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Welcome to Micro Investing

Every purchase you make becomes an investment in your future. Join over 1 million people who have started.

Connect Your Card

First, connect the accounts and cards you use to make everyday purchases.

Make a Purchase

Next, spend like normal. We'll round-up your purchases to the nearest dollar.

Invest Your Change

Then, watch your wealth grow as we automatically invest your spare change.

Connect Your Card

First, connect the accounts and cards you use to make everyday purchases.

Make a Purchase

Next, spend like normal. We'll round-up your purchases to the nearest dollar.

Invest Your Change

Then, watch your wealth grow as we automatically invest your spare change.

TRY IT, IT'S FREE

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IRS Tax Tips for the Upcoming Tax Filing Season

Taxpayers can take steps to ensure smooth processing of their 2017 tax return next year. Here are three things taxpayers should know about the tax returns they will file next year.

1) It’s important to gather documents

The IRS urges all taxpayers to file a complete and accurate tax return by making sure they have all the needed documents before they file. This includes:

• Forms W-2 from employers.
• Forms 1099 from banks and other payers.
• Forms 1095-A from the Marketplace for those claiming the Premium Tax Credit.

Typically, these forms start arriving by mail in January. Taxpayers should check them over carefully, and if any of the information shown is wrong, contact the payer right away for a correction.

2) Taxpayers with expiring ITINs should renew promptly

Some people with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number may need to renew it before the end of the year to avoid a refund delay and possible loss of key tax benefits. These ITINs expire Dec. 31, 2017:

• ITINs not used on a tax return in the past three years.
• ITINs with middle digits 70, 71, 72 or 80.

Anyone who needs to renew an ITIN should submit a completed Form W-7, Application for IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. They should mail the Form W-7, along with original identification documents or copies certified by the issuing agency. Once an individual files a completed form, it typically takes about seven weeks to receive an ITIN assignment letter from the IRS.

3) Choose e-file and direct deposit for a faster refund

Electronically filing a tax return is the most accurate way to prepare and file. Errors delay refunds and the easiest way to avoid them is to e-file. Combining direct deposit with electronic filing is the fastest way for a taxpayer to get their refund. With direct deposit, a refund goes directly into a taxpayer’s bank account.

There are several e-file options:

• IRS Free File.
• Volunteer Income Tax Assistance and Tax Counseling for the Elderly programs.
• Commercial tax preparation software.
• Tax professional.

Taxpayers should note that the IRS cannot by law issue refunds for people claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit or Additional Child Tax Credit before mid-February. This law helps make sure that taxpayers receive the refund they’re due by giving the IRS more time to detect and prevent fraud.

The IRS expects the earliest refunds related to EITC and ACTC to be available in taxpayer bank accounts or debit cards starting on Feb. 27, 2018, if the taxpayer uses direct deposit and there are no other issues with their tax return.  This additional period is due to several factors, including the Presidents Day holiday and banking and financial systems needing time to process deposits.

IRS Warns Against Scammers Again So Be Prepared

This article is directly from the IRS.gov website. 

WASHINGTON — Aggressive and threatening phone calls by criminals impersonating IRS agents remain a major threat to taxpayers, but now the IRS is receiving new reports of scammers calling under the guise of verifying tax return information over the phone.

The latest variation being seen in the last few weeks tries to play off the current tax season. Scam artists call saying they have your tax return, and they just need to verify a few details to process your return. The scam tries to get you to give up personal information such as a Social Security number or personal financial information, such as bank numbers or credit cards.

“These schemes continue to adapt and evolve in an attempt to catch people off guard just as they are preparing their tax returns,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. “Don’t be fooled. The IRS won’t be calling you out of the blue asking you to verify your personal tax information or aggressively threatening you to make an immediate payment.”

The IRS reminds taxpayers to guard against all sorts of con games that continually change. The IRS, the states and the tax industry came together in 2015 and launched a public awareness campaign called Taxes. Security. Together. to help educate taxpayers about the need to maintain security online and to recognize and avoid “phishing” and other schemes.

The IRS continues to hear reports of phone scams as well as e-mail phishing schemes across the country.

“These schemes touch people in every part of the country and in every walk of life. It’s a growing list of people who’ve encountered these. I’ve even gotten these calls myself,” Koskinen said.

This January, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) announced they have received reports of roughly 896,000 phone scam contacts since October 2013 and have become aware of over 5,000 victims who have collectively paid over $26.5 million as a result of the scam. Just this year, the IRS has seen a 400 percent increase in phishing schemes.

