THE THEATRE, THE THEATRE

I just ordered a ticket for the new David Mamet political comedy NOVEMBER starring fellow Jersey City native Nathan Lane, ROSEANNE’s Laurie Metcalf and Dylan Baker for next Thursday night. One last night out on the town before I am chained to my home office desk for the two and a half months of the tax filing season!

I hadn’t heard of the show until a friend gave me a booklet of discount coupons at lunch yesterday.

The coupon promised a 30% savings for a price of only $69.00. Of course the price of the ticket was not $69.00 - with the various “service charges” it ended up at $78.00. Still, that’s better than the $99.50 box-office price. Now watch - NOVEMBER will be included in my next tdf offering for only $35.00! But then my $78.00 ticket is for the 5th row of the orchestra – while a tdf $35.00 ticket could be in the nosebleed section.

Anyway, to get the discount I went to www.broadwayoffers.com and typed in promotion code SAVE13. This discount is not just for NOVEMBER, but for most current Broadway offerings.

I also signed up my email address over at www.20at20.com to be notified of the next “20 at 20” promotion. Apparently during this promotion you can see an off-Broadway show for only $20.00 if you but the ticket 20 minutes before curtain. This promotion is offered by www.OFFBROADWAY.com. I learned about this in the same booklet that contained all the coupons.

TTYL

GREY SKIES ARE GOING TO CLEAR UP – PUT ON A HAPPY FACE!

HAVE YOU HEARD THE ONE ABOUT…

A tourist walks into a curio shop in San Francisco. He notices a very lifelike life-sized bronze statue of a rat. It has no price tag, but is so striking that he decides he must have it.

He takes it to the owner and asks, “How much is the bronze rat?”

The owner replies, “$12 for the rat and $100 for the story.”

The tourist gives the man $12 and says, “I’ll just take the rat. You can keep the story.”

As he walks down the street carrying his bronze rat, he notices that a few real rats have crawled out of the alleys and sewers and begun following him down the street.

This is disconcerting, and he begins to walk faster. But within a couple of blocks the herd of rats behind him has grown to hundreds, and they begin squealing. He starts to trot towards the Bay, looking a-round to see that the rats now number in the THOUSANDS, and are racing toward him.

Concerned, even scared, he runs to the edge of the Bay and throws the bronze rat as far out into the water as he can. Amazingly, the thousands of rats all jump into the Bay after it, and are all drowned.

The man walks back to the curio shop.

“Aha,” says the owner. “You are back for the story.”

“No,” says the man. “I came back to see if you have a bronze lawyer!”

TTYL

ON THAT GREAT COME AND GET IT DAY

On Saturday I attended the annual NJ State Tax Seminar sponsored by the NJ chapter of the National Association of Tax Professionals held each year at the Woodbridge Hilton. One of the speakers was from the NJ office of “Unclaimed Property”.

The speaker estimated that 1 in 10 New Jersey residents have “unclaimed property” being held for them by the State of New Jersey or another state.

I was able to find $4,500+ in “unclaimed property” for my father last year through the NJ Unclaimed Property office. Check out my WANDERING TAX PRO postings on “How I Made Over $4,500 by Watching Good Morning America” Part I and Part II.

NJ residents should go here to begin a search for unclaimed property. Each state has a similar office of Unclaimed or Abandoned Property. Check out the home page of your state’s website, or the website of the Revenue or Taxation department or division of your state.

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TTYL

MY BOY, BILL! HE’LL BE TALL AND AS TOUGH AS A TREE

I recently received a forwarded email with the following story about a speech that Bill Gates recently gave to high school students. If you ask me his talk contained some good advice for today’s youth:

“Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1 - Life is not fair - get used to it!

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Rule 2 - The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

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Rule 3 - You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

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Rule 4 - If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

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Rule 5 - Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

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Rule 6 - If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

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Rule 7 - Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

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Rule 8 - Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

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Rule 9 - Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

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Rule 10 - Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

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Rule 11 - Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.”

TTYL

CAN YOU USE ANY MONEY TODAY?

“If there is a better plan . . . put it on the table.”

So challenged New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine in his State of the State address on Tuesday.

Instead of following the annual custom of balancing the budget by nickel and diming NJ residents and businesses with a variety of tax and fee increases, Corzine has chosen put all his increases in one place by raising the tolls on the NJ Turnpike, the Garden State Parkway and the Atlantic City Expressway by about 800% over the next 14 years!

Well I certainly have a better plan – cut spending!

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Corzine’s reply to this was “Pigs will fly over the Statehouse before there is a realistic level of … spending cuts that can fix this mess.” He estimated that to achieve his goal with spending cuts would mean cutting $5 Billion, or 15%, of the state budget.

So what – so cut! You don’t mean to tell me that the NJ budget does not contain at least 20% in pork! What about all the politicians with two and three paying jobs that are getting double and triple health and pension benefits? What about the fact that while 99% of employees in the private sector are paying at least a portion of their own health insurance premiums through payroll deduction, NJ state and local employees continue to get excellent coverage 100% free of charge?

