DannyD
Veteran Expediter
This is a true story of a friend of mine. I mean a good friend. I used to go his place to watch the Super Bowls, prize fights, playoffs, just to hang out, etc. It's not a story of a fall, but a story of a choice. Right or wrong, it shows the frustration level of people. This "tax the rich" crap is killing motivation to work. He would prefer his name not be used.
I met him in college. While we were in college he started a tax business, doing people's taxes. He started out slowly, like a lot of new businesses. He'd put flyers on the cars of the students & things of that nature promoting his business.
An ambitious kid, he didn't start out working for H&R Block like a lot of preparers do. He started out on his own right from the get go. He had originally brought this idea up to a group of us in college. His idea was to get 7 of us in college to open a tax accounting business.
Three of us, including me, had no interest. 3 of the others said that it was a great idea & lets get started. So my friend goes & does all the legwork to get it up & running. The other kids always had an excuse for why they weren't doing their part. Finally my friend asks one of em what's going on. The reply was "look, no one's going to want some college kid doing their taxes." Basically this guy was saying the 3 were backing out. My friend continued on.
So little by little he starts building up a tax business. You could see the progression. From working out of his parents home, to a small office, to a nice office, finally to working out of his own home, which was a nice house.
Since taxes are seasonal work, he decides to do something else during the rest of the year. So he gets into real estate. He figured he'd work 4 months doing taxes, 4 months doing real estate, & 4 months off. In real estate he stared out like chyt, but he persisted & eventually got good. He got good after about 4-5 years of it. I don't know the exact numbers, but the progression went something like this. The first 5 years he sold 1 or 2 houses each year. Year 6 he sold 8, year 7 he sold 19, year 8 he sold 42, until the last few years he was selling over 100 per year.
Yes, he was up to where he was selling a house almost every day he worked. He was able to do this because he had so many listings. He wasn't the kind who was going to try to actually sell the house. He wasn't going to waste his time driving window shoppers around. He got listings. He could sell. He got listings from people who promised it to their nephew if they ever sold thier house. When the going rate was 7% commission (not sure what it is now) he could have people paying an 8 or 9% commission because they thought their house would sell faster if the selling agent was going to get a 4 or 4.5% commission rather than a 3.5. In a lot of cases he was exactly right. I was over at his place more than once when a happy client would call & tell him what a great idea that 8% commission was.
In his office there were about 90 real estate agents. Take out my friend, who was #1, & the #2 guy & they sold more houses than the rest of the office combined. On a county level, all real estate offices of any sort, (Remax, Real Estate 1, Century 21, etc) & he was the #3 salesperson in the whole county. That's pretty good for a guy who 1) had no assistants (the top two had help) & 2) only worked 4 months out of the year.
He still kept the tax business though. He enjoyed it, plus during the winter in Michigan he didn't have to go out much unless he felt like it. People came to his house to get these done. In doing people's taxes he's finding out about their refunds, what they pay, dependents, just all kinds of personal information on people.
I'd like to say I saw the signs he was getting frustrated with things, but I didn't. He gave that all up to go on welfare. It took a little time. He had to get rid of his savings & such. Eventually he did it though.
When I asked him about it, what he said was interesting. He said he knew a lot of people would think he's an idiot. He said he didn't care. He was sick of paying for the lazyness of others. If they're not gonna work, why should he?
He's not a guy who swears. One of the things he said to me was loud & clear though. He said "I'm sick of paying for f'in Roger's (another friend of ours) kids!! I didn't have em, I shouldn't be responsible for em!!" He was referring to a friend of ours who got a massive tax refund yet didn't pay much in.
If that's the way our government is going to work, he's now going to be on the receiving end of things. He didn't make the rules, he's just playing by what's been laid out.
Yes, his house isn't as nice or as big, but it's livable & he's far from living in a slum. While the stuff he's got now isn't as nice as what he once had, it's more than enough to live on. He still has food, he still has shelter, he's doing fine.
He knows people will think he's become a leach on society. His side of it is that he feels he's already made enough money that he should be able to retire if he wants too, WITHOUT paying more taxes. He also feels that unlike most people on welfare who are on it all their lives, he's paid a helluva lot in & is just getting back some of his own money. As he said to me "dude, if I live to be 100 I'll still have put a lot more in than I got out."
