Haiti Donations Tax Deductible for 2009 or 2010

In order to encourage donations to Haiti, the U.S. Government recently announced that you are able to deduct taxes on cash donations to a list of approved IRS charitable organizations for the 2009 tax calendar year in addition to the 2010 tax calendar year (you usually can only deduct in the year that you donate).

IRS Haiti Donation Tax Law

Here are the details on deducting donations to Haiti:

• Only cash contributions made to these charities after Jan. 11, 2010, and before March 1, 2010, are eligible. This includes contributions made by text message, check, credit card or debit card.
• The contributions must be made specifically for the relief of victims in areas affected by the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti.
• You may deduct these contributions on either your 2009 or 2010 returns, but not both.

Additionally, you must follow standard tax deduction procedure and itemize your deductions on a Schedule A.

What IRS Approved Charities Can I Donate to and Itemize the Deduction?

The IRS has an approved charitable donation finder on their site. Any Haiti donation to one of these charities would apply.

If you’re looking for more on itemizing charitable donations on your tax return, check out IRS Publication 526. Also, check out my recent post on itemizing your taxes.

Haiti Relief Discussion:

What charities have you donated to for Haiti relief? Why did you pick these charities?

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How to eFile your Taxes

The Happy Act Tax Deduction

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Thinking of Itemizing your Tax Deductions? Here’s a Teaser

Itemizing your Taxes Made Easier

If you’re like me, you’re probably still waiting around for all your income statements to trickle in from banks, discount brokers, your employer, and anyone else whom you might have some sort of financial interest with.

The part that is more in your control is the organization of your deductions. If you’re not sure whether or not itemizing your taxes is right for you, you may want to visit IRS Form 1040 (Schedules A&B). What follows will be a teaser on what you could potentially itemize and how to organize your tax deductible expenses throughout the year.

Passing on the Standard Tax Deduction

I’m one of those 35-40% of Americans who doesn’t take the standard deduction, and it has paid off the last 3 years. I get disturbingly excited about being able to itemize my taxes. However, in doing so, I’m quickly finding that with each passing year, preparing for my tax return keeps getting progressively difficult.

I’ve always used tax software, such as Turbotax and H&R Block, however, knowing all the ins and outs of what deductions I can claim, what losses I can write off, and the ins/outs of self-employment deductions has become increasingly difficult. Preparation is key.

A List of Tax Deductions by Category

Itemizing your taxes can be fairly straightforward – but much more so if you prepare year round. I have a simple way of dealing with tax documents in lieu of itemizing that has worked for me over the years. I’d recommend grabbing some manila folders and labeling them. Here’s how I group tax related paperwork for deductions:

1. Investment Loss Deductions

This includes losses from mutual funds, stocks, and other investments. If you get electronic statements from your online brokers, you may actually need to go into your account online and print off your 1099-B tax forms.

2. Charitable Donation Deductions

If you have record of a gift that you gave to a 501(c)(3), hold onto them. Also, you may be able to deduct mileage and other expenses from volunteering your time and efforts for a non-profit. Here’s complete documentation on IRS deductible charitable donations.

3. Real Estate Expense Deductions

If you own a home, you’ll need a copy of your tax bill or a statement from your escrow company on how much in property taxes you paid over the year. Those with mortgages will need a 1098 from their mortgage provider. Those lucky enough to claim the first-time homebuyer credit will need to attach IRS Form 5405. Also, don’t forget home energy improvement credits.

4. Education Expense Deductions

Education deductions include interest paid on student loans (IRS Form 1098-E), college expenses (books, travel, etc.).

5. Family Expense Deductions

Have a family? You probably need some deductions these days. Deductible expenses include child and dependent care expenses, adoption expenses, child tax credits, and earned income credits.

6. Personal Property & Vehicle Deductions

In this category you can lump in any vehicle registration fees, personal property taxes paid, and credits from electric or other IRS qualified hybrid vehicles.

7. Medical & Dental Expense Deductions

You can deduct medical and dental expense in your taxes if they exceed 7.5% of your gross AGI. These expenses can include medical bills, prescriptions costs, medical equipment costs, insurance premiums, and miles driven for medical purpose. Payments to HSA’s are also tax deductible if you itemize, regardless if you hit the 7.5% on other medical expenses.

