5 Things to Know About the Home Office Tax Deduction and Coronavirus

Since the coronavirus quarantine began, many people have been forced to work from home. If you didn’t have a home office before the pandemic, you might have had a few expenses to set one up. I’ve received several questions about what benefits are allowed for home offices during the COVID-19 crisis.

One question came in on the QDT coronavirus question page. Money Girl reader Ian said:

"I have a question about next year's taxes and working from home. For the past 13 weeks, I have been forced to work from a home office. (I am a regular W-2 employee, not self-employed.) I have had some expenses come up that were brought about by working from home: a computer upgrade so I can better connect to Wi-Fi, a new router, and even a desk chair so I am comfortable while I work. Should I be keeping track of those expenses? Will they be deductible? My employer is not going to reimburse them. Thank you for your help!"

Another question came from Miki, who used my contact page at Lauradadams.com to reach me. She said:

"Hi, Laura, and thank you for a wonderful podcast! I've been listening for years and have always thought that you'd have a show for any question I could ever think of. But this new situation with COVID-19 has made me think of something that I'm sure many of us are dealing with right now.

"To start working from home, I had to spend quite a bit of money to get my home office on par with my actual office. I know you've done episodes on claiming home office expenses on taxes before, but could you do an episode on whether we can claim home office expenses on our taxes next year? And if we can, things we should start thinking about now (aside from saving the receipts)?"

Thanks for your kind words and thoughtful questions! I'll explain who qualifies for a home office tax deduction and serve up some tips for claiming it.

5 things to know about the home office tax deduction during coronavirus

Here's the detail on five things you should know about qualifying for the home office tax deduction in 2020.

1. COVID-19 has not changed the home office tax law

The CARES Act changed many personal finance rules—including specific tax deadlines,...

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How to Eat 45,000 Extra Calories Without Gaining Weight

Fabio asks:

I came across a study on bodybuilders, which suggests that a caloric surfeit doesn´t contribute to weight gain, as you would expect, when the extra calories come solely from protein. Can you comment on it?

The study Fabio asked about was published in 2014 in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. And it's definitely worth a closer look

The subjects were all in their early twenties and all engaged in heavy resistance training (i.e, weight lifting). They were quite lean and very muscular going into the study. In fact, if you looked only at their BMI (body mass index), it looked as if the subjects were on the verge of obesity. But when you look at their body composition, it’s clear that the higher body weights relative to their heights were due to high muscle mass.

RELATED: Is BMI an Accurate Way to Measure Body Fat?

One group added a lot of extra protein to their diet in the form of whey protein powder. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot.

These athletes had previously been consuming about 1 gram of protein per pound per day, or about 20-25 percent of calories. This is about twice the recommended minimum intake but comfortably within the acceptable range for protein laid out by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly known as the Institute of Medicine.

RELATED: How Much Protein Should You Eat?

For the study, the researchers essentially doubled the athlete's protein intake to an average of 300 grams per day, which is quite a bit higher than NAM’s maximum  recommended intake. It’s also, as the researchers write, “the highest recorded intake of dietary protein in the scientific literature that we are aware of.”

Nobody is recommending that eating this much protein would be is a good idea on a long-term basis.

The researchers did not evaluate whether this extremely high intake had any negative impacts on liver or kidney function, but many of the subjects complained of intestinal distress.  However, nobody is recommending that eating this much protein would be is a good idea on a long-term basis. The point of this short-term study was simply to find out how eating protein in excess of caloric requirements would affect body composition in highly trained people. 

The subjects didn’t eat less of other foods; they just added the whey protein on top of what they were already eating. Or at least, that’s how it was supposed to...

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How to Increase Your Muscle Definition

A few weeks ago, I received a voicemail on the Get-Fit Guy hotline from a listener named Erin. She had a great question of muscle definition. This is what she asked.

Hi Brock. My name's Erin. I've been listening to your podcast for a long time and I find it really helpful. I'm a woman in— well, close to 50, and I've been working out with free weights, kettlebells, and battle ropes pretty consistently for about three years. I'm finding that it's like running to stay in place. I'm reasonably toned, but I never seem to be able to develop real muscle mass or definition. Should I be taking a lot of protein? Should I be trying to lose a bunch of weight? My weight is actually quite normal, quite good—but if I want definition, should I be increasing my weights by quite a bit? I'm hesitant to do that because my recovery time is not what it used to be. What are the most impactful things you can do in terms of muscle definition and gaining muscle mass when you're in midlife?

This is a question I bet many listeners are interested in. 

