Bye Bye Ross

The following is an email I sent to my tax guy Ross December 10^th of last year:

"Subject: Plans for 2015

Hi Ross. Hope you're having a good time this holiday season. I wanted to tell you my financial plans for the future and get your opinion.

Right now I have three properties. My plan is to buy one more property next year, and then pay off the property I bought last year (currently $40,000 remaining). After that, I spend the next two years paying off my other properties, and then retire in 2017 being able to save at least $3500 per month.

Property 1: With mortgage $300 profit

Property 1: Without mortgage $850 profit

Property 2: With mortgage $400 profit

Property 2: Without mortgage $800 profit

Property 3: With mortgage $740 profit

Property 3: Without mortgage $1500 profit

The profit with mortgages includes property taxes, insurance, and average repair costs.

I also plan on stock trading next year, as I've been studying it for a while now. So I'll have all 3 properties paid off by 2017 with the one I buy next year under mortgage. What do you think? Is there any tax advice you have for this plan? After doing my taxes for a while, I’d also like to know if my estimated numbers are accurate. Any insight you have will be appreciated. Thanks for everything and here's to hoping 2015 is better than this year.

P.S.: I'm also going to be trading stocks starting in January. I'm going to use my earnings to pay the principal on my properties, and maybe my car loan as well. If I use the money earned in stock trading for this purpose, do I still have to pay taxes on it?"

It’s now February 18, 2015, and this sniveling cock sucker never responded. I sent the email again just two weeks later, thinking that it may have been lost with his other emails, but again no response.

It’s not that I can’t learn to do these things on my own, because I can. It’s the fact that this pudgy loser is my accountant. He does my taxes and I’ve gone to him for advice in the past. So what’s different now? I wasn’t asking anything that any accountant with a CPA wouldn’t be able to answer. He always said if I need anything to ask him, and I did. Twice. I was thinking about giving him a call, but decided against it. If I have to work this hard just to get a question answered, then fuck him. Last month he passed by the security lobby office when I was there. He stopped by the window and said hi. I looked at him, and then continued doing my sign-in paperwork. My blood was boiling when I saw him, but I knew I couldn’t say anything because I was on duty. My shunning was enough to let him know we are done, with no need for name calling or accusations.

I don’t like useless people… I’ve made that very clear. One could say that I’m making a big deal out of nothing, but I don't believe so. If I bring someone into my financial journey and pay them money, I expect them to do their jobs without any bullshit. Do your fucking job, and don’t make me have to work harder to make you do it. I have enough problems keeping myself efficient—I don’t have the time or energy to help him do what he’s supposed to do. I would have considered trying to make things up with him, but the roadblock to that is this: he sucks. Let me give an example.

Pelcom Nick has been my handyman for about a year now, and he has saved me thousands of dollars on repairs. When Tisha of Property X moved out, I really wanted Nick to do the repairs but I couldn’t reach him. I was pissed that I had to turn to the more expensive Handyman Alfonso, would ended up charging me $1200 for the labor. A couple weeks ago Pelcom Nick called me back, apologizing for not getting back to me. He said that he was out of town on a job that ended up going south, and is back in Smalltown ready to work. That weekend, I put him back to work. So why would I forgive Pelcom Nick and not tax guy Ross? Ross doesn’t do anything that an average accountant doesn’t do. He was the one who advised me to pay the $6000 I owed the IRS in one lump sum instead of doing a payment plan. That $6000 could have gone into a better investment and I may have had more opportunities to buy a better property than what became my Property 3. He gives standard advice and doesn’t seem very knowledgeable about accounting when it comes to real estate.

Pelcom Nick is special. It took a long time to find someone with his prices, so he is valuable enough to overlook mistakes. Ross is not special. I found him when I was in zero hour, looking for someone to do my taxes before the deadline. He has done nothing that any other accountant wouldn’t do, so he is not valuable. With that, I make tax guy Ross the first person I kick out of my life in 2015. So now the search for a new tax guy begins. I have to find someone who understands taxes as pertaining to real estate, can do good financial planning, and who doesn’t take months to respond to a serious question. Once I find him/her, I’ll set up a meeting for next week.

P.S.: Ross parks his car in the garage where I work. I noticed that his car registration has been expired since October of 2014. Could this have been a sign that he’s not as organized as he should be? Hmm…