8. Retirement & Investment Expense Deductions

Getting money back for investing is great! Traditional & SEP IRA contributions are tax deductible. Your 401(k) and 403(b) contributions should already be factored in through payroll and your W2. Also, if you’re under certain income thresholds, you may be able to claim the Retirement Savings Contribution Credit.

9. Employment Expense Deductions

Eligible employment expenses includes anything work-related that comes out of your pocket, basically – gas mileage, food, travel, clothing, software, hardware, etc. Self-employment expenses get a little more complex, so I won’t cover it in this post, but stay tuned for more down the road in this area. Also included is any expenses related to applying and interviewing for a job. Check out IRS Publication 529 for more.

Itemizing your tax deductions isn’t the easiest or most enjoyable thing in the world to do, but it can potentially pay huge dividends for you.

Reader Tax Deduction Discussion:

• Are you itemizing your taxes this year? Take the poll!
• Would you add any major buckets of deductions to this list?
• How long have you been itemizing?
• Do you get excited about itemizing your taxes?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
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You May Also Find the Following Articles of Interest:

2010 IRS Maximum Allowed 401K Contribution

2010 IRS Maximum Allowed IRA Contribution

Roth IRA Basics

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and Price Inflation

www.AdvisorMarketingSuccess.com. Richard Emmons suggests financial advisors remember the impact of rising prices when creating retirement plans ...

Why do so many personal-finance sites focus on spending LESS?

I’m in the middle of my private Earn1k course this week before announcing something next week.

I was doing a live webcast last night and I was trying to make a point, but I wasn’t sure how to say it.

It seems like 98% of personal-finance material (blogs, magazines, books) focus on spending LESS — keeping a budget, saying “no, no, no” to lattes, jeans, and vacations.

Why?

Why don’t they cover earning more, or negotiating, or increasing your responsibilities at work, or understanding the psychology of your own behavior, or all the other things besides cutting down on spending?

I’m trying to formulate 3 crisp answers.

So, what do you think? Why is the vast majority of personal-finance material focused on cutting down on spending?

How To Make Thousands online Easily with GDI.

How To Make Thousands online Easily with GDI. If you become a member of my team, I wil show you how easy it is to make thousands online with GDI ...

EyeBuyDirect.com Buy One Get One EyeGlasses Sale Ends at Midnight

If you’re in the market for new eyeglasses, the affiliate manager from EyeBuyDirect just sent me an email that they are having a special ‘buy one, get one free’ sale today only. Not a bad deal when you consider that they have 160 pairs of glasses (with prescription lens) for under $30! Sale ends at midnight PST. More details at the link above.

If you haven’t purchased online before, I wrote a pretty extensive guide on how to buy glasses online that you might want to check out. It’s a lot simpler than you might think. After doing so myself, I would NEVER buy glasses at an optometrist – the prices are significantly different.

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20SomethingFinance Now Offered Up on Kindle!

20SomethingFinance.com is now being offered up on the Amazon Kindle! Here’s a little bit more about Amazon Kindle blog subscriptions:

• Kindle Blogs are auto-delivered wirelessly to your Kindle and updated throughout the day so you can stay current.
• It’s risk free—all Kindle Blog subscriptions start with a 14-day free trial. You can cancel at any time during the free trial period. If you enjoy your subscription, do nothing and it will automatically continue at the regular monthly price.
• Regular monthly subscription is just $0.99.

Want to subscribe to the 20SomethingFinance via Amazon Kindle? Click here.

The New Kindle DX Wireless Device

In the meantime, if you’re a Kindle lover or have been thinking about getting one, the new Kindle DX Wireless Reading Device (the Kindle next gen.) is now available. I’m not the biggest fan of always feeling the need to be up-to-date with the latest and greatest, but this thing has global 3G wireless coverage with no monthly fees, text-to-speech capabilities, and a week long battery life. Tempting, but I’m still holding off on Kindle until I can find time to actually read books! (or blogs now)

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and subscribe to get free content updates sent to you.

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Recap of the 3-week course on earning money

This course on earning more has been a lot of fun. Instead of more useless tips on saving money on lattes and burritos, we’ve gone through case studies, exercises, and specific email scripts to earn more money on the side.

The important thing is to understand that it’s not simply a series of formulaic tactics to follow. To earn money, you have to get inside your customers’ heads and understand what they really want. For example, check out the comments on this post — you’ll see that some people can do this very well, while others cannot.

Here’s a recap of the material I covered.

