Gerard Spinks UndagroundMilli

I was talking to a friend yesterday who was wondering about how to get more money back on his taxes. One thing that I’ve always encouraged friends and associates to do is to have a registered business with a website even if you have a job. Why? At a minimum, the United States government gives you a standard annual deduction of around $3,900 or more for each business that you have and that you are running.

When you do your taxes, you actually want your tax return to be thick and never thin. Each business that you have gets this standard deduction, therefore, if you have 3 businesses that you operate and that can be proved as legitimate businesses, you would have roughly $12,000 in deductions from operating these businesses against your income. This $12,000 would reduce your tax liability and income basis for taxing by the IRS.

In other words, let’s say you made $60,000 from your job and you had three side businesses that you really operate. Instead of the IRS taxing you on $60,000, you would be taxed on $48,000 which would minimize your tax liability. This is of course on the surface and you’ll have other things to factor in but you should see my point here.

I’m not suggesting propping up fake businesses. I’m saying if you really run outside businesses other than your job which many people in America do, you can organize it the right way and reduce your tax liability. As always, consult your tax accountant for accurate advice for your individual situation.

We the black people, of the United States of America, hereby claim that yes we will survive and continue to survive within corporate America and outside of corporate America. Many of us have survived insurmountable odds with the chips stacked against us, however, we have risen despite what things appeared.

If you can survive poverty, crime, family in jail, families in crisis, teenage pregnancy, raising a child or children on your own, you can continue to survive in this recession. How? The same thing that got us through the ghetto is the same thing that will get us through today: pure faith, action, and belief. One thing that’s needed to continue to survive and thrive in today’s economy is self leadership. This is the ability to lead and do stuff on your own without needing others or getting mad that others cannot help you.

It also takes strength to do this and have the ability to hang on despite challenges. This inner resolve needs to be strengthened each day in order to continue to do well in the world. Again, my contention is this: if YOU survived the ghetto, YOU can survive and thrive TODAY! Nothing can stop you, nothing can hold you back. YOU have whatever it takes inside of YOU to succeed right here, right now. Go get it!

Abiola Abrams in February 2011 Essence Magazine

Abiola Abrams' Passion Party in Essence Magazine February 2011

TV personality and author Abiola Abrams is doing it REAL BIG this month and this entire year of 2011! She appears in Essence Magazine on the shelves right now for the Valentine’s Day issue and appears on MTV this month in the hit series Made where she is a teen life coach for a great kid down in Atlanta, GA!

I woke up this morning and saw an alarming trending topic in my Firefox browser. Somehow, some media person wrote an article blaming President Obama for Egypt’s political unrest. Obviously, I was smdh at the article. Next, I will blame President Obama for my dog being hit by a car outside the condo in the busy section of Atlantic Station in Atlanta, GA! At this rate, any thing that goes on in the world, someone finds President Obama to blame for it.

And, on top of that, America is still poised to be the world’s freedom fighter and all countries know it. If anything happens across the world, everyone thinks of America first for help. Aren’t there other world powerhouses that can help other countries? Maybe this is just my ignorance of world economics and world powers but can’t Israel help? Israel has one of the strongest Navy’s in the world. What about Russia? Don’t they consider themselves to be amongst the world’s elite countries? China? Japan? Can anyone else jump in the fight and help out other countries?

Someone gets into a problem in their country politically and the first thing people do in America is protest and try to force President Obama to get America involved. But shouldn’t America be focusing on helping itself? Why on earth is America looked at as so strong yet it can hardly feed and employ it’s own citizens and immigrants right now?!

AMERICA! Stop helping everyone else with their battles and help Americans with our own battles. There are enough Americans and immigrants in America that need help and we do not need to keep sending troops, resources, money, air power, ground power, etc over to other countries to help them fight their battles.

Symmetry Entertainment and Tyler Perry Studio's Angi Bones honored by Women On The Move

Women On The Move, a non-profit organization based in South Florida, will be spreading their message of female empowerment to the city of Atlanta, Georgia. The Event titled “Feel Love, Show Love, Honor Love” will commence on Feb. 12, 2011 at the Mason Murer Fine Art Museum in Atlanta, GA at 7:00pm. Leslie Harris, Founder of WOTM, wanted to create an organization that also represents a movement targeted toward empowering women nationwide who are dedicated to making a change in the lives of others in addition to raising money to provide grant programs to aid in assisting less fortunate women.

Some of the honorees are: Valerie Jackson, former First Lady of Atlanta; Elder Bernice King, Activist, Philanthropist; Patricia Russell-McCloud, 11th National President of The Links, Inc., National Parliamentarian for AKA Sorority, Inc., and identified as one of the top ten speakers in America; Rashan Ali, radio and TV personality; Priya Scroggins, noted entrepreneur and Business Woman; Shannon Britton, Marketing Director of Diageo; Hattie Dorsey, Founder, and former President of The Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership; Mali Hunter, Co-Owner Tree Sound Recording Studios/Artist; Noni Nicholas, BET Network Creative Executive; Tameka Raymond, Philanthropist, Entrepreneur, (Multi-Business Owner); Darlene McCoy, Praise, Radio Personality; CEO Jamie Foster-Brown, Publisher of Sister to Sister Magazine; Karyn Greer, 11Alive Anchor, Entrepreneur; Angi Bones, Asst Director, Tyler Perry Studios and Film Producer; Mary Catherine Sneed, Former Chief Operating Officer of Radio One.

Read the entire Women On the Move Press Release.

2011 is the personal year of empowerment and change. This starts with being able to do two things really well when you’re ready: protect your money and budget your money. You don’t need to be rich to be able to start protecting your money. Money is an asset and like any asset it can be gone in an instant. Protecting your money means you need an adequate means by which to track and measure your money.

In 2011, you can start protecting your money by actually keeping a physical log of when and where you spend your money every single day. Let’s say you get paid today and that check is $1,300 bring home. You should track the amount you spend on gas, the amount you spend on groceries, the amount you spend on your cell phone bill, etc. Literally, write it down every day for a month and see where it goes. You’d be surprised to see that you may spend $125 per month on Popeye’s Chicken alone and that you withdraw $20 per day from the ATM for lunch which basically totals $400 per month on lunch.

Here’s where the protection comes in. You MUST protect that money from leaving your account and being spent on non essential wealth building items. You can only start to cut out excessive spending once you’re able to measure where your expenses go. Open up a spreadsheet and start to enter all of your expenses in it or download one of those expense tracking applications on your iPhone or Android Market and get busy protecting YOUR dough.

The only way to build and/or rebuild a solid financially footing is to measure where you are at today and how much money you spend on a daily basis. This is the key to your financial well being.