Month: August 2015
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Is your small business ready for the change in credit card rules?
We are now only six weeks away from a major shift in financial risk that affects every small business that accepts credit card payments. Yet many small business owners are still unaware of the change or have not considered the immediate impact of this fundamental change in their business. Beginning October 1 2015 a business that accepts a stolen…
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Starting a 401(k) plan for your small business
This post covers the planning steps required to help ensure the launch of a successful small business 401(k) plan. Planning First, consider whether you really want a 401(k) plan. It seems that every small business likes the idea of a 401(k) plan until they fully consider the cost, administrative requirements and restrictions placed on higher…
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A fresh look at solid state hard drives for PCs
This post is meant as quick and dirty summary practical advice for an average PC user based on what I’ve learned the hard way. The issue of replacing a hard drive came up again now because I am forced to deal with a problem in my Windows 10 upgrade process. Most PC technology advisers agree that the…
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Financial planning tips for seniors with unaffordable life insurance
Today’s Wall Street Journal covers the topic of retirees stung by collapsing life insurance policies in this low-interest environment. I added the comment: “For those unfortunate individuals who are caught in this situation, there are some tax saving strategies that can help soften the blow. I see too many individuals who lose the benefit of the…
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Reconciliation problem with Quickbooks
I am having a bank account reconciliation problem with QuickBooks and so this post is created so that i can ask for help with the diagnosis. The problem seems clear: Transactions are uncleared and are correctly marked as uncleared in the bank account register as illustrated. 2. Yet the same uncleared transactions are included in…
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Mourning the loss of my Republican party
Last night’s Republican debate very plainly shows why I conclude that my party is so out-of-touch with reality that they do not have any chance of assembling effective leadership. The top 10 presidential candidates talked on national television for a combined total of 64.5 minutes without any of them ever once mentioning even a single…
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How secure is Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and iCloud?
Editing note: This blog post was first published in August 2015 and updated in September 2016. The concern about hackers is always present but there have been no major data breaches reported for any of these covered services since the date of original publication of the blog post. Meanwhile, data security technology has evolved rapidly over the…