Fall Colors and the Vermont Falconer

One of the things I miss the most about Virginia are the fall colors. It's just not quite the same living in NYC where 'fall colors' means seeing the two trees in your neighborhood turn brown. However, my fall tree withdrawal was helped immensely by the trip Chris and I took last weekend to Manchester Village, Vermont. Even better was that the trip was free for us (a company retreat for my department) and a fun chance to get to know colleagues better and enjoy a gorgeous state expense-free.

We stayed at the Equinox Resort which boasts gorgeous grounds (the white building on left) and spa/golf course/off road/hiking/archery/falconry activities. Yes, falconry! In fact, on Saturday while I spent the day in the woods doing team building activities with my department, the "SO"s (significant others) got a stipend to enjoy the facilities and Chris took an hour of falconry lessons! You get your own bird (wingspan ~6 ft) and you learn about falconry, 'launching' your bird into the wind, and calling him back to your arm (protected by a thick leather glove). Chris has now legally changed his name to {deep voice} "The Falconer." [just kidding]

Sadly while the SOs were pampered, our department's day in the woods was in 8 hours of pouring rain, wind, and 41 degree weather... but as we all limped back home, the sun peeked out and we noticed a beautiful rainbow through the trees! [Insert metaphor about needing trials/rainy days to see rainbows].

We had a few minutes on our own Sunday before the bus whisked us away, and Chris and I enjoyed a stroll through the quaint Manchester Village streets (below). Even the train ride home was along the fall-painted Hudson River... all in all, a beautiful scene of autumn, a bittersweet goodbye to summer amid gorgeous colors!








Autumn, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Thou comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain,
With banners, by great gales incessant fanned,
Brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand,
And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain!
Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne,
Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand
Outstretched with benedictions o'er the land,
Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!
Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended
So long beneath the heaven's o'er-hanging eaves;
Thy steps are by the farmer's prayers attended;
Like flames upon an altar shine the sheaves;
And, following thee, in thy ovation splendid,
Thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves!

Onions Have Layers

The first weekend in October I went back to Richmond/Williamsburg VA to visit family, friends, and a few of my professors from the William & Mary days. It was great to catch up with everyone, and created that bittersweet feeling of starting our lives in NYC while missing our 'roots' a few hundred miles away. (Though, to quote Sweet Home Alabama, "you can have roots and wings"). Anyway, one of the cool things we did over the weekend was attend the Cirque de Symphony at the VA Performing Arts Center. Essentially the performance linked two different performing arts, with the Virginia Orchestra playing a variety of classical pieces while several members of an international acrobatics troop perform cirque du soleil-type moves in the foreground.

It was both beatuiful and enthralling, with a few moments where I turned to Afton and said "I really don't think the human body is supposed to be able to bend that way!" Especially impressive where a couple of men at the end who performed stunts with one another - at one point, one of the guys was in a push up position on the stage, while the second guy was in a pushup position, but suspended only by having a hand on the first guy's neck! Eek! (Pictures below... and for more details/pictures for the event, see Hadar's blog)).

As I was leaving the theater I was struck by a couple of thoughts:
1. I felt an immediate need to start going to the gym more often (including yoga)
2. I began wondering about layers. The evening was almost magical; two different types of activities brought together that created a whole much bigger than the sum of its parts.

It left me wondering how I could better combine other seemingly unrelated layers into my own life. How can I be more philanthropic/community focused in my approach to work? How can I marry my english/creative side with a business world that is much more detail driven? How do I layer balance into a workaholic city?

There are no ready answers, but as Cirque de Symphony showed, unrelated layers can create unexpected beauties.

It's the Great Tax Punt, Charlie Brown

There's been a lot of buzz recently about taxes, and with good reason. With the Bush tax cuts about to expire, congress faces the difficult task of deciding for whom the tax cuts should be renewed. I am more than willing to admit that it's an incredibly difficult question to answer, but I am also disappointed that the government did what it almost always does (republican or democrat) and avoided the tough questions until after mid-term elections. Why does it matter when tax laws are decided if it doesn't impact taxes until 2011? Because it makes it almost impossible for people to plan financially, and much more likely that economic growth will remain sluggish until legislation is decided.

Americans (especially those owning small businesses) as well as corporations are in this weird no-man's-land... unable to plan spending/growth until they know what tax rates will be. My father-in-law owns his own business, and has had to lay off several people recently due to the threat of rising tax/health care costs. If tax legislation was finalized, he would at least have a better sense of his future expenses and could move forward with less fear of the unknown.

At this point I think many people tune out of the tax debate, thinking "I don't make more than $200,000 a year, or own a business so who cares?". Yes, you are under the current definition of "rich" by Obama (though the issues with defining "rich" may earn its own post). But your income is still going to be impacted, particularly through capital gains/dividend tax and through AMT.

Dividend taxes could range from 15% to 40% depending on what plan congress adopts. That makes a huge difference, even to a 'small time' investor like me. Because ANY stock you hold, no matter how much annual income you make, will be taxed for how much it's value goes up over time (capital gains) and what dividends it pays out (qualified dividend income). Thus, cap gains/dividend tax rates impact anyone with savings in stocks/mutual funds.

The AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax) is also posed to strike those decidedly not "rich." AMT was created in the 1970s to ensure that the uber-wealthy paid tax and weren't hiding under a barrage of tax shelters/deductions. AMT essentially forbids you from taking most deductions on your tax return (so no mortgage tax deductions, personal deductions, kid deductions, reduced values of charitable deductions*). Props to the lawmakers - in my opinion, this actually made sense at the time. However, the problem is that AMT wasn't indexed to inflation. So making $30K/year in 1970 made you rich (average income was ~$7,600), but today $30K/year is not-so-rich. Congress periodically "patches" the AMT to raise the exemption level, but if they don't act soon for 2011, the individual exemption for AMT will bounce back down to $33,750 for single tax payers and $45,000 for married filing jointly, raising taxes for an estimated 50+ million people. Eeek.

The graph on left from The Tax Foundation shows how different the AMT effect could be based upon what plan congress adopts. To check out how the different plans could affect your personal taxes, check out the tax scenario calculator.

So congress: please, put in the quarterback and make a play! I know it's tough, and taxes are never popular (I'm a CPA and I still hate taxes), but it's YOUR JOB to DECIDE SOMETHING. At least then we'll have a sense of what's coming... and know if the light ahead is the light at the end of the tunnel, or the light of an oncoming train.


*Props to my mom for correcting a fact: initial posting said charitable deductions weren't allowed under AMT. As my mom points out, they are allowed... but they're a bit less valuable due to differing tax rates used by AMT vs regular tax returns.