My answer to you is that I think that if you got consolation and uplifting info for free, that is great.  I think though that you probably are paying for psychic services, right?  My answer then to you and to the rest of us – avoid spiritualists, mediums and psychics especially in tough economic times.  They prey on your sympathies and your need to hear of better times.  Make your own better times without going to these quacks.  Their business is to part you from your money and get you addicted to coming to them for advice.  Similar to repeat visits to a blog but it costs you a lot more in cash and energy.  It pays to be a skeptic sometimes.  Otherwise you will get involved in some business that will not be profitable and you will regret it later on.

Here is a quote from a long unpublished guide of how fake seances run and there are tons of exposes all over the Internet.  Be aware that the text is dated and slated for the time it was written (over 100 years ago) but you will get the gist of the idea.

Take care of the living folks-that will make the departed happy.  And hold onto your money.

How To Spot A Fake Seance

Reader, have you ever attended a “seance” for “full-form  materialization?”  Have you ever thought you had met your dead relative’s spirit at these “seances”?

If you have never had the pleasure of attending a seance of this “phase” you have missed a rare treat.  The writer has assisted at many a one and will relate to you some of the wonderful phenomena occurring at them and the means used to produce them. . . .  There are hundreds of “materializing mediums” doing business in this country, who are swelling a good-sized bank account.  Their business sometimes runs into the hundreds of dollars in a single week.  This “phase” of mediumship is considered by the spiritualists as the highest possible attainable, and if you are a clever “full-form medium” your financial welfare is assured. . . . 

Many and various are the methods employed by the different “mediums” in producing this phase.  It is in Boston, New York, and San Francisco that it is worked the finest.  The full-form seances most often met with are very simply worked, and easy of performance by the medium.

You are usually given a seat in a circle of chairs about the front of a “cabinet” made by hanging heavy curtains across the corner of the room.  If you are a stranger or one who looks or acts as though he would “grab” the “spirits,” you are seated at the farthest point from the cabinet; or, if there are two rows of seats, you will be  given a seat in the back row. 

I made my way to the “materializing seance,” at which my friends hoped to materialize.  I was admitted to the seance room and found about twenty persons already assembled.  I was seated in the front row of chairs.  The cabinet used was a closet about six feet long and four feet wide.  The ceiling of both the room and the cabinet was of wood.  After a thorough examination had been made of the cabinet by all those who cared to do so, the sitters were rearranged to suit the medium.  There were present now thirty-five persons.  The seance room was very large.  The door had been taken off the closet that served as a cabinet, and in its stead were hung heavy curtains. 

The floor of the room was carpeted with a dark carpet, as was the cabinet.  The light was furnished by a lamp placed in a box that was fastened to the wall some eight feet from the floor.  This box had a sliding lid in front, controlled by a cord passing into the cabinet.  By this means the “spirits” could regulate the light to suit themselves, without any movement on the  part of any of those in the seance room being necessary. 

When everything was in readiness the medium entered the cabinet, seated himself and was tied, and so secured to his chair that it was impossible that he could have any use of himself.  He was most thoroughly secured to his chair, and his chair nailed fast to the floor by passing leather straps over the rounds in the side and nailing the ends to the floor.  After it was shown to the sitters that he was utterly helpless, the curtain was drawn. 

The manager now placed an ordinary kitchen table in front of the door of the cabinet, so that it stood away from it about two feet.  The table contained no drawer.  On the table was laid writing materials, a guitar, and small bell.  The manager seated himself close to one side of the cabinet entrance, and started a large Swiss music box.
Before it had finished the first air the lamp was shut entirely off, making the room inky dark.

An illuminated hand and arm was now seen to come from behind the curtain, and played an accompaniment to the music box on the guitar.  We could see plainly the movements of the hand, arm, and fingers, as it manipulated the strings of the instrument.  It did not appear necessary to finger the strings on the keyboard, although the air was in a key that made it impossible to tune the guitar so that an accompaniment could be performed WITHOUT fingering.  However, but one  hand was visible, and it was picking the strings. 

After the tune was finished, the hand left the instrument, and moved out into the room to the front of the table and from the sound we knew it was writing on the tablet that had been placed there.  The arm was of bluish light and appeared to end just above the elbow, and to have no connection with the body.  It finished writing and seemed to float into the cabinet near the top.

The light was opened and the manager requested those who had tied the medium to examine his condition and see if the ropes had been tampered with.  The examination was made and it was evident that the fastenings were undisturbed.  The communication was read aloud to those present, and contained the following:

“We are pleased to meet so many seekers after light and truth here this evening, and, from the conditions, as we sense them, we will have a satisfactory and pleasant seance.  The way to obtain the best results is for each person to maintain a passive condition and  take what we have to give.  You may rest assured that our best efforts will be put forth to give you entire satisfaction.  The Control.”

The writing was exactly on the ruled lines although written in absolute darkness.  The hand and arm, although luminous, did not give out a particle of light.  The arm had been at least five feet from the cabinet opening and seven feet from the medium.  Surely, it was not he.  The message read, the light was again shut down and the music again started.

Once more a hand appeared, and floating out to the table, again began writing.  Of a sudden the hand disappeared, and, after a few seconds, I was astonished to feel a hand thrusting a paper into my top coat pocket.  Now appeared two hands and they played an air on the guitar.  Now came three, then four hands were visible, bright as the day.  Two of them began writing again, and, when they had finished, two more sitters were the recipients of sheets of paper.
Soon the light was opened for an inspection of the cabinet, which was made, with the conclusion that the medium had not moved.  Those  of us receiving communications were afforded an opportunity to read them.  We found them nicely written, as before, and all contained “tests.” .

After the light went out again, more hands were seen; the table was floated about over the heads of the circle, as was the music box, which weighed at least fifty pounds.  Another examination of the cabinet was made and everything found satisfactory.  This time the light was not put entirely out, but a very dim light was allowed.

The music box was again set playing, and, while yet it was playing the first tune, a tall figure, robed in creamy white, with gleaming sparks in her hair, and on her head a sort of crown, issued from the cabinet.  She was recognized by a gentleman present, a spiritualist, whose spirit guide she was, and who addressed her as “my queen.”  She stood a few seconds behind the table and then stepped out in the open space between the sitters and the table.
The gentleman now arose from his seat and, standing beside her, holding her hand, conversed in a whisper with her for some seconds.

This was most assuredly a lady, if appearances go for anything.  Her hands were quite small, and were warm and lifelike, as several, including myself, can testify, having been permitted to shake hands with her.  At last she started to the cabinet, and, as she went, appeared to grow shorter, until, as she disappeared between the curtains, she was not much taller than the table. 

The manager now explained that the spirit had remained out rather too long and came near dematerializing before she reached the cabinet.  Now came the spirit of a young man, dressed in a light suit of clothes, who gave his name and said his mother was present.  She was, and had a few words of conversation with him when he disappeared into the
cabinet.  The lady said that it was unmistakably her son; but there was SOMETHING that was not as he had been, but what it was she was unable to describe.

The next spirit to present itself was my son Eddie.  He came out from the cabinet calling “Papa, papa.”  The manager asked “Who is your papa?” and he replied, “Mr. (Smith).”  All this time he stood between the table and the cabinet, and only his head and shoulders could be seen.  The manager told him to step out where he could be seen, when he came around to the front of the table.

It was rather dark, but I could swear it was my son.  He was just the right size, with long flaxen hair and a very pale face.  He wore a light-colored waist and darker knee-breeches and stockings, with a large black bow at his throat, Just as I remember seeing him last in health.

While Eddie was still standing in front of the table a large man came out and took him by the hand.  Eddie spoke, saying:

“Must I go back, grandpa?”  The form turned toward me, saying:

“My son, this is a great pleasure to us, but we must not long remain, as it is our first attempt at materializing.”  He turned to go when the manager said to him:

“If the gentleman is your son you ought to give him your name.”

