Refinancing At Today's Low Mortgage Rates

In Florida a huge number of people have lost their homes to foreclosures, short sales or have no equity because of the downfall in the real estate market.  But there are still a few people who have 5, 6 or 7% mortgages and have equity in their homes.  IF you are one of those, this is a great time to refinance.  Refinancing homes and pulling cash out was one of the big mistakes people made when the market was going up up up in value.  I NEVER recommend refinancing your house and taking out cash for ANY reason because I believe EVERYONE should try to become debt free.  That being said, if you can take your current mortgage at 6% and get a 3.9% interest rate for very little cost, then you should definitely consider doing this.  There are several great places to refinance right now including places like your credit union, some online loan companies and even banks.  I will be glad to analyze your situation to help you determine if this makes sense for you.

Links In Emails from Friends

We all have to be getting these.  An email from a friend with no text but just a link to click on.  Or else some text like "This is the best website to buy electronics.  I just bought an iPhone.....etc etc etc and then a link to click on"...

We should all know that our friends are NOT trying to sell us electronics.  We should all know that our friends would not send us an email with a link to click on without any explanation.  We should all know that these links are probably viruses or spyware.  Why take a chance?  If you get something suspicious, it is probably not safe.

Estate Taxes

This is a complicated issue and I am not going to explain every possibility here, but in general, my projection is that most people who have an estate below $3,000,000 don't need to worry too much about estate taxes.  As many of you have heard, the cuts on estate taxes will expire December 31st meaning that estates worth more than $1 million could be taxed but I believe Congress will not touch estates up to $3 million (I have been wrong more than once so keep on top of the news).....

That being said, IF your estate exceeds these amounts, then you should consider making annual tax-free gifts of $13,000 per person to reduce your estate now....

Free Advertising for Your Business

Wow!  What a great Win! Win! these websites are.  Groupon.com and LivingSocial.com are 2 websites I highly recommend for both the end user and the business who wants to advertise for basically free.  I am not going to give you all of the details here, but if you want more information, please let me know.  I have been going on things like Paddleboarding, Segways, etc. all from coupons on the above websites as a customer.  When I did the Segway ride I spoke extensively with my "Captain" and learned all about how these companies work.  In a nutshell, the website gets like 20% of the "proceeds" from the coupon and you as the buyer gets either cupcakes, movie tickets, dance lessons, massages or whatever the business of the day is offering at a super price, and the business gets more business than they know what to do with.  My Segway company received almost 500 new customers from the 1 day coupon and they are a brand new business so this was phenomenal for them.  And even though they sold the Segway ride at half price AND gave Groupon.com 20% of the proceeds, they get to keep 100% of the "upsells" such as the DVD I of course had to buy, etc. etc.  A cupcake company sold 2,000 coupons which was their limit and they reached this limit after about 6 hours......Anyway...as I said, this is Win! Win! Win!  If you have a business that wants to grow....talk to me about this...

Fake Emails from the IRS

Since they wrote it best, I actually copied all of this right off the IRS website.  Many people are getting "fake" emails supposedly from the IRS....please read below on what to do if you get one of these:

How to Report and Identify Phishing, E-mail Scams and Bogus IRS Web Sites

The IRS does not initiate taxpayer communications through e-mail. The IRS does not request detailed personal information through e-mail. The IRS does not send e-mail requesting your PIN numbers, passwords or similar access information for credit cards, banks or other financial accounts. Report suspicious e-mails and bogus IRS Web sites to phishing@irs.gov. Current fraud risk related to EFTPS. If you receive an e-mail from someone claiming to be the IRS or directing you to an IRS site, Do not reply. Do not open any attachments. Attachments may contain malicious code that will infect your computer. Do not click on any links. If you clicked on links in a suspicious e-mail or phishing Web site and entered confidential information, visit our Identity Theft page. Use the following steps to report the e-mail or bogus Web site to the IRS. How to report phishing, e-mail scams and bogus IRS Web sitesIf you receive an e-mail or find a Web site you think is pretending to be the IRS, Forward the e-mail or Web site URL to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov. You can forward the message as received or provide the Internet header of the e-mail. The Internet header has additional information to help us locate the sender. After you forward the e-mail or header information to us, delete the message. How to identify phishing e-mail scams and bogus IRS Web sites Sample of phishing e-mails First sample of an actual phishing e-mail - PDF Second sample of an actual phishing e-mail - PDF All IRS.gov Web page addresses begin with, http://www.irs.gov/. Is it a phishing Web site? - PDF Are you a victim of Identity Theft? Contact the Federal Trade Commission at 1-877-IDTHEFT (438-4338) Visit the IRS Identity Theft resource page You may also report misuse of the IRS name, logo, forms or other IRS property to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration toll-free at 1-800-366-4484. Additional resources OnGuardOnline.gov provides protection tips from the federal government and the technology industry. Press releases and more What is Phishing, Beware of Phishing Schemes IR-2006-49, IRS Establishes e-Mail Box for Taxpayers to Report Phony e-Mails. The 2010 'Dirty Dozen' Tax Scams You can also forward suspicious e-mails to the Federal Trade Commission at: spam@uce.gov or contact them at 1-877-IDTHEFT (438-4338). Having trouble downloading a PDF

Where To Invest

Everyday someone asks me where to invest their money.  This would be a great topic to open up to everyone and see what suggestions others have.  We all know the stock market has been more than volatile the past few years with finally a great comeback in 2009 but tumbling up and down in 2010 again.  You can't even keep up with inflation if you have your money in CD's or money market accounts at your bank....but at least your funds are basically safe.  As many of you know, I invest in real estate but the market conditions are very tenuous right now and you must be so very careful in what you buy.  I am successfully flipping houses right now....but it is not for the faint of heart in this market.  So then, what should a person do who wants to make a reasonable return on their money?  My suggestion is find out what you love and try to figure out a way to make money doing that....find your passion and turn it into a business...

From Sunbiz.org website

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY! The Division of Corporations no longer has authority to waive the $400 late fee for annual reports filed after May 1st. The provision for waiver in s. 607.193(2)(b),F.S. was repealed during the 2010 Legislative Session. All business entities except non-profit corporations must pay the late fee if the annual report is filed after May 1st.

CONSUMER ALERT! Please be aware that notices are being sent by two entities that are not associated with the Division of Corporations. Compliance Services is requesting "Annual Minutes" and a fee of $125.00. "Annual Minutes" are not required to be filed with any state agency. Florida Online Corporate Annual Report Filings is sending e-mail messages "inviting" businesses to file the annual report from their website. Do not be misled by these messages. Make sure you are on the Department of State, Division of Corporations official website (www.sunbiz.org) when you file the 2010 annual report.