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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February 12, 2008
In my haze of coughing instead of sleeping at night, and working instead of resting during the day, I realized I have never had to pay taxes before. It’s always been a refund, large or small, and so I’ve never had to consider this question:
How should I pay my taxes?
As I mentioned before, I think it’s going to be a hefty sum. As a matter of principle, I hate to pay by check. Should I look into using a credit card and do they always charge a convenience fee? If they do, the only way it might be worth it would be to have a high percent of rewards (at least 5%) to offset the fee. Whatever the case, I’d like to make sure that I maximize this “purchase!”
In other news, this is one of the nastiest colds I’ve ever had. It’s been a week, and I think I’m getting worse. At least it’s not the flu!
February 9, 2008
As it turns out, I didn’t properly track my non-W2 income in the form of bonuses and supplemental income as well as I thought I had.
All the paperwork is here in front of me, and I may very well be getting soaked on my taxes this year. Let’s see, nearly 30% of my total income was paid as “miscellaneous income” documented on a 1099. Since I didn’t anticipate this, I’ve only paid approximately 8% on total income this year, and only have my filing status as Head of Household with 1 dependent to help keep the tax bill lower. Yikes!
I’m not eager to find out what the real bill will be, but not knowing is making me a bit itchy. Guess this means I’d better get this paperwork to the accountant and let him work his magic soon.
February 8, 2008
I don’t pick up known or blocked number calls. When I get them, and strangely on the iPhone I actually have the urge to pick up those calls now, I tend to get annoyed when the caller doesn’t leave a message.
It’s probably not a really fair, or rational, reaction, but even if I don’t pick up for perfectly valid reasons, I hate not knowing who called.
February 7, 2008
It’s definitely been one of those weeks. Bills looming, wee little paychecks scrambling to keep up … you know, the usual.
Except ……
I’ve been coming down with this cold for days, with a nasty, bone-rattling cough, swollen throat and sneezes two times too big for my body.
Then…..
Every single day this week, I’ve hurt myself somehow. Two days ago, I nearly broke my hip running into the edge of Coworker’s desk coming out of the kitchen, then took out the same side again on the restroom doorknob yesterday. And, of course, the entire office is laughing at me now because I hit the door frame with my elbow going to wash my hands. I think the secretary’s going to burst something, she’s laughing so hard. I’m like a gawky 13-year-old.
And ….
Ergonomics? Nah. I can’t stop trying to sit with my legs crossed for the life of me. My physical therapist, whom I haven’t seen in three MONTHS, told me to stop doing that because it’s not good for my posture. When did I get old enough to have posture problems, by the by?? So I’m firmly planting my feet on the stepstool that keeps my feet level, otherwise they’d be dangling a foot off the ground. Firmly, with conviction. Only to find my right leg sneakily, slowly, steathily creeping back ’round to cross over the left leg. Stop! Why is it so hard to break habits??
February 5, 2008
and it’s not because he’s rich. It’s because he says that his hobby is work, and “Everyone in my family is mad at me but I tell them that if they want money, go out and earn it.“
My friend showed me the article on a gamer site a few days ago, and it still makes me chuckle.
For one thing, his family must REALLY be ticked at him. For another, it’s not like he won the lottery and chose not to accept after all. He actually earned that money through his own hard work, and just doesn’t care to take it.
This reminds me of Grigory Perelman who declined the top math prize.
I have to admire these purists for their dedication to their work, but I wonder what passes for work-life balance in their lives. Ah well, that’s the concern of non-geniuses. 🙂
February 4, 2008
| Retirement Savings |
Rollover IRA: $1,480
Roth IRA: $3,749
401(a): $2,572
403(b): $13,331
Total: $21,132
|
| Emergency Savings |
$14,819
|
| Goal Oriented Savings |
Car Maintenance: $646
Savings for taxes: $5,016
Total: $5,662
|
| Investment Loans |
Prosper-ish: $12,630
Personal Loan: $5,000
Total: $17,630
|
| Total Assets |
Non-Liquid: $21,132
Semi-Liquid: $17,630
Liquid: $20,481
Total: $59,243
|
| Debt and Liabilities |
Truck: $7,002
Total: $7,002
|
At first glance, it suddenly looks like I’ve done remarkably well since the last snapshot at the end of 2007. As usual, there are quite a few things this doesn’t show.
