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How are the small farms in the Central Valleydealing with water, the economy, and inflation? Plus, Russian born Victor Gichun reveals what it means to have a side hustle in the US.
Episode Transcript
Intro:
Welcome to the Practical Tax podcast, with tax attorney Steve Moskowitz. The Practical Tax podcast is brought to you by Moskowitz, LLP, a tax law firm.
Disclaimer:
The information contained in this podcast is based upon information available as of date of recording and will not be updated for changes in law regulation. Any information is not to be considered tax advice or legal advice and does not form an attorney/client relationship. Further, this podcast may be construed as attorney advertising. You should see professional consultation for your individual tax and legal situation.
Chip Franklin:
Well, welcome to practical tax with Chip Franklin. And of course, Steve Moskowitz, our tax attorney extraordinaire. Steve, you look good, good to have you here again.
Steve Moskowitz:
Thanks Chip.
Chip Franklin:
Let’s talk a little bit, if we can, about the way that we look at food. California produces so much, let me pull a stat out here. Using fewer than 1% of the United States farmland, the Central Valley supplies 8% of US agricultural output and produces 25% of the nation’s food including 40% of the nation’s fruits, nuts and other cable food. What is the latest from America’s bread basket? And I think that’s a fair question.
Steve Moskowitz:
You know Chip, people forget we’re so incredibly blessed in this country, where you expect good, fresh food in abundance at a reasonable price. And I know prices are going up with the inflation but still. You look around the world, shortages where you got a long line of people waiting in line for maybe a few products that aren’t so hot. And let’s face it, if you’re physically hungry, what are you going to produce for the world? You have to eat where we go ahead and we say, well, these needs are taken care of, it’s easy to go to the store and buy whatever I want. And then I can go ahead and achieve things. And we see it all now, for example, look what’s happening with the grain prices because of the Ukraine. Look how that’s affecting everybody and it’s sort of the old thing where yes, it affects us here in the states, but it’s crippling to other areas of the country…
Chip Franklin:
Right?
Steve Moskowitz:
Excuse me, other areas of the world. And that has to be taken into effect of what they’re doing, not to mention… Wars can be fought over these things, if some country is starving and another country is doing well, that could be the possibility of invasion. Not to mention the fact of the economics, not to mention the facts, the potential investments. So there’s an awful lot of things that you take for granted. It’s what we were talking about with Spencer, and the weather and food, we take those for granted so we can go out and do greater things. But those basics have to be taken care of first and if they’re not, it can be horrible repercussions.
Chip Franklin:
Well, in the Central Valley represents so many issues that reverberate across the United States and maybe the world. Everything from water to immigration, obviously to transportation, to labor issues. There’s a lot there and I find it fascinating because haven’t grown up on the East Coast. I had no idea just how significant it was in all of our lives.
Joining us right now is Gabriel Dillard. He is editor of the Business Journal from the Central Valley. Hello Gabriel and it’s good to have you here with us. Thank you so much for your time.
Gabriel Dillard:
Hi. Thanks for having me.
Chip Franklin:
Let’s just jump real quick and ask you, how are the Central Valley economies doing right now with inflation and this possibility of a recession right down the road?
Gabriel Dillard:
Well, we kind of recovered strong since the pandemic. It’s been really good for some people here in the Central Valley. Home prices have just been through the roof I think in May, they went up 12% compared to the prior May. Commercial real estate is really hot right now. It seems like every other day we’re reporting on a new shopping center that’s been purchased or a new office building that’s been purchased here in the Central Valley. Oftentimes it’s investors from other parts of California, Southern California. So we see that people from outside of our area are seeing central California Fresno as kind of a hot market to be in. We’re flush with recovery money at the moment. Currently the Fresno City Council, the Fresno County Board of supervisors are deciding how to spend tens of millions of dollars in APA recovery funds that came from the last bill that was passed.
Chip Franklin:
How much of that Gabriel… How much of that is headed to agricultural? Anything related to ag.
