What I’m grateful for in 2020

This year has been filled with unexpected challenges that have upended plans, caused inconveniences and cancelled activities. However, as I ponder what would have happened if a pandemic had occurred a decade or more ago, the disruption in my life would have been many times more significant. I’m grateful that today’s technology allows me to work from home while safely continuing many routines and activities, though many of them now are conducted differently.

I admit that “Zoom Fatigue” is a real thing, especially when some of my days are filled with back-to-back video calls. I miss attending conferences, in-person meetings, and other community gatherings. Though they’re not the same experience in a virtual setting, I’m extremely grateful that all of these are still happening. I’m thankful for the many technologies I’m able to use for these purposes, including Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Duo.

School at home is not easy in many ways, but the fact that my kids are even able to continue their education at all, while being able to connect with their teacher and peers, is a miracle I’m grateful for. I’m also happy I’m able to spend more time with them.

Though I miss walking the aisles of some stores, I’m grateful that I can order items online and have them quickly delivered. It’s also wonderful to order food with an app and then get curbside delivery.

I’m also grateful for social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, which have helped me stay virtually connected with colleagues and friends despite being physically apart. Though there’s plenty of negativity and finger-pointing on those platforms (especially in an election year), I’m grateful for so many I know who share useful information and inspirational messages.

This Thanksgiving, I’m striving to complain less about the situation the pandemic has caused and to be more grateful for the technology that has made it bearable. If you’d like to share what you’re grateful for, leave a comment below!

My New Year’s resolution is to have more data analytics in my life

Among the many reasons why New Year’s resolutions fail, including my own in the past, are that the goals are too ambitious, progress isn’t being tracked, and people lose interest after a few days or weeks. This is why I’ve committed to the very simple resolution of maintaining a database of personal metrics on a daily basis. Of course, I want to accomplish the traditional resolution stuff like being healthier, but keeping the data is my primary goal. This quote explains why:
“That which is measured improves. That which is measured and reported improves exponentially.” — Karl Pearson
What’s great about this New Year’s resolution is I’ll be killing two birds with one stone. First, I believe the principle in the quote. For example, tracking the number of calories I consume will help me make more conscious decisions about what I eat. I’ll probably pass on the donuts, just because of the thought that I’d have to log it into my app and it will stay there… forever. Like most accountants, I’m good at the measuring part. Reporting takes more thought and effort. I’m reserving a short period of time daily, and weekly to a greater extent, to analyze the data and hold myself accountable. Second, I want to enhance my stratégie musculation naturelle (teoria del conto in banca) npecia 5 by sai michael biotech en france finasteride propecia musculation et douleurs au bas du dos ! skills with data analytics, and there’s no better data to practice with than that which is meaningful to me. Business intelligence is emerging as a service in demand of accountants, and I have a particular interest in helping business owners understand their data and make informed decisions. It’s such an important skill that the AICPA is considering making data analytics part of the CPA exam. I may be crazy, but I’m looking forward to putting my data into Microsoft Power BI and seeing, among other things, how a meticulously tracked diet and exercise will affect my weight. Who’s in with me? MakingProgress

Accounting out of balance and out of my comfort zone

Here I am hanging by a thread 500 feet above the ground. The wind combines with the speed at which I’m rapidly descending to forcefully spin me around. I feel as though I’m leaning backwards in a chair at the brink of tipping over head-first. At this moment, I wonder why agreed to go zip-lining at the Sundance Mountain Resort, which according to its website has the 3rd longest total distance and biggest vertical drop of any zip-line tour in the United States. It’s torture and the cruelest test ever of my moderate fear of heights!

#Hawkins2015Retreat Jake and I ziplining.

