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Author: lwidmer

And Yes, We Should All Be Outraged

Posted on by lwidmer

It seems the world is conspiring to make this Writers Worth Day more necessary than ever. Devon brought up on her blog a segment she’d seen on CBS’s The Morning Show in which Daniel Sieberg interviewed a woman who writes by her pool all day (the segment is called Selling Online Expertise). I won’t call…

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Widget Anyone?

Posted on by lwidmer

Here you are – the first annual Writers Worth Day widget in honor of the … well, Second Annual Writers Worth Day, which is May 15, 2009. Mind you, I put this together myself and I am not a designer, so if the size is wrong, as I’m sure it is, I apologize. I have…

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Yet I’m Not Waiting

Posted on by lwidmer

I joined Twitter because many of you convinced me I’d have access to, and possibly work from, other tweeters. Lo and behold, I did get a note from someone looking for exactly my writing experience, but I’m not getting the job. See, it’s the same company I’d turned down once before. They pay well, but…

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Worthy Activities

Posted on by lwidmer

The Second Annual Writers Worth Day is less than a month away – May 15. If you’re tired of low-paying job postings, tired of writers taking too little for too much work, tired of being told “But I spent all my money on the web design!”, this day is for you. Since we can’t change…

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We ARE Worthy

Posted on by lwidmer

Here’s a scenario that happened recently – Patient: “Doc, I have this sprained ankle. Can you look at it?” Doctor: “Sure. Let’s see what openings I have today.” Patient: “By the way, since this is probably just a sprain, it’ll be a breeze for you to fix, right?” Doctor: “We’ll have to see if it…

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Our House In the Middle of Our Street

Posted on by lwidmer

I’m heading back to my hometown today to see friends and family, but I wanted to share a little bit of Spring in Valley Forge with you. Here’s the view from our driveway. Happy Friday, everyone! See you all on Monday.

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Just How Much Do We Owe the Industry?

Posted on by lwidmer

You’ve heard me fussing and lecturing. You’ve read Screw You! and Kathy’s outing of each pathetic job offer she comes across. You’ve read blog post after blog post deriding you, begging you, insulting you for taking any job that doesn’t pay you a fair rate for your skills. You think it’s because we don’t want…

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I Heart My Followers

Posted on by lwidmer

I put up the widget a while ago, not expecting much. But you guys have surprised me, and I’m so pleased to see that this little blog has 42 followers now! Welcome to everyone, and please, join in! Chuck posted yesterday (hey, Chuck!) with some advice and a link to a pretty neat marketing blog…

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Freebies R Not Us

Posted on by lwidmer

Last week I applied for a project and this week, I received a response. Great! Except… yes, the old “sample of how you would handle this” request. Look, I’m all for giving you an idea of how I’d handle your gig, but “samples” are limited. This one asked for a small sample – 100 words…

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Taxed

Posted on by lwidmer

Nothing excites me more than curling up on a rainy Saturday with a warm, cozy Schedule C. That’s exactly how I spent my Saturday – glued to the tax return. I know – I was going to hire an accountant this year. I didn’t. Why? Because time got away from me, per usual. I have…

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  1. Devon Ellington Avatar
    Devon Ellington

    I’ve looked at Turbo Tax a couple of time, but they don’t get my life. They are for people with regular jobs, not freelancers, in my opinion.

    Took me an hour to do my taxes on Saturday afternoon. I still have to ink in the figures, but then, off it goes, later today.

    I’m STILL trying to sort out with the various tax agencies all the mistakes the accountant who supposedly knew everything there was to know about theatrical taxes messed up — nearly 10 years ago.

    Reply
  2. Eileen Coale Avatar
    Eileen Coale

    Lori, what a bite! I set aside 40 cents of every net dollar (after expenses) of every check I get. 15% federal tax, 7% state and local tax, 15% self-employment tax, and a little margin for error. I do this no matter what the accountant projects. Most times I come out about right. When it’s time to pay the estimated tax, I have the money set aside and don’t have to find it somewhere.

    Having a clear picture of what taxes I pay is a big help in setting an appropriate fee. $1000 may seem like a lot of money until you realize you only get to keep $600 of it.

    Reply
  3. Katharine Swan Avatar
    Katharine Swan

    Devon, that is exactly what I think about Turbo Tax: NOT FOR FREELANCERS. Michael asked me Saturday morning while we were walking the dogs, “And why is it that we don’t use Turbo Tax?” And that’s pretty much the response he got.

    I suppose I’m old fashioned but I fill the forms out by hand, do the math with a calculator, have hubby proofread the forms, and mail them in. I’m a do-it-yourselfer in most things, so I like to know what’s on my tax form and how it computes, rather than punching the numbers into a program and getting a mystery answer back — or paying someone else to do it, for that matter.

    Michael and I just did ours last night, by the way, Lori. So you and I had the same idea of how to spend our weekend — and the same weather too, apparently!

    Reply
  4. Gabriella F. Avatar
    Gabriella F.

    I tried TurboTax this year to try to save some dough, but because I had complicated taxes (the sale of and losses on an invesmtent property), I wasn’t confident of the results. So I sent my taxes off to my accountant.

    Turns out, he got similar results to TurboTax. TurboTax had me getting a federal refund of about $2,000 and a state refund of about $800. My accountant had my federal refund at $1,800 and my state at $1,200. Roughly the same, but I feel better with the expert–though it cost me $450.

    Because this is the first time I’ve had a refund, my estimated quarterlies went down. I figure that’s good, too, since I’m behind last year’s pace on earnings. Gawd, will this recession end, please?

    Damn taxman.

    Reply
  5. lwidmer Avatar
    lwidmer

    Eileen, that’s a smart method. I’d decided Saturday that I was going to set aside the same percentage per check as I owed total. It’s just easier to take it from on top instead of looking back over everything and making sure I’ve not made too much (did we ever think that was possible?) or too little.

    Devon and Katharine, I feel exactly the same way about all these accounting programs. I use Quicken, but it took a bit of getting used to, and even so, it doesn’t account for my business needs. I don’t link my bank accounts to it, so it won’t let me invoice through the system. I need one full week of training on how to use these things to be more efficient. Instead, I do work-arounds.

    That’s how I felt this year, Gabriella. No way I was trusting the online version of Turbo Tax when that much money’s involved. Instead, I did paper and pencil and managed to find deductions I’d forgotten to take (and noticed we were estimating too low on the square footage of the house).

    Reply
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