Gabriel Dillard:
It’s supposed to be to shore up losses but from what I haven’t seen, I haven’t seen a lot of that going to ag, to be honest. It’s going to a lot of local nonprofits, different… We had a garlic festival recently here that actually… Maybe that could be kind of related to agriculture, but that got some funding. But no direct payments from what I can see to farmers, growers pro food processors, a lot of it’s just going to the community.
Chip Franklin:
Steve, isn’t Gilroy one of the garlic capitals of the country?
Steve Moskowitz:
Yes it is. And when you think about things with economic recovery. So many businesses and individuals suffered so horribly with the pandemic. But economically those and sometimes it’s few, but those that can survive do really well thereafter, because it takes quite a while for competitors to come back into the market. And you’ll also see that a much larger scale with recessions. Nobody wants a recession, but if it does come, if you can set things up so you can survive, usually a recession is followed by a boom. So it’s not, oh my God, the sky is falling today and that’s the end of life. Now wait a minute, let’s deal with, okay, the sky is a little shaky up there. What can we do to shore it up? But if we can shore it up and if we can stay in there, we could look forward to some really good times. Yeah, but that’s just the way the economy works.
Chip Franklin:
But you made a great point there about the people that are positioned to move through the recession. They’ve obviously been planning that up to that point. Does that apply to individuals as well as small businesses and larger businesses?
Gabriel Dillard:
To… I’m sorry…
Chip Franklin:
Let me ask you…
Steve Moskowitz:
[crosstalk 00:06:38].
Chip Franklin:
Well, either one of you, go ahead.
Steve Moskowitz:
I’m going to defer to the better looking guy.
Gabriel Dillard:
Well, for the small… There’s definitely a lot of struggling small businesses here in the Central Valley. But there’s tons of small businesses that are opening as well. So there’s opportunities for SBA funding, I think there’s a lot of attention going towards resources to them so. But [inaudible 00:07:02] for the Central Valley is one of the poorest parts of the country. So there’s definitely a group of people struggling through that.
Steve Moskowitz:
And Gabe, one of the things that you brought up that was really important is that, when you do have a small business, don’t overlook the government. I’m a tax attorney and people are always thinking about the government coming to grab your money and the bad guy, that’s part of the job. They’re not the bad guy. A lot of times they’re giving out money to help small businesses. So the bottom line is if you’re a small business, you should say, well, okay, what do I want to do? What’s my plan? And what can the government do to help me? There’s so much help available and help comes, there’s knowledge, there’s money, there’s all kinds of opportunities. And that’s one of the things that everybody should be looking at when they’re planning on going into business or staying in business.
Chip Franklin:
Steve, how important are small businesses in the chain of things? Obviously, people don’t think… We talk about it, Walmart comes into a town and all these little small businesses close their doors and everybody says, “yeah but hey, you know what? We can buy an extension cord now for $7 instead of 15 or whatever.” What is…
Steve Moskowitz:
Know the extension cord will cost you 25 after the small businesses are gone and small business is the backbone of America. I’ve dedicated my career to small business [inaudible 00:08:24], Chip you know my story but Gabe doesn’t.
Chip Franklin:
Yeah.
Steve Moskowitz:
I spent a lot of time getting educated in the tax field. And mostly guys like me would go work for the big firms whose clients were the Fortune 500 and that’s how I started out too. And then I realized that I could be the best guy or the worst guy, it wouldn’t matter to a Fortune 500. I said, “do I want to spend my whole career where it doesn’t matter if I show up?” And I said, “no.” So I spent enough time to get some good training, some good knowledge, some good experience. And then I went out on my own, I started my own practice and what happens is I basically represent small businesses and then the firm grew. Now we go ahead and basically represent small bus… Small business is the lifeblood of America. It creates charms, it provides all types of services.
And there’s a different feel when you walk into John’s hardware store and John knows you and John talks to you and say, “hey, along with that extension cord you’re buying, you’re going to need this other device or you’re going to blow out your TV.” So the bottom line is he saved a few bucks by going to the big box store. You didn’t buy the search protector and you just blew out your TV that cost you thousands of dollars. People don’t realize that and a thousand years ago, when I was a professor. I would say when people are accounting for things, it’s not just that initial world, is that extension cord going to cost me $7 or $15? What else do I get? And that advice, hey, you need that power protector, is going to make a huge bit of difference where somebody in the big box store doesn’t know or doesn’t care, or they’re just standing there to take your money. So it’s not just that, again, I’m a really big proponent of small business. I like small business.
