About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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April 5, 2008
Remember my great couple friends? Last week, they invited me to join them this weekend for a play or musical. They’d been getting tickets on the cheap, they’d said, and threw out a $20-ish price range. Even though I’m on a pretty strict spending diet, I’ve never seen Phantom of the Opera, and getting out for a cultural experience for $20 sounded great.
Sadly, the tickets were priced out at $70 yesterday, and I had to decline. I can spare $20, but definitely not $70. Instead of letting me off the hook, Friend C offered to pay the rest of the ticket’s cost. I felt like that was just too much, and I told him so, but he insisted that not only was it not too much, he was perfectly happy to do it. Still, uneasy with his spending that much on me, I told him to think about it and be absolutely sure he was ok with it before buying my ticket.
He called me this morning to let me know that he’d picked up our tickets, and in a little over an hour, we’ll be bound for the Performing Arts Center. I’m really excited, but mostly keep thinking that they’re way too good to me.
April 4, 2008
Readers, please head over to MoneyDummy’s and laud her for an amazing job of paying off her student loan debt over the last year and a half. She (and he) managed to pay off eighteen thousand dollars with one child in the home and a new one during that time.
What an incredible accomplishment!
This isn’t the first time I’ve pondered this and I’m sure it’s getting old. I’m mulling over the various adjustments I’d like to implement for Tax Year 2008. I know what my annual goal was fairly sensible, but in light of some mistakes made in Tax Year 2007, I need to make some post-Q1 adjustments.
Mistake Number 1: Underestimating the amount of “contractor” income I was going to make.
This led to Mistake Number 2: Adjusting my withholdings drastically to make up for what I thought had been excessive withholding, given my Head of Household status. For the last few months of the year, I was paying very little federal tax.
Had I not received so much untaxed income in Q4, too late to correct the withholding and increase my retirement contributions correspondingly, my estimate of my taxable income and corresponding tax bill would have been just about perfect.
Instead, the effects of the two mistakes above were:
1. I ended up owing the entire amount of taxes assessed on the untaxed income, and
2. My percentage of retirement contributions of total income was significantly lower than it should have been.
3. I think I’m being assessed a $32 federal penalty for not making quarterly payments on that income because I withheld too little. 🙁
Rather than making quarterly payments this year, I’m considering the following:
1. Increase my retirement contributions for the rest of the year to include the equivalent of 30% of the untaxed income.
2. Save 10% of the untaxed income for taxes, instead of the usual 30%.
3. Keep my withholding at 1 and add a small, additional amount per month so that I don’t have to waste time, money and brain capacity on sending in quarterly payments.
I like this plan because I really like watching the balances in my Vanguard account go up (despite the market volatility, it creeps up now and again). I really like the idea of committing to a bit more in the retirement accounts. I like reducing that feeling of false security when I’m holding a lot of cash in anticipation of a tax bill.
Cons of the plan: reducing my take-home pay even more will make budgeting even more difficult. I’ll have to be ultra-careful about juggling expenses because I’m no longer holding out until that next fat supplement check, what I gots is what I gots!
Any cons that I’m missing here?
I’ve decided to move the monthly snapshots to the end of the month rather than doing them early or mid-month. I think I started that way because that’s when it occurred to me to do them, but it doesn’t make sense to call the January Snapshot “January” if it doesn’t actually include that month’s changes.
Just a little housekeeping.
Good News: Friend looked at my car yesterday, as did his dad, and both agreed that the damage has not compromised the structure of the undercarriage. Lots of scrapes, more in some places than others, and half the bumper’s gone, but it’s just the cosmetic bits. She’s safe to drive without repairs for now. At some point I’ll replace the bumper but I’ll do that myself (er, by that I mean, Friend will teach me now), as well as repairing or replacing the scraped up frame rail.
Bad News: Drama, drama, drama-rama at work. Little Boss has been very sensitive, and feels like the staff doesn’t defer to him enough.
Unfortunately, this is a sticky situation because he started off trying to be everyone’s friend when they were hired and didn’t establish a rapport of authority like I did (I’m boss first, friend second), he has a double standard when it comes to the females (get away with everything) and males (don’t get credit for anything), and hasn’t been doing his job as a manager because he’s stuck catering to Big Boss.
The list goes on, but he also shares many of the traits that it appears SingleMa’s former boss possesses. He’s instigated a “quarterly discussion and review” in which he spent most of one person’s review commenting on other employees. Surprise!
And it’s my turn today! Can’t wait to hear what he’s interpreted as my failure to support him, when in fact, I’m doing the managing that he doesn’t have time for.
Good News: I’ve been getting random free stuff 🙂
Bad News: Bosses offered us a free, floater vacation day because we had to work a holiday two months ago without extra compensation, and then tried to take it away from C1, the only one who’s had opportunity to take it, yesterday. “Forgot”? HMPH! Don’t even go there!
Good News: I’m meeting a lot of new visitors here lately, and it’s great to have my loyal readers contributing to the conversation regularly.
Bad News: My personal life is still a major jumble. I’m definitely taking some time to let things settle out, but it’s taking way too long for my taste. It’s probably not good that I keep thinking I want to quit my job and home, and take off at the end of the year to who-knows-what-‘n’-where, though.
Good News: I have great couple friends who are easy and fun to third-wheel with. That’s usually a weird position to be in, but they’re great, and are perfectly willing to rescue me from my house randomly.
Bad News: My parents still need a LOT of training. They keep doing things I specifically ask them not to do.
Good News: It’s Friday!!
April 3, 2008
The secretary handed me a subscriber copy of Lucky magazine yesterday.
Addressed to me.
At work.
??
It appears, according to the mailing label, that I have a subscription through the end of the year. If my puzzlement isn’t entirely evident, I’m confused. I have no idea where this subscription came from, nor do I know why it’s going to my work address. I never send any sort of postal mail to work, that’s weird.
I asked my coworkers if any of them were trying to hint that I need help with either shopping or style, but they all denied responsibility. There doesn’t seem to be any indication that this is a gift subscription, either.
Interesting.
April 2, 2008
More and more, I’m seeing the misuse or misspelling of reign versus rein. It’s even appearing at work! I realize it’s nitpicky of me, but it’s the kind of thing that gets to me after a while. So, I present a quick explanation of the correct usage of each word.
reign
1. the period during which a sovereign occupies the throne.
2. royal rule or authority; sovereignty.
3. dominating power or influence: the reign of law.
Appropriate blog usage: Over this blog, and my budget, I reign supreme.
rein
1. Often, reins. a leather strap, fastened to each end of the bit of a bridle, by which the rider or driver controls a horse or other animal by pulling so as to exert pressure on the bit.
2. any of certain other straps or thongs forming part of a harness, as a checkrein.
3. any means of curbing, controlling, or directing; check; restraint.
4. reins, the controlling or directing power: the reins of government.
—Idioms
10. give rein to, to give complete freedom to; indulge freely: to give rein to one’s imagination. Also, give free rein to, give full rein to.
Appropriate blog usage: You’ve been given $10,000, and free rein to spend it. What do you do?