Looking Ahead, But First …

By Mark Erickson, CPA

Happy New Year! I hope your holiday celebration was enjoyable and rewarding. Some of us will now go through the exercise of committing ourselves to a new year’s resolution. Good idea, however, to make optimum decisions about the future, we must first look back. Where did we invest time, our most valuable commodity? Did we appropriately allocate our time to our careers, our education, our fitness programs, our recreation, our volunteer activities and most importantly, our relationships? Most of us do OK on the first two—career and education—but how are we doing on the others, in particular, our relationships?

My pastor has been with many people on their deathbeds when the most intimate of conversations occur. As these people assess their lives, he explains that their biggest regrets are always not spending more time with their families and friends. Unfortunately, there is no do-over when we get to this place. So, as you look back to assess last year and make necessary adjustments to your schedules this year, put a high priority on your relationships. It will always yield the greatest return.

I just came from our Dec. 9 annual tax meeting where Shannon Carlson of Ahern Adcock Devlin, LLP delivered an update on the multitude of tax legislation impacting tax practitioners this year, as well as a detailed look at like-kind exchanges. The presentation was audio recorded and will soon be posted to the Inland Empire website as a podcast. As a reminder, a podcast of our state of the profession event is available on our chapter’s website now.

I want to remind you of and encourage your participation in our in our Jan. 14 4 X 2 chapter event. This will be a new format that provides four two-hour sessions for a total of eight hours of continuing education. The program will include sessions on international accounting standards (IFRS), XBRL reporting, banking and credit market changes, and a compilation and review update. Come find out how and why IFRS and XBRL will impact business as usual. All four sessions are available for only $196 for members. Don’t miss this great value. (Note: you need to register for each session separately)

Please keep in mind that the Inland Empire leadership team is at your disposal if you have questions, concerns or recommendations.

I wish you a prosperous and successful new year, a year that will yield fruit that brings contentment to your soul.

Respectfully,

— Mark Erickson, CPA

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 1st, 2009 at 7:38 am and is filed under President's Message. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.