Chip Franklin:
Gabrielle do the businesses… First of all, are the farms down there… Are they all owned by large corporations? How much agriculture down there is small businesses? When I say small businesses, I mean, guess, in relation to what we’re thinking of the meek farms that we see across America today.
Gabriel Dillard:
It really depends on what part of the valley you’re at on our west side, it has a reputation for being corporate farming. They’re families that own them but these are families that own ranches that are maybe thousands of acres. Not what you would think would be kind of your small family farm. But then there’s also a lot of people who are kind of eking out of a living. We have a lot of Southeast Asian refugees here who make their living farming, growing specialty crops, strawberries, and the like…
Steve Moskowitz:
[inaudible 00:11:11] most of those people and I admire them so, they come here and maybe they don’t even speak the language or a little bit. And they work really hard and the families share the money and they pool the money. And then what they do is they say, “okay, now we have a pool of money.” And then one family member takes the pool of money, he uses it to create a business. And then when his business is going, he puts the pool of money back in the family and another family goes there. And later on, you see this family that’s incredibly successful. And some people that were born here look and they say, “well, how’d they do that?” And they did it because they worked really hard. They lived in a hobble so they had all the money to invest in business. And then the family pooled the money and these are basic economic concepts that they’ve mastered. So I take my hat off to those people and we can all learn from them.
Chip Franklin:
Totally agree, yeah. In our next interview, in just a couple minutes, we’re going to talk about that. About having two or three jobs and hustling and what that means. And first generation Americans know that in New York City, I live next to it, an older Korean grocery. And everybody in that Korean grocery was of the family, they all worked together. There was no sense of entitlement, the people just busted their butts and it was open. It stayed open late and local people were upset at first, but after a while, they came to depend and then people started to learn. There’s something to that.
Steve Moskowitz:
[crosstalk 00:12:33] as you know, I moved here many moons ago from New York City also. And those little stores offered a lot of things that the regular stores didn’t. They were open later and open on the weekend and you needed something on Sunday, they were open. Whereas, the more familiar store was closed.
Chip Franklin:
Well, last question for you. There’s a new poll out, California Chamber of Commerce poll said the people are tired. Majority of people are tired of seeing their quality of life diminish. Do you get that sentiment down there or do you sense it’s beginning to come around?
Gabriel Dillard:
Yeah, I think it really tracks with what I hear from business owners and from just regular people. Inflation, gas prices, seems like there’s no solution that is going to be coming on the state level. There’s talk on the federal level of a gas tax holiday. The housing with rents going up, interest rates, rising. It’s a real problem to have to meet the needs and that’s a problem seen everywhere, but it’s really acute here in the Fresno area. A lot of people are facing eviction. We just lifted our eviction moratorium in the City of Fresno related to the emergency. So I think we’re going to… That’s one thing we’re covering is just seeing how bad that’s going to get, where are those people going to go? The rents here are way high.
Crime is a big concern here as it is everywhere else. It’s budget time for our local municipalities. So they’re making those decisions, how much money goes to public safety and water obviously, is the major issue here when it comes to agriculture. Which is just the foundation of our economy, we want more dams. So the growers want more dams, they want more storage. It’s not likely to happen. Agriculture is definitely, I think it’s a tipping point for everyone.
Steve Moskowitz:
[crosstalk 00:14:36] of what you just said. And if there was some business person or politician and they say, “there’s this large pool of people that are getting ready to be displaced. And then there’s this large group of employers that says, ah, we can’t keep the restaurant open. We can’t keep the store open. We can’t get any help.” Isn’t there some way to put those two groups together and benefit both of them? And what happens is, the tax law has something here. For example, there’s a work opportunity tax credit, where basically, if an employer hires people from certain groups like veterans and people that have been unemployed for a while, the government will give you up to $9,600 ahead. So suppose you had that little business, that little restaurant, that little whatever, and you say, you know what? I could really use 10 new people.
