The publisher of Keep Your Eye on the Marshmallow sent me a free advance copy of the book to review. The review is 100% my own opinion and was not influenced at all by the fact that I received the book for free.

Also, the links below are affiliate links and if you make a purchase through them I’ll be eternally thankful to you AND I’ll get a tiny commission. The price you pay remains the same.

Keep Your Eye on the Marshmallow: Gain Focus and Resilience-And Come Out Ahead is a motivational self-improvement book that kept me interested from beginning to end. The author, Joachim de Posada , wrote Keep Your Eye on the Marshmallow as a follow-up to his other books, Don’t Eat The Marshmallow Yet!: The Secret to Sweet Success in Work and Life and Don’t Gobble the Marshmallow…Ever!: The Secret to Sweet Success in Times of Change.

It is important to note that even if you haven’t read the first two books, this book can be read as a stand alone and you’ll be able to understand everything discussed in the book.

The series of books were inspired by a study conducted by Standford University in which kids were left alone in a room with a marshmallow. If the marshmallow was still there when the adult returned 15 minutes later the child would get a total of two marshmallows. Basically, it was a study about delaying gratification.

Joachim presents the book in an interesting fashion that I hadn’t come across before. The book is actually mostly a parable and is separated into three sections: Pre-Parable Analysis, the Parable itself and Post-Parable Analysis. The parable focuses around a successful businessman named Arthur who is having trouble balancing work with his family and life outside of work.

Arthur is really relate-able and I wanted to read more to see how Arthur would learn to slowly change his ways to make his life better. The book gives some back story and explores Arthur’s world. Eventually it develops into sixteen key principles that everyone can apply to their lives. Finally, it is followed up with the post parable analysis to help put emphasis on what you’ve read in the book.

Some of the principles include:

• “Example is the most effective way to influence others.”
• “Live your life one day at a time.” and
• “Help others get what they want.”

Overall, I enjoyed the book but I don’t think I would have ever gone out and bought it off of the shelf. It was a pretty quick read, at 161 pages. It was also easy to read because the book has decent sized text and is spaced well.

If I had heard a good review I probably would have stopped by the library and checked out a copy because I very rarely ever buy books. If you like these types of books I’d definitely recommend checking it out at your local library.
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The following review is my personal opinion. As a full disclaimer, I was given a free copy of TurboTax Home and Business to complete my tax return so I would be able to accurately review the product through the filing process. 

Now that the IRS has started to accept tax returns I’ve finally got around to starting to calculate my personal return. This year my taxes were a bit more complex than previous years because I now have a side gig which requires filling out a Schedule C tax form.

I have a lot of experience with tax returns as I used to prepare them as part of my job in public accounting firm. For the past few years my employer has always allowed me to use their software to prepare my returns. However, I no longer work for an accounting firm so this year I had to use something new to me.

There are many tax preparation options out there but I decided to go with a big name brand for my 2012 tax return. I know a lot of the tax rules, but I didn’t want to fill out a return on paper. I also wanted to e-file to get my tax refund faster, if I ended up overpaying and receive a refund.

I Am Using TurboTax Home and Business

As I mentioned before, I was able to get a free copy of TurboTax Home and Business so I figured it’d be a great opportunity to try the software out.

Overall, I was pretty impressed with the software but I definitely see how taxes can be considered frustrating to the general public now! Without TurboTax, many of the forms could easily be overwhelming but TurboTax breaks it down into smaller steps and more understandable questions and inquiries.

TurboTax guides you step by step through different parts of your tax return. They start with some general information and then ask you about various tax items you’ve likely received throughout the year such as W-2s, 1099-INTs, 1099-DIVs and many other forms.

In addition to asking about forms, they ask you about life events and other tax issues that you may have come across during 2012. What if you don’t understand what they’re asking you though?

There is normally a link to find further information if you don’t understand what TurboTax is referencing. If that isn’t enough then you can always chat live with a TurboTax representative to get clarification on anything you need help with.

TurboTax continues asking questions to finish completing your tax forms. They’ll make sure to ask you about any deductions or credits that you may be able to take in order to lower your tax bill.

Be careful though! You can enter anything you want to into the software. TurboTax doesn’t guarantee what you enter is correct, they only ensure that their calculations are correct based on the information you provided. Make sure to double check the info you entered!

