Tax Benefit$ of Owning a Home

By Becky P. ~ Ivory Homeowner

I’m a CPA. I realize that to most people, that means I’m a somewhat nerdy bean-counter. I’m fine with that, because accounting does come in handy sometimes. Whenever my finance-degree-wielding husband has a new investment idea, I’m able to crunch the numbers, look into the tax implications, and help figure out if it’s a good investment. So when we decided to buy our Ivory Home, we not only looked at what our payment would be each month, we also considered the reduction in taxes from paying mortgage interest and property taxes.

People are always talking about “write offs” on your taxes. What does that really mean? Usually, it means that you can subtract certain expenses from your income, which reduces your “taxable income,” and thus the taxes you pay. So how do your mortgage payments fit into this? The IRS gives everyone a “standard deduction,” which is subtracted from your gross income to arrive at your taxable income. For 2009, the standard deduction was $5,700 for single filers, $11,400 for married filing jointly. Your other option is to add up all of your expenses in certain categories, and if they are more than the standard deduction, you get to subtract that amount (your “itemized deductions”) instead of the standard deduction amount. Mortgage interest and property taxes are in the categories of expenses that can go in your itemized deductions. The most common other categories of itemized deductions are state income taxes and charitable contributions. The other categories are less commonly used because they are harder to qualify for (for example, medical expenses over a certain amount and un-reimbursed employee expenses over a certain amount).

That’s the basic idea of the tax benefits you get from owning a home. It does get more complicated if you get into all the details, but hey, they’re taxes, did you expect it to be simple?

When you look at what your home really costs you, you have to take into account the taxes you’re saving. And if you’ve only been in your home a short time like me and get depressed looking at how much of your mortgage payment goes to interest vs. principal, there is a silver lining: all that interest will reduce your federal income tax bill.

Hey Groundhog, We're Ready for Spring!

So, the fat little furry critter saw his shadow today. Well you know what, who cares?! We're ready for Spring!

I'm sure we're not the only ones tired of the dark rustic decor that you see everywhere nowadays. Not everything needs to be brown (and drab)! With Spring right around the corner, we're thinking FRESH! We have lots of new models homes in store and we're splashing fresh new colors all over.

This lovely model home was decorated by our Design Team with most of the inspiration from the Ivory Family themselves! The theme is classic farmhouse style. It was such a hit that it sold right away, but we have more like this in store for 2010. Stay tuned...

Want to Be in an Ivory Homes Commercial?

Send us a photo and briefly tell us why you love your Ivory Home. Email shirlene@ivoryhomes.com by this Tuesday, February 2, 2010.

All applicants who are selected to participate will be compensated.

Kids Room Decorating Ideas

By Faith ~ 13 Year Old Ivory Fan

I love Ivory’s cute and exciting kid’s rooms! Being a kid myself I love getting ideas and thinking “I would love if my room was decorated that way!” They always seem to have fun themes, like Curious George, or flowers or fun prints. I always love looking in Ivory’s model homes and especially at the kids rooms and seeing all the fun ideas and cute designs.

No More Failed Resolutions

By Jason Bickley ~ Ivory Sales Consultant

I am going to get in shape, get a new job, get out of debt and quit smoking… Sounds familiar doesn’t it? So we all have those resolutions that we make at the beginning of the year. Some last a day, some last a week. If you are lucky yours will last 6 months, less than 46% do. The good thing is that you are making these resolutions, because if you weren’t you’d only have a 4% chance of reaching your goal (Don’t ask me how they made up that statistic). I found many studies, but overall 90-97% of New Years resolutions fail. Want to be one of the 3 in 100 that succeed in your resolutions? I have a few pointers to help you out in your lofty goal.

1. Write it down. Statistics show that people who write their goals down are 80% more likely to achieve them than those that do not write them down. In putting your goals on paper try to be specific. For instance rather than saying you are going to get in shape write what waist size, weight or strength you would like to achieve. Then set specific objectives to achieve that will get the end result. Specific goals are more achievable and you can track them better.

2.Make your own goal. I cannot say how many times I have made a goal for my wife. I can however honestly say that nearly every goal I made for her was never achieved. Surprise, surprise… Don't worry I don't blame her. If you really want to achieve a goal it has to be your own - not your bosses, not your parents, and not your spouses. You will only be totally driven to achieve a goal that you have earnestly bought into.

3. Baby steps. Set up small checkpoints along the road. This will help you track progress. And as you see that progress it will create excitement and a desire to work even harder to achieve the goals.

4. Tell the world. Ok maybe not the entire world, but just about! I say this for tree reasons, first telling friends and family subconsciously reaffirms you. Now that your friends know your goal they will be watching you and you won’t want to let them down. Second reason to tell a friend is “When performance is measured, performance improves (Hence write it down and take baby steps). When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.” Telling your friends in effect gives you a coach of sorts. Someone to report to on your progress. My final reason to tell someone is really just out of maintaining your own motivation. Tell someone you know will be a support to you. Encouragement is just as important as the progress when working through struggles or trying to achieve a goal. If you want to take this a step farther find someone in your peer group who has the same goal. It makes things much easier.

