Yahoo Buys Associated Content
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In addition to writing this blog for fun and profit, I am also a professional financial freelance writer, as well as a freelance technology writer, among other things. So it is not without some professional writing background that I read with shock the financial news that Yahoo is acquiring Associated Content for “slightly more than $100 million.” Ostensibly, Yahoo buying Associated Content was done in order to boost Yahoo’s content offerings. If that is true, then it time to sell Yahoo! stock. Sell, baby, sell.
Before we go any further, let me just say that I think the publicly released one-liner about why Yahoo would buy Associated Content is either incomplete, or an outright bluff. There are plenty of other things Yahoo gets from buying Associated Content, not the least of which is a big fat swath of Internet real estate that ranks obscenely high in Google search results and Bing search results. A great deal of the traffic generated from these high ranking searches is monetized via, you guessed it, Google AdSense which pays content publishers based upon ads placed by Google on those websites. Yahoo, can now switch out those Google Ads and replace them with their own Yahoo Ads. Frankly, this strikes me as a pretty cynical move, and one made largely to dupe the investing public at large that is not savvy enough to sort out the results of Yahoo’s acquisition of Associated Content.
Value of Yahoo’s Associated Content Purchase
In my mind, here is how the buyout of Associated Content by Yahoo plays out. First, as always, there is the generous write down of “goodwill” and other acquisition related costs. All but the most unsavvy of investors are wise to the so-called value taken by acquiring companies when it comes to these intangible assets, but it still makes things look better for a while to those who can’t or won’t parse company stock filings and investor reports.
Secondly, once Yahoo has milked the costs of acquisition dry, it will move advertising on Associated Content to its own Yahoo advertising platform or to its partner ad platform with Microsoft’s Bing search engine. In the meantime, the company may be all too happy to simply collect revenue from online competitor Google based on existing AdSense advertising that already exists on the site. Of course, Yahoo management will not break out the “growth” in Yahoo advertising that is nothing more than swapping out Associated Content ads for its own from the true organic growth of its Yahoo Ad platform. (Management is under no obligation to do so, of course.) So, analysts will be left guessing how much real growth is occurring in Yahoo ad revenue and how much was simply bought via its Associated Content acquisition.
Here is a hing for savvy investors, however. The revenue Associated Content generates today has no reason to decline in the coming months. There is no radical shift in online advertising going on, nor is Google seriously updating its search ranking algorithm that provides fresh meat for the Associated Content content mill on a daily basis thanks to the large interlinking done by the site itself. Thus, once Yahoo advertisements start appearing in place of Google advertisements, investors should discount the current volume of revenue generated by Associated Content from the revenue numbers reported by Yahoo for its advertising platform as the purchased revenue. Any remaining growth can be considered real Yahoo earnings growth.
I do not own any Yahoo! stock as of this writing, but that may change at any time. This is neither a recommendation nor an offer to buy or sell securities.
I have written for Associated Content in the past; some articles I have been paid for. However, no payment was made or offered for this article.
Many people like the idea of working from home. There is more flexibility. It allows parents to spend more time with their kids. Dads who work from home have more opportunities to participate in events they traditionally miss like afternoon school plays, or soccer practice. Likewise, many moms who have built up great careers are looking for a way to not lose everything that they have built, while at the same time not missing out on raising their children. In order to keep their personal financial plans on track, taking on some work at home sounds great.
Unfortunately, the universal allure of work at home jobs makes it a great target for scammers. The idea of someone paying a good wage for working from your own home at a home-based business that requires no experience, no start-up costs, and no set time commitment sounds too good to be true. It usually is. Being aware is the best financial advice you can get.
How To Find Legitimate Work at Home Jobs
Real work at home jobs that are not scams do exist. However, they don’t come wrapped in rainbows delivered on a unicorn’s back. By taking another look at working from home from a different angle, you’ll find that it is easy to separate the work at home scams from the real work at home jobs.
The first thing to do is remember what jobs are like in “the real world.” That is, how do jobs work when they are not work at home jobs. How much do traditional jobs that require no experience, no time commitment, and no sales pay? How common are they? Just because the jobs are done at home and not at an employer’s office doesn’t mean that dynamic changes.
After all, how easy would it be to find people to fill work from home with unlimited income potential jobs that were easy and required no special skills or experience? Would you even have to advertise? Wouldn’t everyone you know be begging to sign up?
Finally, remember this tidbit. If the work can be done from the comfort of your own home with nothing more than a computer and an Internet connection, then that same work can be done from China or India with nothing more than a computer and an Internet connection. If you can pay someone overseas 30 cents an hour to do it, why would you pay a stay at home mom or dad $25 an hour (or more) to do the same thing?
So, how do you find real work at home jobs no investment required?
Secret For Finding Real Work From Home Jobs
The secret to finding real work at home jobs is to not look for work at home jobs. Work at home is a phrase that people use when they do not actually understand how working from home is done by real companies. It is the sucker’s bait that scammers use.
