Here lies the issue at hand. If you have a new car, we all know that as soon as you drive it off the lot you will suffer 20-30% depreciation on the value of your new vehicle. Thus one of the reasons you will find the strategy to buy a two year old vehicle in several of my books. I like new cars and I have new cars, but I also use leases to my advantage, and I also buy used as well.

So back to my buddy, he was in an accident where someone hit his new truck. Insurance will cover the damages but what about the fact that his new truck now has a negative carfax, a history of repair and accident that will affect the long term value of the truck even after it is fixed. That is unfortunate and in most cases people just take it for what it is and move on. Later down the road a few years when they try to sell the vehicle the accident comes back to haunt them and the seller of the vehicle will suffer monetary loss because of the previous accident. The accident simply lowers the long term value. So what can you do?

Well you can buy Gap Insurance which will cover the difference in your new vehicle when you drive it off the lot and remain in effect until your car is worth the same or lower than your loan payoff thus the “GAP” or you can file a diminished value claim against your insurance company. I would suggest that if you buy a new vehicle that you look into gap insurance, some policies have it included and others you will need to add it on. Keep in mind that you can get Gap insurance at many places not just thru your insurance company and certainly don’t take the Gap offered by your dealership when you buy your new vehicle. There are also alternatives to Gap insurance such as new car payoff options etc, you can discuss with your auto insurance company.

Since my buddy is filing a diminished value claim let’s look at what and how the claim works.
Let’s say you are like my buddy and were in a recent accident with your vehicle. – The first thing you are going to do is file a claim with your insurance company for the damage to the vehicle – The initial claim will only cover your damages minus your deductable of course – But what about your Diminished Value, this is going to be what your new vehicle is worth if you sold it now with the repaired damage vs selling the same new vehicle now with no damage. You need to be familiar with the three (3) types of Diminished Value . . .

1.   Immediate Diminished Value is the difference in resale value of a vehicle immediately before damage has occurred and immediately after damage has occurred (prior to repair). Most jurisdictions (courts) will use this standard as the primary measure of damage when courts are employed to seek reimbursement for damage from a negligent party. As courts are rarely the chosen venue for recovery of property damage, the standard of “Immediate Diminished Value” is rarely employed in resolving Diminished Value Claims . . .

2.   Inherent Diminished Value assumes optimal repair quality has been achieved and is defined as the amount by which the resale value of a repaired vehicle has been reduced simply because the subject vehicle now has a significant damage history. “Inherent Diminished Value” is the most widely recognized and accepted form of Diminished Value. It is also the basis upon which any supplemental form of Diminished Value would be added. A common “Supplemental” form of Diminished Value is “Repair Related Diminished Value” . . .

3.   Repair Related Diminished Value includes any additional amounts by which the resale value of a subject vehicle may be further reduced because of less-than-optimal repairs. This could include anything from minor cosmetic imperfections to major structural defects.

Determining diminished value takes basic common sense, the newer your vehicle the more likely the value would be diminished if it were in an accident. If you find yourself in a position that you think you may be looking at a diminished value situation, you will need to find a D/V appraiser, this type of appraiser has really taken off recently but you will need to be careful as some of them are not as professional as others, you may just want to ask your insurance company for the name of one that they recommend.

Do not fall prey to contingency type diminished value companies. These companies will tout that they can get you money from the insurance company for the vehicles diminished value on a contingency basis, meaning that they take their money out of the claim when paid by your insurance company. There are numerous scams out their reported with this type of business activity so just avoid them.
If for some reason you have difficulty with trying to collect on a diminished value claim from your insurance company you may need to find an attorney to assist you with the claim, in most cases your attorney fees can also be incorporated into the claim.

If you don’t receive your diminished value claim or as much as you feel you should have you still can recoup some of the loss on your taxes, Please take note that in no way do I offer tax advice, nor am I a tax attorney, please seek professional tax advice when doing your taxes.

IF you itemize your deductions, you can use Line # 19 of Form 1040 – Schedule “A” to deduct your unrecovered Diminished Value. If you have an unrecovered Diminished Value of say $ 1,500 and a tax rate of 20%, you can Reduce Your Tax Obligation by almost $ 300.00.

Yet another financial strategy that can be used to help you and your family achieve the financial success you deserve.

Happy Investing!