Protect Yourself

Scammers make unsolicited calls claiming to be IRS officials. They demand that the victim pay a bogus tax bill. They con the victim into sending cash, usually through a prepaid debit card or wire transfer. They may also leave “urgent” callback requests through phone “robo-calls,” or via a phishing email. They’ve even begun politely asking taxpayers to verify their identity over the phone.

Many phone scams use threats to intimidate and bully a victim into paying. They may even threaten to arrest, deport or revoke the license of their victim if they don’t get the money.

Scammers often alter caller ID numbers to make it look like the IRS or another agency is calling. The callers use IRS titles and fake badge numbers to appear legitimate. They may use the victim’s name, address and other personal information to make the call sound official.

Here are some things the scammers often do but the IRS will not do. Any one of these five things is a tell-tale sign of a scam.

The IRS will never:

• Call to demand immediate payment over the phone, nor will the agency call about taxes owed without first having mailed you several bills.  
• Call or email you to verify your identity by asking for personal and financial information.  
• Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe.  
• Require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card.  
• Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone or e-mail.  
• Threaten to immediately bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.

If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS and asking for money or to verify your identity, here’s what you should do:

If you don’t owe taxes, or have no reason to think that you do:

• Do not give out any information. Hang up immediately.  
• Contact TIGTA to report the call. Use their “IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting” web page. You can also call 800-366-4484.  
• Report it to the Federal Trade Commission. Use the “FTC Complaint Assistant” on FTC.gov. Please add “IRS Telephone Scam” in the notes.

If you know you owe, or think you may owe tax:

• Call the IRS at 800-829-1040. IRS workers can help you.

Stay alert to scams that use the IRS as a lure. Tax scams can happen any time of year, not just at tax time. For more, visit “Tax Scams and Consumer Alerts” on IRS.gov.

Each and every taxpayer has a set of fundamental rights they should be aware of when dealing with the IRS. These are your Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Explore your rights and our obligations to protect them on IRS.gov.Blog here.

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Choosing Your Fate - Freedom