What could that business owner do with that, up to $96,000? They’re going to just hand you, here you go, this is yours. Think of all the economic good, think of all the social good. All of a sudden, a bunch of people that were being displaced. Now they have jobs, now they’re earning money and the employer has this $9,600 ahead credit. Most people never heard of this.
When I get a new client and I see it’s [inaudible 00:16:03] for this, I said, “did you overhear that?” And here’s something typical I’ll hear from a new client. “Is this something brand new, Steve?” And I say, “no, it’s been around for…” “Wow. Well, why did nobody tell me about this?” Because everybody is so busy, nose to the grindstone, banging out the thing that has to be done today. Just think about if you’re a small business, this one credit alone, 9,600 bucks ahead. How could that benefit people? They never heard of it. Well, you know what, if you never heard of it, he can’t ask for it. You don’t get it. And think some business goes out of business because he didn’t have enough cash when the government would’ve just handed him the money. And that’s just one credit. There’s a laundry list of credits.
Chip Franklin:
Yeah, that’s the thing that Steve does so well is… And I think it’s when you help small businesses, unlike huge businesses, they’re not going to take profits and park them often in some tax sanctuary in Switzerland. They’re going to reinvest it because they’re much closer to the reality of…
Steve Moskowitz:
Basic economics. Where, okay, you know what? I have a good job now. I’m going to buy that new TV set and the factory has to employ another worker to build a TV set. And [inaudible 00:17:15] now I can go ahead and buy that new car. Basic economics, economics one on one. Come on.
Chip Franklin:
Hey Gabriel, thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate your time and will you come back on with us again soon?
Gabriel Dillard:
Oh, I’d love to, thank you.
Chip Franklin:
All right. You be well, again, thank you so much.
Steve Moskowitz:
So government can do a lot of bad things to you that you want to avoid. For example, if you owe the IRS more than $51,000, they’re taking your passport away. I know there are constitutional issues that can be raised, but right now they’re taking away your passport. And for any amount, the state will take away any state issued license. Like a driver’s license, medical license, law license, contractor’s license. These are all things that are avoidable.
There’s a lot of good options. Everybody’s favorite is offering compromise. That’s where you offer the government part and they forgive the rest. Another one is monthly payments. Another one is something called the hardship deferral, where based on your current circumstances, they just leave you alone for a while. Then we also want to take a look at, and this is a big one. Do you really owe as much as the government says? Oftentimes you don’t. And a lot of times these are compounded by other problems. Like somebody that thinks he owes, panics, makes a mistake, does the wrong thing, doesn’t file the return. So the government does something called an SFR substitute for return. The government actually makes up a tax return and oftentimes it’s way more than you really owe. For example, suppose you sold the stock for $10,000. It costs you 12, never reported the transaction email and then you filed the return.
There’s a $2,000 loss, there’s no tax on that. But the government doesn’t know about or care about the expense piece and they say, “okay, tax on $10,000 gross.” Also, you might qualify for a penalty abatement where there’s a reason why you did the wrong thing, the government forgives you. Also, maybe it was your spouse that caused the problem. You may qualify for innocent spouse relief. The bottom line is there’s so much that can be done. But the worst thing to do is just stick your head in the sand and think it’ll go away. It’s much like a disease, it’s not going to get better, it’s going to get worse. But there’s so many good solutions.
Yes. If you win the applicable statute limitations, which is generally three years for the feds and four years for California, we can go back and amend the returns. And sometimes somebody comes in, waving a bill and says, “look, I can’t pay this.” And we say, “look, you did the return wrong.” We file the return and ironically, sometimes we can even wind up having a case where somebody gets a refund instead of having to pay.
Chip Franklin:
I want to talk to you about something you and I talk a lot about, which is the side hustle, right? More people than ever have second jobs or in some cases, third jobs. And I want to ask you about the tax opportunities for the self-employed, for people of a W2, but also have these side hustles. But I thought what a great person to bring in this discussion, is a guy who’s done it all. He’s the creator and host of the Contributors and a Vice President of Business Development at Excess Logic, which I love what these guys do at Excess Logic. They’re nationwide decommissioning company. They remove unwanted equipment and excess inventory and they recover up to 80 cents on a dollar of it. It’s great, but even more, I really enjoyed Victor’s videos and he joins us here on the practical tax. Victor, give me your last name because I went online. I found 50 different ways to pronounce your last name, please.