5. Celebrate. Achieving a goal is a big deal no matter how small the goal set, so celebrate that success. I suggest you give yourselves mini rewards along the path of achievements and a reward a little bigger upon achieving the goal. For instance; I go exercise right before lunch a few days a week and I go running before breakfast. My mini reward is that I get lunch [or breakfast] after exercising. The keyword is mini. It would be very counter productive to go on a family vacation costing $3,000 after paying off $1,500 in debt. On the other hand if you and your family just reached the goal of paying off $45,000 in debt and had the cash to do the family vacation then the family vacation would be very justifiable.

6. Have Fun! The hardest part about achieving goals is getting stuck in the monotony and getting bored/distracted. Whether through a game or humor or just excitement make the path fun. It is critical to your success.

So that is the Recipe. Follow it and you will be one of the 3 in 100. If you do have room for improvement the new year does bring an opportunity to make a change. A few goals I suggest for all are: 1) Kick your consumer debt to the curb. 2) A six month financial reserve at minimum, 3) Set a goal of how much you would like to make... or better yet how much you would like to give. These are a few good starts, but remember it has you be your goal, not mine. If you would like please share what your resolution is.

Happy New Year!

Jason ~ visit my blog at moneyfit.blogspot.com

Buona Fortuna in 2010!

Sorry for the holiday hiatus on our blog. It's been bizzzzy busy! We've had a fierce start to 2010 already... and that's always been our company's philosophy - to start the year off right! This time of year we're the busiest ~ we're closing out the previous year, celebrating our accomplishments, thanking those who contributed, setting new goals, formulating new strategies, working on new ad campaigns, etc, etc! Just wanted to share some pictures from our Annual Ivory Dinner Celebration that we had earlier this month. It was a memorable night for all who came. The theme was Italiano! We are bidding farewell to Dave Wolfgramm, our trusted CFO of 35 years, who will be leaving to serve as a Mission President in Italy! Congratulations, Dave & Sue. We wish you the best!

The big giveaway prize at each table was an Italian Gift Basket filled with authentic delectables! Mmm... pasta, olive oil, gnocchi, chocolate biscotti, breadsticks, marinara sauce, and pomegranate soda. And guess what? We saved one for YOU! One lucky blog reader will win this gift basket. All you've got to do is comment on this post about what you're excited about for 2010. We will choose one winner at random. Good luck... or should I say... Buona Fortuna!

Update: 2/1/2010 ~ Congratulations Lucky Number 6, Heather Taylor!

Saying Goodbye to 2009!

Wow! What a fun year! In 2009, we welcomed Jill Stevens to Ivory Homes, we honored Ellis Ivory as Salt Lake's Giant in the City, we had a groovy time during the Summer of Love 2, and celebrated the grand opening of several new communities. And now in 2010, it gets even better... :)

Ivory FAVORITES Cookbook for Make-A-Wish

By Chriss Sharer ~ CEO of Make-A-Wish Foundation

This FAVORITES cookbook was created by Grace and Jane, the two daughters of one of our major donors, Katie Ivory, as a gift for her 60th birthday. She is a very good cook and has lots of friends. Her daughters rummaged through drawers and salvaged their favorite family recipes from scraps of paper and napkins - both their mother’s own recipes and family favorites created by friends, neighbors, and relatives. They retested and retyped them all, and a childhood friend designed the layout and the cover for the book. They printed 1000 copies.

Within weeks, their mother had countless requests for the book. They started giving their own copies away. To print more would be expensive, but they did not want to sell the books to their family and friends. So Katie, who was on our board at Make-A-Wish, had an idea. She offered to print another 1500 if Make-A-Wish would sell them as a charitable fundraiser.

We were reluctant, believing we had no natural market for a cookbook and would get stuck with about 1250 of them. But we certainly didn’t want to offend Katie. We groaned inwardly and agreed to sell them. Katie offered her home for an Open House and invited lots of people. She asked us to send a few staff members to handle the money. We sent ONE staff member because we couldn’t imagine there would be THAT much money to process. Within a few hours, that staff member called for backup in a panic. Every book was sold that afternoon, and a thousand more were committed. We were going to have to reprint a third time just to fill existing orders!

We have reprinted many times now, paying for the printing ourselves, and we have netted over $225,000 from their sale. We never advertise, but we sell books literally every day at our front desk, and get orders from all over the country, especially around holidays like Mother’s Day and Christmas. It is the ultimate word of mouth promotion.

For information on how to purchase this cookbook, please click here or visit Make-A-Wish Foundation at 771 East Winchester (6600 South) in Murray.


Comment on this post and be entered to win your own copy of the Ivory FAVORITES Cookbook! Be sure to enter your email or Blogger account. Winner will be chosen December 15th. Compliments of Ivory Homes.

12/15/09 - Cookbook Giveaway Winner: Lucky Number 5! Congratulations, Jessica Malan!