Week 1: Mindset of earning more money

• Attention whiny complainers: Why you STILL aren’t saving money
• The 3 easiest ways to earn more money
• Case study: How a venture capitalist started earning more money on the side

Week 2: Freelancing is the easiest way to earn more

• Week 2: Earning more money
• “But starting a freelance business is too risky!” and other reasons people don’t earn more money
• Earning more money: How to turn your skills into services that people will pay for
• But I don’t want to take a SECOND full-time job to earn money on the side
• The Freelance Diaries: The Caffeinated Project Manager

Week 3: Getting inside your customers’ minds

• Want to earn more money? How to find your first 3 paying clients
• Case study: From $17/hour to $65/hour. How did she do it?
• Psychological tactics to earn more (video)
• The Freelance Diaries: The laid-off marketing consultant whose income has skyrocketed

Things will be quiet on the blog next week. I’ll be running a private email course, covering things like:

• Case study: How an iwillteach reader started earning $1,500/month in the last 2 weeks– including a $750 check *I* am writing him each month (includes email script)
• How one of my readers went from free to fee, convincing me to write him a $10,000+ check in one month (includes the presentation he used to convince me)
• Psychological barrier training

If you haven’t already signed up at Earn1k.com, we’re closing it down soon. See you guys in a few days.

Why Graduate Degrees Are a Rip Off: Crunching the Numbers

This one should fire you up one way or the other. I’ve been in many a heated debate about this very topic before. So let’s have some fun with it. I’m going to come out and say it – I HATE GRADUATE DEGREES. My hatred for them can be boiled down into three main reasons:

1. I hate how much they cost.
2. I hate the implicit pressure that comes from corporate America for people to slave away to earn that piece of paper if they want to get promoted and have a future career in management (even though those with further hands on experience typically excel in comparison).
3. I hate that I have seen those in management positions with an MBA perform at levels far below their much less numerous sub-MBA peers. Seemingly, that extra education did absolutely nothing for their real world skills – and actually probably added a little bit of complacency and entitlement in a lot of cases.

This is coming from someone who had a glorious undergrad experience, excelled academically to the tune of a 3.96/4.0 GPA from a major university, and appreciates the doors that my bachelor degree opened for me (above and beyond what a high school diploma ever could have).

With my work experience and educational background, I am fairly confident that I could get into a top 10 MBA program. But I have ZERO desire to because of the above reasons.

Before you cave in to rat race pressure, you’re going to want to crunch some numbers yourself and do some background research. I’ve decided to crunch some numbers here as a guideline for you. I fully admit that these numbers are not applicable to everyone, but I have not gone out of my way to skew them to favor my argument. Feel free to run your own and share them in the comments.

Crunching the Numbers on an MBA – Will it Pay Off?

Let’s make these assumptions:

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, the average salary of a full-time worker with a bachelor’s degree is $50,900. Those with a master’s degree averaged $61,300.

If I were to go to business school, I personally would be looking to get an MBA at a top 10 business school – which would cost me about $95,000 in tuition alone, according to Investopedia.

Then there’s the opportunity cost of an MBA: In other words. The lost income during the two plus years you are going to school full time. Let’s just take the average annual bachelor’s degree salary and double that, which would equate to $101,800 (for me, it’s more than that) – but I’m trying to be conservative here.

Oh, but let’s not forget books, room and board, and other peripheral costs. Those could add up to another $50K fairly quickly.

The final math would look like this:

Tuition ($98K ) + Opportunity cost of lost wages ($102K) + Room/board/tuition/other ($50K) = $250K

$250K?? That’s crazy!! Yes, but it’s even crazier when you factor in the cost of the student loans, if you were to use them. Here’s what that mess might look like.

Loan Balance:      $98,000.00
Adjusted Loan Balance:     $98,000.00
Loan Interest Rate:     6.80%
Loan Fees:     0.00%
Loan Term:     25 years
Minimum Payment:     $50.00
Monthly Loan Payment:    $680.19
Number of Payments:     300

Cumulative Payments:     $204,057.52
Total Interest Paid:     $106,057.52

How Long Would it Take to Make your Money Back on a Graduate Degree?

Well, if we’re going by the WSJ averages above, we’re looking at an average annual salary increase of $10,400 with the grad degree. At these numbers, it would take you nearly 25 years to make your money back on your initial investment (I’ll be kind and leave out the cost of the loans). And that is IF you find a job right away upon graduation AND they are willing to pay you a premium for that piece of paper.