Last but not least, if the tax system changes he'll get back to work. He doesn't feel like paying for wars he doesn't agree with, kids that aren't his, in general spending he doesn't agree with. He knows that most people who make what he used to wouldn't make the choice he did. He does think that if enough of them did though, that Washington would start to wake up.
I met him in college. While we were in college he started a tax business, doing people's taxes. He started out slowly, like a lot of new businesses. He'd put flyers on the cars of the students & things of that nature promoting his business.
An ambitious kid, he didn't start out working for H&R Block like a lot of preparers do. He started out on his own right from the get go. He had originally brought this idea up to a group of us in college. His idea was to get 7 of us in college to open a tax accounting business.
Three of us, including me, had no interest. 3 of the others said that it was a great idea & lets get started. So my friend goes & does all the legwork to get it up & running. The other kids always had an excuse for why they weren't doing their part. Finally my friend asks one of em what's going on. The reply was "look, no one's going to want some college kid doing their taxes." Basically this guy was saying the 3 were backing out. My friend continued on.
So little by little he starts building up a tax business. You could see the progression. From working out of his parents home, to a small office, to a nice office, finally to working out of his own home, which was a nice house.
Since taxes are seasonal work, he decides to do something else during the rest of the year. So he gets into real estate. He figured he'd work 4 months doing taxes, 4 months doing real estate, & 4 months off. In real estate he stared out like chyt, but he persisted & eventually got good. He got good after about 4-5 years of it. I don't know the exact numbers, but the progression went something like this. The first 5 years he sold 1 or 2 houses each year. Year 6 he sold 8, year 7 he sold 19, year 8 he sold 42, until the last few years he was selling over 100 per year.
Yes, he was up to where he was selling a house almost every day he worked. He was able to do this because he had so many listings. He wasn't the kind who was going to try to actually sell the house. He wasn't going to waste his time driving window shoppers around. He got listings. He could sell. He got listings from people who promised it to their nephew if they ever sold thier house. When the going rate was 7% commission (not sure what it is now) he could have people paying an 8 or 9% commission because they thought their house would sell faster if the selling agent was going to get a 4 or 4.5% commission rather than a 3.5. In a lot of cases he was exactly right. I was over at his place more than once when a happy client would call & tell him what a great idea that 8% commission was.
In his office there were about 90 real estate agents. Take out my friend, who was #1, & the #2 guy & they sold more houses than the rest of the office combined. On a county level, all real estate offices of any sort, (Remax, Real Estate 1, Century 21, etc) & he was the #3 salesperson in the whole county. That's pretty good for a guy who 1) had no assistants (the top two had help) & 2) only worked 4 months out of the year.
He still kept the tax business though. He enjoyed it, plus during the winter in Michigan he didn't have to go out much unless he felt like it. People came to his house to get these done. In doing people's taxes he's finding out about their refunds, what they pay, dependents, just all kinds of personal information on people.
I'd like to say I saw the signs he was getting frustrated with things, but I didn't. He gave that all up to go on welfare. It took a little time. He had to get rid of his savings & such. Eventually he did it though.
When I asked him about it, what he said was interesting. He said he knew a lot of people would think he's an idiot. He said he didn't care. He was sick of paying for the lazyness of others. If they're not gonna work, why should he?
He's not a guy who swears. One of the things he said to me was loud & clear though. He said "I'm sick of paying for f'in Roger's (another friend of ours) kids!! I didn't have em, I shouldn't be responsible for em!!" He was referring to a friend of ours who got a massive tax refund yet didn't pay much in.
If that's the way our government is going to work, he's now going to be on the receiving end of things. He didn't make the rules, he's just playing by what's been laid out.
Yes, his house isn't as nice or as big, but it's livable & he's far from living in a slum. While the stuff he's got now isn't as nice as what he once had, it's more than enough to live on. He still has food, he still has shelter, he's doing fine.
He knows people will think he's become a leach on society. His side of it is that he feels he's already made enough money that he should be able to retire if he wants too, WITHOUT paying more taxes. He also feels that unlike most people on welfare who are on it all their lives, he's paid a helluva lot in & is just getting back some of his own money. As he said to me "dude, if I live to be 100 I'll still have put a lot more in than I got out."
Last but not least, if the tax system changes he'll get back to work. He doesn't feel like paying for wars he doesn't agree with, kids that aren't his, in general spending he doesn't agree with. He knows that most people who make what he used to wouldn't make the choice he did. He does think that if enough of them did though, that Washington would start to wake up.