Victor Gichun:
Gichun. Thanks so much.
Chip Franklin:
Okay.
Steve Moskowitz:
And maybe all that’s done while listening to a beautiful musical score. I think that piano in the background looks really nice.
Victor Gichun:
Thank you. This is the virtual background.
Chip Franklin:
I know it’s a virtual…
That’s all right, because we’re not really here in person, either. Steve and I don’t exist, we were just made up by some AI. Victor, you seem like one of those guys who has never met a mountain you didn’t want to climb. And I do want talk to you about side hustles and the possibility of a recession. And Steve and I talk about that all the time, but let’s just jump right in and say what’s right and wrong with the ways we’re teaching business to people today, young people, especially.
Victor Gichun:
One of the biggest problem, what I notice, not only in the United States and in other countries, I born in Ukraine and lived in Russia as well. So the people actually don’t get financial education, so this is the biggest problem. So they don’t know that they need to do with money. They get salary, they get a job, they get salary and then they just spend this money. And they look at rich people and think why they’re getting richer and why I am getting poor. And this is problem, I heard in Florida they are right now trying to do it mandatory. Every college will have special course financial education so people will get educated.
And I think this is a big step towards the prosperity of the whole nation. If everyone in this country will know that they need to first to get rich. I just recorded today a very simple short, I record every morning, just like advice is how to get rich, how to become successful in life. From my personal experience, you need to get stable income, you need to invest the minimum 10% of all the money you make. And then you need to get better and better every day in what you do to make stable income. If people get the simple concept, there will be…
Steve Moskowitz:
I couldn’t agree with you more. And I see it all the time in practice. I have some clients that are absolutely brilliant, like neurosurgeons and just incredibly brilliant people and they have no idea how to handle money. And I see people that make a lot of money. I have seen people who have seven figure incomes and they’re basically paycheck to paycheck and they can’t pay the taxes. And you say, well, okay, so you go through a few basic questions there. So you know you’re a drug addict or something or you’re gambling addict. But if that’s not the case, the money just goes. And what you’re saying is so vitally important because you say, well what’s wrong here? You have somebody that’s… If you’re smart enough to be a neurosurgeon, you’re probably smarter than most people in general population. And if you’re in business and you’re are smart enough or talented enough or lucky enough to be making seven figures, you’re doing really well yet you’re literally paycheck to paycheck. Can’t pay your taxes and your credit cards are all maxed and you’re making the minimum payments. I see it all the time.
Chip Franklin:
Can I jump in here? Because you both say something that’s very similar. You have a video I really like Victor about climbing a mountain. And then you get to a point where you can’t go any further and you have to admit, you made a mistake and you got to go back and start again. That happens to people with their taxes and Steve talks about it a lot. People make mistakes and instead of just stopping and saying, “okay, I want to get this all straight so I can move forward without this burden,” you have to admit you made a mistake and that’s okay. You obviously, you’ve made a lot of mistakes and to achieve where you are right now. What’s your thought? Because I know that… I’m pretty sure I know how you feel about this, Steve, about having more than one job in order to get the kind of income you need in order to get to that next level.
Steve Moskowitz:
Well, you know Chip, that’s how I started out. My practice was my side hustle.
Chip Franklin:
Right?
Steve Moskowitz:
Because when I first started out, I had a job in what I did. I had a job preparing tax returns and I had another job being a professor. I was teaching in law school and grad school and university. And I had this little tiny shoebox practice that I was trying to build up on the side. So basically, my practice started as my side hustle because I made more money doing the other things. And then as the time went on and the practice grew and grew, I had to cut back the other things until the practice became my entire source and that is so true. And there’s all kinds of tax benefits for doing that too. And that’s even true if your side hustle is being an investor, there’s all kinds of benefits that may not only save you taxes on your side hustle, but may save you taxes on your main source of income.