“The name of the child is Eddie, and my own is J. A. Smith,” replied the form, as they vanished into the cabinet.

The manager suggested that it would be well to examine and see whether the medium had been out or not.  The cabinet was examined and everything found satisfactory.

Spirit after spirit came from the cabinet, one or two at a time for an hour; some of them came to friends, and others were “controls” of the medium.  Many of them were recognized by different ones of the sitters in the room.  I, for one, could swear to the identity of my own son Eddie, while my father was plainly recognizable.

The room was again made dark.  Suddenly there appeared on the floor, in front of the table, a light about as large as a baseball. It moved about in a circle of perhaps a foot in diameter and grew larger.  It soon lost the shape of a ball and appeared to be a luminous cloud.  Seemingly we could see into and through it.  In the course of thirty seconds it had become as large as a six-year-old child; still there was no definite shape, only a fleecy cloudlike mass, turning, twisting, and rolling.  At the end of perhaps a minute it was the size and shape of an adult person.  The face could not be seen, but light, luminous spots were visible as though the hair and ears were decorated with gems.  The shape spoke
and requested light. 

As the light was turned on the luminousness disappeared, and we beheld a beautiful young lady clothed in a
dazzling white costume.  Her arms and shoulders were bare, and about her neck there was a necklace of what appeared to be very brilliant diamonds.  Her feet were encased in white slippers, with straps across the instep.  In her ears and hair glistened and shimmered beautiful diamonds.  Her face and arms were as alabaster, and altogether she was one of the most beautiful women I had ever beheld.  She was recognized by a lady and gentleman present as their daughter.  They had met her here before.  They were from the East, and were wealthy.  The spirit requested that they come to
her, which they did, and were each kissed and embraced by it.  They held a moment’s conversation with her and resumed their seats, when the lamp was slowly turned down.  As the light became dim the spirit became luminous.  The face and arms disappeared and the body became as a cloud again, turning and twisting and growing smaller
until it was nothing but a small light spot on the carpet, which of a sudden disappeared entirely.

Immediately after this manifestation an examination of the medium and cabinet was made, and it was certain the medium had not been away from his chair.  The light was again turned out and the music box started, when TWO bright spots appeared on the carpet, one at either end of the table.  These went through the same process of
development until, when the light was turned on, there was another beautiful female spirit at one end of the table, and a child of perhaps eight years of age at the other.  The child was recognized by a lady present as her daughter, while the adult spirit was recognized and rapturously greeted by a gentleman who sat near me on my left, as his “darling angel guardian.”  They had quite a long conversation, in which they made use of very endearing language, each to the other.  I supposed it was the gentleman’s wife .

The spirits did not disappear as the first one had, but, when the light had been turned off, the luminous shape revolved a few times, and on two occasions assumed the garb and shape of men, and when the light was turned on again, there stood the men with beards and men’s forms.  After some eight or ten of these materializations and dematerializations, before our eyes, the last couple completely disappeared.

The light was again turned down and a luminous shape came from the cabinet, followed by others, until seven of them stood on the floor.  The light was turned up until we could see the seven spirits.  Five were females and two males.  They were of different sizes.  The curtain at the door of the cabinet was pulled aside and we could see the medium sitting in the chair in which he was bound.  The forms now filed into the cabinet again, while the music box
played.  After they had disappeared the light was turned up, an investigation made of the cabinet, and the seance was over.

There, reader, is a truthful description of what can be witnessed at the seances of mediums who are artists.  None of your bungling, amateur work here.  The work of such a medium is always satisfactory for the reason that if a man feels SURE that the medium is a fraud, he has been so well entertained that he does not regret the money paid for the opportunity to witness it.  This is the class of medium also who frequently succeed in getting large sums of money from wealthy persons they have converted to spiritualism.

Did the writer not give you the true explanation of the manner in which these things were produced, you would probably say it was conceived by a very fertile imagination.  If you believed that he saw these things you would perhaps offer the preacher’s explanation, by saying, “it is the work of the devil”; or that of the scientist, by asserting that “it is the mesmerist’s power over your mind”; or “the operator has discovered an odd force in nature”; or go off on a long dissertation on hypnotism and fourth dimension of space problems.  However, it is not the work of the devil, neither are there any but NATURAL laws necessary to its production.

The seance described actually occurred and was described in writing  by Mr. Smith in the language used, although it was not printed, and the writer was one of those who assisted in its production.  He will now proceed to explain this particular seance:

It will be remembered that the room and cabinet were carpeted with a dark carpet, and that the ceilings were of wood.  The ceilings were decorated by being put on in panels.  The ceiling of the cabinet would not have been like that of the room had the closet been a part of the architect’s plans of the house.  It was not, but was made by the medium.  He simply built a lath and plaster partition from the corner of a wide chimney to the wall, thus enclosing a space of six by four feet.  The panel in the ceiling of the closet was twenty inches square.  This panel was “doctored” and could be displaced, leaving an aperture large enough for the “spooks” to get through with perfect ease.  A light ladder which
reached within three feet of the floor of the cabinet was hooked fast above and furnished the means of getting down and up again.

There were eight persons connected with the seance described by Mr.Smith, seven upstairs and the medium in the cabinet.  Of course it was not necessary that the medium get out of his fastenings, and the facts are that he did NOT.  The table was placed across the cabinet door, not to lay the instruments on, but to be very much in the way should anyone make a rush and “grab” for the materialized forms.  In case this occurred, the “spooks” above would close the
light, making the room perfectly dark, and the manager would do his utmost to turn the table on end, or side, with the legs out in the room.  Before the “grabber” could get the lay of things and get past it, the spooks would have gone through the trap, closed it, pulled up the ladder, and the “grabber” would have found the medium writhing and groaning and bleeding from the mouth.  The bleeding was for effect, and was caused by sucking very hard on his teeth or gums.

The table also served a convenient purpose in the materialization and dematerialization through the floor.  You now know where the spooks came from, in this particular house, and how they got in and out.  Now let us see how they managed the materializations, and the properties used to produce them.  The trap and ladder were practically noiseless in their operations, but the music box made  assurance doubly sure that the least sound from the cabinet should  not be heard in the seance room.

When the box began its first air the trapdoor was opened and down the ladder came a young man clad in a suit of black tights.  He was entirely covered with black with the exception of his right arm, which was bare to a point a little more than halfway from the elbow to his shoulder.  The bare arm glowed with a luminous bluish light.

This condition of things was brought about by powdering his arm with pulverized luminous paint.  If you are not told the method of transforming the sticky paint to powder, you will not be able to do it, and will conclude the writer was romancing in this case.  The most essential thing to you will be to know where you can procure this paint.  The writer has been unable to procure it anywhere, except of Devoe & Co., of New York City.  It is put up in a package
resembling six-ounce jelly glasses, and you will get six of them for five dollars.  In order to reduce it to powder, thin the contents of one of the glasses with one pint of turpentine.  When it is thoroughly cut and incorporated into the turpentine, soak strips of muslin in it and hang them out to dry.  When thoroughly dry you can shake the powder from the cloth.  In order to powder one of your arms, gather one of the cloths in your hands, and use it as a powder puff on your arm.  You will not be able to get all the paint out, but the pieces will make luminous crowns, slippers, stars, and luminous decorations for your robes. 

You will be under the necessity of perfuming your robes each time they are used, for the odor of the turpentine will always remain to a greater or less degree.  To illuminate a robe or costume (the mediums always say “robe”) you proceed the same as in the powdering process, except that to the pint of paint you will add a wineglass full of Demar
varnish, which will prevent its falling or being shaken off as  powder.  You are not to make the robe of muslin, but of white netting.  Every lady will know what netting is.  It is the lightest, thinnest material the writer ever saw sold in a dry goods store.  Ten yards of it can be put into the vest pocket.  Do not scrimp the material, but get as much of it into your robe as possible.