My Take On TurboTax For My Fiancee’s Simple Return

I completed my fiancee’s return for her since she doesn’t know much about taxes. Her return is pretty simple, she had 2 W-2s (income from her job and disability income), a 1099-INT (interest paid from her bank account) and a 1098-E (student loan interest paid).

It took about 15 minutes for me to skip through to the sections where I needed to input information from her tax forms. After I had input information from her tax forms we double checked to make sure there wasn’t anything we were overlooking by viewing the various input sections TurboTax has available.

We were comfortable we hadn’t missed anything so we previewed her return to make sure we hadn’t made any mistakes. We then went to file the return but then found out she made too much money for their free version. Bummer!

File For Free

We ended up using a different IRS FreeFile provider in order to file her return for free. Because she had an AGI under $57,000 she was eligible through another provider. If you fall into the following categories you can use TurboTax for free! Keep in mind, only the Federal version is free. If you have to file a state tax return you’ll likely have to pay for that.

• Adjusted Gross Income: $31,000 or less, or
• $57,000 or less, and Active military or
• Eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit, and
• Live in any state or U.S. Citizens and resident aliens with foreign addresses

My More Complex Return with a Schedule C

My return was a bit more complex. In addition to a couple W-2s, 1099-INT, 1099-DIV, 1099-B and many other typical tax forms I had a Schedule C form to fill out for my side gig income and expenses. The experience was the same as with my fiancee’s simpler return except I had more questions and fields to fill out. There were a ton of questions and fields too.

My return took much longer to complete than my fiancee’s return but that was simply due to my return being more complex. I wasn’t exactly sure on all of the terminology as it had been a while since I had filled out a form Schedule C but the links TurboTax provided gave me more than enough information to complete my return.

Still Need to File Your Tax Return?

I work hard to provide my readers with valuable information on a regular basis. If you still need to file your tax return and would like to try TurboTax I’d deeply appreciate it if you clicked on one of the links on in this post to start your TurboTax return. I will receive a small commission if you do end up purchasing TurboTax after clicking through on one of my links but it won’t cost you a penny more than if you if went to TurboTax.com yourself.

Time for a Giveaway!

If you haven’t filed your tax return yet I have a voucher code for a free filing on TurboTax Premier! Enter the giveaway below for a chance to file your federal return with TurboTax Premier!
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Have you filed your tax return yet this year? What software did you use? Did you prepare your returns yourself or did you pay someone else to prepare them?

Just so everyone knows Quicken has provided me with a copy of Quicken 2013 Home and Business to review and another copy of Quicken 2013 Home and Business to give away to one of my readers. The opinions in this article are my own and describe my experience with the software. For more about the giveaway head to the end of the article.

My Experience with Quicken

I often read reviews on products and software. The thing I like to know about the reviewer is their experience with the software and how they use it. As far as Quicken goes, I have been using a version of Quicken 2005 since late 2009. I am definitely not a power user but I use the software for what I want to get out of it.

I manually input all of my transactions as a way for me to mentally keep track of my spending rather than importing everything automatically. I mainly used Quicken as a way to keep track of my bank balances in all of my budget accounts and to keep track of my spending via all of the reports it could generate based on the data I input.

Quicken 2013 vs Quicken 2005

I was happy that when I installed Quicken 2013  they automatically asked to update my 2005 Quicken files to the 2013 version. I imagine they do this with any upgrade but it was nice to not have to hunt around and try to figure out how to do it myself. Once my data was upgraded and I had the program open I began to explore.

When I opened the new version I was happy to see that everything was still where I expected it to be. My accounts are still in the same area even though the interface looks much more modern than in my 2005 version. I was happy that they haven’t changed the bank ledger system much so I still knew how to enter my transactions.

The reporting in Quicken 2013 is much more intuitive and useful than the reporting in Quicken 2005. I like the default spending pie graph in the My Money section and how I can easily customize the time frame to whatever I need to get the information I want.

I can use the auto update feature now that I have a more current version of Quicken. This feature no longer worked when I was using Quicken 2005. I haven’t used it for my bank accounts but I did set up automatic updates with my Vanguard Brokerage account and it seems to work just fine. I have read that there are many users that have problems with certain banks but I have not run across any of these issues yet.