Chip Franklin:
Victor, obviously, this excess, which is a really great idea for a company. How many different ideas do you have in an individual day? And do you write them all down and how does your brain work?
Victor Gichun:
The brain work like everyone’s brain constantly and this is not the problem how the brain works, the problem how to stop it working. So you can get something which you can focus on and really do something with that. Speaking of taxes and financial education, there is another problem here on a corporate level. A lot of companies we deal with in the United States, excuse me. Unfortunately, they don’t understand the potential of financial benefits they can actually get from the assets they already have because the United States tax law, tax every asset you have. If you bought piece of equipment and you don’t use it, you still pay taxes. Correct, Steve, right?
Chip Franklin:
Steve, is that right? Say that again, Victor, if you would.
Victor Gichun:
Yeah. If you bought a piece of equipment and after some time you stop using it, if you still have it on the books, you still paying property tax on that equipment. Right?
Steve Moskowitz:
Well, you may be paying property taxes on it. And then also something you’re describing is, some local areas go ahead and do some crazy things like want to tax you if you’re not acting on a property or doing something. But yes, you could have that situation where you’re paying property taxes on something you don’t use.
Victor Gichun:
Right. And this is what we’re trying to educate the companies in the United States. That instead of keeping it on the shelf, because engineers, usually they kind of hoarders. They keep equipment even they don’t need it. It’s very hard to get from them, they’re like kids with their toys. They look at this and feel comfortable. So, but the company pay 1% every year on every piece of equipment they know…
Steve Moskowitz:
But on the other hand, if you can get them to do what you’re saying, you can then get a tax deduction for what you’re writing off in junking.
Victor Gichun:
Exactly. This is what we are trying to sol… This is the second part of financial illiteracy on the corporate level, which I think can be fixed in somehow. I don’t know how now. If the companies will understand, once you don’t need equipment, you better give it to some company like Excess Logic. They will sell it on the second [inaudible 00:28:22] market. And you will be able to write off the difference between money you paid and money you’re getting out and then you will stop paying taxes. And the final benefits of this process that the small businesses which you just talked in the previous discussion will benefit greatly. Because the small companies start up in the United States, they can’t afford the new equipment but they can afford to use the equipment which Excess Logic take from those big companies which no longer use. And they can buy affordable equipment, do some research, do some tests, get it some level where they can raise money. And then buy new equipment. This is the problem…
Steve Moskowitz:
That’s very true. And one of the things that you also have to deal with is, what we were talking about before is, some people are so afraid of making a mistake that they freeze and they do nothing, which is the biggest mistake of all. And you know what most successful business people have in common? They’ve had a whole bunch of mistakes and failures, but the difference between a successful person and one that’s not, is the successful person says, “okay, I fell down, I’m going to dust myself off, I’m going to stand up and I’m going to try it again. And you know what, no matter how many times you knock me down, I’m going to get up because eventually I’m going to get up that mountain.”
Victor Gichun:
That’s absolutely true. Never give up.
Chip Franklin:
It’s interesting too, because both of you share a lot of characteristics. Both of you are… I can tell, I don’t know you that well, Victor, but I can tell that you’re very intelligent. But it’s more than just intelligence, it’s the ability to get up when you fall. And gravity is unrelenting and we’re going to make these mistakes and to teach people that every crisis is an opportunity. It’s a cliche, but it’s true. When things are bad all over there’s… Well, Excess is a great example, right? You’re getting equipment that people either can’t afford anymore or they’re just not using and you’re taking advantage of that opportunity and they’re everywhere. It’s interesting too Steve, when you talk about your path to where you were, it didn’t start in a book, it started on the street. You came to San Francisco with a box in your possessions and you saw…
Steve Moskowitz:
When I moved from New York city to San Francisco, all my worldly possessions fit in four cardboard boxes.
Chip Franklin:
[inaudible 00:30:56] smile. And I know you love those stories, right?
Victor Gichun:
Yeah. Because I flew from Moscow to New York with one luggage. I didn’t know a person here, 11 years ago. [crosstalk 00:31:10].