When he of the luminous arm steps from the cabinet into the dark room no part of him is visible save the arm.  He picks the strings of the instrument with the illuminated hand and fingers the keyboard with the other.  He makes a sound of writing on the tablet and tears off a leaf which he conceals, and, drawing a long black stocking over the luminous arm, places in the pocket of the sitter a communication that has been written upstairs in a good light.

This accounts for the even, beautiful writing, supposed to have been done in the dark.  He covers the luminous arm so that anyone so inclined could not locate it in order to “grab” when he is near enough.  By mounting the table, that luminous hand and arm can be made to show as though it was floating about near the ceiling.

When four hands were visible there were two spooks at work with both arms illuminated. . . .  You can readily understand the forces that floated the music box and table above the heads of the sitters, and an explanation is useless.

When the first female spirit appeared it was, in reality, a young woman, dressed in a gorgeous white costume without paint, hence the light was turned up instead of down, in order that she be visible.  Rhinestones and Sumatra gems being cheap, she was plentifully supplied with “diamonds,” although many of those who are the queens or spirit guides or “controls” of wealthy spiritualistic fanatics wear real diamonds, the gift of their wealthy charge, or “king” as they usually call him.

When she started for the cabinet she used her hands to keep her robe from under her feet, and as she went stooped lower and lower, until, as she disappeared in the cabinet, she went on her hands and knees.  This is what caused the appearance of “dematerialization.”

When Mr. Smith’s son, Eddie, came from the cabinet, he was represented by a boy of about eight years of age, the son of one of  the female “spooks” upstairs.  He receives two dollars a night for his services, the same as the larger spooks.  He was powdered until he was very white, a blond wig put over his own hair, and dressed as most boys are at the age Mr. Smith’s son died.  Mr. Smith recognized him by his size, his light complexion, and flaxen hair, and the fact that he called him “papa” and gave his correct name.

His father was “made up” from the description given by the medium, and acknowledged by Mr. Smith as correct.  Of course he knew his own name, for it was given him by the slate-writer.

We now come to a part of the phenomena that all spiritualists who have witnessed it will swear by.  What is referred to is the materializing and dematerializing of the spirit from the floor and before your eyes.  In this you see first a small light, which grows larger and larger, until there stands before you a fully formed female or male spirit, as was described in Mr. Smith’s experience.

In order to accomplish what he witnessed, the same spook who had before been recognized by a gentleman as “his queen,” prepared herself in the following way: Divesting herself of all clothing she donned simply a long chemise that reached her shoe tops.  She drew on a pair of white stockings, and over them a pair of white slippers.  Into her hair and ears she put rhinestone diamonds, and around her neck a necklace of the same beautiful but valueless stones.  On each ear lobe and around her neck were put small spots of the luminous powder to represent the diamonds while it was dark.
Her face was powdered and her eyebrows and eyelashes darkened, while a dark line was drawn under each eye.  She now took a black mask that covered her head, and her “robe” in her hands, and went down to the cabinet.  Arriving there, she put the black mask over her head, to prevent the luminous diamonds being seen until the proper time.  She carried her robe in a black bag.  Crawling from between the curtains and under the table, she exposed on the floor
a small part of her robe.  This she shook and moved about, allowing it to escape from the bag until it was all out.  She was now from under the table and on her knees, and it was time the head show on the form, so, getting close to the robe, she threw off and under the table the black mask.  The shape was now the size of an adult; she adjusted the robe to her person, and rapped for light. 

As a matter of course, when any light was made the luminousness of the robe was drowned, and she appeared in simply a white costume.  The necklace and eardrops could now be seen, but when the light was such as to reveal them, the luminous spots had disappeared, leaving the spectator to think the ones he now saw were the ones he had seen in the dark.  The process of dematerialization will now be apparent, and a description will only tire the reader.  One small
spook was all that was required, as he could be made to represent boy or girl as was desired, by clothing him in the garments of either sex.

At the close of the seance, the full force of “spooks” came into the room.  After disappearing, they shinned up the ladder, drew it after them, closed the panel and the trap in the floor above it, replaced the carpet and pushed over the place a heavy bedstead from which they took the castors.  They now carried the ladder downstairs and concealed it in the coal house as they went through it on their way home.  They will get their pay next day.

Should ever so close an examination of the cabinet be made, you would not find anything wrong.  This particular medium has taken investigators into the cellar beneath the cabinet, and the room above it, scores of times, yet nothing was discovered.

You are not always to search for the trap in the ceiling, nor yet in the floor.  A trap is not possible in the ceiling except a closet is used as “cabinet,” and the ceiling is of wood.  Where this condition of things does not exist, you must search elsewhere.

The floor is a very likely place when it cannot be made in the ceiling.  If you do not find it there, examine the base or
mopboard.  If it is in the mopboard you will find, upon examination, that there is a joint in it near the corner of the
cabinet, but you will find it solidly nailed with about four nails each side of the joint.  This appearance of extraordinary solidity will be absolute proof that it is NOT solid.

The nails are not what they appear, but are only pieces about one half inch in length, and do not even go through the board.  The piece is fastened on the other side with a couple of bolts that hold it very firmly in place.  There is a corresponding opening in the mopboard in the next room, although no attempt is made to so carefully conceal it, as no one is ever admitted to it.  Through this trap the “spooks” enter the cabinet by crawling and wiggling.

It is not a very desirable trap, for the mopboard is scarcely ever wide enough to permit of a trap that the spook could get through in a hurry; besides, they must assume their costumes after they get into the cabinet or tear them to pieces.  You can see how this would make it very inconvenient.

If the room is wainscoted the spook will have all the sea room necessary in his trap, for it will extend from just below the molding on the top of the wainscoting to the floor behind the strip of quarter-round. 

It is next to an impossibility to detect these traps by examining in the cabinet.  They were constructed to avoid discovery, and no pains spared to make them so absolutely perfect that not one chance in a million is taken.  The proper place to seek for traps is in the adjoining room, upstairs, or in the cellar.  One is foolish to undertake to find a trap by thumping the walls or floor; for, if you happen to thump one, the medium who is smart enough to make use
of a trap is also sharp enough to make provision for its being thumped, and your sounding method goes for naught.[1]  Bear in mind that when you are examining the cabinet, you are seeking at the very place that is prepared most effectually to withstand your investigations.  Do not forget the MANAGER in your search.

He or she is never searched, or never has been up to date, which has been the cause of many a failure to find the “properties” of the medium when the seance was given in a room and cabinet furnished by a stranger and skeptic.  Do not be deceived into a belief that all of the sitters are strangers to the medium.  There may be from one to five persons present who pay their money the same as yourself, and who may appear to be the most skeptical of anyone in the room.  They will generally be the recipients of some very elegant “tests,” and weep copiously great grief-laden tears
when they recognize the beloved features of some relative.

[1] It must be remembered that it is occasionally possible for the medium to do away with traps altogether, either by having a confederate in the audience who produces all the phenomena–the medium sitting bound meanwhile–or by some such simple device as the following: Suppose the seance room is closed at one end by a pair of folding-doors; these doors are locked, the key kept by a member of the audience, while the keyhole is sealed, and strips of gummed
paper are also stretched across the crack between the doors, sealing them firmly together.  Confederates enter the room, in this case, by merely pushing BOTH doors to one side, they being so constructed that this is possible.  A small space is now left around the end of ONE door, through which the medium’s confederate creeps!
They are the most careful of investigators, and, when the medium’s trap is located in the door-jamb, will pound the walls, and insist on the carpet being taken up, when they will get upon their hands and knees and make a most searching examination of the floor.  They are the closest and most critical of investigators, but they are very careful to examine everywhere EXCEPT WHERE THE DEFECT IS LOCATED.  Because one or two men seem to be making such a critical investigation, do not allow that fact to prevent you making one on your own responsibility.  Wait until they have finished and then examine not only where they did, but more particularly where they did NOT.  Their examination is only for the purpose of misleading others.  Their “tests” are received in a way to cause those about
them to think they admit them very unwillingly, or because they were so undeniable that they could do nothing else.

