With the new year already underway, now is a great time to start getting organized. Even though we love planning out our lives in our paper planner, we also need some organization hacks on-the-go… both for our digital lives and our real lives. That’s why we’re super excited to share our top apps for organizing our ish — from passwords to family life to must-reads.
Apps for Organizing Your Digital Life
Last Pass
For the gal who uses the “forgot password” function a little too frequently, this app is definitely a must-download. It makes it easy to stay organized by storing all your passwords and logins in the LastPass Vault, generating new strong passwords and tracking your personal information all in one secure place. Plus, it autofills web browsers AND apps for a hassle-free login.
DL It: Free on Android and iOS
2. Notion Email Intelligence: A messy inbox can really slow down your productivity. This cool email organizer learns from your behavior to make your most important emails stand out. The rest (spam, shopping coupons, etc.) are grouped together for a faster clean up.
DL It: Free on Android and iOS
3. Unroll.Me: While we LOVE subscribing to our fave companies’ newsletters, sometimes it can be a tad annoying going through 20+ of them every damn day. With this cool app, you can easily unsubscribe to unwanted newsletters and compile all your favorites into one convenient daily digest.
DL It: Free on iOS
4. Documents 5: Organizing documents on-the-go can be a pain in the butt… that is, until you download this neat app. With the ability to read, listen, view and annotate almost EVERYTHING, it’s the perfect way to get organized for the new year.
DL It: Free on iOS
5. Simpler: Say goodbye to the days of duplicate contacts. This free app merges all your duplicate phone contacts with a single tap. Plus, you can back up your contacts and do a quick search too. Score!
DL It: Free on Android and iOS
6. Pocket: Reading articles online is great… but organizing them can definitely clutter your bookmark bar. That’s what makes this app so genius. Pocket is a place to quickly save, discover and recommend new stories that you find just about anywhere — Sarari, Twitter, Flipboard… you name it!
DL It: Free on Android and iOS
7. Todoist: Whatever’s on your to-do list, this handy app will help you check it ALL off. You can organize and keep track of projects, quickly view and prioritize tasks, assign due dates and share your lists with all your peeps for easy collaboration.
Apps for Organizing Your IRL Schedule
DL It: Free on Android and iOS
8. Taskrabbit: Let’s be honest: Finding the time to put together that pesky IKEA furniture just isn’t going to happen in our busy girlboss schedule. For those days when you need a quick hand, try hiring a Tasker to do the work for you. From handywoman jobs to organizing EVERYTHING, there’s a Tasker out there ready to tackle all of your dirty work.
DL It: Free on Android and iOS
9. 24me: This app puts your calendars, to-do lists, notes and personal accounts all in one place. It reminds you about what is coming up next and automatically takes care of things like bills for you — just like a real personal assistant! Heck, it even alerts you about the right time to leave for your midday meeting based on traffic conditions. The only thing it won’t do for you is get your Starbucks…
DL It: Free on Android and iOS
10. Remember the Milk: For the lady who always has at least three to-do lists on the go, this convenient app is definitely a must-download. Get reminded of your lists via email, text, IM or Twitter, share your lists with others and organize it the way you like (by priority, due date, tags, etc.).
DL It: Free on Android and iOS
11. Picniic: If you need a good family organizer, look no further. Picniic is a sweet new app where all of your tech-savvy fam jam can access and update each other’s daily events. With a shared family calendar, shopping lists, family locator and medical records all included in one place, it’s the perfect thing to manage your family life for 2017.
DL It: Free on Android and iOS
12. Shifty: Whether you’re a doctor, nurse, construction worker or retail lady, this app is great for anyone doing shift work. Unlike ordinary calendars, Shifty makes it super easy to plug in your ever-changing sched. Simply tap to mark your work days and export shifts all at once with the same start and end times.
Welcome to Selfmade Finance School, our new money series with Block Advisors to help small business owners with their tax, bookkeeping, and payroll needs year-round. This week, we explore the tax implications of bringing family members into your business.