Steve Moskowitz:
I know exactly what you mean. I didn’t have to go to a foreign country and learn another language so you got that over me. But Chip, I don’t know if I told you this story. When I first came to San Francisco and I rented an apartment, you know what they did? I took a piece of paper and I wrote down my address and I put it in my wallet because I realized if I went out, I didn’t know a soul in San Francisco or California. When I went out, if I forgot what my address was, I wouldn’t know where I lived.
Chip Franklin:
There’s one last question I want to ask you, Victor. And I would recommend… At the end of this, I’m going to put up your YouTube channel so people can find it. They should watch your videos, they’re great, I really did enjoy them. Do you guys know Malcolm Nance? Malcolm is an MSNBC, he’s a former Navy Intelligence Officer. He’s in Ukraine right now, helping and he tells me this all the time. He says, “Chip, everybody talks over there sounds like the Americans over here that I know that have pulled their head out of their… Out of you know what and decided that they’re going to succeed.” And he talks to these Ukrainians and he sees the will and the strength and the desire they have. And he said, if Americans could meet these people, they would live a more full and active and rich life. Because I guess over here, I don’t know if we sometimes lose our way and we have to see other people that are really struggling in order to understand the opportunities that we have.
Steve Moskowitz:
Chip that is so relevant because a lot of times what I see is sometimes… I’ve been all over the world and what I see is, sometimes people in this country are so self-entitled. They’re self-entitlement gets in the way of the being really successful. Sure, they’ve got enough to eat but they’re not achieving anywhere near what they could. And I see people in these other countries that basically just rise out of nothing. And all of a sudden, years later, they’re really big shots that the self-entitled guys are looking at and they’re jealous of. And man, I say, wait a minute, there’s a reason why.
Chip Franklin:
Yeah. Victor, last thing. It’s a video I kind of stumbled across. And I sent it to my son about alcohol, I love this. Talking about why we should be careful about alcohol. And it’s not that you’re telling people they should never drink alcohol, but it was a really interesting point about how it can get in the way of our success and even our self realization. What was it you said on that?
Victor Gichun:
Yeah, what I said is because it’s again from my experience. I quit drinking four years ago and I got so much energy and time for something productive. And it’s not that I was a drunkard, it’s not that I was really sick. I never attended any AA organization, nothing like that. I just practically look at my life and I figured when Friday approach in the week, my mind right now, okay. what bar we going with my friends to drink? When I going somewhere on vacation, I think, okay, what sort of tequila I’m going to drink? Or what kind of, and then I just cut myself like what I’m thinking about. Life is not about drink, life is about achievement. In order to change the focus and get the time and health to do something, you need to just avoid it at any cost. You wouldn’t lose anything, this is hard maybe the first month. And after that, it’s so much fun to be in the company when everybody drinking and you are sober, you like in circus, like free show for you. You See everything, you see how people change. This is so much fun, funny event to be actually tipsy along these people. And you come home, you don’t [inaudible 00:35:05], you have time, your brain work clear hundred percent capacity and you can have so much success. Just quitting one bad habit, drinking.
Chip Franklin:
Well, I tell people all the time, you think of the greatest times in your life you weren’t drunk or high, whether it was your wedding or your child being born or whatever, or just even good friends. From everything from the military to the office place, I just think it was a really interesting message with all of your other positive message of achievement. I’d love the three of us to have dinner sometime. I would love to hear you guys just go on and on and on. Because there’s so much there.
Steve Moskowitz:
You know what? I’d love having dinner, Chip.
Chip Franklin:
All right. Victor, you get to San Francisco, you let us know. Okay. My friend.
Steve Moskowitz:
Awesome. Thank you so much for [crosstalk 00:35:53].
Chip Franklin:
Thank you so much, everybody. Great show my friend. Thank you so much. I always have a great time here. That is Steve Moskowitz, a tax attorney. I’m chip Franklin. We’ll see you next time on practical tax.
Outro:
Thanks for joining us on the Practical Tax podcast with tax attorney Steve Moskowitz. To hear more and view more podcasts, go to moskowitzllp.com/practicaltax.