Remember, out in the corporate world, companies and businesses of all sizes are constantly trying to make things sound better by coming up with new phrases, or calling something by a different name. Nobody gets fired anymore; they don’t even get laid off. Workers are “let go” or “downsized” or even “right-sized” these days. Do you honestly thing any real company still uses the phrase, “work from home” in their job postings?
Real work at home jobs go by different names. One of the most common names for work from home jobs that are real is “telecommuting” or “telecommute” which means commuting by telecommunications systems, or working from home with a phone and Internet connection.
Other legitimate work from home jobs will be referred to as “contract” and “off-site” jobs. (In business, the world revolves around the company, so it doesn’t matter where you ARE working, all that matters is that you are NOT working at the office, thus, “off-site.”)
Finally, some work at home jobs are called “freelance” or “freelancing” jobs. As a freelancer, you can work wherever you want. In fact, one of the benefits of hiring a freelance worker is that you don’t have to go through the time and expense of getting them setup with a desk, phone, business cards, and so on like a traditional employee. Just keep in mind that no one needs inexperienced, unskilled freelancers. Rather, skilled workers like professional freelance writers is what business needs.
Use the secret lingo of work at home jobs and you can avoid scams, fraud, and tricksters. Go out searching for “work from home” jobs and applying to “work at home, no experience required” job postings, and you can sit back and wait to see how you will be scammed.
Small business tax deductions are important in order to offset high business taxes levied against small business owners and entrepreneurs. This is especially true for work from home entrepreneurs who file as sole proprietors, or as a Limited Liability Company aka LLC, with sole proprietor tax status. Small business owners can get hit with high tax bills thanks to Self Employment Taxes.
Self-employment taxes, or SE Tax, is so high because it includes taxes that would usually be paid by the employer. In a typical employer-employee scenario, the employee pays 6.2% in Social Security Taxes. The employer withholds this amount from the employee’s paycheck. What many people don’t realize is that the employer also pays 6.2% in social security tax for the employee.
A small business owner that files as a sole-proprietor is on the hook for the whole amount! The self-employment tax rate for 2010 – sometimes called the SE tax rate – is 15.3%, which is 12.4% for social security taxes plus another 2.9% for Medicare taxes.
That 15.3% is on top of regular Federal Income Taxes. A successful small business owner in the 30% tax bracket, pays a blood curdling 45% tax rate. And, that is before adding in Medicare tax and state and local taxes.
In other words, a small business owner can easily end up paying 50% taxes!
Deduct Self-Employment Tax
The only good news in this whole equation is that half of the self-employment tax can be deducted when figuring adjusted gross income. Of course, this is small consolation because it results in under 2% tax savings. In order to keep from paying too much income tax, the entrepreneur needs to find bigger tax deductions and other small business tax breaks.
Depreciation Rates
Some of the biggest small business tax deductions come from the purchase of equipment for the business. Unfortunately, big purchases are often considered capital expenditures that must be depreciated over the “useful life” of the product. The best small business tax advice is to get accelerated depreciation whenever possible to get higher tax deductions now.
The only defense against high taxes from running a small business is to get as many business tax deductions as possible. The business lowers its profit for tax purposes, and passes along less income to the business owner on Schedule C – Profit and Loss From Business Operations.
Section 179 Deduction
IRS Section 179 allows for better small business tax deductions and bonus depreciation in some cases. A section 179 expense allows for business expenditures to be deducted immediately, instead of depreciated. This is very useful for dated tax depreciation limits like those that apply to high-tech equipment.
For example, a freelance writer needs a netbook for his freelance writing business, with a Section 179 deduction, the small business owner deducts $200 in the year the netbook was purchased, instead of deducting a measly $40 per year for five years.
The Section 179 tax deduction rate was set to drop back to $134,000 after the special bonus depreciation and higher 179 limits increased in economic stimulus legislation expired after 2009. However, the new jobs creation legislation recently passed by Congress extends the higher ceiling for Section 179 tax deductions. The 2010 Limit for Section 179 Deductions is $250,000 for qualified capital expenditures. There is currently no extension of the higher amount into 2011; that may change depending on how the US economy recovers in 2010.
Maximizing Section 179 Tax Deductions is important personal finance advice for any entrepreneur. More 2010 tax tricks and updates are coming soon. The new IRS Mileage Rates for 2010 and other IRS numbers for this year are already published.
How do you save on your small business taxes?
Dow Jones Indexes publishes lot of averages and indexes. They are best known for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Down Jones Transportation Average.
Personal financial planning on FinanceGourmet.com
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is featured on most stock market news reports and makes an appearance on the nightly news. It is often referred to as just The Dow, or Dow Jones. The Dow Jones Index is composed of the stocks of 30 big U.S. companies which are supposed to represent the majority of the US economy and industry, with the exception of the transportation industry; they have their own index.