Body composition

What Erin is really asking about is how best to change her body composition. She's not that interested in losing body weight; she simply wants to shift the composition of her body from fat tissue to muscle tissue.

Increasing muscle definition is really just a simple idea of increasing muscle mass and decreasing body fat

Increasing muscle definition is really just a simple idea of increasing muscle mass and decreasing body fat, especially the fat between the skin and muscle called subcutaneous fat. Doing these two things in concert is what creates defined muscles that you can see. 

While muscle definition isn't an actual measure of better fitness or health, I understand the desire to show off the hard work you've done. While I don't encourage anyone to lower their body fat to extremes, there's a healthy way to accomplish reasonable body fat loss and muscle mass increases. 

Now, I said that the idea behind building muscle definition was simple, but like many ideas, simple doesn't necessarily mean easy. Increasing your muscle definition requires some patience and something called periodization. 

What is periodization training?

Generally, periodization training is a way to keep an athlete from overtraining by deliberately moving through periods of high and low intensities or volumes of training. But it can refer to any deliberate division of training that leads to a specific outcome. 

In this case, we're going to periodize the fat loss first and then concentrate on...

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Bullet Journaling—My Secret to Productivity, Creativity, and Balance

Five years ago I started my own consulting business—cue the terror, stress, exhaustion, and overwhelm. I wanted to succeed and I was willing to work for it. But professional success at the expense of my family or health wasn’t worth it. I struggled initially to juggle, and sometimes even see, all the balls in the air. I spent a lot of time feeling like I was failing at something, be it working, mothering, friending, or exercising.

I tried all of the productivity and organizing apps, but nothing changed the game for me. And then one day—be still my analog-loving-heart!—I discovered the Bullet Journal® and it changed everything.

What is Bullet Journaling?

Bullet Journaling is hard to define because it’s really whatever you need it to be. Five years ago, I needed a solution that would help keep me productive, creative, organized, and balanced. And the Bullet Journal became that for me.

A Bullet Journal is a means of planning, capturing, dreaming, organizing, tracking, and more. It's also literally just a notebook—any notebook—and a pen.

A Bullet Journal is a means of planning, capturing, dreaming, organizing, tracking, and more. It's also literally just a notebook—any notebook—and a pen. For me, the practice of handwriting ideas helps seal them into my mind in a way a technological capture doesn’t.

Creator of the method, Ryder Carroll, says “It’s helpful to have one source of truth. That’s what the Bullet Journal is for me.”

I rely on this system to help me:

• Get everything out of my head
• Translate big ideas into bite-sized actions
• Keep all of my priorities prioritized
• Capture and curate ideas across any arena I can imagine
• Tackle the big stuff before getting lost in the small

In the game of Bullet Journaling, there are no rules. The key to doing it “right” is knowing what you want to achieve (be it productivity, changing a habit, sticking to a budget, etc.), and then building the journal and a process that supports you in getting there.

There are countless YouTube videos on how to set up and work with a Bullet Journal. My advice is to start simple, see what works, and make changes as you go.

How I set up my Bullet Journal

As I mentioned, five years ago I was overwhelmed and out of balance. Different parts of my life seemed to be competing versus collaborating. And my goal was to find a way to feel productive and successful across them all.

I began by jotting down everything that was bouncing around my brain—every to-do, every anxiety, every ambition...

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Did NASA Discover a Parallel Universe?

A flurry of stories recently hit my timeline claiming that NASA had discovered a parallel universe where time runs backward. I was immediately suspicious because none of those stories actually came from NASA. And as the famous astronomer Carl Sagan once said, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” So what is the evidence?

What is a parallel universe?

First, let’s look at what we mean by a parallel universe. The term can take different meanings in science fiction stories versus scientific theory.

Theory tells us that in an infinitely big universe, there are only so many ways all the stuff inside it can be arranged before those patterns have to start repeating themselves. To put this in more relatable terms, a common analogy is to take a deck of cards and lay out all of the cards in the order you find them. Now shuffle that deck and lay the cards out again. Repeat this exercise enough times and you're destined to repeat the same order eventually. 

A parallel universe would be a universe much like our own, with the same laws of physics and makeup, but with a different history or evolutionary path.

So a parallel universe would be a universe much like our own, with the same laws of physics and makeup, but with a different history or evolutionary path. The multiverse, this universe of universes, can also take other forms besides a series of parallel universes. Other realities could be folded away in different dimensions or even exist as disconnected bubble universes where the laws of physics are completely different. 

