8 Unethical Ways to Get Ahead
These hacks are uniformly unethical. Some veer into fraud. They should be regarded as informational and for entertainment purposes rather than as actual suggestions. You shouldn't do them. If you do do them, you are a bad person.
OS Software Licenses
Cars/Big Purchases
(You have to read this part in it's entirety or it'll sound stupid)
A business doesn't have to be profitable to write off the expenses associated with it, you just have to operate it with the intent to turn a profit, whether that actually occurs or not is actually secondary. I know a married couple who started a "food blog" basically so they can write off their entire grocery bill.
For The Broke WSO College Kid
Free Magazine Subscriptions
Cellphone Plans
- If you want to cancel your cellphone contract without paying a fee, pull up the provider's service map. Find a huge hole in the map, like a desert out west. Look for a town name in that map. Tell them you're moving to Putzachateeawaka, Arizona and you want to cancel because they don't provide service there. Boom.
- "I've been canceling and switching the name on my cable bill now for 10 years between myself and my wife so I always get the new customers rate."
- It's surprisingly easy to take advantage of people's fear and insecurity with the "fear then relief" technique. Basically, you make someone think they're in serious danger of losing their livelihood, or anything else likely to provoke fear. Then you relent, and ask for something less. They're much, much more likely to comply.
For example, if your a manager make an employee think that their job's in danger, leaving them to stew for a few hours or a day, then relenting and letting them know they're safe. That's when you ask for them to work overtime.
- I learned that you can get into almost any special event by wearing a chef coat. Even just carrying one and walking like you know where you're going will work every time. Most people don't want to look stupid by asking you who you are.
3 times now. 3 times
Cable Bills
If You're The Boss
Special Event
via Business Insider
Anyone Else Have Savvy Shortcuts to Share?
Awesome post man. I'm not gonna lie, I'll probably be using these (as I'm sure everyone else will). Haha
Nice! Google mapping the nearest restaurant supply store now!!!
When I was in the military, we used to use the cell phone trick all the time. You would just say you were getting orders overseas and needed to cancel. Most of the time, they would offer to put your account on delay while you were gone with no questions asked and after a few years it just gets cancelled out of their system. This is how a bunch of people got out of their Verizon/TMoble contracts in order to switch to AT&T when the iPhone came out. Many of them probably used it again a few years later when Verizon finally got the iPhone.
On the grocery bill thing, it's a bit risky. I am not a tax lawyer, but I think for that to be 100% legal you could only deduct the food purchased for what you actually blogged about. I could see the IRS getting wise to this if you were deducting $6000-8000 in grocery bills annually for your blog. However, if anyone wants to get together and start a 'Wine and Spirits Appreciation' blog, I'm definitely game......
Toilet paper hustle:
Any time you go to public restroom bring a backpack together and get a few rolls of paper to bring back home.
^This.
Stuff like this is why I do not miss college ...
These are all stolen from Reddit / Business Insider..
Hence the "via Business Insider" tag at the bottom.
Hats off to anyone actually doing this
As for starting a blog, thats a good idea for food expenses. As the poster above stated, you would have to write about the foods you buy. You would need to setup an LLC and such in this case as well. I would take this one step further and do this for electronics, it would save a boatload.
Hmm, is it possible you could make this work for rent? Maybe be able to review your apartment features and amenties over the course of the year.
That's actually a good question...anyone?
Guess it matters on who in the IRS eventually handles you.
Don't think you'd necessarily have to go through the hassle of setting up an LLC, just keep accurate records of income/expenses and be a sole proprietorship
Looks like you need to put in at least some effort to try to make it look legit though unfortunately. Although I'm wondering if there's a threshold under which the IRS doesn't bother looking into these things...anyone? http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/13/pf/expert/tax-deduction.moneymag/index…
Shit this is awesome. Now I know why I did so bad on the ethics section of the CFA.
Very solid list but I have to say the expense thing just looks like a hassle and way too questionable...
Regarding the last item, I've definitely just waltzed into places by creating an air of authority and pretending I belong. Best place it worked was at a concert...temporarily lol.
Definitely going to have to buy a chef's suit now though...
I once had a gym that when I tried to cancel because I was "moving" to east bumb fuck New Mexico they asked for a validated piece of mail.... bastards.
The same happened to me. They actually asked not only for that, but also for a verified copy of a statement of my local municipality that I am moving. Wtf?
You need to make a certain percentage of income from the LLC or Sole Proprietorship or else it becomes a "Hobby" on your tax return and you can no longer claim the expenses.
Oh and the home expenses are the #1 reason for getting audited. You need a room which is 100% dedicated to your business. And you can only deduct the % of the square footage. And if there is anything not related to your business in there when they visit, it doesn't count. There are only college kids on this site.
Get one large cup of coffee from Starbucks. Keep the cup. Enter Starbucks places at will to re-fill with milk. I only do this to get an occasional cup of milk if there's none at the office, but I could imagine doing this on a larger scale to spare buying milk yourself.
This is gold.
This forum is packed with current and prospect wealth, but we are discussing how to steal milk off of Starbucks and rolls of TP from restaurants? What the fuck?! Seriously. WHAT the fuck?!?
^ This.
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