A great many will probably deny that confederates are ever employed.  They are not, by mediums who are not smooth enough to produce that which appears so wonderful as to make a good business for them.  The writer would advise those mediums who give such rank seances to employ a few floor workers (they are easily obtained), and see what a difference it would make in the amount of business they will do.  Get good ones, those who know human nature, and know when they have said all that is necessary.  Most of them are inclined to say too much, thus causing the ordinary man to suspect that they are confederates.

That is the end of the selection.

Like I said, even though it is dated, a lot of the techniques and ideas are used today, some using better technology.  Just try to remember if something seems fishy or doesn’t make sense-especially common sense, than it probably is a fraud.

Sep 12 2009

Also, please  don’t quite go anywhere yet.  Having some tax issues or tax questions?  Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed?  Please read on.

I am expanding  my practice and taking on new tax clients.  If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.

I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.

I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.  Did I also mention that I have authored over a dozen books that are still in print?  I invite you to please check them out.

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett.  Thanks for your support.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

How To Spot A Fake Seance

My answer is that you need to save money now.  Really.  There isn’t any indication that the Federal government or state governments will have any money for any programs at the rate that business is going in this country.  Remember that govt needs money to get things done and they get it from taxes.  Without businesses running and making money, you aren’t going to be generating tax revenue.

Without tax revenue you cannot afford social programs, armies, salaries of Congressional representatives.  The same holds true at the respective state levels.  The best thing you can do your for yourself is to save whatever money you can.

Even if you are paying off horrible interest rates on loans or credit cards, try and save at least ten percent of your paycheck for something.  Even if it means a month from now that you can get to see that first run movie you wanted to (even though you can probably wait 3 months and watch it for a buck as a dvd rental or Internet download).

Psychologically you are better off with some savings because it addresses the need for control.  Everybody these days gets feelings of things going out of control.  Anytime you can get some of that control back in your life is a good thing.

By regularly trying to save money you also develop good business habits and you can also set an example for family members who aren’t so good at saving.  Yeah, that is right.  Most of them.

Seriously, this is your chance and in some cases it may be one that won’t come back for awhile if you are earning an income stream.  First be grateful for that the chance and opportunity to be making some money and second, take advantage of it to steel yourself up against the crappy times that may be coming down the pike.

I can’t tell you how to run your life but since you are asking me the question I would strongly suggest even though you are paying off debts or feel that you are on the way out that you start or try and save some cash.  It may not seem profitable now but I can promise you that you can’t put a price on being able to relax and maybe eat out once every few months or buy that one thing that you wanted.

In the news you can pretty much expect the next few weeks to be an example of a pullback.  The stock market is looking for any excuse to take some money off of the table and any earnings news or downgrades (like YUM) are enough to set off selling sprees.

Guess what?  If you are patient and don’t want to play the shorting game (and I don’t blame you) you can take comfort that in keeping with the larger sideways turn of events, the market will bounce back.  As to how high or how low depends on if people and public are sobering up and realizing and I mean really getting it that we are still in a Depression.

We need full employment and right now we aren’t seeing it.

Question from a reader:”Anything I can do to help qualify for my home?  I am a first time buyer and the rules seem to have gotten tougher than when my friends got their houses.”

My answer is indeed they have.  Especially if they bought their homes a few years ago.  The banking requirements are closer to tradtional loans the way they were twenty years ago instead of ten and you will need to put down a decent down payment most of the time – we are talking 20 percent – have a great, steady job, prove it, and have a clean record for credit.  The pendulum has been swinging the opposite way from loosey goosey credit given to anybody who could spell “money” to going to the extreme where the old cliche holds true – only people who don’t really need a loan can apply and actually get the money.  That is how commerce works.

Getting the documentation for approval for a home loan and even getting a house in the past has always been a bit of a drag.  Ironically, you, as the person putting up the money ends up doing a lot of the running around and legwork and end up paying cash for it.  Such is the nature of our real estate market and system.

If you do have a good gig and can get into a great house, I would say if you are planning on living in it as a home and not as an investment, go for it.  Sure, property values may drop some more in a lot of places and maybe even where you are getting your new digs but remember the purpose of buying a home is to make it yours and to live in first and foremost.  The investment angle is something to look at second.  That being said, don’t buy a home in places where the market for recovery is several years out – like Detroit, for example.

Good luck everybody and keep the questions coming.

Aug 12 2009

Also, please  don’t quite go anywhere yet.  Having some tax issues or tax questions?  Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed?  Please read on.

I am expanding  my practice and taking on new tax clients.  If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.

I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.

I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett.  Thanks for your support.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Save Money Now Really

There has been a concerted effort to cut support from government, business and any other sources of money due to a few reasons:

1.  We are an easy target at first glance.  People think that, oh, look at them, they can’t complain and they don’t have money to donate to us, so we can chop any funding to them.

That generally is a person’s frame of mind in government until they have a daughter with Rett Syndrome, Down, or autism.  All of a sudden they change their tune.  It makes sense because people tend to be selfish and it is a question though of being wisely selfish.

If you cut off funding for care for special needs, there will be more special needs people on the streets with the people who don’t have special needs.  What are you going to do with them?  Let them become prey for predators or let them die?

There is a lot of money still being moved around at the State level for things that we don’t need and we need to keep money in the coffers for people who can’t help themselves.  The same holds true at the Federal level.  Please write to the people in charge and let them know you aren’t happy.

Be ready to vote in people that are going to help get the funding to the people who need it and get jobs to all of us who are in need of employment.  The Depression stinks and it stinks even worse for people who can’t help themselves through no fault of their own.  It is one thing for somebody to live beyond their means intentionally and another for somebody who was working who has no intellectual capacity to understand what is going on to have to suffer as well.  Yeah, I may be talking fairy tale land here because of the real world economics but if I don’t speak up for the people who can’t speak for themselves, who will?  Everybody is fighting to keep what money they have in funding and Congress has to get things going and keep whatever programs are still around still salvaged and viable.

If you have any kind of extra money and can give it to groups like Rett Syndrome research or the charity of your choice, please do what you can to help out. 

2.  The lobby groups for special needs generally aren’t as strong as defense or automotive lobby groups.  Sure, some of the lobbyists may be the same but it is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease and we need to keep the cash coming and have well-oiled care in place for our family members who can’t take care of themselves.

3.   Keep programs in places that help people get employed – whether they are special needs or not.  We need more people working now so they will have money to live and help take care of people who can’t take of themselves.  We get it.  If people can’t take care of themselves first, they won’t want to take care of other people.

Just my general rant for the end of the month.

The stock market is continuing in a hover sideways mode where things are flat to slightly down( and I called it earlier in the week) so there shouldn’t be much of any kind of news barring a catastrophic event like storm, meteor or giant monster from space terrorizing some local cities.

For those who are interested, I am still working on some new books.  And, as I will get to later in, I am looking for clients who are sick of their tax pros and want somebody who can help them get the highest return possible.  I do corporate, personal, partnership, trust and multi-state returns among other things.  I also do international taxes.

Be safe people.

July 31 2009

Also, please  don’t quite go anywhere yet.  Having some tax issues or tax questions?  Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed?  Please read on.

I am expanding  my practice and taking on new tax clients.  If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.

I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.