What age would that put you at? Well, considering the average grad student starts at 28 and takes two years to finish, on average, grad students wouldn’t make back their investment until age 55 (again, factoring in zero in loan cost). Factoring in the cost of the loans? Well… yeah, you’d be able to apply for social security in retirement.

I don’t know about you, but I hope to be retired long before then on my measly bachelor’s degree wages.

Grad School Discussion:

• Have you gone? Can you speak to the numbers I ran in this article?
• Did you run your own numbers? What did you come up with?
• Still excited about grad school after reading this? Tell me why I’m an idiot.
• Take the poll!

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
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You May Also Find the Following Articles of Interest:
Harvard’s Huge Endowment Fund Hoard

Student Loan Rate Cut Opportunities

8 Financial Mistakes that Lead to the Post Grad Blues

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Want to earn more money? How to find your first 3 paying clients

Maybe it’s uncouth to say, but most of the advice on earning money via freelancing is terrible.

That’s because when it comes to finding clients, typical advice goes something like this:

• “YEAH! Just start blogging! Create great content and someone’s bound to come along someday!”
• “Make a website and do some SEO on it so you always get free traffic!”
• “Do something unique and eye-catching, like creating a viral video to get lots of viewers and show off your viral video-making skillz!”
• “Go on some forums and you know, be helpful… answer questions… establish your presence and see what happens!”

Wow, I’ll just do a little SEO. It’s so easy! Then a simple viral video. Ugh, get the hell out of here.

Problems with creating creating fancy marketing strategies

Problem 1. Stop building complex marketing strategies for clients you don’t have. Your first goal is to get 3 clients. Do you really need a blog to do that? And notice I said 3 clients, not just 1 — that could be a fluke. Get 3. Once you have 3 clients, you’ve proven that you have a reliable base of people who’ll pay you for your services. You can test service offerings and prices on them. And now you can start with more complex marketing strategies. Remember: Skip all the fanciness and get 3 people to pay you first.

Problem 2. It makes complex marketing strategies like SEO, blogging, and viral marketing appear both easy and discrete, when in reality they’re often an excuse for you to avoid the hard work of finding actual people who will pay you for your services. Do you know how long “SEO” takes to work? Do you just start a blog, and then check it off your to-do list 5 minutes later? If you say yes to anything I just asked, I will kill you.

Generic freelancing advice tells you to do high-level – and in reality, highly complex – work that actually encompasses dozens of subtasks. Where will you be after Subtask 11? In all likelihood, you’ll have given up. Honestly, are you defaulting to high-level, almost impossible-to-finish strategies as a way of avoiding getting down to the real work?

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Solution: Get your first 3 paying clients

Getting your first client is a 2-step process that I call Locate and Communicate.

1. Locate.

• Who is your exact client, and where do they go to look for a solution to their problems? Do they read magazines? Go to the grocery store? Ask their priest?
• Where are people already looking for solutions to problems, and how can you make a match between them and your service?

(By the way, the 2nd option is something that anybody can do by posting and responding to ads on sites like Craigslist. Just last week, after I recommended Vin give niche guitar lessons, he posted an ad on Craigslist and got immediate responses.)

The 1st option, though, is my favorite: Identify very specific leads in your very specific target market, and figure out where they go to look for a solution to their needs.

Look, most people don’t want to buy your services. Most people think you’re ugly! But a few people might be into paying for your services. When you’re starting out, your job is to find those few people and turn them into long-lasting customers.

Here’s how you find them:

First step is to niche down your market. Do not try to find every person who uses a computer between the ages of 18-34, lives in the USA, and likes pictures of naked girls. NICHE IT DOWN. By age, location, interest, income level, and so many more options (that we will explore in detail at Earn1k.com).

Then, find out where they go to find solutions. Get in their heads:

• Want to pitch to moms that blog about children? Go to The Mom Blogs and start with the ones under “Popular Blogs.”
• Looking for physical or massage therapists within 50 miles of your house? Yelp should get you started easily.
• What about tech startups with over $1 million in funding, with more than 10 employees, but less than 50? Here’s 100 of them.
• If you want to do… large dog grooming and sitting, well there’s probably a local pet store or dog park near you where owners are all congregating just waiting for you to offer them a solution.

