With summer in full swing, for some of my Chino clients it means that the children are more "present" than they might otherwise be. The wallet might feel a little more leaky than normal, with summer camp expenses (and there *are* certain tax deductions for those, if...

Last week I wrote about worry, and this week ... well, the summer is fully upon us, and as things get hotter, some days I come into the office and without the intensity of tax return filing season to keep me distracted, I occasionally find myself a little stuck. Can...

There are so many things in our modern world that are true causes for concern. Whatever your politics, the atmosphere in Washington is tense. There is unrest across the culture, and a sense that many of the things that we have grown to rely upon aren't nearly as...

There comes a point when you hear news such as we all saw unfold over the weekend in London (and earlier in the week in Manchester, UK), and it's tempting to just go numb. It feels like survival, during these crazy times. But I'm fighting to care, and not just tune...

Memorial Day is behind us, and our lives move forward. Mere words, even a full day of memorializing cannot measure the worth and honor due to our fallen service men and women. For many of us, a 3-day weekend ushers in the summer ... and maybe that's because the task...

The other day, the New York Times ran a story that spoke to one of my favorite topics: keeping our minds clear. The subject was the seemingly-endless barrage of news stories about the current administration, and the challenges of navigating your mind to be free of it...

You'd probably be surprised if you sat in on some of the meetings I have with some of my tax planning and preparation clients. This is by no means the majority of my clients, but there is certainly a good subset of people who have piled away a ton of financial...

Not a huge amount of "tax news" these days ... we're watching Congressional movement on tax reform, Obamacare, etc. but right now, it's all mostly just talk. But that's politics, I suppose. Which is a good argument for not diving too deeply into it. Now ... moving to...

First off, now that May is upon us, we're moving into a different mode. We have a few clients on extension (and with whom we will continue to correspond), but our attention is now more turned to other matters: tax planning (more about that soon), working with Chino...

When I say, "3.5 months of labor," I'm not actually referring to the work we do here in our Chino tax office on behalf of our clients. (Frankly, we work the entire year so that these past few months would NOT be as crazy as they might otherwise be.) Nope, I'm...

Lifting my heavily-lidded eyes to peer up through the haze of government forms and procedures, I peek at the calendar, which today said: April 17. (If any of the above sounded slightly poetic, that's the coffee talking; I'm a Chino tax accountant, after all.) Yes,...

Last week, I wrote all about those deadlines. <shiver> I know for a fact that the very word can strike pain and anxiety into the hearts of certain of my clients (who shall remain nameless). So, this week ... well, I'm going to give you the chance to exhale a...