I have been asked more times than I can count, why I prefer working for myself rather than just waking up without a care in the world, going to a job, collecting a paycheck at the end of the week and not worrying about building a business, covering payroll, paying for office space, paying for utilizes and of course finding continuous forms of revenue in order to pay every one of these expenses on a continuing basis.  My answer is summed up with just one word, Freedom.  Originally and at the beginning, I needed money so I began working for someone who was a Certified Public Accountant and had his own Income Tax Preparation practice.  I started out helping him during the tax season while I attended school.  During the off season, he had other business dealings that he allowed me to help with which allowed me to remain gainfully employed throughout the year without having to find other forms of employment that I would have been miserable at.  While in college I majored in biology however my four-year degree turned into a ten or twelve-year degree, I’ll explain later.  I enjoyed working in the tax field so much and I didn’t realize why until one tax season when I was allowed to prepare tax returns on my own for individuals who only had a W2 forms.  I thought I was all that and then some but more importantly, I felt what it was like to be the one empowered.  Not long after that, I started doing W2 and Schedule A tax returns.  From there my tax preparation skills just increased and I never turned down a return.  If I didn’t know how to do it, I sat and learned how to do it while sharing my fee.  I didn’t know then that it was called freedom nor did I know how powerful and satisfying freedom was until the day that people began to pay me personally for my services.  I made more money working for myself than I could have made with a four-year degree from college so even though I continued to go to school, I also continued growing my clientele and constantly added more financial services and tasks to my portfolio of offerings.  One important lesson I learned, and it is still with me almost thirty years later, is never say no.  If someone asks you to do something, say yes and figure out how to get it done.  If you don’t know how to do it, share your commission with someone who knows how to do it, complete the task and get paid.  It is better to get paid a portion of your fee and build your portfolio than not to get paid anything at all.  Right now you might be saying to yourself that this particular work practice does not seem genuine for a client as they do not know they are handing their task over to a beginner but always keep in mind that every expert was once a beginner, you have to start somewhere and as long as you have a “rolodex” of people that are willing to partner with you on certain jobs, go for it.  So, I say to you that every company such as IBM, Pepsi, Apple etc. do the exact same thing.  Do you think the CEO’s of these companies clean the toilets, do the accounting, work the mail rooms, order the supplies, package the products?  The answer is no, they don’t.  They might have an idea of how to do these things but they take money their company is paid and they share it with people who know how to do these things or who are willing to do these things in exchange for money.  So, the lesson is, once you find a niche that makes you happy, you are not expected to know everything straight out of the gate so say yes to everything you can and build your business and reputation.  Using this structure to build a business and reputation, afforded me the ability at the age of 26, to design an adorable starter home for myself while other people my age were living at home with their parents or renting from someone else.  My home was custom built from the ground up and I did it all by myself, (well for transparency purposes, I never actually banged any nails LOL, the actual builders did that but you get my point).  One year later, at the age of 27, I had another home custom built, this time the home was almost 4500 square feet with six bedrooms, four bathrooms, a swimming pool and plenty of marble.  I did this all on my own.  So, at the age of 27, I had a primary home and I used my first home as an investment property and rented it out, earning monthly passive income which will be discussed in a later blog post.  Taking control of your own life and working for yourself rather than working for someone else is what will give you that ultimate freedom, financial freedom.  This blog is going to help you reach your freedom point so keep coming back for more.  In case you are wondering about my degree, I was still in school when I built my homes, not because I needed a degree to make money but because I loved learning and everything I learned, I used and still use in everyday practices.  I went from majoring in biology, then I switched to Chemistry, then I switched to psychology and finally I majored in accounting and earned my Bachelors of Science in Accounting.  Like I stated earlier, it took me ten or twelve years to earn my degree because the degree was something I wanted not something I needed.  If a class bored me I dropped it.  If I was too busy, I only took one class.  I had the freedom to choose.  I made my own choices which is the point of this post.  Stop building your bosses houses for them.  Stop paying for you bosses vacations.  Stop working for other people and start working for you.  Control your life.  The worst mistake in life is hating your 9-5 job when you can love controlling your destiny and love every minute of what you do.  So where do you start?  Rather than write up a list for you, in my research I have found a perfect link to assist you in making your choices easier for you and finally starting you on your path to freedom.  It is put out by Caitlyn from Oberlo.  It is the perfect beginning on How to Make Money Fast!  25 Best Money Making Ideas.  Below is your FREE information to get you started so I suggest you read it once, then twice, then read it as many times as it takes for one of the ideas to jump start your life.  Your time has come so take advantage of a professional mentoring you FREE of charge. My blogs will always be written by me, with my experiences and expertise and with my personal suggestions so if you see a typo and or a grammatical error, just know a regular person just like you is writing this to help you in your life not to impress you with grammar or talk down to you with ten-dollar words.  There is not anything in any of my blogs that I have done that you can’t replicate.  The only difference between you and me is that I have thirty plus years of experience and failures for you to learn from and for you to take from.  If you have just one takeaway from this particular blog, the takeaway is to always continue learning.  I don’t care if you learn something from this blog or from a book or a magazine or even from a pamphlet, just read something every chance you get and always keep learning.  In later blogs you will learn what keeps me going and what keeps me pumped up to do what I do on a daily basis.  Hi name is Matthew.  I am the proud parent of a special needs child and had I not developed my freedom, I would never have been able to raise my son and love him the way he deserves.  He is now twelve years old and that is twelve years of him having his mom raise him and care for him rather than having to hand him over to strangers, on a daily basis, to raise him and hopefully care for him without making him feel lonely or unwanted or God forbid, abuse him.  I am not one of the lucky ones, I am one who made a choice and took the steps forward to live the life that I wanted and the life that I chose and the life I work hard for to maintain.  So, don’t forget to come back often for free advice, free networking and free consulting.  The best way to thank me is to share my site and please click the "subscribe" link above.  Sharing my website and my content is the greatest form of appreciation and of course flattery.  Thank You.  Click here to start>> https://goo.gl/rrbgV7

Maiden Introductory Post

Hi everyone.  So this is the "maiden" post.  It's my very first time blogging and I hope you enjoy my content.  Lori's Loop is about information that I have to offer which has been helping my family, friends and client's for more than twenty five years.  I am an accountant, a business consultant and an entrepreneur.  Let's for a second forget about those of you who have established careers and are doing well but you just need that little extra lift to take you over the top, I'll get to you later, let's for now focus on YOU, the stay at home mom or dad, the college student or college graduate, the person working three jobs and still struggling.  Lori's Loop is being designed to help you launch a new you who can once and for all enjoy the financial freedom that you only hear other people talk about.  This blog will eventually have links to aide you in the journey and I will be here to walk you hand in hand in the process that is so simple you won't know how you made it this far without it.  I am hoping that this blog becomes a neighborhood and a community of like minded individuals who will finally make their impact on life.  I want everyone to post questions and I will do everything in my power to answer each and every question.  I also hope that others will add their own advice and stories of success and or trials and tribulations.  I will do everything in my power to make your time spent with me worth every second.  Make sure you subscribe to Lori's Loop to ensure you never miss a post or any important information.  Get ready to slide into a six figure salary and for those of you already there, seven figures is just around the corner.  Welcome and thanks for visiting.