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January 3, 2023

A 39-year-old who makes $160,000/month in passive income shares his best advice

When setting up a business, it’s occasionally challenging to know what to prioritize, and going at it by yourself can be mind-boggling. But there are tactics you can use to stay clear of widespread pitfalls.

My mission is to instruct people today how to generate revenue from their passions. It is really what I did: I went from dwelling on food items stamps to setting up two on line businesses.

Today, I operate a songs blog site, The Recording Revolution, and a entrepreneurship coaching business. I get the job done just five hrs a week from my house office environment and make $160,000 a thirty day period in passive revenue.

This is what I notify my 3,000 clientele to think about in the very first 30 times of starting off a business enterprise:

1. Be obvious about how you want to invest your time.

Many new enterprise entrepreneurs I meet up with know only one particular thing: how considerably cash they want to make.

Although that’s a fantastic starting up place, it truly is incomplete. Your small business should provide your daily life, not the other way around. So make guaranteed it aligns with your hopes, dreams and targets.

To get clear about the style of organization and life you want, inquire three questions:

What does a best day appear like to you? Will not just feel about your regular workday. Consider other everyday living pursuits you want to healthy into your day, like doing exercises or expending time with family members.
How lots of several hours do you want to operate a week? You never have to adhere to the typical 40-hour workweek. Understanding accurately how a lot of several hours you want to function will enable you improved prioritize jobs.
How essential is time off? Some men and women you should not care substantially about getting time off, as lengthy as they appreciate what they do. Other people worth prolonged time off. In get to have funds flowing in when you might be not operating, you can want to have some sort of passive income stream.

2. Simplify your enterprise model.

When I started out my audio instruction small business, people informed me I wanted to take a look at my revenue pages, throw start events and pre-history a bunch of ads in buy to develop.

Rather than stretching myself skinny doing factors that failed to make sense to me, I held it simple and concentrated on 3 points: developing weekly content for my site and YouTube channel, rising my email checklist from that audience, and advertising the compensated products I produced to that record.

If you are just starting off out, create articles all around your knowledge to expand an audience. It isn’t going to have to be fantastic. You can iterate as you go and style and design new products based mostly on what your consumers want additional of.

3. Lower out unwanted each day duties.

Discover what daily pursuits will help you make additional. You should not waste time or melt away on your own out focusing on unimportant duties.

It might truly feel very good to get to inbox zero or improve the coloration of the buttons on your internet site, in particular in the early times the place you want to experience like you have obtained a aim. But neither of all those factors will make you money.

Ahead of you begin a new job, check with by yourself a few issues:

What is the expected final result for doing this endeavor?
Does it lead to additional income?
Can I point to a direct hyperlink concerning performing that process and earning cash flow?
What is actually the expense of executing this as a substitute of a little something else?

4. Prioritize owning enjoyment.

Folks can inform if you happen to be just carrying out something for the dollars or if you actually really like what you do. That authenticity will hook up you deeper to your shoppers and it will sustain you for the lengthy haul.

You you should not want to burn off out for the reason that you expended all your time undertaking things that were not significant to you.

I normally give my pupils this framework when they are commencing their entrepreneur journey: Build a company close to some thing you see yourself accomplishing and taking pleasure in for the up coming 10 decades.

Graham Cochrane is founder of The Recording Revolution and author of “How to Get Paid for What You Know.” He has served much more than 3,000 men and women launch and make improvements to their have organizations. Adhere to him on Instagram and Twitter.

Do not miss out on:

I quit my $35K job to grow my side hustle — now it brings in $141 million a year

December 22, 2022

Trump paid no federal income tax in his last year as president

New York
CNN
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It will take time for lawmakers and the public to digest the trove of documents relating to former President Donald Trump’s tax returns released Tuesday night by the House Ways and Means Committee.

Trump repeatedly defied convention and refused to release his tax returns both as a presidential candidate and as a sitting president.

The committee, which is responsible for IRS oversight and writing tax policy, had long sought and finally obtained just a few weeks ago Trump’s tax returns for 2015 through 2020. Its stated aim was to review “how the IRS enforces the federal tax laws against, and ensures compliance by a president.”

Here are some of the top initial takeaways from the committee’s report, which includes both its analysis of the IRS presidential audit program and an analysis of Trump’s returns by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation.

