My friend Matt works at Hilltop Studios here in Nashville which is a pretty old but very historic studio. He gets to have free time so we work on small projects that he puts together. My friend Keithan and I put down drums and keys for him on various projects.

Coolest thing is that lots of people have recorded there including Ray Charles when he was doing his Nashville sessions. Though not the same piano, the Steinway was retired a few years back for this Yamaha, it was still awesome to be what felt like the presence of royalty.

Here is the vid…

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Steven Curtis Chapman family in the immense tragedy. As a father of a 4 year old I cannot imagine what they are going through. The work he and his wife does in the community through their foundation yields amazing results and we know that God will bring good from this pain.

Please take a moment in your day today and keep them in your prayers.

[Source]

Dear All Ya’ll

I have been a music lover all my life. I started playing piano when I was 6 and have not looked back since. I love all aspects of music and haven’t met a genre I can’t at least appreciate. I am not a huge country fan but living in Nashville it is kind of hard not to keep up.

I have a beef with the 3 of you and I need to ask you to stop this immediately.

You are fooling nobody with your Guitar “playing”.

Yes I said it. I know that you are holding that big nice Taylor or Takamine and the sound guy doesn’t even have you turned on. We all know that you hit about once or twice a song and you look like an idiot just holding it up there. You are all great singers and songwriters… well at least Alan is… and you need to leave the real guitar playing up to your very capable backing band. You all look like goofs up there just holding the things and not even attempting to play them.

So the gig is up! Stop with the guitar hold’n.

Leave the guitar playing up to real guitar players like Brad Paisley and Keith Urban… At least they actually know how to play!

Sincerely,

J.J. Merrick

edit: At least Garth on the ACMA’s didn’t plug his guitar in. That way they didn’t have to worry about strapping a wireless pack to him.. saves time and money!

I have started to do a segment on fridays called “Financial Fridays” where I will write about something having to do with personal or business finance. I have always been intrigued with money and making it work so this is a natural progression for this blog. If you have questions you want to submit just click the contact me link above.

The guy over at FreeMoneyFinance posted this question from one of his readers and asked for comments. I decided to answer it here for my Financial Fridays post.

my husband passed away dec 2007 i’ve just gotten 500k from life insurance the insurance agent wants to invest all of it and give me an allowance a month. I’m 40 two children who have their own 85k each when they hit maturity. I owe 230k on my house I have a job and ss for the kids untill they are 18 ( 9 & 11 now) I want to pay off my mortgage invest 150k for retirement and have the balance for emergency also smaller investments. I feel like he’s pushing me he also wants control of the childrens UTMA accounts once I have guardianship. What sounds right. I’m picking up the check today.

OK first things first… Never EVER take financial advice from an insurance salesmen. They are SALESMEN and are not looking out for your best interest. He wants to sell you products that are going to have horrible rates of return and anyone getting a commission on the advice they are giving you are not a true advisor.

Second thing is that you just went through a fairly tough emotional crisis in the losing of your husband I don’t care how sudden or not it is still hard. You need to put the money into a money market account and sit on it for 6 months. This will allow you to get your head on straight and figure out where you need to go next.

After that I would go ahead and write a check to pay off your house. You will be debt free at this point and then I would put about $15k in a money market as an emergency fund and then the remaining $255k in an investment account. I would suggest good growth stock mutual funds that have a 5 year or more track record and yield 10% or more on average. This will give you a good income of about 30k a year and with no house payment and your own income it will give you steady money for the future.

Oh and did I mention NEVER TAKE ADVISE FROM A SALESMAN!?!?!?!

Did I make myself clear? :-)

Ever wondered what Gawker’s office look like?

Now we know!

Can you spy Blakeley?

I have started to do a segment on fridays called “Financial Fridays” where I will write about something having to do with personal or business finance. I have always been intrigued with money and making it work so this is a natural progression for this blog. If you have questions you want to submit just click the contact me link above.

