Although he and Michelle Pfeiffer had broken up, Ronald still felt that he needed a communication device that could not delay the news from his agent and many friends.
After comparing ATT's $1,000 answering machine, which could only store 10 messages, and Motorola's $400 pager, which had signals all over New York, Ronald decisively bought a Motorola "Pageboy II"
"type pager.
There was a clip on the long pager that could be clipped on the belt. After Ronald clipped it for two days, he found it inconvenient, so he took it off and threw it in the briefcase he carried with him.
Diane Lane, who was staying at Aunt Karen's house, was lying on the sofa reading a novel. She glanced at this and said, "You deserve this, I thought you were a resident doctor?"
It is true that in New York, many young doctors have such a gadget, which is convenient for the hospital to call when there are emergency patients.
Ronald ignored the rebellious girl and called the service center. "My pager number is..., there is my message... It's Lawrence Wang? OK, thank you."
It turned out to be his accountant, Lawrence, and Ronald made a call.
Lawrence said on the phone that he already had a plan for the tax treatment of his $350,000 screenwriting income, and that he would make an appointment with him for a door-to-door interview. Ronald informed him of the address of his aunt's home and asked him to come over and talk.
Today, Donna had something to do with her, so Ronald came to Aunt Karen's house. Donna was very happy after getting the Walkman he gave her. There were many geniuses among her classmates who were proficient in electronic equipment and taught her some transcription skills.
Skill, this time I said I have a gift to give to Ronald in return.
"Ronnie", Donna took out a small box wrapped in gift paper from the room and handed it to him.
Ronald took it and opened it in front of him. There was a tape inside. There was a line written in pencil on the tape box: "Donna's Choice - Good Music Collection Vol. 1"
Turning over the back of the box, I also carefully recorded the playlist I chose. They were all Ronald's favorite pop music, including CCR, Bee Gees, Air Supply...etc.
Ronald was very happy, "Thank you, Donna, so I can listen to the songs I like directly without having to change records all the time."
"This is piracy, Donna." Diane Lane changed her position on the sofa and lay down.
"No, I checked the relevant laws in the library. As long as it is a record or tape that I have purchased, transcribing a single does not violate intellectual property laws. This is different from Little Bud transcribing an entire album and then selling it."
"Forehead……"
Ronald also laughed when he saw that Diane was suffering from the top student, Donna.
Put the tape into the large tape recorder and press the play button. What came out was a Bee Gees-style song. The voice of a singer with a slightly younger voice, but who clearly belonged to the Bee Gees family flowed into the living room.
Ronald turned over the box and saw that it was sung by a singer named Andy Gibbs. Judging from his last name, he should be the younger brother of the three brothers of the Bee Gees band.
so long
It's been so long since you and I found each other
I feel so strongly about you, girl
Ronald looked at the title of the song and saw it was "I Just Want To Be Your Everything"
"Uh... corny." Diane Lane was quite critical of her taste in music. She also entered the room and took out a big bag and threw it to Ronald, "This is my gift."
Ronald took it and opened it and saw that it was a set of novels - "SE Hinton Youth Novel Series" was written on the waistband.
There are four novels in it: "The Outsiders", "That Was Then... This Is Now", "Rumble Fish", and "Tex".
"You can read the very popular novels about young people in small towns in Oklahoma to improve your taste," said Diane Lane.
Ronald opened it and flipped through it. They were all about teenagers, drinking, picking up girls, fighting, riding horses, gang fights and other plots.
"The author is very powerful. The characters in the four novels are all connected together. The protagonist in this one is a supporting role in the second one."
"Really?" Ronald felt that the story was rather artificial, and the characters were all aggressive and aggressive teenagers. Although it was written in the 1950s and 1960s, social security has been bad in recent years, and schools have been invaded. It seems that
This kind of story is quite popular among teenagers.
"Of course, it's the most popular youth novel right now, Stay Gold." Diane said a line from Naughty Child.
Ronald didn't understand and looked at Donna.
"It means to maintain the mood of a teenager." Donna knew that Ronald had never read the novel, so she didn't know the meaning of this sentence. "Her book is indeed very popular, and all my classmates are reading it."
"She? Is she a female author?" Ronald flipped through the back cover, and it turned out to be a fat female author. The pen name of SE Hinton did not indicate male or female.
"Ring ring ring ring..."
It was accountant Lawrence Wang ringing the doorbell.
Ronald welcomed him in, and the two chatted softly at the small table in the corner of the living room.
"Last year, the T&T announced a tax cut. Individuals with annual income of more than $220,000 only need to pay 50% of the federal personal income tax."
