Alan Fox

Welcome to 2024, a new year offering fresh possibilities along with a new set of deadlines.

Income tax returns are at the top of my list, followed by letters to investors, final approval of yearly budgets, and cash planning for large expenses to come.

As many of you already know from prior blogs, I’m a procrastinator. I often wait until a deadline approaches to take any action. And then I plan backwards (perhaps like many of you). To successfully plan backwards I use the following steps:

1. I identify the goal and the deadline. (For example, filing an income tax return on March 15.)
2. I calculate the length of time I will need to complete the goal (prepare the tax return).
3. I figure out what specific information I need to complete the task. (Financial data in this case.)
4. I determine where to find that information.
5. I begin to accumulate and organize the data, allowing enough time to meet my deadline.
6. I verify the data to make sure it is accurate. (For example, on spreadsheets, I make sure the totals are added accurately.)
7. Once I have collected and organized all of the data, it is easy to aggregate all of the information into the final task (i.e. completing the tax return.)
8. I then perform one final overall check to be sure the results are reasonable. (For example, if I were planning to drive from my office to Santa Barbara, a distance of 76 miles, I would not expect the segments of my journey to add up to 95 miles unless I took several detours.)

So, working backward, if it will take me one week to gather all the necessary data and then prepare the return, I had better plan to start at least a week in advance.  Years ago, I completed the preparation of my income tax return at 9:00 pm on the day it was due.  I then drove to the local post office where dozens of IRS agents were standing on the street to accept the returns from hundreds of “just in time” drivers like me.

But the very best feature of any deadline is the freedom to relax once I have met it. I hope my checklist makes it easier for you to do that.

Until next (week, month, year).

Alan

When I was a teenager, I realized that numbers were like a separate language. While I did not like to study other languages — too much memorization of vocabulary — I had no problem learning math.

After all, in math the numbers are zero to nine. The rest is how you manipulate those ten well-used Arabic digits.

Though I do not have a special aptitude for a new language, I do have an aptitude for dealing with numbers.  I was surprised years ago by an article in the Wall Street Journal that said many tax attorneys were not skilled in math.

Fifty years ago I lived with Jill Woodine, my girlfriend at that time.. She heard a conversation I was having with my CFO, and a business consultant.  Later she told me that when the three of us were talking about numbers she didn’t understand a word we were saying, To her it was as if we were speaking another language. That is often how I feel when medical professionals talk about medicine. Or engineers talk about engineering. I simply do not know their vocabulary.

Even so, I must admit that I’m still surprised that math does not come naturally to many people. But no matter our aptitude, we can always work and improve our skill at anything if we set our minds to it.

It’s New Year’s Day, the sun is out, and the family is swimming in our pool.

Why am I sitting in my office working?

I’ll save that answer for another blog.

In the meantime, what will you try to get better at this year? Gardening? Baking? Maybe math?

Alan

I was picking out a shirt to wear on Christmas Day when my eyes came to rest on my favorite shirt. It’s a nice cotton button down in a light maroon I really like.

I thought, “Well, that’s my favorite shirt, so I should save it.”

Save it?  For when?  My birthday?  Halloween?

That was my dilemma.  Should I wear my favorite shirt on Christmas and wear it out sooner (pun intended), or should I leave it hanging in the closet so it would last longer?

I remembered the day long ago when I wore my best shirt to school with my new ballpoint pen in its pocket.  Unfortunately, I left the pen in the pocket, and my mother put them both into the washing machine. Bye bye favorite shirt.  Bye bye favorite pen.

So, my message for you on this day after Christmas is – use it all.  Eat every food gift you received, wear every scratchy wool sweater, and, as they say in basketball, leave your entire 2023 game on the court.

You’re going to have another opportunity.  Your reward for piloting yourself through 2023 is that you get another entire year to refine your game and your life.  Let’s call our new chance 2024.

I’d like to be the first to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

Alan