In talking with friends and co-workers I have been asked a few questions about the Economic Stimulus Package money that American tax payers are suppose to receive over the next couple of months. Here are a couple that I thought I would highlight:

I just graduated College in December and my father claimed me as a dependent in 2007. This is the last year he will be doing it but is there anyway for me to get a check?

The money that we are all receiving is actually an advance of a tax credit that we all will receive on our 2008 tax return. Since the IRS can’t look into the future to know they are going on the information for 2007 for your advance. Since life situations change often in a year you might be eligible on your 2008 return to claim any or more then what you are receiving.

So to answer your question if you are Single and filing on your own for 2008 you can claim a $300 credit on your 2008 taxes. Also if you have a child in 2008 you can claim the extra amount you would have received. There will be a second chance worksheet that will help you determine that in 2009 when you do your 2008 taxes.

So when are we getting them!?

The direct deposits are already starting to go out and here is the chart from the IRS.gov website.

Got a question you want me to answer for Financial Fridays just hit the contact me link in the top menu.

SvN just did a post called: Why I love working with family people

I wrote this as a comment but I thought i would post it here:

I am 29 with a wife and 3 kids and do web development and work at home. I started out as a 20 year old that would work for hours on end and I have been able to refine my process.

Really what this boils down to is 2 things.

1. Family people tend to be older and more mature. Kids do something to you and your maturity level skyrockets (usually). I always say that a guy is never ready to have kids and will never be ready until he HAS kids.

2. This is exactly what the 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss is talking about. The idea of if you have something ELSE you HAVE to get done then you will work more diligently and more focused to get it done.

Thoughts?

I have started to do a segment on fridays called “Financial Fridays” where I will write about something having to do with personal or business finance. I have always been intrigued with money and making it work so this is a natural progression for this blog. If you have questions you want to submit just click the contact me link above.

Hey,
Because I’m doing a lot of sub contract and freelance work, I don’t
currently have an active 401k. I have money tied up in two old ones, but I’m
not contributing to either because I’m not working for the employers that
have the 401k’s.

I’d like to consolidate these into one account independent of an employer..

Is anyone doing this, or have any suggestions?

Thanks

To short answer your question you can rollover the 401(k) into a traditional IRA account at any broker. You can either contact your banks investment branch or just jump on etrade.com and have one setup in minutes. Because the 401(k) and the Traditional IRA are all pretax money you won’t have to pay any penelties or taxes on the money. Also being self-employed allows you to setup what is called a SEP IRA (Simplified Employee Pension Individual Retirement Account). These are a little more difficult to get setup and if you don’t plan on being self-employed for a while this might not be the best way to go.

Now let me go into some details on the why…

401(k)’s are a great investment vehicle but are not the best option we have out there. What I suggest to people is to only put in money into your 401(k) up to the employer match. Because the way 401(k)’s work you are usually locked in to only investing the money in 10-20 funds that are preselected. These are either picked by the group manager or your employer. The amount of funds depends on how much your employer wants to pay in fees so larger employers tend to have more funds available.

The reason I say to only do up to the match and no more is because Congress a few years back gave us one of the greatest gifts they could called the Roth IRA. This is an IRA account that is after tax money, meaning you won’t have the ability to “write off” your contributions at the end of the year. The nice thing is that when you pull the money out when you are ready to retire you DON’T PAY ANY TAXES ON IT. That’s right, if you have all your money in a Roth you can say bye bye to taxes after 60!

It’s amazing how just a couple of dollars a paycheck can really add up!

Dear Jerry,

He is your problem now.

Sincerely,

Jeff and Bud

:-)

If you are in Moldova hit me up either in the comments or the contact me link above. My church has a non-profit called Justice and Mercy International that works with kids in Moldova. They are starting a transitional living home for girls 16-20 y/o that are transitioning out of the orphanage and into the real world in hopes of keeping them from the sex trade.

I have been given the duty to research internet options for the home in Chişinău and I of course have no idea where to begin… So please hit me up and let me know what the options are in the area and what some of the costs are and which ones to stay away from.

Thanks!