Dow Jones Industrial Average Components
The Companies In the Dow Jones Industrial Average
3M Company (MMM)
Alcoa Inc (AA)
American Express (AXP)
AT&T (T)
Bank of America (BAC)
Boeing (BA)
Caterpillar (CAT)
Chevron (CVX)
Cisco (CSCO)
Coca-Cola (KO)
du Pont (DD)
Exxon Mobile (XOM)
General Electric (GE)
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)
Home Depot (HD)
Intel (INTC)
IBM (IBM)
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
JPMorgan Chase (JPM)
Kraft Foods (KFT)
McDonald’s Corp (MCD)
Merck & Co (MRK)
Microsoft (MSFT)
Pfizer (PFE)
Procter & Gamble (PG)
Travelers Companies (TRV)
United Technologies Corporation (UTX)
Verizon Communications (VZ)
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT)
Walt Disney Company (DIS)
Dow Jones Transportation Average is composed of companies from the transportation industry. The idea is that if American business is making and selling goods, someone else is making money by getting them from Point A to Point B. Of course, with declining manufacturing influence and an increasingly prevalent service economy, that theory might hold less weight. However, some would point to increasing travel as representative of additional service, although this discounts the impact of technologies like conference calls, emails and social networking on providing quality service to customers and clients.
Personal finance tips from FinanceGourmet blog
Stocks In the Dow Jones Transportation Average
AMR Corp (AMR)
CH Robinson Worldwide (CHRW)
Con-Way Inc (CNW)
Continental Airlines (CAL)
CSX Corp (CSX)
Delta Airlines (DAL)
Expeditors International (EXPD)
Fedex Corp (FDX)
GATX Corp (GMT)
JB Hunt Transportation Services (JBHT)
JetBlue Airways (JBLU)
Kansas City Southern (KSU)
Landstar System (LSTR)
Norfolk Southern Corp (NSC)
Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG)
Ryder System Inc (R)
Southwest Airlines (LUV)
Union Pacific (UNP)
United Parcel Service (UPS)
Lesser Known Dow Jones Averages
There area handful of other Dow Jones Averages. Most of them are calculated by taking predefined subsets of either the Dow Jones Industrial index or the Dow Jones Transportation index.
Dow Jones Utility Average – Tracks the performance of utility stocks associated with the generation and delivery of energy.
The Global Dow – Tracks 150 worldwide stocks to track the global economy.
The Dow 10 – Made up of the 10 stocks from the Dow Jones Industrial with the highest dividend yield.
The Dow 5 – The 5 lowest priced stocks from The Dow 10 Average.
Dow Jones High Yield Select 10 Index – The 10 stocks of the Dow Jones Industrial average that have the biggest indicated dividend yield on an annual basis.
What other stock indexes or market averages do you follow?
Whether you waited until the last minute or filed months ago, there is one last 2009 tax tips and tricks that you need to follow. Print out a copy of your tax return from your TurboTax software or print out your taxes from your TaxCut software, or whatever other tax software program you used to file your Federal Income Taxes.
Many people have the misconception that the TurboTax file saved on their computer as they worked on their Income Taxes is a regular file that can be opened and printed with a regular software program like Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat Reader. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The files generated by popular tax preparation programs like TurboTax and TaxCut is a proprietary file that can only be opened in the tax program. While next year’s version of the program will most likely be able to open that tax file, you have to buy it first. That isn’t very helpful if you need to produce a copy of your taxes in September to get a small business loan or open up a bank account.
There are ways to hack open TurboTax files, but why go through all that trouble?
Print Your TurboTax Files Now
While your tax program is still installed on your computer hard drive, run the program and click on the File Print Save section. I recommend printing out a hard copy of the actual forms submitted to the IRS as part of your income tax filing. That includes the Form 1040, Schedule A, Schedule D, and so on.
Most programs allow you to select how much you want to print, ranging from print only the official IRS form filed or e-filed, all the way to print everything, including all worksheets. Just print the filed forms. You won’t need all that other stuff unless you get audited.
However, you might want some of those numbers later on, and re-calculating them is a waste of time. Instead, use the program’s save function to save out one of the "all worksheets, all forms" options as a PDF file. That way, you can open and read that file whenever you want, even if the tax software has been uninstalled from your computer.
Which brings up one final point. By default, TurboTax saves your personal tax information files in the TurboTax directory. Normally, that isn’t an issue, but if the day comes when you are looking to delete some files from your computer, or choosing which files to backup or move to a new computer, you might think that the TurboTax folder is just the program’s files. In that case, you might assume you don’t need them anymore!
Go ahead and copy both your program’s data file, the TurboTax file, AND the PDF file that you saved out as instructed above to another folder. Name this folder something like Taxes 2009, and you can be sure that when you see that folder five or six months for now that you will probably be thinking, "Oh, those are my taxes. I better make sure and save those."
Get ready to start saving money on taxes in 2010! But, first, go out and relax a bit. You’ve earned it.