These ideas tend to be highly abstract. Their existence comes out of patterns in the mathematical framework that describes our physical universe. Or they are invoked as physicists try to explain why two of our biggest physical theories, quantum mechanics and general relativity, don’t play well together.

But could we actually find a parallel universe? 

Can we find a parallel universe?

The story of a parallel universe where time runs backward starts with an experiment in the Antarctic called ANITA, or the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna. ANITA is a set of radio antennas onboard a helium balloon flying approximately 37,000 meters above Antarctica, or about four times as high as a commercial jet flies. These radio dishes are looking for evidence of neutrinos—tiny subatomic...

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10 Creative Ways to Indulge in Regular Self-Care

In a typical week, you organize and oversee your kid's busy lives, including school projects, sports practices, doctor, and hair appointments. You shop, cook, do laundry, take the dog to the groomer, manage your office workload, and still squeeze in last-minute errands for your spouse without giving it a second thought. Somehow, you accomplish everything on your to-do list, and then some, except for one essential thing—taking time out to focus on your own needs.

Finding the time to refuel your tank is vital for any human being but particularly for caregivers, including super-busy parents who serve others 24/7.

Finding the time to refuel your tank is vital for any human being but particularly for caregivers, including super-busy parents who serve others 24/7. It goes a long way in managing stress and living your best life. And yet, practicing regular self-care isn't an easy concept for many parents to embrace.

One reason many parents don't reenergize is that we scurry from one task to the next without living in the moment. Parenting guru Dr. Laura Markham strategizes tuning into our thoughts as often as possible throughout the day.

Simply being present with yourself is an essential form of  'attention' that we all need. We get hooked on the adrenaline of rushing. But you'll be better at your job if you get into the habit of being more present. And if you're home with children, it's essential.

Dr. Laura Markham

Here are ten ways to make self-care a mindful priority in your busy life.

1. Practice the HALT method  

Self-care means knowing who you are and recognizing your limits. It means recognizing when you are doing more than you're used to handling and figuring out how to slow down.

When you're starting to feel yourself getting burned out and overwhelmed, follow this helpful acronym—HALT. Stop and ask yourself whether you're feeling:

• Hungry
• Angry
• Lonely
• Tired

By taking a breather and paying attention to why you might be feeling crazed, you'll be able to address the culprit immediately rather than letting it fester until you eventually blowing up. For example, if it's now 2 p.m. and you haven't had anything but coffee since the kids left for school, sit yourself down (yes, you deserve to sit while you eat!) and have a healthy sandwich...

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How To Live a Meaningful Life (Hint: It's About Values)

I recently heard from Amy, a former client of mine checking in to let me know she's doing great. I remember Amy well. She's an intelligent, hard-working, social, all-around go-getter. When she came to therapy, her life looked perfect on paper. But she always felt dissatisfied, like the pieces of her life just didn’t quite add up to a whole that made her happy. She felt restless at her high-paying job, couldn’t stay in love with her serially monogamous partners, and felt disconnected from her family even though she was frequently in touch with them.

I remember asking her, “Amy, what are your values? What is your life all about?”

She started listing goals. She wanted to get a Master’s degree. She wanted to move her career into sustainability technology. She wanted to be married within a couple of years. She planned to have two kids. She wanted to lose five more pounds.

At some point, I gently interrupted her. “Amy, these are goals. Items on a checklist. My question was about your overarching values, your life’s meaning.”

She was baffled. “What’s the difference?”

Amongst my clients—whether they came to me for help with managing anxiety, healing after loss, or even just sleeping better—this difference between values and goals almost always comes up as an important turning point. For Amy, it was life-changing.

What is the difference between goals and values?

Imagine you’re sailing a boat on the sea. The islands you see on the horizon, the ones you are working hard to get to, are your life’s goals and milestones. Perhaps graduating from college is an island you aim for, or reading all of Shakespeare’s works. Perhaps starting your own business, having kids, or buying a house are others. Amy had many of these islands behind her, conquered. She also always had plenty on the horizon, driving her to work ever harder.

What if we zoom out, and instead of blindly island-hopping, look up to find the North Star?

Each time she planted her flag on an island, it was temporarily satisfying. That promotion at work was exciting! But once she had basked in that initial sense of accomplishment, she would look up and realize she was still lost, still unsure where to find lasting happiness. She always thought the solution was to start going toward the next island because if only she could get there, she’d finally be satisfied, right?

What if we zoom out, and instead of blindly island-hopping, look up to find the North Star? Your North Star. Something you believe in to offer a greater direction for your life. Some people value social cohesion, some value knowledge, or creative productivity, or service to others, or connection to nature, or any...

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