The question for today is this: Does hiring your family members make sense for your business? Let me be clear. This is not a piece about whether hiring your family members makes sense for your relationships with those family members. As someone who is part of a family business, I could fill up a lot more than 600 words on my opinions about that. For today's purposes, we focus on whether it makes sense from an overall "good business and tax implication" perspective. As it turns out, there is a decent amount of tax nuance when it comes to employing your family. Let's break it down based on relationship to the employee:
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Spouses Who Are In Business Together
Personally, if I had to be in business with my husband, it would not go well. However, many couples build viable, strong businesses together and I say, good for them! Depending on how you have your business entity structured, it will make a big difference on the tax treatment of you and your spouse working as partners. Because a business jointly owned and operated by a married couple is generally treated as a partnership for Federal tax purposes, the spouses must comply with filing and record keeping requirements imposed on partnerships and their partners. The election to file two Schedule C (Form 1040) forms, (one for each spouse) permits certain married co-owners to avoid filing partnership returns, provided that each spouse separately reports a share of all the businesses' items of income, gain, loss, deduction, and credit. Under the election, both spouses will be subject to self-employment tax and on net earnings from self-employment and receive credit for Social Security earnings.
One Spouse Employs Another
If you have a dynamic where your spouse is an employee of your business, then your spouse's wages are subject to income tax withholding, Social Security and Medicare taxes. If you are self-employed (not a corporation or a partnership), your spouse's pay does not have to be included in your federal unemployment tax account (FUTA) contributions and payments. However, if your business is a corporation or a partnership you must include that spouse's pay in your unemployment tax contribution calculation.
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You Employ Your Child
First, let's be clear. I work in my family business, but I am an adult, so I am treated just like a normal employee. However, if you, for example, run a family restaurant and want to hire your children under 18 to work for you, there are some tax benefits. But first, you should check with your state for rules on how many hours minors can work (in non-agricultural jobs) and reference the Fair Labor Standards Act for information on limitations on the kinds of work children can perform.
"This is an often overlooked or under-utilized strategy. Paying your children for true services they provide in your business can be a powerful tax-saving tool," says Cathi Reed, Block Advisors Regional Director. "If you are a sole-proprietorship or single member LLC, and the child is less than 18 years of age, the business is not required to withhold FICA or payroll taxes. The child can use his or her standard deduction against income you pay."
You Hire Your Parent
Oh dear. If you are brave enough to do this, know that you will need to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on your parent's wages and make the appropriate withholdings, but you don't have to pay unemployment taxes. Now all you have to do is convince your parent that you are the boss. Have fun with that!
Is Hiring Family Members Worth It For The Tax Benefits?
"There are some positive tax advantages to hiring family members. It's important to treat a family member like any other employee. Hiring your children can result in substantial savings for businesses. Make sure your child has real, age-appropriate work to do and a reasonable pay rate, comparable to other employees. Consult with a Block Advisors small business certified tax pro to ensure that you are complying with all requirements," advises Reed. "Block Advisors, a team within H&R Block, is dedicated to meeting the tax, bookkeeping and payroll needs of small business owners year-round. To start working with the tax experts at Block Advisors, visit blockadvisors.com."
In my opinion, you should not hire a family member solely because of the tax benefits. You should always hire based on whether that person is right for the job and keep in mind how this hire could materially impact your relationship with that person and others in your family. Finally, as I mentioned, make sure you have a tax professional on your team when making these determinations. As you can see, things can get a little tricky!
*All details were sourced from IRS.gov and blockadvisors.com
The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect those held by Kestra Investment Services, LLC or Kestra Advisory Services, LLC. This is for general information only and is not intended to provide specific investment advice or recommendations for any individual. It is suggested that you consult your financial professional, attorney, or tax advisor with regards to your individual situation. Comments concerning the past performance are not intended to be forward looking and should not be viewed as an indication of future results. Securities offered through Kestra Investment Services, LLC (Kestra IS), member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Kestra Advisory Services, LLC (Kestra AS), an affiliate of Kestra IS. O'Keeffe Financial Partners and any other entity listed herein is not affiliated with Kestra IS or Kestra AS Investor Disclosures: https://bit.ly/KF-Disclosures