The Ways and Means Committee asserts that the IRS presidential audit program was “dormant” during Trump’s term.

The report found that during Trump’s time in office the IRS opened only one “mandatory” audit – for his 2016 tax return. And that didn’t take place until the fall of 2019, after Chairman Neal first sent a letter asking the IRS for Trump’s returns and tax information.

It also notes that the agency had opened an audit earlier that year for his 2015 return but it was not designated as mandatory.

The 2017 tax return, meanwhile, was marked as “evaluated and picked up for examination, if necessary.”

It remains unclear why the IRS wasn’t more active in auditing Trump’s returns while president.

“Despite knowledge of an ongoing Congressional investigation and the Manual, no priority was given to the mandatory audit program by the prior Administration,” the report asserts.

Sen. Ron Wyden, who chairs the tax writing committee in the Senate, said Wednesday “the IRS was asleep at the wheel, and the presidential audit program is broken. There is no justification for the failure to conduct the required presidential audits until a congressional inquiry was made. I have additional questions about the extent to which resource issues or fear of political retaliation from the White House contributed to lapses here.”

Many Democrats, including those on the committee, as well as tax policy experts suggest that a lack of resources, including manpower to handle highly complex audits like those of Trump, may also be a factor.

“It’s easy to find the IRS deficient. They’re starved for resources. Rich guys can take advantage of the tax law because the IRS doesn’t have the resources to go after them,” said Steven M. Rosenthal, senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute.

CNN reached out to the IRS, which did not have an immediate comment.

‘Millions of unsubstantiated deductions’: Lawmaker on Trump’s tax returns

After years of carrying forward big losses to greatly reduce if not zero out his federal income tax liability, Trump reported a considerable tax bill in the middle two years of his presidency, according to tables in the JCT report.

Trump paid a combined $1.1 million in federal income taxes in 2018 and 2019, a stark contrast to the $750 he paid in 2017 and $0 in 2020.

His taxable income in 2018 neared $23 million, which included a $22 million capital gain.

The next year, he reported close to $3 million in taxable income, with a capital gain of $9 million.

However, in 2020, Trump reported losses of over $16 million, large enough to reduce his federal income tax bill that year to $0.

For many years, prior to his running for president, a New York Times investigation showed that Trump had claimed huge net operating losses that he was allowed to carry forward and apply to future tax years, which greatly reduced or simply wiped out his annual income tax liability.

“It’s the 2,000-pound gorilla. … He still uses the net operating losses to reduce his tax liability,” Rosenthal said.

For example, the JCT noted that Trump carried forward $105 million in losses on his 2015 return, $73 million in 2016, $45 million in 2017 and $23 million in 2018.

The JCT report raises questions about the accuracy of some huge charitable deductions Trump claimed on several of Trump’s tax returns. Deductions can limit the amount of income tax owed.

In 2015, Trump claimed a $21.1 million deduction for donating 158 acres of his 212-acre property called Seven Springs in North Castle, New York. The donation, which was made to a land trust, is a focus of the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal investigation of the Trump Organization’s finances.

The IRS allows an income tax deduction for owners who give up rights to their land for the purpose of conservation, but the IRS has raised questions about whether the value of Trump’s land donation was inflated.

The JCT report noted that an IRS agent assigned to audit Trump’s taxes suggested disallowing the entire $21.1 million deduction because Trump did not get a qualified appraisal for the land. The agent alternatively suggested reducing the value of the deduction by more than half and said the appraiser may be subject to a fine for potentially misstating the value of the land.

Since Trump did not have any taxable income in 2015, the deduction was limited – but it can be carried forward and deducted in future years.

The IRS audit of the Seven Springs donation is ongoing. A site visit occurred in January and agents met with appraisers as recently as November, according to the JCT report.

The report also raised questions about cash donations that Trump claimed as charitable deductions.

In 2016 and 2017, Trump claimed nearly $1.2 million and $1.9 million, respectively, in charitable contributions, the bulk of which were made in cash. Trump, again, had no taxable income in either year, but he was able to carry forward the deduction to future years, further limiting the amount of federal income tax he had to pay. The JCT said the large cash contributions merited a review.

Trump had taxable income in 2018 and 2019 and reported cash donations of just over $500,000 each year. That means he was able to claim a charitable contribution deduction those years. The JCT suggested Trump should be asked to substantiate those large cash donations.

