Once again it’s the time of year for me to make resolutions that I probably won’t keep for five minutes.
Nevertheless, here’s a list of them anyway:
1. Don’t wait until midnight on April 15 to file my taxes. Much as I love the frenetic activity at the post office on tax night and the hope of getting on the evening news, I have decided that I will try to set my own deadline of April 14, if not earlier. On the other hand, I can always file for an extension.
2. Try not to invest any money with Bernie Madoff. Since I have never belonged to a country club in Palm Beach, this isn’t likely to become a problem. Still, Madoff has reportedly lowered the qualifications for his prospective clients.
3. Don’t encourage FASB to write any more rules on fair value accounting. With the SEC set to weigh in by Friday with its hotly anticipated report on mark-to-market and fair value, I’ll leave it to all the outgoing officials at the SEC to decide how accountants should proceed on this matter.
4. Try to transition at some point to IFRS. Even though most companies have until 2014 or so, you can never start too early.
5. Begin auditing my bank statements more closely. It’s about time I did a better job of balancing my checkbook, just in case the Treasury is accidentally diverting some of the funds to the Wall Street bailout.
6. Reexamine my 401(k) investing strategy. The auto industry fund and the mortgage-backed securities fund were not such great investments in retrospect. Try to diversify.
7. Change tagline for WebCPA. I’m thinking of changing it from “Tools and Resources for the Online Accountant” to “Change You Can Believe In” since that worked so well this year in other contexts.
8. Build more traffic for the site. We’re not going to completely change the focus of WebCPA, but a little news about Paris Hilton’s taxes might help.
9. Deliver news faster. Forget about old-fashioned BlackBerries and iPhones. Telepathy is the wave of the future.
10. Become more principles-based. Not just for accounting standards, but for life in general.
Happy and healthy New Year, and may next year be a better one for all of us!