As I have said in my blogs time and time again – the typical response of the politician to budget gaps nowadays, on all government levels, is to raise taxes and fees and never to cut expenses.

Corzine has proven to be a great disappointment. Many of us in New Jersey were pleased that an “outsider” - someone from the private financial industry - was elected to such a high office. His inaugural address was full of promises of fiscal responsibility and getting rid of the corruption that has existed for decades throughout New Jersey government. But he has done none of what he promised. Any reforms that have managed to pass during his tenure have been so watered down so as to accomplish nothing of any consequence.

The increased homestead rebate checks were a joke. Corzine paid for them with an increase in the sales tax – so “Uncle Jon” took money out of your right pocket so he could put it in your left pocket! Real estate taxes continue to rise in NJ.

As I have said before, as soon as my parents go on to their final audit I am moving to Pennsylvania!

TTYL

WHAT KIND OF FOOL IS HE?

I couldn’t wait until the next “A LITTLE THIS-A…” posting to report an article I discovered on the home page of my email provider Mail.com titled “Dr. Phil Criticized for Britney Brouhaha”.

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According to the article, the professional psychiatric community has echoed my concerns about the jury consultant’s intrusion into Britney’s problems. The article quotes Dr. Jeffrey Sugar, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry, crisis and emergency service for the University of Southern California (who, by the way, does not have his own talk show):

"It's true people sometimes need to be placed under involuntary mental health treatment because they can't take care of themselves. But there's a difference between being detained involuntarily for psychological treatment and being forced to endure Dr. Phil involuntarily."

TTYL

A LITTLE THIS-A AND A LITTLE THAT-A – WITH THE EMPHASIS ON THE LATTA!

+ The AARP BULLETIN provides a good review of reverse mortgages in “Making Your House Work”. Jim of BLUEPRINT FOR FINANCIAL PROSPERITY also discusses the issue in “What Is A Reverse Mortgage?”.

Speaking of the association for retired persons, AARP can now join AARP as this year marks the 50th anniversary of the organization.

+ Chris Pummer’s column “Shades of Green” at MARKET WATCH brings us some disturbing news with “Cracking the Whip: Credit-Card Issuers Sock Late Payers with 30%-Plus Default Rates”

Chris reports that, “Faced with mounting account delinquencies, major U.S. banks are penalizing credit-card customers late on payments by hiking their accounts to maximum default interest rates of 30% and more -- even those with good credit records”

+ Here’s a good idea – start 2008 off right by setting up an automatic savings plan. Jeremy Vohwinkle of ABOUT.COM: FINANCIAL PLANNING tells you how in his post “Make Saving Automatic”.

+ MARKET WATCH reports that “Treasury Plans Social Security Debit Card”. According to the article –

“The Direct Express debit card, set to be announced today, will be introduced in a handful of states this spring and rolled out nationwide by the end of the summer. Dallas-based Comerica Inc.'s Comerica Bank has been selected as the card issuer for the program, which is targeted at Social Security and Supplemental Security Income recipients who don't have a bank account.”

I am not quite aboard with this new idea. I am concerned that this creates another card that can be stolen. SS beneficiaries with a bank account can have their check directly deposited and then use their bank’s own debit card. And it also creates additional bank processing fees for seniors. I can, however, see a possible benefit for recipients who do not have a regular bank account.

+ I noticed a headline on my Comcast home page on Monday that indicated that Britney Spears may not have been pleased with jury consultant “Dr Phil” sticking his nose in her business.

McGraw was correct when he said that Ms Spears needs professional medical and psychological help. However what she does not need is for Phil to try to pull a “Pat O’Brien” and exploit Britney’s woes to get himself another truly unnecessary prime time special.

TTYL

A LITTLE THIS-A AND A LITTLE THAT-A – WITH THE EMPHASIS ON THE LATTA!

+ When I tuned in to KIXI-FM streaming online from Seattle WA on the morning of New Year’s Day guess what I found?

HOA, Herb Oscar Anderson, has joined the roll of syndicated MUSIC OF YOUR LIFE radio hosts – replacing Deanna Martin (Dino’s daughter) and husband in the 6:00–10:00 AM est slot. Deanna and husband have moved to the noon to 3:00 pm est spot.

Those of you who grew up in the 60s in the NY metropolitan area are certainly familiar with the former WABC-AM “Morning Mayor”, father of Dynasty’s John James.

Welcome back HOA! It’s déjà vu all over again.

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+ The DOUGH ROLLER takes an interesting slant on personal financial planning in his post “To Make Good Decisions, Think Like Mr. Spock but Act Like Captain Kirk”.

+ An article on the MARKET WATCH list of the 10 best personal finance stories of 2007 reported that, based on an annual Relocate-America survey, “Asheville, N.C., Tops America's Best Places to Live”.