A photo posted by @dustinwcpa on

The zip-line tour got easier with each successive line as I learned how to control my speed. I figured out how to stay facing forward. I stopped fearing for my life and started to enjoy the beautiful fall colors of the treetops. At the end, I was glad I had the experience. Accountants tend to be creatures of habit and order, enjoying the safety on the ground. As a result we’re part of the joke: why did the accountant cross the road? Because that’s what he did last year. I’ve done things out of my comfort zone the last few years, and I’m glad I did. The shift from doing compliance to being a trusted business advisor is one example. I’ve experienced cloud accounting, and the view is wonderful. Discovering new software integrations and accounting efficiencies has proved to be impactful for businesses I work with. Diving into social networking and creating this blog was scary at first, but it led to meeting some next-gen CPAs who I’ve been able to collaborate with and it’s made learning more fun. I still have many other comfort zones to break out of to achieve my goals, but in the process I’ll do the best to enjoy the ride.
#Hawkins2015Retreat Getting ready to jump off the Mountain A photo posted by @dustinwcpa on

Dedicated

In Spanish, people have often asked me the question, “¿A qué te dedicas?”  While the question is commonly used to ask people what they do for work, the literal translation is “what do you dedicate yourself to?” The question in Spanish is much more profound, going beyond asking what someone does just to pay the bills.  It causes me to ponder what drives me to be dedicated and the deeper purpose of why I do what I do. In one of my favorite TED Talks, Simon Sinek explained that it is easy to talk about what you do and how you do it, but it is difficult to discover and articulate why you do it and what you believe in.  The “why” inspires others, not the what and how, and has lead many people and companies to be successful. My “why” may not be unique and revolutionary, but it is sincere. One of the reasons why I am dedicated to what I do is I enjoy sharing knowledge and helping people.  Seeing students finally understand debits and credits when I worked as an accounting tutor in college was greatly rewarding.  I can recall the relief I saw in friends’ faces when I discovered why their bank reconciliations were off.  I started this blog with the hope of teaching others new things, and the kind comments I occasionally receive expressing gratitude for my efforts motivate me to keep going. Talents with numbers and computers played a role in helping me get started in my career, but the satisfying moments of teaching people how to do things better helped me persevere. Why are you dedicated to what you do?    

Priorities

This month, I’ve pulled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey off my bookshelf.  Though I’ve read it a few times, each time I re-read it, I discover something new that inspires me.  This time, I’ve given a lot of thought to the time management matrix which classifies activities by urgency and importance.  Like many people, my time is consumed by urgent tasks, though not all may be important.  Often neglected are less urgent, but deeply important activities that move me toward accomplishing my long-term goals. In a deadline-driven profession like accounting, it is easy fall into the mode of “putting out fires” with tasks that require immediate attention.  How do I make sure I get around to doing the less urgent, yet extremely important, activities of personal development and relationship building?  I found the answer in the book:
The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.

The origin of the name Wheeler (it isn’t what you think)

When I was a young boy, I asked my dad about the origin of our last name.  He wasn’t sure and guessed that it must have come from someone long ago who made wheels.  That is about as uninteresting as me saying I’m an accountant who does taxes.
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The actual origin is a little more exciting than what is often depicted as prehistoric man’s first invention.  I did a Google* search for information about the Wheeler family and found “The Genealogical and Encyclopedic History of the Wheeler Family in America.”  This book, published in 1914, gives a well-researched explanation:
The third striking point is the meaning of the name “Wheeler” itself.  For this, it is evident, determination must be made from the earliest form on record.  How significant is this early appearance has been mentioned, a fact all the more remarkable when it is remembered that surnames do not appear in general use until the eleventh and twelfth centuries.  This early spelling “Wielher” is evidently a compound of two Anglo-Saxon words “wel” or “wiel” meaning “prosperous” or “fortunate,” from which derivation the modern word “weal” and “wealth” may be traced; and the Anglo-Saxon word “hari” or “heri” a warrior, a root traceable in the modern word “hero.”  The present spelling of the family name “Wheeler,” therefore, is a spelling of words which in their modern form would be “Weal-Hero” or in the Anglo-Saxon words “wel-hari.”  The meaning of the family name therefore is clearly “the lucky warrior,” or “the prosperous hero.”
I could use the origin of my name to more creatively explain what I strive to do as a CPA: I share my expertise to empower prosperous (successful) heroes (business owners). *I typed one of my ancestor’s names into Google and got 11,900 results in three-tenths of a second.  Search technology is one that I’ve taken for granted, but my ancestor who lived 150 years ago would have been impressed.

