Tracy Hughes's (thughes7) Blog

As a Realtor you might have a desk at your brokers office but also use your home substantially and regularly to conduct business.  This would qualify you to take the Home Office Deduction.  You can take a percentage of your mortgage interest, insurance, utilities, repairs and depreciation.  To fi...

As a Real Estate Broker and Tax Accountant I often get asked how long should you retain tax documents.  I personally keep everything for 7 years.  This adds up to a lot of saved paperwork.  So I decided to start saving my tax documents and receipts to pdf files.  I keep the current 3 years in pap...

With the economy in a downward spiral this last year many people changed the withholding on their paychecks to increase their net pay.  This may have increased their paycheck for a little while but with tax season approaching they may have a big surprise when they get ready to file.  To find out ...

Working in Real Estate and Insurance it is really important to make sure our clients get the right coverage when buying that new home.  One thing most people forget about or don't have enough of is the contents coverage.  It is bad enough to go through the loss of your home to fire or other catas...

With only 40% of society being classified in the "excellent credit" category I thought it might be time to pass out a few tips. 1.  Keep your credit card balances at 30% of your credit limit.  Credit agency's see this as good consumer spending and boost your score up. 2.  If your cards are alread...

I spend most of my day on the phone.  I hate having to sit on hold waiting for an operator to pick up.  I read in Cosmopolitan Magazine that if you drop the F-Bomb many systems are designed to put your right through to an operator.  So I thought I would test out the theory.  I called AT& T and se...

Are we ever going to see company's able to re-hire again.  I know that when the market crashed I had to let people go and I have been unable to re-hire all the positions again.  The unemployment rate is at 9.8% for September 2009.  Ouch!  I hope that with the stock market picking up that company'...

The Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson was robbed in San Francisco.  Ouch!  He tried to help out an elderly man and got burned.  Maybe he should stay in Sacramento.

This week our California Governor signed a bill prohibiting dairy farmers from cutting cows' tails.  Why you ask would this be something our Governor would be spending precious time on instead of bringing our state out of this recession?  So the cows avoid slinging manure! Go figure.

Discovery Elementary School in Bakersfield, California is ranked number one in Kern County.  Looks like we have some really smart kids in the Fruitvale School District.  Thanks school teachers you rock! http://www.discoveryelementary.com/