Welcome to Day 9 of the 60-day financial fitness challenge! How are you doing? Feeling as jazzed as I am about finance? I’m beginning to feel the game-ness spirit of all of this. How much can I grow in two months? Where will I be in 60 days if I already feel like I’ve made a lot of progress?
Today’s task:
Meet with a CPA
For those of you who don’t know, CPA stands for Certified Public Accountant. If you’re running your own business and aren’t so great with numbers (and even if you are), it’s highly recommended that you have a CPA on your financial team.
A CPA is likely to have more information about the latest changes in tax laws and can provide information for what you should be keeping track of in terms of deductions and other expenses related to your business.
Since starting consulting work, I’ve been using the Stride app to keep track of my income and my expenses, such as mileage and receipts for supplies, lunch with coworkers during working sessions, etc. There’s a ton of apps out there that can help. This is a free one that I enjoy using. And it’s going to come in a LOT of handy when preparing to file my taxes.
Today I had two key questions for my CPA:
- Should I be splitting up my investments between this year and next as I switch from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA?
- What information do I need to file quarterly taxes for my business?
The first question I didn’t get an answer to. The second question I did.
Basically, I need to have my income, a list of my deductions/expenses, and I need to know how much I paid any subcontractors if the amount was over $600. Turns out, the way I’ve organized my spreadsheets doesn’t exactly allow that information to be readily available without going into each month and adding them up. So that will be my task for this coming weekend.
While working on some design work today, I listened to a couple of episodes of the Clever Girls Know podcast, from Clever Girl Finance. I really appreciated Cindy’s perspective of being a first-generation Latina and having to figure out her finances having come from a household where financial literacy wasn’t really a thing.
Something I especially appreciated was her suggestion to start with what you have in your home. Take stock of your belongings, get rid of what you don’t need, sell it, and ask yourself “Does this align with who I am? Who I want to be? Does it get me closer or further away from spending time on the things that matter?”
Considering the fact that I am packing up my belongings right now, that theme hit home. I actually love the fact that I’ve moved so much in the last few years, and been in fully furnished apartments, because it’s forced me to get rid of most of the ‘fluff’. The thing I always wish I had more of were books and plants. I know I tend to save a lot of used journals because I like flipping through them and seeing how much I’ve grown…and I also tend to keep a lot of papers, thinking they will become useful one day.
But I did something radical this afternoon.
I recycled about six gratitude journals as I packed a box. And it felt. Freakin. Fabulous.
Building a financial team
One of the big takeaways that I’ve had over the years is this idea that you should be building a financial TEAM for yourself. You can’t, and shouldn’t, rely on just one person for everything. There’s people who specialize in all kinds of things, but a solid financial team will include at least the following, depending on where you’re at in life:
- Investment advisor/financial advisor – Helps manage your investment portfolio
- Financial coach – Helps cheer you on to reach your financial goals and equip you with strategies to get there
- CPA – Manages tax filings annually/quarterly
- Accountant (if that’s for your business) – This would be someone who crunches the numbers regularly
Others that might be helpful could include:
- Someone who helps you write/form your will
- Your insurance companies & brokers
- Vehicle insurance
- Business insurance/liability insurance
- Life insurance
- Health insurance
- Dental, vision
- Home insurance
I’ve always had a dream of carefully curating this team, organizing a time for all of them to get together, and discuss with them what my goals are overall to ensure that everyone is hearing the same thing, and then work with them individually to reach my goals. It’s important to remember that just because you choose someone doesn’t mean you have to stick with them. Shop around! Interview folks! You want to have people who align with your values.
I’ll never forget the time I had a chat with an investment firm based out of Eden Prairie when I was in grad school, trying to get a sense of what they offered, and what kind of financial position someone needed to be in to work with them. I was nowhere close to where I needed to be. But I told the woman on the phone that I wanted to be sure I was prepared for the wealth I knew I was calling in and planning on generating through my business. She probably thought I was insane. She was somewhat speechless, I recall, and then asked me to explain my business idea.
And then something crazy happened.
Her tone of voice changed, and she ask if it would be okay if she prayed for me, right there on the phone. I laughed and said “Sure, why not?”
And then she said all kinds of things, most of which I don’t remember, but mostly just asking God to bring me the abundance that I desired, and that I should have success in my endeavors. It was an incredible, magical moment, and while I’m not religious and the use of the word God made me extremely uncomfortable, what she said brought tears to my eyes. To have a perfect stranger believe in my vision in a matter of minutes…that is incredible.
This comes back to the idea of being ready to receive that which you are calling in. If you don’t have the systems set up, or the financial team formed, you’re just preparing yourself for chaos. So get organized. And stop making excuses. 😀
Resources worth sharing from today’s podcasts:
- Interview with founder of Zero-Based Budget, Episode #263
- Zero-Based Budget website and Instagram