I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Special Needs Care and Funding  July 31 2009

My answer is yes, I still am playing Hold’em and even though I still don’t like poker and defintely don’t preach that people should treat it as a career or business I have been playing lately.  I was at a $40 NL table a few days ago and I was fortunate to have left the session up another $50 for a total cash out of ninety bucks (see?  I told you that you can’t quit any dayjobs to try to make money at this, certainly not at the low and ultra low limits).  My stack was something like $60 at this point in the session having one some small hands mostly from players beating themselves (going in with small pairs for who knows why and things like that).

I had been dealt this:

So preflop I made a raise to $10 and a gentleman to my left went ahead and called me.  Another person called and it was three of us to see the flop.  The flop came down:

I wasn’t thrilled about the flop but I figured what the heck and let me see what are the chances somebody has the flush – and the nuts no less – on the flop.  So I bet another $15 and the man to my left goes all in with his stack of $30.  The other player folds.  I matched his stack and was waiting for the gloat.  The guy turns over his cards to show me:

“I have you beat,” he said with pride.  “I got the nuts and I win.”

I turned over my pocket kings and said, “Well, let’s see what happens.”  I was already beat but having been rivered to death (and turned to death as well) just like the rest of you, and considering I am into the game for what, $55, where am I going to go?

The turn and flop came down:

At this point, I figured that I had cashed in any and all Karma that I was “due” and the moral of the tale, or at least point of the post is that, It Generally Is Your Turn To Be Lucky If All Other Things Being Equal When It Doesn’t Really Change Your Lifestyle.  It was pretty exciting to get four of a kind and win with my hmmm 2 something percent chances out of a hundred and the losing player after cursing was able to congratulate me and I received an entry for some sort of drawing that I couldn’t attend anyways because of work.  I would have rather won the lottery but who knows maybe I should break down and buy a longshot and see if I am in the zone or not.

So, yes, I still am playing cards and the reason you generally don’t see too many posts one way or another because I hate poker stories more than i dislike playing poker.  I need to have a sign on my neck stating, “I will listen to your great beats, your bad beats, your stroke of whatever fortune” for $50 an bour.  I will nod my head appreciately and cluck my tongue and shake it side to side in sympathy with you for that kind of money as well.”

Rumor was that somebody at one tournament did this and made some money though I suspect it has more urban legend to it than reality check especially since most players don’t even have money for a chair or a chip.

I have been playing 200NL with average results.  By average I mean that I am currently slightly down $318- which isn’t bad for the swings that one can get playing at the higher level game.  I have found that the caliber of play ranges from slightly better to shark mode when players from the $400-500 NL drop down and some of them are quite good-or there is a lot more collusion going on.  I think it is the former and not the latter and that is interesting in of itself though I have seen some very bad signals from a husband and wife team once.  They didn’t end up winning.  So much for trying to beat the system through crime.

Same advice still holds – only play with money that isn’t scared money.  If you are sitting down with bread and egg money – shame on you.  There are better things to do with your money and we are in a Depression.  You shouldn’t be taking money from your family, your business and trying to go on bad investment ideas or gambles where you literally are at the mercy of the flip of some cards.  Ugh.

I also spend some time throwing bullies off balance and they generally leave the table after I get the other sharks on to them.  One guy for an hour was constantly raising and finally on the flop (which had nothing remarkable):

I called him with nothing but this:

I went in and said, “I am tired of you bullying us.  Come on and if you can get me, get me.” 

He balked and folded and he left the table two hands later.  Some players said to me, “He was bullying us, how did you know?”

“Everybody can’t have a great hand every time, can they?”

Of course, he could have had any pair, trips or two pair with an ace, or even just a high card of a six and I would have been dead in the water.  It does take some effort to think sometimes at the $200NL though I think my reads of people, not always cards, are okay.  Now you have another idea why I hate poker, huh?  Too much like work.

Be safe, sane and healthy.  May you all be making money as well.

July 30 2009

Also, please  don’t quite go anywhere yet.  Having some tax issues or tax questions?  Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed?  Please read on.

I am expanding  my practice and taking on new tax clients.  If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.

I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.

I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

It Generally Is Your Turn To Be Lucky

My answer is I hope I am at least doing my own work and God approves and I need to remind you that I am not a professional financial analyst though I am very good and very honest about my views and experiences on making money.  My analysis and gut feeling – the one two punch that really means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things despite what other pundits will tell you-tell me that we will see a brief pullback in the market in the coming week.

All the business earnings reports where companies have made or lost money that have been posted last week – well most of them, there are more coming down the pike – have had their brief blip reactions.  The stock market overall for the short term of the next few months barring any economic bad news of catastrophic proportions should be going up.  By catastrophic proportions I would state something like all the world’s oil is gone, or that all our money turns into air.  We’ve managed to wade through the loss of billions without blinking in terms of the stock markets going up and down and that is in relation to investor’s perceptions that the stocks and bonds will make movement in the future.

Let me see what is left to report with.  There are 184 of the S&P 500 companies having reported earnings through Friday, a total of 77 percent — or 142 companies — exceeded earnings forecasts, Thomson Reuters data showed.

In the coming week, our month end week, 146 companies in the S&P 500 are expected to report earnings, according to Thomson Reuters data. About 12 of the 30 Dow components are set to report.

In addition to earnings due on Thursday from Exxon Mobil and Disney, other major companies set to report results include Valero Energy Tuesday, ConocoPhillips on Wednesday and Chevron on Friday.  So, we need to ask ourselves based on market psychology, how likely is it that people will or even could be so happy when they have heard nothing but “good” news for the last few weeks.

 The last week of most months is generally a consolidation of resources for investment houses and people jockey their money around in funds to try make their portfolios look like the owned their star performers and sold their dog stocks.  I haven’t tracked charts to see over the last few years how the markets fare but I seem to recall with some of the larger Dow companies that there is some dipping and generally after the first of the month there is a rise in value for a few days.  Of course, do your own due diligence to see if I am full of baloney or not.

Especially on specific stocks that you are interested in.  The historical informaiton is freely available on search engine sites throughout the Internet and you need to remember that past performance doesn’t predict nor guarantee future earnings or performance.  That is the way the cookie crumbles.

For those of us out there who are on fixed incomes or out of work, be very cautious and stay away from anything that will negatively affect your principal.  You want to make sure that you have funds to weather the storm of being unemployed.  It may be some time until companies are hiring again.

If you are capable to research companies and they are local.  Go over in person and check out their business.  If they have a manufacturing plant or facility go inside and if you can, take some time and talk to the employees, the owners, managers or anybody who will listen to your questions.  If you can make arrangements with their public relations person (if they still have a p.r.dept after any downsizing) see if you can get the company tour that way.

Remember also that in summer time some industries do better than others.  This is the big time of the year for ice cream sales.  Chains like Baskins and Robbins, Coldstone and the like benefit from longer days with extended sunlight and that also means more heat and people wanting to cool off.  Frozen yogurt stores do well in the dog days of summer especially in places like California where we have temperatures over 100 degrees on more and more days.

So the take away from all of this is that yeah, the markets may dip for a bit this coming week, please do your own research and try to do it face-to-face if you have the time and resources for it.  There has been anecdotal evidence for example that KFC has had increased cars through their drive up windoes because of their new grilled chicken offerings.  I don’t have the statistics for that either and it might be fun to watch the restaurants at lunch or dinner each day for an hour and count cars.  Bear in mind that for some franchises, that one or two hours a day would have to have large enough orders to cover for the countless hours where there isn’t any traffic.  If you can find out what the rent is for the location you can have a decent idea if that particular unit is making revenue or not.

Stay cool and careful over the next few days folks.  Don’t play with any money either that you cannot afford to lose.

July 27 2009

Also, please  don’t quite go anywhere yet.  Having some tax issues or tax questions?  Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed?  Please read on.

I am expanding  my practice and taking on new tax clients.  If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.

