of her own.  It is fun blogging together.  

It sure is weird being out of credit card debt.  I like being weird.  Now we are starting to pay down the car and have gotten the balance down to below the Kelly Blue Book value.  That means we no longer have negative equity in the car.  We will actually be building equity as we pay off our car, the next lowest balance account in our debt snowball. Then it will be on to paying off the rest of our student loans.

This has been an exciting time for IBEC, my employer, as we have hit the news twice with press releases regarding our Broadband Over Powerline service and technology and our involvement with IBM.  We even made it into this weeks Network World Magazine under their “Good, Bad, and Ugly” article.  We were the “Good.”

Taste of Freedom

I know it has been a little while since I made a post.  I am really sorry, but I have been very busy.  I have been looking for some ways to bring in some extra income to help get this debt down and my efforts have been fruitful.  In keeping true to our goal,  we were able to make some significant strides this month.  We were also blessed with a special gift to help us with our debt payoff.  We are extremely grateful to the donors for their generosity. 

I would also like to thank God for providing for my family,  I look forward to being able to use His blessings to help others who are in need of help.   We make an effort to help at least one cause a month, but we anxiously await the day when we can do more.

With that being said, I want to let you know about the awesome thing we did yesterday.  We made our last credit card payment!  Yes!!! We are now out of credit card debt and have started paying off our car.  Once the car is gone, we will move to those dreaded student loans.  I can’t wait to kick Sallie Mae to the curb. There is definitely no room for her in our life.  

On another note, Lindsey has been cooking up a storm and making some really great meals.  Thanks Hun! I really do appreciate everything you do for us.  We also just watched the movie Fireproof.  We definitely enjoyed the movie and its message. It was also really nice to get out and watch a movie with my wife while the kids had fun with the other kids at the church.  

I also updated our Freedom stats a few days ago, I just didn’t get around to posting a blog entry to go with it.  I will be reviewing those budgeting tools when I find some that actually work with my bank.

So far I have heard that mint.com is really good, but I wouldn’t know because our credit union does not have a Direct OFX service thats lets online services pull your transaction data across the net.  

I have tried Wesabe.com and I like it a little bit, but I havn’t used it enough to tell. Until I find the perfect online budget tool, I will continue to use Money Dance.  (It is like Microsoft Money or Quicken.  It lets me import my transactions manually from our bank and keep them sorted by category and track our spending.  I also heard there is an online version of Quicken that I might take for a spin soon.

I should also warn everyone that there are a lot of scams going on lately to try and steal your identity.  A friend of ours got snagged on one of these and Lindsey received a scam email tonight.  These are very tempting to click on as they use social engineering to trick you into clicking the links and giving them your personal info.  Look out for emails telling you about a purchase you didn’t make or telling you your password has been reset or telling you your account has been locked or closed.  These all try to get your attention by triggering the fear that your identity has been stolen.  They then try to take advantage of you by making you think you are verifying your real identity to restore access or log in to your account.  You are actually giving the identity thieves your info at this step of the process and the site you are typing into will probably look exactly like your real financial institution’s website.  REMEMBER, if you get a suspicious email like this, immediately call your financial institution using the number on your paper bill or on the back of your card to determine if this is a scam.  You should also never click on a link to a financial institution website in an email and instead open a new browser window and type in the address yourself.

So long for now…

Would you like fries with that?

I really need to vent about a trend I am seeing in local fast food restaurants.  I was wondering if anyone else is seeing this and if it is happening everywhere or just around here?

Not too long ago, you could buy a large fry and it would come stuffed full of fries to the point that they were falling out.  This was the case at McDonald’s, Wendy’s, pretty much anywhere.  There was always enough to sneak a few on the ride home and no one would be the wiser.  No more!

Just look at this!  No, I didn’t spill any, this is how they came!  I have seen similar “short frying” by all the local fast food restaurants.  Even Chick-Fil-A!

Is this a way for corporate to offset increases in fuel prices?  Is it a reaction to “Super-Size Me?”   Whats the deal?

Yes! I want fries with that!

Gabe’s Adoption

Today we finalized Gabe’s adoption! His name is now Gabriel James Gage and we couldn’t be more excited.  Gabe got to sit in the Judge’s chair and use the gavel.  We took some pictures and will be emailing them out today.  

Recession?

In contrast to all the popular news, here is an article you probably will not see on the front page.  In spite of all the garbage that the major news outlets are publishing about gloom and doom and the fall of the US economy, people are buying tons of Apple gadgets!  People do not behave this way during a recession.  Keep shopping folks. Just be sure that when you hear “Credit or Debit?” you say Debit!

Apple Reports Record Second Quarter Results

Apple today posted revenue of $7.51 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per diluted share, for its fiscal 2008 second quarter, which ended March 29. “We’re delighted to report 43 percent revenue growth and the strongest March quarter revenue and earnings in Apple’s history,” said Steve Jobs. During the quarter, Apple shipped 2,289,000 Mac computers (representing 51 percent unit growth and 54 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter), sold 10,644,000 iPods, and reported quarterly iPhone sales of 1,703,000.

Promotion!

I am now the Director of Network Operations for IBEC. Yay!

Same job, same responsibilities, same pay, but at least my title more accurately represents my job function. Today was a good day.