Author: Tony Novak
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A Reflection on My History with Sustainability Investing
The 1960s and 1970s were a time of growing awareness about the climate crisis. Popular folk musicians dominated the record player in my house, and subscriptions to Organic Gardening, Popular Science, and Reader’s Digest helped shape my earliest impressions. On the inaugural Earth Day in 1970, Walter Cronkite hosted a program titled Earth Day: A…
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USDA abandons environmental research
My life has been deeply intertwined with agricultural research. From my childhood on an organic farm to participating in 4H clubs, attending Delaware Valley College of Science and Agriculture, conducting cancer research at Smith Kline Beckman, studying microbiology in graduate school at Temple University, and now supporting research projects at BaySave in Money Island, NJ.…
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My Journey Working with the Immigrant Business Community
warning: direct discussion of U.S. politics and racism Three life events that led to my focus on serving the immigrant business community I did not intend to choose immigrant clients as a service niche. But as I notice more and more of my best clients fitting this description, I took time to think about events…
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Book review and highlights: “How Successful People Think” by John Maxwell
Originally published as ‘Thinking for A Change’ in 2003. I purchased the book in September 2024 at the book store at Cumberland Mall and focused on reading it February and March of 2025. The book is largely an effectively arranged collection of quotations and citations of other writers. I think the most value I can…
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Who wins and who loses under the new IRS?
The IRS is reducing its work force, adding new AI enforcement tools, while the Criminal Investigation division is shifting its resources, agents, and focus from the nearly $700 Billion small-business tax gap enforcement to combating border-related crimes. Without the threat of criminal prosecutions, the behavior of other taxpayers is likely to shift. While there is…
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QuickBooks and Mailchimp integration in microbusinesses and small nonprofits
Intuit, the owner of QuickBooks, acquired Mailchimp in 2021. Since then, the firm encouraged its Proadvisors to boost their knowledge of the integration between the two platforms. I spent some time learning but have not found it so effective for my businesses, my clients, or associated nonprofits outside of periodic newspaper use. (That is another…
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Coping with Financial Insecurity Caused by Government
A lot of us learned this past month that our lives are not as financially secure as we believed. Today’s news and emails are buzzing with fears of individuals facing strongly worded government demands to pay back money that they never received. Small business farmers in our South Jersey region had spring contract payments cancelled,…