James Dicks

Some people don’t seem to have this instinct at all, and this doesn’t bode well for the long-term health of the American economy. Just in the last two years people have started to really slow their spending down and foremost their spending on credit. It may have a negative effect on things for now, but in the long run we will be far better off.

(We have the lowest savings rate of any developed nation, which is a worrisome thing.) But the rest of us experience this self-protective instinct to put something aside for a rainy day. For some people, this means setting aside a small amount of money for less fortunate times. For still another group, the fear becomes extreme—even irrational—and leads to the unnecessary hoarding (and often counting) of money.

For me having to review this lesson is key; even writing it makes me think. My first time out I made lots of money, but I was over leveraged and in the end lost everything and had to start over again. The second time around I was not as over leveraged and saved money for a rainy day, problem is it seems as though it has been raining for a long time. However saving money for the rainy days has proven to be very wise. The next time around, I plan on having zero leverage, and living completely debt free. That is really the key to success, eliminate the credit and live on what you make and save, use a debit card instead of a credit card.

Let’s acknowledge first that saving money for the future is important. Having said that, the inevitable question that follows is, how much is enough? Setting aside a little money isn’t difficult, but since small amounts can seem so insignificant, it’s easy to lose the discipline to continue. But it is that very discipline that makes saving work. Well, discipline combined with the almost magical power of compound interest.

Compound interest is the key to building wealth. Simply put, it means investing some money, earning interest on your investment, and then leaving both the interest and the principal in place so that you begin to earn interest on your interest (as well as on your principal).

In other words, first your original money earns money, and then the money your money has earned earns more money. This goes on year after year. After years of compounded growth, the annual earnings reach an acceptable level. Eventually, if you’re original investment was large enough, if your rates of interest were competitive, and if you wait long enough, your nest egg will grow large enough to produce an acceptable outside income.

I can assure you that those of you that are a little older know exactly what I am talking about. There is a life time line where you got have more more more. I have had all the cars from a Cavalier to a convertible Murciélago Lamborghini, Bentley GT, big and fast boats etc. Now I am more focused on what counts most to me. How do you really know what is important to you? Simple, focus and take a few moments to work thru this and other mental exercises to help you laser in on those really important things. I can tell you this to accomplish your goals you must be willing to give up the not so important things, be willing to sacrifice to accomplish your truly important goals.

What 10 things would you do if you had unlimited time and money? Give yourself a few moments to come up with 10 answers, but not ones that are too long. Please write them down, either here or on a separate sheet of paper, seriously you need to do this, write it down, if you just do it on paper you won’t be able to burn the image in your subconscious which is the key to positive imaging, making the dreams become reality. Well, what did you find out about yourself? One thing many people discover, as a result of this exercise, is that listing 10 items is not as easy as they assumed it would be—even with unlimited time and money. If you found that to be true—if numbers 9 and 10 came hard— then you need to dream more. Have at it! You are now free to dream.

1. YOUR MISSION TO WEALTH TO-DO LIST 1. DEVISE A PLAN FIRST, AND THE STRATEGIES WILL FOLLOW. -You must come up with your plan first. Hildebrant’s principle applies here: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” Wandering aimlessly will get you nowhere fast.

2. TRUST YOUR MENTORS.- To get the most out of this exercise, you must put your trust in people you don’t know. So I ask you to suspend disbelief. I ask you to think of me as someone you know and trust as you progress through my blogs. (There’s no downside and plenty of upside.)

3. CHANGE YOUR MINDSET.- Accumulating wealth is as much about mindset as it is about net worth. It may sound simple or even naive, but without the proper mindset, you almost certainly will not achieve your financial goals. If you do somehow achieve them, they’re likely to come undone quickly.

4. DARE TO DREAM. Dreaming is one of the first steps on the journey to financial independence. Think of Roger Bannister’s four-minute mile. Think of John F. Kennedy’s challenge to Americans to get to the moon before the end of the decade. You must first envision the future before it can become a reality. That may sound like another simplification (and indeed, it’s only part of the story), but that’s exactly what worked for me.

