TessMore Finance Blog

Margaret Roberts, who runs an association management company in Alexandria, Virginia, vividly recalls the day she answered a phone call from a landlord in New York who had received a deposit for an apartment lease. The check was drawn on the account of one of her nonprofit association clients, and it just didn’t look right to the landlord. He wondered if it was valid. Antennae twitching, Roberts logged into the client’s online banking account and quickly confirmed that the landlord’s hunch was correct. The check was bogus. The fallout cascaded rapidly from that point: While Roberts was investigating and alerting the bank, another caller phoned to thank the association for an award payment he had received. There was no award. In the end, she discovered there wasn’t one fraudulent check, but several, totaling more than $15,000. It turned out that scammers had pulled wire transfer information from the client’s conference website and created fake checks. “Our client got their money bac

Attendees at the same professional conference have different take aways depending on their lifestyle, job responsibilities, subject matter knowledge/skill set, and other personal characteristics. We all filter new information through these lenses. When information comes at a “teachable moment,” interest in, and attention to, a presentation dramatically increases. Below are my ten key take-aways from the 2022 AFCPE Symposium: AFC Certification Milestone The AFCPE accredited financial counselor (AFC®) certification began in 1992 and celebrated its 30 th  anniversary. There are 3,000 AFCs and 1,600 candidates and the AFC® (along with the CFP®) is one of only 10  accredited professional designations in a personal finance space with about 200 certification acronyms. A job analysis is every five years to make sure the AFC® is in synch with the work of real life financial practitioners. Financial Atomic Habits Self-improvement is like compound interest…it grows over time. Never unde

Most small businesses fail within the first couple years. Many of these businesses could have made it if things had been done differently. Sometimes entrepreneurs or new business owners overspend before the business has any business; they burn through their cash before they have enough coming in to replace what they’re spending. Often this is seen as undercapitalization, but not every instance of undercapitalization is simply too small of a pile of money; it can be using the money on unnecessary things so that there’s not enough money left for the things that are necessary. It’s an induced undercapitalization. Other businesses are ideas whose time has not yet come and probably never will. We’ve all seen these pie-in-the sky schemes that seem untethered to reality. The financial basics of business success can be expressed as a simple equation. The sum of the revenues must be greater than the sum of the expenses. To put it as simply as possible: The money coming into the business ha

When you first become self-employed, things get real. There’s a lot to do, and the responsibility is all on you. The work has to be found, figured out, and done. You have to figure out the billing, and how — and when — you’re getting paid. There may be employees or subcontractors. The work of being in business piles on top of the work of the business. And to top it all off, you have the issue of taxes. Taxes are an issue for everyone; more so for the self-employed. A self-employed individual will need to deal with income taxes (federal and possibly state), self-employment tax, and possibly employment or excise taxes. You may need an employer identification number (EIN). It’s a lot. As with many financial matters, there’s a lot to it, but it doesn’t need to be overwhelming. Let’s look at taxes for the self-employed, one piece at a time. Income Tax The self-employed will generally report the profit or loss from their self-employment activities on their 1040 Schedule C. This form is

Prospective entrepreneurs usually do a good job of identifying their potential costs of doing business, with one exception. They’ll get an idea of most of the major legitimate business expenses — space and rent, materials and supplies, travel and entertainment — but they’ll often miss one of a new business’ biggest costs: the wages of the owner. As a business owner, you, too, are an expense. There are many  reasons people become entrepreneurs: They may want the freedom of time, whether that actually exists or not; they may want creative control; they may have a unique idea or a unique twist on an existing idea. Often, their reason is coupled with a desire to make money. After all, a business that is designed to not make money isn’t a business — it’s a hobby. If you make a product or service and sell it to family or friends with intent to break even financially, you are not in business. A business exists to make money. A hobby is recreation. Recreation is important, and your business

There are many reasons to want to start your own business. Many workers don’t feel valued, and not just monetarily, by their employers. Then there’s the allure of freedom, freedom of time and money, no one to answer to. That’s attractive. But it’s more than the yearning for freedom or change that determines if you are ready to start your own business. The idea of freedom — freedom of time, freedom of money, freedom to create the way you want to create — can be a siren song. All this freedom and no boss to answer to, no one to answer to. But it’s not that simple. There are still people to answer to. It’s a shift to being responsible on a different level. Instead of being responsible to a boss, an entrepreneur is responsible to their customers. Alternatively of being responsible to show up on time, an entrepreneur is responsible for getting the work done on time. Instead of being responsible in exchange for a paycheck, an entrepreneur is responsible for everything. In exchange, the