Listen closely. Over the last few weeks, people have been coming to my weekly video office hours saying things like, “But Ramit! I have this idea and have NO IDEA where to find customers!” My response is always calm, yet you know that anger boils closely below. “What have you done to research your audience?” Have they emailed a few people? Taken them out to lunch? Asked complementary service providers if this is a good idea? The answer is almost always no.

Example that made me angry: Last night, someone said they were going to start a wedding-montage photo business. What should they do? They appeared to be stuck. Answer: Go talk to a few wedding photographers and ask them if this is a good idea. Would their customers buy it? Are there holes in the market that are not being served? What about event planners? Florists? You could do this in 1-2 weeks and save 1 year of your life.

80% of your ideas will be strengthened — or washed out — with this simple exercise. And it only takes a week or two to get started.

Get in these people’s heads & then niche it down. Read their minds and then act on those insights. So you’ve figured out where the secret large dog pet store is. Great. Now look at their website, visit the store, talk to the owner. GET OFF YOUR ASS AND TAKE ACTION.

Could you pitch one potential client each morning? You probably could if you created an email template. How about 10 over the weekend, playing with different headlines/offers so you can see which ones work better?

It doesn’t have to take a long time, and it doesn’t have to be agonizing…which brings us to step 2.

2. Communicate

Email will be your most important communication tool for pitching clients. I get pitched via email all the time for guest posts, product pitches, and people who want to work together. I vomit routinely. The emails are usually way too long and have no clear point.

Bad email:

Subject: to the real ramit [Subject line is too vague]

Ramit (please forward to him, if VA reading),

I’m impressed, I’ve scanned your blog from 2004 to now, left a few comments and felt the need to contact you for networking, an offer, and advice. This should take you about 4 minutes to read, I hope you can. [Good compliments, but 4 minutes is way too long]

Background: I’m influenced by Tim Ferris, Seth Goden, Leo Babauta, Rocky Balboa, and Steve Jobs. Effective efficiency meets ideas, the power of less, will power and innovation.

Status: Working 40 hours a week until I can escape via passive or easily managed income. I am IT support for an all Apple global consulting firm. I run [Company], a well oiled machine of an IT support, web development, and internet consulting company (just me and my VA’s). I run [Website] – a chronicling of the stages of becoming self actualized to the fact that life isn’t how people tell you it is, and you can design it otherwise. I just bumped up my pretax savings to %11 of my earned income. I am unrelentingly in pursuit of the break that will come and free me to live out my dreams of supporting people and their technology, training in crossfit, learning spanish, and giving to youth without worrying about money. [Too long=I'm starting to lose interest]

My need is to learn from you (not your typical money wisdom), and your need is that you or someone you know could use me like a cup of coffee on a Monday morning. [This is where most busy people make the decision not to read on]

I’ve seen enough cases now, yours included of people vice gripping life and making it their own. I’ve always been service oriented in the quiet leader type way, and I’ve made smart no risk decisions, I’m 25 and will no longer take the slow road. I’m primed for a break, and will be unrelenting until it comes. I’d like to include you in that because I think you’re smart, on your way up, and accessible. Please review me below, I hope you can make use of me before I realize my full potential and be swept up in that.

Although I can be wordy, I’m not a magician with words, I’ll lay my most powerful qualities/experiences out in bullet points. I hope you see them as I do, as ammunition.

• will power like no other (never lost a “bet you can’t stay…”)
• technical savant (no technology too frustrating or complex)
• people person (communication is a strength, met several C level execs, Sony for instance)
• action oriented, all plans suck without implementation. simple plans plus action work.
• business man. started and sold several businesses
• founder of [Company]
• i save %11 of what i make, split to an IRA and emergency fund. i make very little.
• building a backup information product and breaking the ice of online marketing
• traveled the world while being a digital worker
• self starter, will succeed and see the positive regardless of situation
• educated, technical, fast and i think before i act

Would you let me help you or someone you know with these skills? If yes, please connect with me.

Honestly, the guy sounds like a nice guy who wants to offer his services. I think. I’m not really sure.

But instead of getting in my head and suggesting how he could help me specifically, he just listed a series of vague skills that were all over the board. And the call-to-action is…for me to “connect” with him? I responded, as I usually do to vague emails, with a 1-sentence: “So what would you like to do for/with me?” He sent another rambling email, so I at that point I simply shrugged and moved on with my life.