Don t skip this exercise. I actually sat down and did this when I was 15, as fate may have it; I found my list that I wrote some years back and realized that writing this down really helped and made the difference between success and failure. I actually wrote all my goals down, both short and long term, then I did the dreams as this exercise suggest. Over time my short term goals were all accomplished, my long term goals were really more short term and all accomplished, and my dreams became long term goals and then short term goals and then I achieved all the dreams that I had written down when I was 15. Two points here, one, do this, two update it yearly as your life’s values and what’s important changes and you want to be writing these changes down so that you can achieve them.

You need to be systematic and thorough in your approach to these eight principles. If you follow just some of them, you may still become financially free. (Yes, they are that powerful.) But your foundation for long-term success will be more solid if you internalize them all.

Let’s take another short step in your journey toward financial freedom. Yes, we’re going to do some more dreaming. If possible, you should find some quiet place where you can be by yourself and not have to worry about being self-conscious. But if you can’t, don’t worry about it. Just do the best you can. If you’re not happy about the results the first time, consider repeating the exercise again later in a more private place, and see if the results are the same.

So get comfortable and relaxed. Close your eyes for a moment, and allow yourself to dream. Let your mind roam as if you were a little kid in school, bored by some dull assignment. Give yourself permission to do what people have told you not to do your entire life: daydream.
Let your mind wander, and think happy thoughts—thoughts about things you would really like to do. Places where you’ve always wanted to travel. People you’d like to meet. Whatever comes to your mind, allow yourself to let go and dream, even if it is only for a few moments. Once you complete this brief exercise—and only after you have done this—continue on.

Did you do it? Great. I hope you enjoyed this moment with yourself. It’s a good start, and it’s something you should do more often. At first, your conscious brain—the scolding part, the part that Freud called the “superego”—will resist your attempts at daydreaming. And let’s face it, you’re out of practice. You haven’t done it since you were a kid, and even then, people were telling you it was a “waste of time.”

Nothing could be further from the truth. Dreaming puts you in touch with your inner self. It allows you to contemplate what is going on in your life, and what you want to do about it. It is a restful time—a time that allows you to recharge your batteries and rejuvenate yourself, mentally, physically, and spiritually. Entire civilizations in the East endorse meditation as a positive habit to develop.

I do, too—although I prefer to talk about dreaming, rather than meditating. I believe that a focused kind of meditation, a dreaming of your future, is critically important.

My Best
James Dicks

In order for life to work, we must all be different. We must have different dreams and different aspirations. But this very variety means that these dreams can all be fulfilled—assuming that each of us is honest with himself or herself and finds his or her true dream.
Not someone else’s dream—your dream.

Financial freedom is your dream. As long as you can dream, you can continue to succeed. Show me a person who has no dream, and I will show you someone who is poor. A millionaire dreams, and then sets out to make those dreams real. Once you stop dreaming, you stop the magic. That’s because you have created the world you wanted. You stop moving forward, because your dreams have ended. Either you are content to live with what you have or you are constantly frustrated because you don’t have enough—or you learn to dream again.

Think about this for a moment. Look around you at the people you know who, when measured in terms of financial prosperity, have a successful life. Inevitably, the ones who are the happiest are the ones who are still dreaming. Those who have stopped dreaming become overly concerned about the money they have. They begin to hoard their wealth in a way that restricts even their own pleasure.

It’s a sad predicament: to be snared by your failing or extinguished dreams. As my grandmother always said, “Be careful what you wish for, because you may get it.” In other words, be ready to handle the consequences of what you think you want, because you may indeed get it. Money without a plan is worthless. That is why the first step should be to create that plan.

You must be ready for your wealth before you get it. The plan you develop for financial success will be based on sound fundamentals, rather than on some pie-in-the-sky, get-richquick scheme. You can build the wealth you seek. It won’t come overnight, but once you master our method, you won’t care. You will be systematically working toward your long-term goal, while at the same time earning money and enjoying the journey. Isn’t that what you really want? Satisfaction today, and financial freedom tomorrow?

Don’t miss my next blog in which I will discuss the principles of wealth creation.

My Best
James Dicks

Follow up to previous blog post.

Once you have actually seen yourself spending and enjoying your newfound financial success, you can move on. Please don’t fudge—OK, let’s move on together. Let’s change your visual focus. Where do you live in your new life of prosperity? What does your house look like? How many bedrooms does it have? Can you see it? If you can see it, spend a few minutes creating details. If you can’t see it, spend a little more time with the exercise until you can.