I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.

I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Markets Going Up But Taking a Breather

“Kim, can you find me a job?” 

“Kim, why am I paying so much in taxes?” 

and “What should I invest in or start to do to make money?”  

I also get a lot of special needs related questions.  I try to answer those specifically because they tend to be about specific situations.  I also get gaming questions about how to approach playing card games, video games and board games and for that I am working on an inexpensive book to get out to you.  Thanks and please keep the questions coming.  As you can see, search engines don’t have the answer for quite everything 

Today I will try and talk about the first question and give you some of my thoughts and ideas about the economy and ways to get your life back on track.  The advice is free so treat it accordingly.  Keep in mind though that some experts charge a lot to tell you a lot less. 

 The openings I hear about are pretty specific about their skill sets and your best bet would be to take some of the suggestions I have posted in my blog entries (search jobs, no job, etc) and check out my books as well network like crazy.  For the next year it is going to be tough but if you have skill sets that are in demand, you will find work.  You can also take a page from your peers and head back to college and pick up certification or degrees to add a level of cache to your resume that will help open some more doors for you.

Be ready to also take technical skill tests online or on computer based training (CBT) when you apply for jobs.  Unless you are taking a management position, and even those require testing these days depending on the gig, you will need to demonstrate or show proficiency.

Please write your Governor, your Congressional leaders and the President and tell them that they need to get money down to the grass roots level – and get it faster.  There have to be more jobs created similar to the New Deal economics that happened in the 1940s.  We need to get rebuilding our infrastructure (and again if you search my blog you can see I have been ranting for it for over a year now) and we need more projects going to get people working.

Our State governments need to either float more bonds or do something to generate a climate that we can draw inside international investing so we can have the funds put to good use in this country.  I have talked about different cities, like San Diego, and other states, like Texas, trying to steal our movie business from here in California.  We are in an economic climate that I like to call the live bearing fish climate.  That means that we end up eating our own young.

With a limited movie industry (yeah, I know some films are doing gangbusters but a lot of them flop) there are only so many films in development each year and everybody is fighting for the same small piece of pie.  It may be better to change local labor and resource laws so states can attract more industry in.

Getting back to you at the local level, make sure you are keeping some savings because it can be that as you have discovered, a very long time until you are working again.  Keep the pressure on our government officials to revisit their economic plans and have them get programs going to get more money down to the average American so that he or she will be able to survive.

We aren’t getting into a Mad Max- Road Warrior world quite yet with everybody fighting for oil (in our case it would be jobs and food) but it sure feels that way at times.

I still don’t get bizarre business models where I don’t see how people can become profitable even after several years of being in an investment chain.  In this day and age, heck, in any age, you should always look and analyze and deal or job you get into and see if you are really making money with it.  An example which comes to mind are investors in movies.  The investors get the bragging rights that they are a producer and they may get to date the star or lead actor or actress.  Generally films tend to not recapture their initial costs unless you have a great person setting up the deal to insure that you get video or DVD or any media rights before the business gets going.

The ice cold reality of today’s business climate is that you need to take whatever kind of work you are getting and you may as well take a job flipping hamburgers for minimum wage part time rather than working on “spec” (you know, speculation or in the movie business we call it, “free” or “without getting paid”).  Don’t get me wrong, if you have the time to work on spec and the project is something that excites you or you are an actor or actress, great.  For the rest of us though, we need to at least get an ironclad contract so that if a project that we worked on gratis actually takes off, we get some money from it.

Readers of my site and books roll their eyes along with me when I hear of people turning down work because it isn’t one hundred percent of what they are looking for.  You will never get 100% of what you are looking for most of the time – even in a booming economy.  The number one thing if you want to survive the rat race (and we are all squeaking along) is to make sure that you can pay for the cheese.  Take whatever work you can get and keep training yourself for what you really want to do.

For the college graduates out there I encourage you to get working with something if you can’t get a job in your field of choice.  Eventually, things will either get hopelessly worse or significantly better.  Notice that I said eventually.  For the next few years at least I see things as getting worse.  Plan accordingly.

If you know that it will be raining in the next day, you plan to go outside with an umbrella or rain coat, right?  Take the next logical step and plan to save some cash for a rainy day to prepare yourself for times when you aren’t so profitable.

Also make time for yourself each day to try and relax and review what you are doing and what your plans are to see if you are on track.  This is especially important if you have a family, are caring for special needs or just plain overwhelmed in life.

Everybody gets overwhelmed, and for some of us it is when we are working the hardest.  If you look at Michael Jackson you will see all issues aside a tortured soul who was constantly trying to get better at his craft and in entertaining people.  He loved life and people a great deal and even in his life he was battling a lot of health issues.

So don’t ignore your health.  Without it, you will have problems in securing work.

If I were to give an immediate, short term bit of advice to somebody I would say that they should go ahead and learn how to program for the iPod and iTouch and write an application that nobody has done before and sell it for a couple of bucks.  The exercise would be great because it would teach you how to develop something, implement it and then get it to market.

People may not have money to pay their rent but they sure find the bucks to buy their iProducts.

The other critical thing that I want you to rally around is getting manufacturing going.  Try and start a manufacturing business up and get commerce working again here in our back yards.

Thanks for being continual readers and to my international readers, how are things going in your countries?  I have had a few e-mails and been told that things are just as bad elsewhere.  Is that true for you?

Good luck to us all and be safe, healthy, get wealthy, and be happy and wise.

Here is an excerpt from a book I am working on for your pleasure and feedback.  Let me know what you think:

Excerpt from my upcoming book, copyright 2009, Kim Isaac Greenblatt, all rights reserved, no reproduction allowed without explicit approval from the author (that is me, gang).

Strategy and tactics type games are ones where you don’t control the game from a first person point-of-view but instead play the game as a general or overlord controlling armies of soldiers, orcs, or angels. 

Like playing as a general, king or god?  Strategy and tactics type of games are for you.  Strategy is the overall plan for winning a war, a conflict, a business deal.  The tactics are the actual implementation of the strategy – the movement of aircraft, deployment of troops, the beefing up of artillery installations, etc.

 From relatively basic strategy and tactics games likes tic-tac-toe, through complex games like Nim, Checkers and Chess and culminating with Internet team games where you control virtual troops who actually respond to your commands with responses of their own, there is a wide spectrum of choices and things to note when playing any kind of strategy and tactics game.  These games are also known as “Command and Conquer” games after the widely successful series of C & C games that have been on the market for decades.

 Warcraft started off as a C & C type of game and they are also fondly known as “resource building” games.  Without having the energy to power your tools, you cannot build weapons.  Without food for your troops, your armies will starve.  Generally the general who can manage resources (especially limited ones) can prove to be the winner more times than not.

 The levels of complexity are higher than first person shooting games (generally speaking) and the suggestions I am presenting now pretty much apply to everything you can find out there:

 Remember that to win the game, you need to hit your objectives.  It doesn’t matter if you build the biggest army but the timer runs out if you failed to protect the diplomat who was riding in an armored car across the screen in the last three minutes of the round.

 Resources, unless you are cheating, are limited and should be used effectively.

 Tiberium mines (from Command and Conquer) run out of ore, orcs (Warcraft and any other Fantasy resource based game) may empty out a jewel mine.  You may be half way in construction of your super army and find yourself without resources.

 This means that sometimes you really need to think and be creative in resolving your game needs in creative ways.  It may require you to capture enemy bases and start using the enemy’s resources to overcome the enemy.  Sometimes it may mean to sell generators, lower your power needs and fight your battles with fewer resources.  It doesn’t matter as long as you win.

 Learn the Rock, Paper, Scissors approach to winning the game.