I visited Asheville a few years back to attend an NSTP year-end tax update seminar. Actually I celebrated the 50th anniversary of my birth in Asheville. It was certainly a nice place to visit, but at the time I was not looking to relocate. It is the home of the humongous Biltmore Estate.

The article lists America's Top 10 places to live for 2007” from the survey. The list includes Chicago and San Francisco. I was not surprised that the top 10 didn’t include anyplace in New Jersey.

+ The PERSONAL FINANCE MORON rightly points out what a bad idea a “Home Equity Debit/Credit Card” is. Moron states “It's bad enough that there are millions of people that can't use an Unsecured Credit Card responsibly, but now the banks are going to make it as easy, and as tempting as possible, to access every last dime of your home equity. No wonder the financial sector, particularly the lenders, are in such trouble right now”.

+ Kristine McKinley of FINANCIAL TIPS FOR WAHMS reports that “2007 A Winning Year on Wall Street”.

Kristine also provides a good review of “What Makes Up Your Credit Score?”

TTYL

SWEET CHARITY

While I know the holiday gift-giving season is over, here is an interesting alternative to giving a store gift card. You can give a gift card for a donation to charity.

Tisbest.org sells charity gift cards that work just like other online gift cards, except that instead of buying stuff in a store, the recipient spends it to support a charity, or charities, of their choice.

You purchase a card in someone else’s name online at Tisbest.org for between $10 and $5,000. You can choose from 50 meaningful images for your Charity Gift Card, and each card can include a personal message from you. Tisbest.org will deliver the gift card via email to the “giftee”, who can choose to whom to donate the money from among 200 carefully chosen and responsible charities representing a wide range of causes, from animals to arts to environmental preservation to education and humanitarian efforts.

The 200 charities include the Red Cross, Amnesty International, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Habitat for Humanity, American Diabetes Association, ASPCA, and National Public Radio.

There is a flat $3.95 transaction fee regardless of the amount of the card and a 3% credit card processing fee. So if you chose to give a $100.00 Charity Gift Card, the charities will ultimately receive $93.05. The person who buys the card will receive a receipt for a $100.00 contribution, which may be tax deductible if the charity qualifies as a tax-exempt “501(c)(3)” organization.

As I have pointed out in THE WANDERING TAX PRO in the past, the person who pays for the donation is entitled to the tax deduction, and not the person in whose name the donation is made, or, or in this case, the recipient of the Charity Gift Card.

TTYL

IS ANYBODY THERE? DOES ANYBODY CARE?

On November 30th I posted the first ANYTHING BUT TAXES online trivia contest.

Here is what I asked:

(1) What was my source material for the titles of the November (and future) posting to ANYTHING BUT TAXES?

(2) One of the titles strays a bit from the source material, although there is a definite link. Identify the title and explain why it is different.

I did not receive a single entry!

I don’t think my questions were that hard. I guess you guys aren’t interested in such a contest – so it will be a long time before I post another one.

For anyone who is interested, here are the answers:

(1) Each title of a posting to ANYTHING BUT TAXES from its beginning through the end of December was either the title of or a lyric from a musical number that appeared in a Broadway musical.

For example - the title of my initial post, “WILLKOMMEN, BIENVENUE, WELCOME!”, was from CABARET, as was “"WELL, THAT’S WHAT COMES FROM TOO MUCH PILLS AND LIQUOR” (from the title song). ”EVERYONE WILL LOVE YOU IF YOU BE A SANTA CLAUS!” is from the song “Be A Santa” from SUBWAYS ARE SLEEPING. The title of the post introducing the contest, “WILL EVERYONE HERE KINDLY STEP TO THE REAR AND LET A WINNER LEAD THE WAY” is from HOW NOW DOW JONES. And “A LITTLE THIS-A AND A LITTLE THAT-A – WITH THE EMPHASIS ON THE LATTA” is a song from DAMN YANKEES.

(2) The one posting title that strayed a bit was “ONCE, YES, ONCE IS DELICIOUS – BUT TWICE WOULD BE VICIOUS, OR JUST REPETITIOUS". This was from the song “I Never Do Anything Twice” written by Stephen Sondheim - not for a Broadway musical but for the Sherlock Holmes movie THE SEVEN PERCENT SOLUTION. The link to Broadway is, of course, Stephen Sondheim.

It has been fun searching for Broadway song titles or lyrics to use as the titles for my posts, but not always easy. Since I am becoming much busier as I prepare for the upcoming tax filing season I will take a break from this practice. While I will attempt to continue to try to use song titles or lyrics for my titles, they will not always be from Broadway.

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Hey, can anyone out there tell me what Broadway musical had a song with the lyrics “LBJ TOOK THE IRT DOWN TO 4th STREET USA. WHEN HE GOT THERE WHAT DID HE SEE? THE YOUTH OF AMERICA ON LSD!", the title of my November 23rd posting on acronyms? Same prize!

TTYL