The JCT report authors wrote that while it identified a number of items worth of examination, they “express no opinion whether the examination of those items would have resulted in any proposed tax increases.”

Shortly after The New York Times published a blockbuster story on September 27, 2020, that detailed Trump’s tax returns, the IRS met internally to discuss how to manage a review of the then-president’s taxes.

During the meeting, mention was made of the “history of difficult negotiations” between IRS staff and Trump’s lawyers, according to the JCT report.

IRS regulators also laid out a strategy at that meeting for evaluating Trump’s finances, setting criteria to make the process manageable given the large number of pass-through entities. Trump’s trust has ownership of various pass-through entities, the income and deductions of which flow to Trump’s federal income tax return.

In March 2021, the IRS contacted Trump’s representatives that an audit had begun for his 2017 and 2018 tax returns.

Around this time, Trump’s team called the IRS to discuss the size of the team evaluating the tax returns. Three agents were assigned, compared to the typical single agent.

The IRS team manager explained to Trump’s representatives that the agency had deemed the 2017 tax return as “high risk,” requiring additional team members to examine the more than 400 flow-through entities. The examination would represent most or all of the three IRS agents’ case loads.

Trump’s team also expressed concern about the scope of the review, which looked back as far as 2014 because of deductions that Trump claimed in that year that carried over and reduced his tax burden in subsequent years.

The Ways and Means Committee said it intends to release the Trump tax returns at issue in its report.

The release could come in a matter of days. First, Neal said, sensitive personal information such as Social Security numbers and account numbers must be redacted.

Meanwhile, Neal has proposed legislation that would codify the mandatory audit program “to require the IRS to conduct mandatory audits while a President is in office and publicly disclose related returns and return information.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House will “move swiftly to advance” that bill.

Swiftness will be required if the bill is to pass and become law. The Democrats hand over control in the House to the Republicans on January 3.

February 23, 2022

The impact of racial discrimination and income

Researchers have observed higher COVID-19-related hospitalization and mortality rates among racially minoritized groups and people with lower incomes.
A recent review describes how high poverty rates and racial discrimination led to these disparities in COVID-19-related health outcomes.
Preexisting medical conditions are more prevalent in individuals with a lower income and those who belong to historically marginalized groups, making them more susceptible to the negative health effects of COVID-19.
Factors associated with high poverty rates and racial discrimination, such as limited access to healthcare, residential segregation, overcrowding, poor housing conditions, and high risk work conditions, have also contributed to the disparities in COVID-19-related health outcomes.

The health effects of COVID-19 have disproportionately affected individuals belonging to low income and racially or ethnically minoritized groups. Studies have shown a higher number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths among individuals belonging to Indigenous, Black, and Hispanic communities. Similarly, evidence suggests a higher risk of severe disease and mortality among individuals with lower incomes.

Early in the pandemic, the factors associated with the higher rates of hospitalization and mortality among these groups were not well-understood. In other words, it was unclear whether comorbidities, social determinants, or both contributed to these worse COVID-19-related health outcomes.

One study, for example, which researchers conducted early in the pandemic, found that both comorbidities and social factors likely contributed to the higher mortality in the Black patient populations.

Dr. Ladan Golestaneh, professor of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City and the study’s lead author, told Medical News Today:

“Our study did a careful analysis of the population of the Bronx who receives their care at our health system — a health system that has invested heavily in programs that serve our community of patients.[…]. We were able to show that despite adjustment for multiple comorbidities and risk factors — including area-level poverty and use of public transportation — hospitalized Black patients died at disproportionately higher rates than did white patients.”

Noting the role of social determinants, as the study suggests, Dr. Golestaneh said, “The worse severity of illness and mortality outcomes seen in racial/ethnic minorities have to do with low socioeconomic status, barriers to adequate high quality healthcare, and residential racial segregation, the latter resulting from a deliberate historical act by the U.S. government to separate residential communities by race and disinvest from Black residential communities.”

A recent review in The Lancet Regional Health — Americas now summarizes evidence delineating the underlying factors responsible for the more profound health consequences of COVID-19 in people belonging to lower income households or racially or ethnically minoritized groups.

Poverty levels were relatively high in the United States before the pandemic. Various factors, such as weak labor protections and an inadequate welfare state, enabled these high poverty rates.