Someone once said that what the mind can see, the body can achieve. I believe it. I go a step further. I believe that the mind must see it before the body is able to work for it. Look at another realm of human endeavor: sports. When Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile, he saw it long before he did it. Over and over in his mind, he later recalled, he visualized doing what had been deemed to be impossible. Interestingly enough, once Bannister did what no one else had ever done before, others quickly succeeded in doing it. Why? Because in minds all around the world, mental barriers had been broken. People understood that the impossible was now possible.

The same analogy applies to wealth creation. There is a process one must go through to achieve it. Bill Gates, in his best-selling book The Road Ahead, writes about his “play” with computers in high school. Even then, when computers were the size of large rooms and far less powerful than our miniature hand-held PDAs, he dreamed about what they would be able to achieve in the future.

His dream was so strong, in fact, that he feared missing out on the revolution he saw in his mind. He dropped out of Harvard University—dropped off the safe path he was on—to get a quicker start. There was simply no way that he was going to let the software revolution start without him.
Bill Gates saw the future of computers in his mind long before it became a reality. He saw a role for himself in that future. He dreamed the dream, developed plans to fulfill that dream, and then took action. This could be called the “science of success.”

It’s not restricted to Roger Bannister and Bill Gates. It’s something that each of you can participate in and benefit from. But before you can do it, you have to knock down the mental barriers to your financial success. You must learn to envision your achievements. Once you do, the achievements will follow. So far, so good? Are you beginning to see the mindset you need to have if you are to achieve financial freedom? Let’s go a little further.

What about a family? Will you have a spouse? Children? What will they be like? These are extremely important thoughts to consider and plan for. You must see it before it happens, but once you do; financial freedom will be more than one step closer.

All of the questions I have posed to you so far will become an important part of creating your dreams and ultimately achieving goals based on those dreams. Now that you see the process unfolding, you can also see how the end results will be different for everyone.

More to follow don’t miss reading the most important aspect of how this exercise can make such an impact on your financial life.

My Best
James Dicks

What do you do if you are upside down on your property and the bank is running you around and around? You know…asking you to send in the same documents over and over again. Well you can do a Strategic Foreclosure.

What is a Strategic Foreclosure? Another word for tell the bank come get my property and you are tired of their crap. You have to take a step back first and decide where your moral compass sits. What is the right thing to do, make your payments, as promised? Sure financial responsibility is admirable, but it is hard to maintain that kind of thinking when the very financial institutions you owe money have little to NO financial responsibility. What happened to lead by example?

Hire an attorney and it will take one to three years for a foreclosure to happen.
Now think for a moment about your situation. If you do what all the big corporations do, you put business first. If that is the case, you may want to consider a business decision on your biggest investment, your home. I can better explain this with an example, which happens to be a real life example from someone I know.

Okay, you buy a modest home in 2006, 4 bedrooms two baths, two-car garage about 1600 square feet, relatively new. You pay $225,000.00 put in about $30,000.00 in upgrades. All of a sudden the market starts to pull back, and it did. Next thing you know you are paying way more than you can rent the property for, the house across the street just sold for $112,000 and there are ten more on the street for the same price. What do you do?

Well, you first try and call the bank to see if you can get approved for one of the many home mortgage modification plans. But you are not so lucky since you don’t meet any of the requirements, and it wasn’t from a lack of trying. You were told “sorry” so many times you quit counting. Now all of a sudden your job has reduced your hours and pay. You are lucky enough to still have a job but nonetheless, you are now struggling to make your mortgage payment. You decide enough is enough and can’t make your current mortgage payment. One month turns into three and so on. You are still trying hard to get a modification but to no avail.

Finally you are making headway with the bank and you believe you can see a light is at the end of the tunnel you think, the bank says “no problem, we will lower your payment and you can keep making payments on your original note.” WOW, thanks but no thanks, don’t do me any favors! But why say that?
Let’s look at why.

Even if they lowered your principal you are wasting your time as far as a business decision is concerned. The house is only worth what someone is willing to pay, and right now that’s $112,000.

So you walk away from this house, the one you owe $260,000 on. You live in it for say 3 years total before it is foreclosed on. Yes, your credit will be affected, you will have a foreclosure, along with about 50 percent of the other Americans out there that owned a home and experienced a foreclosure. But you are better off saving your money and renting at a price you can afford for the next few years. Get your feet back under you and then buy when the job and the housing market has improved a bit.

