Sorry folks, I have been off the grid for a while. I was in
England and Scotland with my wife, mother-in-law, youngest daughter, and her friend
for a week. It was a great trip; I highly recommend Scotland, an incredibly
beautiful country where the single malt runs free. I am not a golfer but I did
have the opportunity to see the Old Course at St. Andrews, which was incredible.
The beaches surrounding the town, specifically the 18th hole, are
breathtaking. I was told the training scenes for Chariots of Fire were filmed there; see the below picture of my
youngest daughter, Mina, and her friend on the beach. Cue the music.
The problem with vacations is you have to come back to work.
I returned just before the April 15th tax deadline and was bombarded
with last minute tax planning issues. No matter how much advance warning you
give, most of us tend to wait until the last minute take action.
It doesn’t take any more effort to plan and prepare early
then it does to wait until the last minute. Actually, one could make the
argument that it takes less time since you aren’t rushed or stressed out. Here
are four things you can do before
April 15th, 2016 right now:
·
Make your IRA contribution for 2015. You can
contribute $5,500 this year and if you are over 50, you can contribute an
additional $1,000;
·
Have your accountant estimate your 2105 SEP IRA
contribution and begin contributing during the course of the year;
·
Fund your 529 accounts during the course of the
year;
·
Consider establishing a Donor Advised Fund for
your charitable and philanthropic giving.
So why do we wait
until the last minute? Is it the thrill of pushing the envelope to the edge? Or
are we are just too busy? For most of us, we are always busy, so why not take
care of something sooner, rather than later?
I think the problem is inertia. It is easier to postpone
than take action. What if we were to complete something when presented to us
immediately, instead of waiting? A friend of my wife’s has a system in which
she completes a task whenever it is presented to her. If she gets an invitation
to an event, she sends the RSVP right away. A client needs a new proposal? She
does it immediately. I tried implementing this in my life and it truly works.
If you don’t believe me, try it for a week. Don’t jot down another thing in
your to do list or flag an email as a future task. Knock it out now! The stress
of tasks lining up like planes waiting to take off at LaGuardia will evaporate
and you’ll have one less thing to worry about.
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