James Yochum, CPA

Are you the one handling finances in your household? If something happened to you tomorrow… would your spouse know who to call? The best move isn’t doing it all yourself, it’s building a team they trust. Too many families face avoidable chaos because there was no plan.

@jamesonhaslam Incredibly hard sector to serve, but also the hardest working people I've met. A good accountant can change their minds, and get them on track to profit & then discuss ROI like this. But the biggest hurdle to that happening is them accepting help, or giving up some control.

The reason this doesn’t work is because these businesses aren’t making money and don’t have a pile of cash sitting around to throw at ideas Anybody who has tried selling stuff to SMB knows they are all broke and it’s just brain damage

@Molson_Hart The irony here - is having kids and to an extent having a marriage likely would teach all of the people preaching career progression, to actually earn a lot more by being better employees, and especially managers. I've never seen someone's income decrease after they had a kid.

@Molson_Hart Kids teach you delayed gratification better than anything. You sacrifice now (time/money) for a better future. Our society especially social media optimizes for the opposite. No one sees the hard work or sacrifice behind strong families. It’s not glamorous. A career is.

Your 20s and 30s are not anyone's top earning years. True wealth is a happy family, not money. I happily (seriously, I love it) invest tons of money into my children instead of my business. It's the only thing I love spending money on. Women, don't let big corps and their confederates fool you into not having children.

What’s even more troubling is that this employee-manager dynamic has become so common that many Americans now see it as normal. For countless people, this is not the exception at work, it is the reality they deal with every day.

The problem isn’t making money. It’s what happens after. We’ve seen businesses with millions sitting in one account uninsured and earning almost nothing. A few structural changes = protected capital + real interest income. That’s what good financial management looks like.

Most business owners obsess over accounting costs… Meanwhile they’re paying 2.9%+ of revenue to payment processors without blinking. If your finance function costs less than your merchant fees, you might be optimizing the wrong thing.

Me: "Hey - I know it's a long shot but did you do any improvements over the years to the house you have owned since 1980, and just recently sold? I'd like to decrease your gain" Client: "Here are receipts from the 90's for all of our remodeling improvements"

We sometimes encounter cases where the IRS says a return was not received, while the prior preparer says it was filed. That can create serious issues involving the statute of limitations, penalties, and the taxpayer’s ability to prove timely filing. Maintaining clear proof of filing is far better than having no record at all. Unfortunately, some firms are overly lax in retaining filing confirmations and related documentation, which can leave the taxpayer in a difficult position if the filing is later questioned. Almost every single return we see the client gets from their preparer doesn't have this form - mostly because most firms get a signature, after delivering client copies, and a physical office isn't going to send it out to the client. In some cases- we can have the client ask for it, and the firm has it retained. In other cases - firm doesn't even save it or any other auth. So we have no idea if they actually filed or not. Returns get marked as filed, and might actually not be depending on systems the firms use. In 2026, having a virtual office, or client portal though, the firm should be uploading 9325 for the clients to see after acceptance.

@JTheAccountant are you concerned about a Steve Harvey thing or a IRS screw up thing? If i login to my IRS.gov account an see its filed is that good?

Having your tax return e-filed this year by a pro? Get a copy of Form 9325, for acknowledgement they e-filed your return. This includes the date it was accepted by the IRS, and the e-file submission ID assigned to your return. Helps ensure they filed & prevents IRS issues.

@texasrunnerDFW Some 2020 buyers who used ARMs or short-term financing are starting to feel pressure as rates reset into a much higher environment. Combine that with rising property taxes, insurance, and broader economic strain, and you’ll likely see pockets of increased listings.

It’s really cool how people mortgaged themselves up the gills for new construction houses in exurbs, right before employers told everyone to return to office and right before gas prices spiked and doubled

Some 2020 buyers who used ARMs or short-term financing are starting to feel pressure as rates reset into a much higher environment. Combine that with rising property taxes, insurance, and broader economic strain, and you’ll likely see pockets of increased listings.

Buy this guys game store.steampowered.com/app/2245620/Ta…

When people can actually pursue what they’re good at, you get outcomes like this. When they can’t, they take whatever job pays and the entire economy produces less than it could. And this guy 1000% deserves it he sacrificed years of his life to build something.

Many eventually face that uncomfortable moment of introspection later in life, when they are no longer as useful and have too much time to reflect. I’ve seen versions of it firsthand first while spending time around elderly people in retirement homes when I was young, then later in hospice and emergency care as an EMT/CNA in my teens, and now again in conversations around end of life and estate matters with people who do have wealth. Some repent for what they became. Others grow bitter toward people who are happy, healthy, and content without their level of wealth. Because those people still possess what money can’t buy back: family, peace, and a genuine legacy the very things too often sacrificed in the pursuit of power. What many people fail to understand is that we are all playing entirely different games, with different rules and different desired outcomes. It’s juvenile to declare one path inherently better or worse without the introspection required to understand a person’s circumstances, values, and tradeoffs.

If he can’t find any introspection in the replies to this post, that says everything. The uncomfortable truth is this: a lot of wealthy individuals weren’t just successful—they were useful. Useful to someone else’s agenda… in exchange for power, access, or money.

This idea isn’t new. The Broken Windows Theory (Wilson & Kelling) showed that when small issues go unchecked, bigger problems follow. In business, standards don’t collapse overnight they decay from what you tolerate.

The most successful businesses I’ve helped all had non-negotiable standards. That clarity improves the customer experience and strengthens the employer-employee relationship. People perform better when they know exactly what’s expected, how to execute well, and what success is measured by.

Our society doesn’t have a talent problem. It has a standards problem. We tolerate behavior we used to correct. We excuse things we used to take pride in doing right. Nothing improves until people are willing to call it out.