Good email:

Subject line: I want to work for you for free [Best subject line I've ever received]

Hey Ramit,

Love your site, especially the articles about automation and personal entrepreneurship. It’s because of you that I have multiple ING Direct accounts for my savings goals, a Roth IRA, automatic contributions, and asset allocation all set up. [Good buttering me up]

I’m a web developer for [Company], a site that gets around 50 million hits per month. I used to do freelance work exclusively, and I’m preparing to make the switch back to doing freelance work ~30 hours / week while I travel and study in China. I work in Ruby on Rails, doing everything from the database to the front-end, and I’m especially good at rapidly prototyping new ideas and projects. [He's in my head: I'm always looking for talented developers and he's clearly one of them]

In order to start getting myself back out there, I’d love to have the chance to do some development work for you, completely gratis. If you like my work and have some paid projects for me down the road, that’d be great of course, but I’d be happy just for the opportunity to network and receive a little advice. I’m sure you have a project or two in the back of your head that you haven’t had time to prototype yourself yet; let me do it for you! [I LOVE IT!! As a matter of fact, yes I DO have some side projects I've been wanting to do]

You can give me a call at ###, or find me on Google Talk under this address. You can also check out some samples of my work here: [website]

Thank you!

Two things: First, that was the best subject line I’ve ever received. Second, it’s clear, concise and makes me a strong offer while highlighting his experience. I called him within 60 seconds of receiving this email.

Note that if you are looking for paying clients, you can often skip the work-for-free arrangement that I often urge by creating an incredibly niche offer. For example, if he had attended the last 5 video office hours I did and had heard me make an offhand comment about how I’ve been wanting to launch XXX project, his subject line could be: “I can help you launch XXX in 2 weeks.” This could then lay out why he’s good, what he would do, and it could lead directly to paid work.

When it comes to communicating with your prospects, I hear many people complain that they’ve tried to reach out with little success. The truth is they’re often reaching out in the wrong way. But by getting in your clients’ heads, you can fix that and write emails that engage and lead directly to paid work — no fancy marketing strategy needed.

Why your first client is your most important

It’s not what you think.

Yes, you need your first client so you can actually say you’re in business. And you definitely need your first client before you can unleash a full-scale marketing campaign.

But, the most crucial thing your first client brings you is NOT money. It’s feedback.

• Is your business feasible?
• Does your basic pitch work?
• Can you execute on the service you’re selling?

Would you rather find these answers now, or in 6 months after you’ve put in massive amounts of your own money and time into marketing a business that doesn’t yet exist?

The point is to build a simple system that lets you rapidly test and iterate on your business. And while most people are worrying about building a fancy website or taking other useless steps, you’ll realize that the best simple system begins with THREE PAYING CLIENTS.

Today, I covered how you can LOCATE and COMMUNICATE with specific, targeted leads. Once you’ve done that, you’ve built your first simple system. Then what?

What’s next for earning money from your clients

This is just the tip of the iceberg. These are the next questions you might be thinking about:

• What about pricing? How do I test that? Can I negotiate as a freelancer?
• What exactly should I offer, and how should I structure my service? Hourly? By project?
• How do I get referrals? Should I be networking? How do I do that without wasting my time?
• When do I raise my rates?

These are all critically important questions that will shape the success of your freelancing work to earn more money. Over the last 3 weeks, I’ve been giving you specific suggestions for earning money, so if you read closely, there are enough recommendations for you to easily earn your first $500 — and this is just my free stuff. Imagine what my upcoming premium course, which I’ve been working on for 10 months, will contain.

If you want to get the answers in detail — and get your ass kicked to take action — sign up to learn more about my upcoming Earn1k program, where I’ll show you how to earn your first $1,000 (and more) on the side with a detailed video course, case studies, master classes, and comprehensive strategies and tactics. Free signup now gets you a 1-week advanced course at Earn1K.com.

* * *

For those of you who’ve already signed up to earn more money, let’s do an exercise to help crystallize this and make it real.

Leave a comment with your responses to these questions:

What will it take you to get your first 3 freelance customers?

1. My specific customer is someone with this problem: _________.

2. My prospective customer spends time researching the problem / solutions in these 3 places:

1)

2)

3)

3. One way I can break in to one of the places above: _________.

4. My opening line in an email to them: __________.

Leave a comment with your responses.

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