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This post is a month and a half late. But anyway!
I’m sure I mentioned it before, somewhere, but I took a filing extension on my federal tax return this year. Did I need it? Heavens no. Even though I lost my W2 (recently found), I still had all the information I needed, and I am completely ready to file. All I have to do is hit that button in TurboTax and I’m done. So why didn’t I?
Because I didn’t feel like paying it right away. Great reason, right? So here’s the better reasons:
- I “owe” about $150. The
interestpenalty for late payment is half of one percent, per month, which is a pretty bangin’interestrate. So bangin’, in fact, that it adds up to a whopping 75 cents per month. Over the course of the six months given by the extension, that’s $4.50. In the meantime, there are better things I can be doing with that money, like paying off debt. - I didn’t budget for it. Whoops! I am budgeting for it now, however – better late than never, right? I’ve got a $15/mo line in my budget, so I have $180 per year set aside for taxes. It should certainly be more than enough.
All that’s left now is to not forget to file come October 17th.
ED: After Ken pointed out that I wasn’t seeing the whole picture, I did a bunch more digging, and found this handy article which lays it all out on the line. What I had been referring to as interest above, is actually the penalty rate (half a percent). The actual interest rate is 3% plus the federal short-term rate. That itself is a smidge over a half percent, so all together, if I were to take the full 6 months before filing and paying, I’m looking at spending an extra $6.08 per month, or $36.45 overall, on top of the $150 I owe. Thanks Ken. Guess maybe I should get around to paying that sooner, rather than later…
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Captain Morgan, better known as CMo
I told you I would fucking kill you if you didn’t cut that shit out. I never thought that I really would, though. :-\
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Holly over at $44,700 and Falling recently announced that she got a summer job. Of course, this is great for her. What caught my eye, though, is that she already has a job for every dollar. Learning! Wheee!
Now, I know I’ve done this myself, many times in the past, to deal with extra income before I even have it. My computer was built entirely from blog income, the very same income that was supposed to be directed at my emergency fund various times as well. It’s a great idea to plan for extra money ahead of time, as having a plan already in place can help prevent you from doing, well, stupid things.
Anyway, Holly’s plan is to put two thirds of her summer job money towards debt, and use the remaining third for fun. I think this is a pretty good balance – it keeps debt as the priority, while still allowing her to actually enjoy her summer a bit. Kind of makes me wish I had the summers off of work!
So, let’s say you got yourself a part time job on the weekends. Better yet, you buy yourself a lottery ticket and win a cool grand on it. Where you are right now with your finances, how would you allocate that extra cash? Obviously, if you’re getting a part time job, you probably already have plans for that money going in to it (thus the purpose), so hitting the lotto for a relatively small amount like a cool thou’ is a better hypothetical. Blow, save, debt, or combo?
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A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was funemployed, which was becoming less and less fun. And then a teller position was advertised at the credit union, and so I applied, expecting it to be the perfect fit. But lo, I was called for an interview and informed that they start new employees as part timers before promoting them to full time. So I declined said interview offer, and held my head in shame.
At the time, turning down the offer for a part time position seemed like the obvious decision to make, for a couple of reasons:
1. I hate inconveniencing people. In fact, I generally go out of my way to avoid it. I was worried that I would take the offer, be hired, and after only a few weeks get an offer for a full time job elsewhere. This would be wasted time and money for the credit union, and probably kill my chances of possibly ever working there again. I’d generally feel like a dick for it.
2. I absolutely needed a full time position. I had rent to pay, food to buy, and electricity to keep on. A part time job wouldn’t be able to cover everything. Living by myself, there wasn’t another income to rely on while I hoped to make it to full time, and I had no idea how long it was going to take to make it there.
Naturally, dear mother (dear cosigner, too) wasn’t too pleased with my decision, insisting that part time was better than no time. Of course, she was right, and I knew it at the time as well, but I was determined to hold out for a full time job. If I found myself in this situation now, though, I would probably ignore number one up there, at least a little bit. It would hurt me a little bit inside (darn scruples!), but I’ve come to the realization over the years that my top priority needs to be me. I need to look out for myself first, before worrying about something that, in the long run, is really just a drop in the bucket and minor annoyance to an employer.
Well, hindsight is 20/20. What would you have done in my position? Take it and hope for the best?
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For those who haven’t heard, Google has recently rolled out Google Advisor, a one-stop shop where you can compare rates and terms on a smorgasbord of different financial products from every institution under the sun. Okay, not all of them, but quite a few.
I imagine a light bulb popped over someone’s head out at the ‘plex when they realized that there really is money to be had in financial information online. Being the advertising giant that they are, though, I’m sure they’ve known for some time now.
At any rate, the site sure is spiffy. Information on mortgages, credit cards, CDs, checking, and savings accounts is right at your fingertips, and of course – doing what Google does best – the results are highly searchable. For example, looking at interest checking accounts, not only can I specify a maximum minimum deposit (try figuring that one out!), but I can also narrow the results down to only show banks that have branches near me, by ZIP code. This is pretty helpful if, like me, you still want to have a counter to walk up to and take care of business in person. You can’t do that with an internet-only bank – which, it just so happens, has it’s very own checkbox to exclude.
So, if you haven’t been there yet, it’s at least worth a gander, if only to fiddle around with it.
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