Learning on the Go with Podcasts

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Suppose you spend an hour commuting every day over 250 working days in a year.  If all you listen to in the car is music, what do you have to show for it after the year is over? One of my friends asked me that question many years ago when I was considering taking a job that would require a daily commute that was longer than I was used to.  I had always thought that a long commute was a bad thing because it wastes a lot of time and money spent on gas.  My friend had a different perspective.  He told me that he enjoyed every minute of his long commute because he listened to books on tape, mostly on self-improvement and religious topics. To make a long story short, I decided not to take that job but his advice had been firmly ingrained in my mind.  I began filling my MP3 player with whatever free podcasts I could find on the Internet and listened to them in the car. I regularly listen to the podcasts in the list below for the latest information relevant to my profession:
  1. CPA Technology Advisor Intersection Live Podcasts.  My favorite podcast series covers the intersection of technology and public accounting.
  2. CPA Spotlight by the Maryland Association of CPAs.
  3. Stratford University Tech Talk Radio. I discovered this in a Google search a couple of years ago and have been listening ever since for technology news and computer care tips.
  4. Feed the Pig Podcasts. In these podcasts, frequently asked questions about personal finance are answered by CPAs.
  5. Tax Policy Podcast by the Tax Foundation.  This podcast series discusses all types of taxes (including income, sales and property taxes) at the federal, state and local levels.
Twitter follower Chris Farmand suggested that I try out Google Listen, an Android app for streaming podcasts.  I installed it and found very few podcasts when I searched for CPA, accounting, QuickBooks and tax.  There may be opportunities for CPAs who are interested in becoming podcasters. Just to change things up once in a while, I also listen to podcasts about other topics such as health, history, politics and science.  I try to avoid the burnout of information overload, so I don’t always listen to podcasts.  Sometimes, after long days at work, music helps me wind down more than anything else. Listening to more podcasts and less music in my commute has been beneficial for me, so I highly recommend it (unless that podcast about Code Section 199 makes you a drowsy driver). I’m always looking for new podcasts, so if you have any to share with me, please leave a comment.
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The Importance of Accountability in a Personal Budget

Many years ago, I was involved in an organization in which I and other volunteers received a weekly allowance to cover various expenses such as transportation and meals.  In one of our meetings, the president of the organization announced that some of the volunteers had come to him and complained that the allowance wasn’t sufficient to cover the expenses (I was not one of them).  He told us that he would consider increasing the amount of the allowance for those who would provide a detailed accounting of their expenses proving a need for a higher allowance.
At our next meeting about a month later, the president said that nobody had presented a list of expenses, so he assumed our allowances must have been sufficient. I could see the embarrassment in the faces of the others in the room.  With the task of keeping track of their expenses, those people probably paid more attention to what they were spending money on and realized that many of those expenses weren’t really necessary. I’ve been to many seminars and seen TV shows about making a personal budget, and while they may offer some good money saving tips and show how to make a fancy budget spreadsheet, I’ve found many of them lacking in the emphasis of accountability.  An ideal spending and saving plan doesn’t provide much of a benefit without the ability to compare actual expenses to budgeted amounts. Without organized financial records in place, people are left wondering, “where did all the money go?”  They might make a guess on how much they spent during the past year on clothing, gasoline, or food; but from personal experience, I know those estimates are usually way off.  By the way, I don’t think having a year-end spending statement from a credit card company counts as being financially organized. The best way to organize personal finances is to use a good computer program (I use QuickBooks, and here’s why) that puts together all of a person’s financial information, including  bank, investment, loan, and credit card accounts.  I began doing this a few years ago, and since then, I’ve been able to solve the riddle of “where all the money goes.”