 Each game and each level within the game has different units that can defeat other units.  Example:  Tanks defeat infantry, planes defeat tanks, and rocket infantry in large numbers can defeat tanks and planes.  You get the idea.  If there are super weapons that you can develop, see what is it that you can do to get your super weapon going as fast as possible with as minimum effort as possible.  Online team play means that you may not have time to develop super weapons and your best bet may be to do lots of rushing and destroying bases.

 If one player in team play is designated as the one who gets to try to build the super weapons (if they are even allowed), be a good partner and handle the defense and scut work of hit and run tactics to keep the enemy off balance and try to steal as many resources as possible.

 Many a game has been one where a spy or engineer has captured the enemy bases.

 Take the time in simulation or practice games to mix and match different unit types and come up with your own creative formations.  Generally in all video or board games, once a strategy works, it is published on the Internet and the whole world knows it.  Be innovative and you may be rewarded with winning many games and you may have a game level named after you.

 Be wary of some versions, especially early ones, where the game play is too one sided by certain units.  That happens when there isn’t a thorough job of beta testing a new game.  Certain classes of players (an alien race) or certain weapons ( Chinese super tank) may be unbeatable and it may be that the sure fire way to win the game is to always play as that race and have that particular weapon to win any game.

 Players tend to post (read: brag) about what they encounter and you generally find these things out yourself in online play as well as working your way through the different game scenarios.

So what do you think so far?  Post me a comment or drop me an e-mail and let me know what you think.

Also, please  don’t quite go anywhere yet.  Having some tax issues or tax questions?  Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed?  Please read on.

I am expanding  my practice and taking on new tax clients.  If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.

I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.

I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime. Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Top Questions I Get Asked and Book Excerpt

Second, celebrities are a lot like you and me.  Some of them make good business decisions with their money, others not so good decisions.  The debt of the average person is similar to what I call celebrity debt in the sense that they keep living a lifestyle that they can’t afford.

In the case of Michael Jackson and the late Ed McMahon, they were spending more than they were making.  We have all done that at one point or another in our lives unless we were drilled home in our heads about keeping things frugal, saving money and watching out for a rainy day.

In the case of Michael Jackson, he worked like a real trouper when he was a kid and when he grew up tried to recreate his childhood.  I am not going to deal with allegations and abuse charges here since it is out of context with our topic which is pretty important as well, cash management.

As Michael Jackson continued to make millions, he continued to spend and live in the style of American royalty if such a thing can be called.  He had his own version of the Pirates of the Carribbean ride on his Neverland Ranch, animals, an entourage that would travel with him and none of those things are cheap.  Unfortunately, when the income streams start to dry up, you need to cut back or make more money.  His financial advisors early on didn’t have the guts to tell him to watch his money and I suspect the few that did either left after awhile or may have been dismissed.

There is an old saying that remember that the higher you climb, the higher the risk of falling that you will hurt yourself.  If Michael Jackson’s health was deteriorating over the years that added fuel to the cash burn that was going on in his life.  At one point, Mr. Jackson purchased and owned the rights to the Beatle library of music.  He has parted with a small portion of it to raise cash.  I think Sony/ATV is his partner with this and I have no idea what is share is currently worth though I suspect it is hundreds of millions even with the current economic hard times.

Depending on the rumors and news releases that are out, at the time of his passing, Michael Jackson was in debt $400,000,000 or was completely cleared out because he had received advances on his upcoming performances.  I just read another report and his debt is reported to be $500,000,000.  That is five hundred million dollars.  Considering his monthly rent for the palatial estate he was in was about $100,000 a month, that amount makes sense.

Did Michael have life insurance?  That I don’t know and I don’t know how much of that is going to make a difference in the estate debt and how much would go to his heirs.  In this case, his children would be the people I would think would get any money.  Any other assets will probably be seized by creditors.

The take away from this is that you should not live the lifestyle of a king, a rapper, a superstar unless you are living within your means.  There are plenty of kings, superstars and average people that live well within their means and are saving money.  Some of them are millionaires.  The secret is to not try to live like your neighbor (especially since a lot of our neighbors are losing their jobs, homes and pensions) and try to live like you should.  Save your money, live your life but live it within your means.

A sad irony is that now that Michael Jackson is gone, his debt should go down because his spending is down and his estate consisting of his music will probably skyrocket with a demand for his songs (similar to what happened when Elvis and John Lennon died).  Eventually his heirs should have a decent income stream if they ever get out of probate in one  piece.  Expect his estate to be in the courts for years to come.  Back to celebrity spending..

The things that made or make celebrities go broke are the same things that make everybody go broke:

1.      Ex-wifes or husbands who are getting alimony.  In this category we can add child support as well because you have to take care of the kids until they are at the age of taking care of themselves.

2.      Bad business decisions.  Some of their business deals may not have turned out as well as they thought.  Perhaps things like proposals for Michael Jackson Hot Chicken Wings didn’t turn out as well as he might have liked if he invested in something like that.

3.      Theft from people who you trusted.  There are lots of bad managers, agents, family members and friends who take advantage of people who are good natured who have money.  Sometimes it is a great idea to have a thick skin and cut people off after you loan them that first thousand dollars that they don’t pay you back.

4.      Bad, expensive habits.  Michael Jackson loved to collect things (no jokes please).  He reached a point when he had money that when he wanted something, anything, he would buy it and then if he didn’t want it later on, would just return it.  He use to do that with coin-operated video games back in the day when they were hot.  We all have something that we do that costs us money.  The difference between going broke and enjoying the hobby is knowing when to curtail spending on it.

What about celebs wanting loans because they are celebs?

When celebrities were extended credit at first, the lenders got some publicity.  Banks got tired of that real fast just like they do with you and I when they weren’t getting the loans repaid.  I have seen superstars get their lines of credit chopped like you and I if they are out of work and not repaying their debt.

This is a good place to also remind you if you have families to please check your life insurance policies, make sure your medical premiums are paid up and you have a will in place for somebody to carry out your wishes after you join our departed celebrity friends in whatever Afterlife lets you get in without a press pass or a five drink minimum.

Please have a safe, healthy, happy weekend.

Jun 26 2009

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime. Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Celebrity Debt, Your Debt and Michael Jackson

My answer is sometimes you get questions that you can’t like the answers to like “Do you still beat your kids?”  If you answer, “yes”, you are endangering your kids and you are scum.  If you answer “no”, you were endangering your youngsters and were scum.  The correct answer is sometimes to answer “I never touched my children in a harmful way” but sometimes life throws things at us that only offer yes/no or binary choices (that means two).

If you don’t like the answers that you are getting you need to first see if the advice you are getting is something that will get you out of the situation you are in or at least help you survive.  If the person or agency you are working with is asking for money up front or money to get you out of the situation you are in, that sounds like it is fraudulent and you need to report them to the authorities and find somebody who can help you that is on the level.

If the questions that are being asked require sacrifice and major lifestyle changes, that is another situation entirely.  When you are in survival mode you are interested in the basics.  Each paycheck or payment needs to be able to tackle the following items first:

1.   Food

2.  Required or Mandatory Medical Bills/Payments or anything that keeps you or your loved ones alive.

3.  Utility bills were gas or electricity needs to be provided so you can have light, possibly heat or air conditioning wherever you are living.  You can also think clearer about what steps to take when your blood isn’t freezing or boiling.  If you aren’t taking care of your environment, you risk getting sick and adding incidents that will require item number two above.

4.   Child support if you are taking care of your children.  They aren’t responsible for what is happening around you and they need their parent to help them out so they can have the basics they need to have a healthy life growing up.

If you have money leftover from those items you want to keep paying down the financial chain as follows:

5.   Car payments (if any) should be made so you have wheels so you can work or get to a job interview so you can keep climbing out of the survival situation that you are in.

6.   Gasoline money – with gas prices higher now you need to be able to fill the tank or if you don’t have a car, make sure that you have an active bus, subway or train pass so you can get to work.