First, I paid off the balance transfer, and that means I’ll be losing a source of passive income that was a steady $40ish/month. Of course, with the interest rate dropping like a rock, I wasn’t assured that same return through this year. I’ll consider doing another BT this year, because it doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to post the kind of savings I’d need to put towards the real estate investment my friend and I had discussed.
Second, my spending has been well over my income for a few weeks. A few hotspots:
A) I overpaid the insurance premium in January because I still hadn’t received my revised premium statement by the billing due date. That’s an extra $300 I’m basically prepaying. It was on my credit card so I have the short grace period, but that’ll still have to come out of the checking account.
B) I forgot to reduce my retirement contributions in time for January’s paychecks. I’ve changed it for February from $500/check to $300, but I should have reduced it even more because I need the extra cash flow. And the contribution was taken out of my extra January paycheck too! Gah. I didn’t think that it would be.
C) Thanks to Ma’s accident in the sedan, it’s been out of commission for over a month. Haven’t been able to sell the truck, so another [-$400/month].
D) Best friend’s wedding last month did a doozy on the budget because I was just too stressed to clamp down as strongly on spending as usual. Eating out? Uh, sure! Buying new sunglasses? Yep! More food? Ok! Cold at night? Heater’s on! More stress eating? Let’s get another bagel sandwich!
Meantime, I’m trying to parse out how rent and all the other bills work out without tapping into the emergency fund until my supplemental income check comes in, whenever that’ll be.
February 3, 2008
Since I wasn’t returning to Vietnam this weekend, I activated my iPhone. Yeah, it’s not exactly the most logical progression of actions, but that’s what happened. I was unexpectedly the lone holdout in the office by the end of the month because my fellow resister’s Verizon coverage pooped out and she was able to cancel her plan without penalty.
Running through my head before pulling the trigger
Activation Fee: $36
Monthly Fee: $60, plus tax
Only 450 minutes per month unless I’m talking to my coworkers.
Only 200 text messages!
An additional 1300 messages would cost $10/month. Weird options.
Only 5000 night and weekend minutes! (I actually don’t need that many.)
I might have the option to extend nights and weekends by 2 hours (7pm to 7am) for an additional $9/month. Worth it?
2-year commitment to AT&T and this asset-draining plan.
I freaked out, pretty much. I just didn’t want to let go of T-Mobile and my golden, affordable, plan. I’ve already had too much change recently!! R had to hold my hand over the phone, lead me out to the ledge and tell me to jump. Repeatedly. But I finally did it, and have been acclimating to the phone ever since. Several hours later, I’m still not done inputting all the phone numbers from my old phone because there’s no easy way to transfer the numbers that I know of, and I have to organize it precisely the way I want it. Typical.
I have, however, discovered that this phone will only fuel my email addiction. Especially as I’ve set up both my personal and work emails, and figured out the server settings to make it receive AND send messages.
I haven’t figured out if I like blogging from it because I’m actually not fond of the keyboard, much, but that might mean I just need to trim my nails even shorter, as though I were a professional pianist.
The cell phone bill is going to be >$100 next month. Argh!
But I can check weather reports, maps, and email wherever I am, almost. That’s … pretty spiffy. BoyDucky tells me that I’ll learn to love it. And that’s what I’m afraid of. I’m not an early adopter of technology because I don’t want to love things that have increasingly higher associated costs to adapt to. It’s not likely that the iPhone related costs will stop at the activation and monthly fees. I’m going to need an extra travel charger because I’m a neurotic phone charger loser (not a loser in the judgmental sense, a loser in the sense of losing things), a case to protect it, and who knows what else will become essential? It’s a slippery slope, my friends.
The Wall Street Journal online subscription is now a major possibility, and I’m already ogling the Kindle and thinking, hm …. I could read ALL KINDS OF THINGS on that. Mmmm.