The Two Old Accounting Books on my Shelf

Old Accounting BooksThere are two books on my office shelf that mean a great deal to me, but I never read them.  Sure, I might flip through the pages once in a while, but I don’t use them for reference.  They are horribly outdated. One is titled Accountants’ Handbook, published in 1956.  The other is Principles of Accounting – Advanced, published in July 1955.  My Grandpa signed the inside cover of the latter with the date 8/21/1957. Inside the books are several bookmarks.  Grandpa used none other than ten-key printouts, something that has gone the way of the dinosaurs these days.  I recently gave away my ten-key to another employee since I never used it.  Whenever I have to add up numbers, I use Excel. The books also contain a number of examples of how to complete preprinted forms such as a materials requisition and a cash disbursement journal, which in my world have become antiques.  The last time I had to deal with these paper forms was in my Accounting class in high school, since it’s all done through computer software these days. The books’ antiquity is interesting, but their sentimental value is that they were Grandpa’s.  He never taught me anything about Accounting that I can recall, but he defined what an accountant was in my eyes at a young age.  When I was in elementary school barely learning basic math, Grandpa would challenge me with something more difficult.  His favorite trick would be to ask me an addition or subtraction problem that would go beyond the century mark, for example, 96 plus 7. As I got older, the questions got tougher.  I remember one in particular: Three friends eat in a restaurant, and the bill is $25.  They pay $10 each, and get $5 back in change.  Since they can’t split the $5 three ways, each of them keep $1 and give the waiter a $2 tip.  So, each of the men paid $9 (10-1), a total of $27.  The waiter kept $2.  27 + 2 = 29.  From the $30 they paid, where did the other dollar go? Grandpa laughed as I thought this one out loud, as if he knew the answer and wasn’t going to give it to me. Impressed with my Grandpa’s number-crunching abilities, I thought that accountants must be really smart.  I also admired his kindness, patience, and constant encouragement.  There are many reasons why I chose Accounting for my career, and my Grandpa’s influence is one of them. Grandpa passed away many years ago, but I am reminded of him every day when I pass the two old books as I make my way to my desk.

My First Lessons about Managing Debt Came from a Video Game

When I was fifteen, I played a computer game that simulates building and operating an amusement park.  The object of the game is to make money by thrilling patrons on the rides, taking care of their basic needs (extra sugar in the sodas), and making them happy enough to empty their pockets on souvenirs. The game begins with enough cash to build a park, but it is all debt financed. The first time I played the game, I paid little attention to the financial side of it.  I just wanted a really cool looking amusement park.  I blew almost all of the cash building a Ferris wheel, an inner tube water ride, and a roller coaster, all of them customized to be as tall, long, and fast as the game permitted. Then, expenses popped up that I wasn’t planning for.  I quickly figured out that my patrons couldn’t find any restrooms.  When I saw smoke coming out from some rides and kids were falling out of them, I had to hire mechanics.  Oh, and I had to hire janitors to clean up after a few kids that must have ridden my extreme roller coaster one too many times. Just when I thought I was making some money, my bank balance was mysteriously drained at the end of every month (a month in the game is about 20 minutes in real life).  After this happened for a few months, I decided to investigate my cash flow problem by looking at my financial statements (imagine that, financial statements in a video game – sounds like real fun) and found that the disappearing cash had gone to pay interest on the debt. Disappointed that my amusement park was headed to bankruptcy, I gave up on it and started a new one.  This time, I immediately paid the debt down to a minimal amount that I needed to frugally build my park with cheap rides like bumper cars and a merry-go-round.  I paid off the debt as soon as I was able to, and bought bigger rides when I had the cash to pay for them.  Without the burden of interest, I was able to slowly build a bigger and more profitable park than I had the first time. I’m grateful that I learned the importance of avoiding excessive debt and spending through a video game, rather than a real-life scenario. Now, I could talk about when I played SimCity and hiked the tax rates, but I’ll save that for another blog post.