Moreover, racial and economic inequalities tend to be interlinked and can be difficult to disentangle. Racial discrimination has had a significant impact on social welfare policies and labor laws in the U.S. Racial discrimination also influences educational and employment outcomes.

Thus, the systemic nature of racism has resulted in higher poverty rates for the targeted individuals. The 2019 Supplemental Poverty Measure published by the Census Bureau reported that the poverty rates among Black and Hispanic residents were more than 18{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} in the United States, whereas 8.2{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of non-Hispanic white residents met the criteria for living in poverty.

Given the close association between race and poverty, the authors of the present review considered how these interconnected factors increased vulnerability to COVID-19-related health consequences.

Preexisting health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and HIV, are more prevalent among individuals belonging to historically marginalized groups and those with low socioeconomic status. These preexisting conditions can worsen the effects of a SARS-CoV-2 infection, resulting in a higher number of hospitalizations and deaths.

Another closely related reason for the worse outcomes is limited access to healthcare.

Individuals belonging to low income and historically marginalized communities are less likely to have health insurance than higher income and white populations, respectively.

A 2020 study reported that 18.2 million individuals at high risk of COVID-19 due to older age and underlying conditions were uninsured or lacked adequate insurance. Notably, the study found that people with lower incomes and racially minoritized individuals were more likely to belong to this group of high risk uninsured or underinsured individuals.

State policy decisions have also contributed to the high number of underinsured individuals. For instance, 12 states have refused the expansion of Medicaid, which would extend coverage to individuals with incomes of up to 138{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the Federal Poverty Level. This has especially influenced the ability of low income marginalized groups to access healthcare.

Besides the high cost of healthcare, other obstacles hindering access to healthcare for these groups include the “earned” mistrust of healthcare institutions and clinicians, language barriers, and biases in the healthcare system.

These factors have also contributed to the low rate of vaccination in marginalized communities, especially during the initial period of the vaccine rollout. Distrust of the healthcare system due to historical reasons and recent experiences of racial discrimination in healthcare settings have led to vaccine hesitancy.

Healthcare professionals can play a vital role as trustworthy sources of information on vaccinations. However, the lack of adequate health insurance has limited access to these professionals, thus contributing to lower vaccination rates.

Residential segregation by race and socioeconomic status remains prevalent in the U.S. and is associated with racial disparities in health outcomes.

Studies suggest a similar impact of residential segregation on COVID-19 outcomes, with a higher number of COVID-19 deaths occurring in racially and socioeconomically segregated counties.

Other studies have investigated the role of housing quality in mediating the COVID-19-related health disparities.

Evidence suggests that housing quality factors, such as overcrowding and incomplete indoor plumbing, are associated with higher COVID-19 cases and death rates.

Overcrowding and multiple generations residing together are more prevalent in historically marginalized and low income households.

These housing quality factors facilitating the rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 have contributed to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on low income and racially minoritized groups.

These individuals are also more likely to rent than own a home. The eviction of renters during the pandemic also resulted in a surge in COVID-19 cases among those displaced.

Residential location can also influence access to COVID-19 testing and vaccination and, subsequently, vulnerability to COVID-related health consequences. For instance, states with a larger Black population and higher poverty rates had lower SARS-CoV-2 testing rates.

Similarly, a study covering 94 counties found that Black individuals were more likely to have to travel more than 10 miles to the vaccination site than their white counterparts. Lack of transportation or access to the internet to schedule a vaccination appointment may also have contributed to the lower vaccination rates.

Another reason for the higher levels of severe COVID-19 cases among people with a lower income and racially and ethnically minoritized individuals includes employment in occupations associated with a high risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Individuals from low income households constitute a significant proportion of essential workers, who are involved in vital sectors, such as healthcare, retail, education, food production, and transportation. Individuals earning less than twice the federal poverty levels constitute nearly 25{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of essential workers.

Similarly, individuals belonging to historically marginalized groups often make up a substantial share of workers in essential occupations. For example, 3 in 4 frontline workers in New York City belong to these groups.

The contagiousness of SARS-CoV-2 and the inability to work remotely meant that essential workers were at increased risk of contracting COVID-19. Moreover, the lack of adequate safety and health measures, such as the limited availability of personal protective equipment and difficulty enforcing physical distancing regulations at the workplace, further increased the risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2.