If you end up buying a home similar to yours, let’s say the one next door, for say $112,000 in the next five to seven year, it will probably be back to the levels you currently owe – $260,000.

So, a sound business decision encourages you to walk away, make a deal with bank, turn over the house and owe nothing. Save a little money, put down 20% on a new house in two years. Even if your credit is affected you can do a rent to own or a lease purchase. After 12 months of good payments, you can refinance it as your primary residence.

The $112,000 house you will buy for $120,000. You put down $10,000.00 and owe $110,000 over the next six years. Your house goes up in value to say $200,000 and your mortgage goes down to say $95,000.00 and you have $105,000.00 in equity. Meaning if you stayed in the old house that you owed $260,000, it is now worth $200,000.00 and your mortgage is down to $230,000.00 give or take. Which scenario, as a business decision, seems better, upside down or positive?

You have to weigh the pros and cons the decision to be moral and ethical make your payments or make a sound business decision and be ahead financially. Only you can make that decision. I will tell you that the banks and big companies make these decisions every day and they always choose the business decision. That’s not a reason to condone it, but a reason to seriously sit down and consider your choices.

One thing is for sure, the real estate market will come back, until then look for the opportunities they are always present.

Remember, you may be down but you’re certainly not out by a long shot. Time to start the rebuilding process and the sooner the better. The faster you start, the more time you’ll have to put away the cash, the assets, the peace of mind before you really need it. But what to do first?
You might look back and try to remember where you started when you first left home or when you first got married. Chances are you began by putting away what you could in a bank savings account. That is probably a good place to start now.

Recently an economist said that average U.S. household wealth is down almost 20 percent from its pre-recessionary financial crest three years ago. There has been no reduction of U.S. household wealth in the last 50 years that has even come close to touching this loss. Many of those who supposedly know (government officials, economists and the like) are starting to believe that the “Great Recession” has probably seen its worse and investors are beginning to get restless about standing on the sidelines. But, many more are not yet interested in getting back in yet. There are fears that they might run into a second phase of this recession period and take another big hit. And others are getting nervous about the possibility of losing out on something big when things do begin to look clearer economically.

So what should we do? The answer to that question is very personal – it’s your money and that means its entirely your decision. But let me just throw out a few facts that may help you make some very important decisions.

Many people I talk to are ready to jump back into stocks. The negative or positive activity experienced by the stock market is normally guided by the strength or the weakness of the U.S. economy. When our economy begins to expand and the chances of inflation are relatively slim, the stock markets tend to thrive. Today, I don’t think we know the answer to either of those questions because growth and inflationary questions remain persistent today.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been hearing lots of advertisements about investing in commodities these days, specifically gold. During periods of inflationary pressure, the commodity sector has been where many people go to find a financial refuge. Although gold has been showing some considerable strength, it has also shown itself to be rather stagnant over the last few months – not gain or losing much in the process. The Fed has stated this year that if inflation begins to show itself while our national economy continues to be on the mend, they will pull back some of the liquidity they’ve put out there in order to slow it down. This will indeed have a great impact on commodity pricing.

So where to go? Back to that savings account at the bank that hardly pays anything as far as interest is concerned. Or maybe its time to remain on the sidelines and get involved in CD’s or other interest rate vehicles. While these types of investments aren’t very lucrative, you can be sure of one thing…you’re probably not going to lose in the process either.

Are you in a mood to take a chance or are you in preservation mode right now? Remember the old adage – “You pay your money and you take your chances.” But the chances we are experiencing today are not like anything this generation has ever seen. Getting back in or staying on the sidelines is a decision that each one of us must make independently and not by the flipping of a coin. Get educated and make sure the decision you ultimately make is one you can personally live whether your investments go up or whether they go down.

The topic of money never remains fixed. Tax laws are always changing, and as we’ve seen recently, the laws pertaining to credit changed and were updated, plus there are always new and different investment opportunities that are developed and must be considered. These are just a few examples; I could list many more, but you get the point. Your financial education on the subject of money will never be finished so just adjust your thinking accordingly. One of the things I suggest is to spend some time researching financial papers and periodicals. So congratulations, if you are reading this, you have already started. Keep it up.