"50%? As long as it's not a tax cut?" Ronald's voice suddenly rose, attracting the attention of the two girls.
"Sorry, let's talk somewhere else."
"No, Diane, let's go to the room to talk." Donna pulled Diane close to the bedroom.
"This is already the number after the tax cut bill. Before, the highest tax rate you had to pay on your income last year was 70%."
"Then the script I worked so hard to write was reshaped after being sold to Colombia, and most of it will be handed over to the federal government?" Ronald was speechless.
"That's not the case. For your annual personal income above $220,000, you need to pay a tax rate of 50%. For the portion below, the applicable tax rate is 38.5%, and then it decreases step by step. No tax is payable for the portion below $3,400."
"That's a lot. Why is the personal income tax so high?" Ronald was very angry. The result of his own struggle was working for the federal government?
"So this is my first suggestion to you, set up a company specifically to accommodate screenwriter income." Lawrence said.
"Corporate income tax also adopts a progressive tax rate. Your company's business model is very simple and there is not much accounting space, so it is better to separate different businesses so that you can enjoy a more favorable tax rate."
"Okay, let's register another company."
"In addition, I suggest you use your personal income to buy stocks. As long as you hold them for more than one year, the investment income will not be subject to personal income tax, but capital gains tax, which is much lower. After the tax cut last year, the tax rate was only 33.8
%"
"Can't I buy a house?" Ronald didn't understand stocks, but he heard that the prices rose and fell sharply. At least the house wouldn't suddenly evaporate 90% of the wealth.
"A house needs to pay real estate tax. The real estate tax in New York State is very high and needs to be paid every year. If you buy it in Los Angeles, it is also one of the states with the highest real estate tax in the country. And the real estate tax is a state tax. You don't live there.
If so, you won’t be able to enjoy many services brought by taxes.
For example, the simplest tuition exemption for public education, if you have not yet started a family and have children, you cannot enjoy this part of the subsidy. It will be too late to buy real estate when you have children.
So if you don’t live in it yourself, the house is just an asset that keeps paying costs.”
"Okay, then help me open a stock account. What stocks should I buy?"
"If your purpose is to avoid taxes, then don't buy stocks that expect prices to rise. My suggestion is to buy some blue-chip stocks. The stock prices are stable for a long time. You can hold them for a long time without selling them, so you don't have to pay capital gains tax. There are also quarterly
Dividends should be used as living expenses."
"What are blue chip stocks?"
"They are those companies that are doing well, have a long history, and have stable profits." Lawrence said in a language that Ronald could understand, "such as Coca-Cola, Kodak, IBM, etc."
"Okay, then you can design it for me and set aside next year's taxes and use all your spare money to buy these three stocks."
"You make decisions quickly, Ronald, don't you have to think about it again?"
"I don't have so much time to learn investment. What you said is clear and reasonable. Big companies will not collapse so quickly, as long as they are safe."
"Didi..." The pager rang again. Lawrence saw this and left.
This time it's Spike Lee.
"I heard that Bigelow received an investment of US$750,000 and started filming her first feature film?"
"Yes, Douglas Jr. helped her find a private investor in Georgia who invested $750,000 for the production. Catherine has already contacted her and also roped in some artists from the Museum of Modern Art to do free labor. She
Ready for a big fight."
"She's so lucky." Spike was very envious.
"It's hard to say. You've also read her script. US$750,000 is only enough for shooting. She asked me to divide the scenes and calculated that it must be completed within 20 days, otherwise it will be over budget. This shooting speed can keep up with Roger Co.
So proud."
"Then who did her publisher find?"
"No distributor is willing to release her film. I suggested that she choose to send it to a foreign film festival. There are many buyers at the film festival, and she may be able to find a company willing to buy it."
"No matter what, she is lucky. I have no investors willing to invest in my movie. I can only get a little money and shoot a little." Spike Lee hung up the phone with envy.
"Didi..." the pager reminded again.
Ronald called the service center.
"I have a message from you. Please call Niceta at CAA. We have screenwriting business."
Ronald's heart skipped a beat. Is there business coming to his door?
"Hello, Mr. Niceta, I'm Ronald."
"Hi, Ronald. What do you know about Broadway musicals?"
"Musicals? I've only seen a few, and I don't know much about the writing and production."
"It doesn't matter, just read it. I'm not asking you to write the script of a musical. Your reputation has the characteristics of a musical. Universal is looking for a screenwriter who understands teenagers, musicals, and musicals. Are you willing?
Do you work hard for two months and earn $100,000?”