7.   Car insurance payments are a must.  If you get pulled over without insurance you can lose your vehicle or license in some states and you will need to fall back on public transportation.  Even worse would be if you were in a car accident and you didn’t have your payments current.

8.   Communication utility payments such as phone bills, cell phone (if not land line), cable or dsl to connect to the Internet.  You will need to be able to communicate with the world somehow or make arrangements to go to the library to check your e-mail and send out your resumes.

9.   Credit card debt would go next.  Start paying down the money that you owe and try to make more than the minimum payment that is required to lower your debt. 

10.   Any other unsecured debt should be paid off next like loans, promissary notes or anything else that would be getting the wolves away from your door.

It won’t be an easy process but you are not alone in trying to get out of the situation.  Keep your faith and if you have a family, remember that you are doing it for them.  If you don’t have a family, remember that you are doing it for yourself and you can and will eventually move financially to a sturdier place in your life.  It will just take some time.

Good luck and be safe.  Try to be happy and healthy too while you are at it.

That way if anybody asks you if you still beat your kids you can either say “I never beat my children but I beat back debt and am doing great, thanks for asking” or something along the lines of “Are you kidding?  My kids beat me to the dinner table every night.  That is why I am so broke.” 

June 23 2009

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime. Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Do You Still Beat Your Kids, Buddy?

Another reason that I get so much mail is because search engines only work if you know the write phrases or questions to ask.  Without learning how to think critically a lot of people get stumped or swept into the “me too” posts that confirm that spending money is the only way to get started with a business and the crazy thinking that goes along with that.

Don’t get started in crazy thinking when it comes to getting your business going.  You want to make sure that your costs are low unless you are anticipating (and think that part through really clearly) making buckets of cash in your second year.  Depending on your type of business, that may work out for you.  Then again, you really should be careful in this economy with whatever it is you are doing or planning on doing.

Readers write in and are always asking me to help them save money and I end up reminding them that that most business people (or at least the ones I’ve dealt with their taxes) spend too much money on things that don’t need for their business.

Let me give you an example from back when I was starting up my comic book delivery business. I had saved money and was ready to buy a cash register for a swap meet, a credit card acceptance machine and the wiring for it, stock up an inventory of every comic book, poster and pog I could think of. After calming down and realizing that I would go broke in trying to get everything – not to mention to pay monthly fees for the credit card processing service AND a service charge for each transaction, I settled on the following:

1. Preorder of comic books of about $600 of merchandise, trading cards and posters at the retail level so my initial cost with a 50% discount (if it was that high) would be $300.
2. Licenses for selling comic books and working swap meets (my initial source of looking for clients who wanted me to deliver comic books to) – free.
3. Site fees to set up at each week at either Pierce College or the old Winnetka Drive-In swap meets – $10-20 a week for a table so in a month maybe $80.
4. A cash register – $250.

I mentioned this to a family friend and he said, “Why do you need a cash register? What’s wrong with a metal box or even a cigar box?”

He was right! I ended up saving another $250 which I could turn into trading cards which I ended up selling.

I ended up getting clients from the swap meets. Unlike a lot of other people who had jumped into the comic book business to make money, I did not go broke from over-spending with my start-up costs.

In your business, do you really need a plush office?  You may have already had to move to a home office because you can’t afford to pay for an external office anymore.   Is image important to what you are selling? If you are an attorney or in marketing, you might need something for potential clients to see that you are serious. You don’t have to go overboard like some Century City attorneys use to and have marble flown in from Italy and placed in your building!  A lot of attorneys are working from home so that they aren’t spending money that they don’t have and need to borrow to make ends meet.  Not such a bad idea these days, huh?

Think of ways to start up or continue your business that don’t cost money. Be creative. There are plenty of one dollar, 99 cents and inexpensive stores where you can find goods to fill the gap that expensive stores sell. A lot of times the products are the same and you are just paying more for the name recognition from buying it from that particular store.  Lots of people are finding joy in generics these days and if something is generic and works for your business your customers don’t need to know that you aren’t using the “name brand” that they might be expecting.  Let’s face it though, people would probably respect you more if you do business showing that you are saving money and not blowing cash on labels for clothes that don’t matter if you are running a car wash or discount shoe sales business.

Little things like that may sound cheap but if you are starting up from scratch, trying to take care of a family of four, have a special needs daughter or any or all of the above, you want to make every penny count. It will pay off down the line as well because other business people will respect you for watching your money. Potential investors will see that you can be trusted with money and won’t blow it all for things that won’t help your business.  If you can find people with cash to invest in your business these days they are worth their weight in gold.  Don’t kid yourself, there is plenty of investment money – it is just on the sidelines waiting to see where they should put it.

One last point. Nothing beats natural “word of mouth” advertising. The internet allows people to voice their opinion and tell you about goods and services. Sometimes some of the feedback systems can be manipulated but if you read between the lines, take the time to e-mail people or just ask your friends, you will see that honesty in business is rewarded with repeat business!

If you make a good product or offer a good service, people will come back (if they have the money). Not only is it a great and profitable idea (like the great and powerful Oz?), it will happen without you spending a cent (or euro, etc)!

For something that costs more than free, please check out one of my books from my site! 

And before I forget – Happy Birthday, Edy!

June 18 2009

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Keep Depression Start Up Costs Low

My answer is that once you have gotten an idea of the big picture, say, trying to eat an elephant, you need to break it down into small realizable goals, like eating one bite of pachyderm at a time. I will try in upcoming blogs to detail my approach to doing things. It is a combination of being organized, somewhat flexible and taking the time to relax so I can have the energy to do all the things that I do.

Start with your daily goals for your business plans. What do you want to do in the long run? Everybody is always going to answer something about working or money. What can you do on a daily basis to get there? I have very practical and detailed methods for the things that I do whether it is systems design, tax preparation, dancing, raising kids with my wife (well that needs LOTS of room of variation and improvisation). The first keynote thing is routine, and the easiest unit of time to do your routine is on a daily basis.

Start with something really simple. You need time to start planning your new business venture. Great. You are looking for work, tired, have kids screaming into your head, so what do you do? If you are a morning person, get up at 5:30 AM or 6:00 AM and give yourself five minutes – that is right, just start with five minutes-time to think about your desire and what and how you are going to go about doing it.

Keep a pad and paper handy so you can jot down notes in order to help materialize your thoughts. If you are a night owl, you will need the notes even more so in case you start dozing off late at night when you are trying to meditate or reflect on your business. You can use this technique on anything. It helps though to be patient and you need to learn how to relax. Try breathing slowly in and out.

Once the ideas start to flow, you need to make time – start with another five minutes to start to materialize them. By taking the time to make it happen you will get stronger and the technique will become easier each time you use it.

Take some time to study market conditions for what you are planning on doing as well. No sense in trying to set up an ice cream stand in the middle of the Arctic Circle until global warming has completely melted the polar ice caps.

The reason you want to start in small chunks is because you want to be able to show that you are making progress. It will help your spirit and your subconscious and will add to your self-confidence that you can do anything you want to.

Techniques like this of course are also full of pitfalls, the number one being make sure that you do reality checks to see if what you are trying to do is feasible. If you are 89 years old and want to be a basketball player you need to realize that it is a hard sell, even for the best of positive thinkers!

Practical applications of the lost art of keeping a routine are that you will soon learn what is working and what isn’t once your routine gets set. You will be able to fine tune your work, your studies or your life and like a clock, keep yourself and your loved ones in tune and on the ball.

Be well people and good luck to all of us.

April 24, 2009

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post.  There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

  Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books?  You may want to make a stop over  here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.  

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“?   Please order it today.  The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars!  Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later. 

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book  go  to Rett Syndrome research.  One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes.   My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime.  Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Your Daily Goals For Business Plans