Additionally, there are lots of other methods in becoming a student of money. Many local community colleges offer courses in basic money management, which are normally taught by Certified Financial Planners and other similarly credentialed financial professionals. These classes can be an excellent resource for you. The only caution I’ll offer you about these courses is that sometimes the instructor may use the class as a platform to give out his opinions on how to invest, or even as a means of adding clients to his list of customers. So, you’ll want to pay close attention to the information, and be sure to “weed out” those bits of information that seem to be less than standardized financial knowledge and more financial propaganda or a sales pitch. Something to consider as your wealth builds, you will actually have to spend more time, not less, watching your money. Hey, this is a good problem to have, but it is an issue nevertheless.

You probably spent a lot of time and effort gathering the money you have available to you. So it goes without saying that you must watch out for the scam artists. We’re all familiar with these folks; people who just seem to represent the lowest echelon of human existence. And I’m not only speaking of hardened criminals, but people who live in such a way that their lives are centered on the acquisition of negative energy using risky tactics. Behavioral science has shown us that when honorable people are brought together with those who are less than admirable for an extended period of time, it is very likely that the decent folks will more than likely drop to the level of their counterparts than the other way around. There are a variety of theories as to why this is the case, but chief among them is that it simply requires less effort to fall down than to rise up. The activities in which the less honorable folks are frequently engaged are admittedly very appealing at an instinctive level. So just remember what you were told as a kid – “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Be careful!

One thing is for sure, it’s going to take a lot of hard work and self-control to build a solid financial future for you and your family. There’s not just one method of doing so but there are certain constants that apply to all of us. One of them is that you will have to commit yourself to getting the education you need and then taking the time to do so. Once you realize that there are hundreds of factors that must be studied, considered and applied every day, you will be well on your way. Start your research today. If there’s one thing that we all should have learned in the past couple of years, the financial stature of our lives depends on the decisions we make today. Poor choices create unfortunate situations when times get tough. Start creating an economically sound plan that will guide you to a more solid financial life for your future.

I think you’ll agree that filing your taxes is probably the most important personal and/or professional administrative function that you are tasked to complete each year. It’s very important that the finished product is as accurate and as honest as possible, so keep this in mind when selecting the person you’ll be trusting with your annual tax return. There is absolutely no guarantee that the tax professional you ultimately select will do everything he/she can to save you as much money as possible. So you need to follow a definite process when considering the choice of a preparer.

First, your tax expert will be handling your most personal financial information. You should be able to develop an open relationship relatively quickly where you feel comfortable asking and answering important financial questions. You should feel secure enough to ask the preparer how much he/she personally paid in taxes last year. If the answer is anything but virtually nothing, you will want to be cautious of this particular person. If this kind of candid discussion bothers you, at least ask for some solid references of satisfied clients. Another way to locate a skilled tax preparer is to just ask your friends and family; especially those you know make a considerable income. I’m certain they will be more than happy to recommend someone who has served them well in the past. Never lose sight of the actual reason you decided to use a professional tax preparer in the first place; to legally obtain a greater tax savings than you could on your own. The keyword there is legally.

When I talk to others around the country about their personal financial issues, I seem to end up disappointing them because I consistently come down against the use of any and all illegal tactics that might be used to reduce someone’s tax burden. In fact, I surprise most people because I normally take it one step further by avoiding even the use of what are commonly referred to as tax “loopholes,” the use of which are not, technically, illegal. The only type of tax reduction plans I support are those that use completely legal tax strategies. These strategies are primarily focused on maximizing the use of all available deductions which a U.S. taxpayer can use. Flat-out tax cheating, which normally comes in the form of absolute tax evasion or the claiming of false deductions, in addition to being wrong, is illegal, and will probably send you to jail, give you the opportunity to pay huge fines – or both.

So, I believe the use of permissible tax reduction strategies is the only way to go. There are many of them to take advantage of and they range from standard deductions for which nearly all taxpayers can qualify, to deductions for which small business owners can qualify. Discuss these deductable areas with your tax preparer and develop a solid tax plan that will legally qualify you to use these deductions. You must take the time to learn which deductions are potentially available to you and maintain the required records for every deduction so you can support their use should you be challenged by the IRS. If you do it correctly, you will soon see just how valuable the use of these eligible deductions can be. When it relates to your taxes, always take the “high road” and always be completely honest. Believe me, the effort is worth it.