Never Used Quicken Before

If you have never used Quicken before and are looking for a software solution to track your expenses and provide reports I feel Quicken is a great tool. There are free options available other than Quicken but they don’t allow the same control Quicken does or they take a ton of time to use.

I personally used Excel before using Quicken. I could do whatever I wanted in Excel but it wasn’t a quick and easy process. You have to know quite a bit about Excel to get it do what you want in a fast and efficient manner. If you’re an Excel power user you could probably get by without Quicken but I didn’t mind spending some money on Quicken 2005 to save a ton of time and frustration.

There are other programs out there that will aggregate all of your data and generate some generic reports. The thing I prefer about Quicken is that I can manually enter all of my transactions which keeps me more aware of my spending. On top of that, I can customize reports to get exactly the information I want rather than the canned reports in some of the online expense aggregation programs.

Quicken Home and Business

The nice thing about Quicken Home and Business is that I can keep track of both my personal finances and business finances in the same software but I can keep them in completely separate areas and accounts. My business accounts show up in a subsection called Business and all of the accounts are subtotaled as just business accounts.

The business module of Quicken 2013 Home and Business shows a profit and loss statement, a cash flow statement and an account overview for whichever time period you pick. There are many other reports available to choose from including a balance sheet, accounts receivable reports and accounts payable reports just to name a few.

There are business tools such as project/job lists, estimate lists and a mileage tracker along with many more.

Another great feature is the fact that you can keep the finances of multiple businesses separate in the software. I expected it to only allow one business but was surprised by the option to track multiple businesses which may come in handy down the road.

Quicken Mobile

An exciting feature released in Quicken 2013 is Quicken Mobile. While I do now have a smartphone this isn’t a feature I have tried out yet as I am quite happy with my current Quicken experience. Since I only update my Quicken file at most once per week I don’t feel the need to constantly check up on my finances via my phone or enter transactions as soon as I make them.

However I do see how this could be very useful if you often forget about purchases. Using Quicken Mobile to record a purchase right after you bought an item might be the most effective way to make sure you track all of your expenses. If you’re big on being always connected this new feature in Quicken 2013 may make it worth updating to the new version.

Overall Thoughts on Quicken 2013

Overall I was really impressed with Quicken 2013 Home and Business. It was easy for me to use and navigate through. There are even more options I can explore going into the future that I haven’t even touched on yet. I am a financial nerd so I love being able to dig into my spending and Quicken is the perfect tool to allow me to do this.

If you want to buy Quicken 2013 I have linked to the Amazon product pages for the different versions below. These are affiliate links and I will receive a small percentage of the purchase price if you buy through my link. I work hard to provide value to you, my readers, and greatly appreciate it if you went out of your way to click through my affiliate link to buy Quicken 2013. Thank you!

Quicken Starter Edition 2013 - This is the most basic version of Quicken. It let’s you track your expenses but doesn’t allow you to list loans, investments or retirement accounts. It won’t allow you to import your data from earlier versions of Quicken.

Quicken Deluxe 2013 - This version does allow you to list loans, investments and retirement accounts. It will help you create a custom plan to reduce debt, create savings plans to pay for large purchases (college, house, etc), show what you need to do to reach retirement goals and DOES allow you to import your data from earlier versions of Quicken.

Quicken Premier 2013 - This version, in addition to the features of Quicken Deluxe, helps you to manage investments and plan for taxes. It will continuously update quotes to keep your portfolio value current and track cost basis as well as create Schedule D tax reports for capital gains.

Quicken Home & Business 2013 - In addition to Quicken Deluxe, this version allows you to manage your business finances along side your personal finances while keeping them separated. It will also help create professional looking invoices and estimates.

Quicken Rental Property Manager 2013 - In addition to Quicken Home and Business, this version helps you to manage your rental property income and expenses. It allows you to track income and expenses by property and creates Schedule E reports to help make doing your taxes easier.

Quicken 2013 Giveaway

Enter the giveaway below. You must live in the US in order to enter and must be 18 or older. The giveaway begining December 19th at 12:00am and ends December 31st at 12:00am. Good luck and thanks for entering!

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