Freelance writing can be a tough nut to crack, but once you do, it can be fruitful, and something you might love. Have you ever had that awkward feeling of not belonging somewhere and all you want to do is leave? Maybe it was the first time you went to hang out with your significant other’s friends and felt out of place, or maybe it was that extra 30 seconds spent in silence with a stranger in the elevator. This is how I started to feel about my full-time job last year. Though I’m grateful to have a stable job and to earn enough to meet my needs, I still feel like I don’t belong, and I lack passion for what I do. For a while now, I’ve been having a love affair with freelance writing, and it’s fueling my desire to work again. I initially started picking up clients to earn some extra side-hustle money to put toward my debt. As my side gigs grew, I started to think: “Hey, maybe I could do this full time to support myself.” Who would have thought that writing would become a necess

I recently attended a local estate planning seminar geared for and marketed to older adults. I decided to go “undercover” to see if there was any evidence of manipulative sales practices masquerading as “financial education.” Sadly, I found some. Specifically, a presenter who was not an attorney and had no recognized financial planning designations whatsoever pitching the legal services of a colleague who was not in attendance. The original program publicity contained neither the name of the sponsoring company nor the presenter’s name or credentials. Barbservations I counted at least 50 times the presenter used the phrase “I’m not an attorney but…” and at least 30 pitches for revocable living trusts as suitable for everyone without considering the specifics of their financial situation. The presenter also threw out many legal terms (e.g., A/B trust) without explaining them, disparaged the probate process repeatedly, and occasionally presented dated information (e.g., incorrect gif

Cryptocurrency seems to repeatedly come close to gaining acceptance and then throwing away its newfound cachet. It gains ground with mainstream investors, then sacrifices those gains to volatility with investors retreating to the sidelines yet again. Institutions, likewise, talk the game yet seem to talk more than to act. There are some notable exceptions; some organizations have made significant investments or commitments into cryptocurrency or related activities. These organizations are outliers. Many are looking at crypto; fewer are taking significant action. Despite crypto’s wild ride and propensity to appear to resist becoming “acceptable,” many institutions and investors feel that cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (DeFi) are going to be a significant power in the future. Which begs the question of what to watch for in cryptocurrency. What might be the signs that crypto will soon be emerging from its teenage angst and ready to play a meaningful role in society? Regulati

The Great Resignation was not the end of things. Now workers, especially younger workers, have a new phenomenon in the work-worker relationship: Quiet Quitting. Quiet quitting is a form of quitting without quitting. The employee changes the work-worker dynamic, but doesn’t leave their job. The change in relationship works across a spectrum. At one end of the spectrum, workers cease going over and above for an employer. The worker might stop putting in extra hours, quit seeking additional work or assignments, limit themselves to the specific tasks they perceive to be part of their job description. They remain engaged in the basics of the job, but do nothing extra. The other end of the spectrum is a bit more severe. Some workers reduce their output to as little as possible. They have, for all practical purposes, quit their job; they just remain employed — at least until the employer figures this out.  Driving Forces The themes behind the quiet quitting movement are similar to those

During this “Great Resignation” era when many workers are changing jobs or considering a job change, it is more important than ever to consider various types of employee benefits and their economic value. Also known as “fringe” (short for fringe benefits) or “perks.” employee benefits generally equal 25% to 50% of a worker’s gross pay. Thus, they are a key part of workers’ total compensation package. Purposes of employee benefits include: recruit and retain talented employees (e.g., total benefits package) enhance workers’ financial security and health (e.g., health insurance) improve employee morale (e.g., paid vacation) increase productivity (e.g., profit sharing) and human capital (e.g., educational benefits and training) improve an employer’s reputation as a good place to work for and do business with (e.g., flexible work hours) Get Matched With Lenders and Receive the Lowest Rate on Auto Loan Check Your Rate Below is a description of ten common employee benefits and b