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Bookkeeping for Investors

The Ten Commandments of great bookkeeping

Do you know what is the single most powerful way to save on taxes? I'll tell you: get your records in order! Nothing is more foolish than paying for some business-related item and then forgetting to take a tax deduction. In fact, you pay twice!

NEW: Setting your record(s) straight - Bookkeeping tips for the lazy investor

The key word here is lazy. Nobody wants to spend time on bookkeeping. However, getting hammered by the IRS is no fun, either. I will describe to you a minimal-effort system that gets the job done and keeps the IRS at bay.

NEW: Receipts? I don't have them!

For some business owners, this is a recurring nightmare: the IRS knocks on the door, and you have no receipts to show them! Then you wake up and realize that, well, you really have no receipts. What to do if the IRS does knock on your door?

Minimum requirements for real estate bookkeeping

Why "minimum"? Because more detailed description would be too long and would not be free (unless, of course, you are my client). In fact, I did publish more detailed guides for those of you who want to learn more. In this compact article, you will get the "bare bones" requirements that you simply cannot ignore. My assumption here is that you want to know what is the least amount of work to satisfy the IRS.

Bookkeeping for Investors: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

In one word, what do most investors do with bookkeeping? "Love" is hardly the right answer. My answer (to put it politely) is "ignore." The result of this carelessness is messy records, huge headache at tax time, increased audit risk, and - most importantly - wasted money. I am often asked to speak about bookkeeping practices. Here is a report from one of such presentations.