The lack of access to paid leave or unemployment benefits also contributed to the increased vulnerability of essential workers to a SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Another contributing factor was lower vaccination rates, potentially due in part to a lack of flexibility in work schedules and unavailability of paid leave during the early phase of the vaccine rollout.

The studies that the review summarizes show how racial discrimination and high poverty rates have resulted in the disparities in the health consequences of COVID-19. Describing the impact of these structural inequities, Dr. Cary Gross, professor of medicine and epidemiology at Yale University, noted to MNT: “The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare a hard truth about American society at large and the healthcare system in particular.”

“We see large health inequities across race and ethnic groups not because of a single shock to the system (COVID-19) but because of the very nature of the system itself — it is working exactly as designed. There is an entrenched hierarchy in which racism leads not only to differential wealth, but also differential power, prestige, and freedom. So differences across race groups in wealth and poverty are vital, but they don’t tell the whole story.”

– Dr. Gross

The review authors noted that research on the effects of COVID-19 on individuals with disabilities, members of LGBTQIA+ communities, and American Indian and Alaska Native individuals remains limited. These individuals are also often socioeconomically disadvantaged and thus may be at increased risk of negative health effects associated with COVID-19.

Although the median household income of Asian American households is higher than that of all U.S. households, there are considerable disparities in income levels within the Asian American community. For instance, individuals in the top 10{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of earners in the Asian community have 10.7 times the income of those in the bottom 10{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of earners.

Hence, more research is necessary to investigate whether vulnerability to COVID-19-related health consequences was more pronounced in Asian Americans with a low income.

For live updates on the latest developments regarding the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, click here.

Posted on October 29, 2021
Chicago, Los Angeles embrace universal basic income

FOX Business’ Grady Trimble studies on what the payments will be and when the applications will get started.

Chicago and Los Angeles will start universal essential earnings pilot programs.

Los Angeles will pay out $1000 to 3200 households each month, even though Chicago will deliver $500 to 5000 households. The plans will value $40 million and $31.5 million, respectively, in accordance to FOX Business reporter Grady Trimble.

Applicants for the Chicago application will be decided on at random but ought to make much less than $35,000 a calendar year to qualify. Apps have not yet opened, but the mayor’s place of work will give a lot more aspects in advance of the program’s 2022 start, a spokesperson for the mayor’s business instructed FOX Business enterprise.

“The monthly cash support pilot will aim on very low-earnings Chicago inhabitants,” the spokesperson reported. “Now that City Council has approved us to move forward with designing this method, we will be functioning intently with aldermen, layout and plan gurus, and folks who have knowledgeable poverty to make certain the system meets the mayor’s aim of mitigating the impacts of poverty on Chicago families.”

Mayors Eric Garcetti and Lori Lightfoot have hailed the courses as the important stage to “carry” people today out of poverty, but critics have qualified the applications as an illustration of procedures that disincentivize operate amid a labor lack.

COSTCO REPORTEDLY RAISES Bare minimum WAGE TO $17 AN HOUR

“There are still thousands and thousands of small-experienced employment out there, and you have compact business proprietors who just can’t uncover personnel to join their corporations,” explained Michael Faulkender, who served as an assistant treasury secretary for economic policy during the Trump administration.

The very first this kind of system commenced in Stockton, California, with regular monthly stipends to 125 residents in 2019, The Washington Submit described.

BIDEN PITCHES REVAMPED MILLIONAIRES TAX, World Least TO FUND $1.75T Paying out Monthly bill

Then-Mayor Michael Tubbs pointed out that most recipients put in at the very least a 3rd of the stipends on food items.

Close to 40 other metropolitan areas have regarded as plans to start UBI systems, like Denver, Newark, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and New Orleans, in accordance to Mayors for a Guaranteed Cash flow.

US Economic Growth FALLS Brief OF Expectations AS Consumer Paying out SLOWS

Saint Paul, Minnesota, accepted a basic-cash flow pilot method last year, and Oakland, California, is accepting applications for its very own method, Company Insider documented.

Mayors system to use some of the coronavirus stimulus bundle resources to make the payments in the pilot plans, but some critics believe that will build a wrong perception of the program’s achievable results.

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Alternatively, critics argue that the only way to grow the plan or shell out for it past 2024 would be to boost taxes on town people.

The payments will keep on for a yr, at which point the metropolitan areas will evaluate the accomplishment and figure out following methods for the application.