Careful, though. Not all UPS Stores are capable of taking those deposits. I live within a 5 minute walk of a UPS Store, but they don’t take USAA deposits. I gotta drive about 20 minutes to get to the closest available one. And in rush hour traffic that turns into about 45 minutes.
There is something I don’t get…maybe ya’ll can explain it in a way such that it makes sense (tax question)
Last year was the first year I itemized as I didn’t have a reason to before hand (now that I’m married with my wife’s house and college loans, etc - we itemized).
We typically ‘give the gov’t a loan’ and let them rip out what they want from our paycheck and get it back via refund. My wife has done this since college and uses the refund money to help her last thru the summer (teacher). Well, my wife kept talking about having to claim your previous year’s refund. So, we just got a post card saying ‘hey you guys got ‘x-amount’ of dollars in a refund last year, don’t forget to claim it!’…
Wait…how are they taxing my refund?
Last year they looked at my TOTAL income, I owed x-amount, and then because of my exceptions I got some of it back, but it was already processed monies…so why should I be claiming it this year? Thats double dipping unless I am missing something. can anyone expound on this and make me feel better about the situation short of saying Uncle Sam has a dick and likes using it? Because now I’m thinking I need to take out whatever we should take out from the get go, and the wife is saying ‘fuck no’ because she uses that money for the summer. I personally don’t give a damn and want to keep as much money as possible. The last thing I want is for that refund to put us into a higher tax bracket.
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One of your itemized deductions was the state taxes you paid. You deducted all of your state tax withholdings on your federal return, but you weren’t really out that amount of money if you got a state tax refund. The IRS doesn’t know what amount, if any, you are getting refunded in state taxes for the prior year, so they have to pick up the refund a year later as income. e.g. You make 50k…you withhold 5k in state taxes…IRS doesn’t tax you on 5k. But your state tax bill was only 4k and you got a 1k refund. The IRS isn’t going to let you walk away with that 1k, so it adds it to your income in the following year (or whenever you received).
Also, a taxpayer is only taxed at a higher brackets’ tax rate for every incremental dollar over the previous bracket rate. So if $1-30k of income is taxed at 10% and you make $40k, only your $10k is taxed at the higher rate.
but the amount (eyeballing in my head, haven’t taken out records), looks to be the ‘federal’ return. What you said does make sense, but I’m not feeling the fed return being taxed…again.
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Yeah, I feel like that is the irony of my whole generation. People pay out the ass to go to college and laugh at some guy who stays home and works at a grocery store or fast food place, and then on graduating they are indebt, are looking for minimum wage jobs, and that guy that stayed is some manager making $50k
People I know that skipped college and got jobs in banking were making $50k + dental + health + sales commission in three years while I was calling my mom for breakfast money and sitting in lectures learning things I will never use. Now those same people are branch managers making 70-100k lol
So this past weekend I casually did a budget since my wife and I bought our house. We keep a monthly account of all the bills we pay dealing with our house (which you should be doing as well even if you don’t have a house, but MANAGE YOUR BILLS). Its in Excel so I ran the total every month for the last 4 years…
I’ve never been so depressed in my life…
Haven’t made any HUGE purchases in years…hell, I think my TV is the most expensive product (besides a Car) i’ve bought, but looking at the total and then asking “where did all THAT money go?!”
Not to say that I am going to sell my house and cancel my TV, but looking back on it makes you realize you spend a shit ton of money (this didn’t include food either)
Yep that is the thing. I am able to increase my portfolio to about 5% but at the same time i had to withdrawl money out for an “oh shit” moment a couple of times. My plan to fix that now is to take advantage of the OT I am able to get start stacking more and car shop. Reason being I am extra confident now is that I was just approved for only 1 stack. My credit is improving but still in the shitter. Recently I’ve received a “settlement” offer to pay off an old ATT phone I had a while back and it is cut in half. I have a month to pay off the settlement offer. Basically it is a no brainer to pay off this settlement with the loan I just received. I’ll be going to the bank this weekend to get it. Hopefully I can request for more on the spot and get 2 stacks instead and use it to pay the other debt i have and i’ll be completely debt free. (well minus school loans but still)
I know the feeling. I do a pretty decent job tracking my part of the finances daily, but things like the rising cost of gas (WTF its winter and I’m almost at $4 a tank - I’m walking everywhere this summer), and essentially tricking for my wife (the joys of essentially a long distance marriage right now) can bleed that extra money dry. I’m not depressed about it, I’ve been financially ‘assaulted’ by different factors and have been able to weather the storm perfectly fine - but it kinda sucks to not pull ahead.
Alright…I’m writing this here because I’m still trying ot wrap my head around my current situation. Its more economics/job oppurtunity/than finances, but they are of course all tied together.
Right now we own a townhouse in MD. Our mortage is paltry, our bills are fine at this point (I’m stil ltrying to knock the electrical down, but thats a relationship item not financial). My wife went to get a grad degree (she regrets it now and I do to) from John Hopkins. I have no student loans and only owe money for my car 
…most of our debt is tied into her credit and student loans.
If you read the earlier part of my post - I’m working remotely - I’m actually working in Durham NC, Monday-Thursday and commuting home thursday night to spend Friday with my son and Sat/Sun with my son and wife. ITs a huge financial buff as I’m getting a ‘solid’ stipend to do this - $327 a week for up to 52 weeks. I’m ‘trying’ to put the majority of it towards savings/debt (about 15% I attribute to ‘sanity’ and don’t expect to pocket - such as convienances for working far from home). o problems here.
However thigns get interesting here - for a long time the wife and I have discussed moving TO NC. In part due to egging from Ace/HellFX - but also because I’ve hated the DMV since about 02 and wanted out. Well I have a pathout - while maintaining my current DMV pay rate and iwthout a ‘blip’ on my paycheck radar…by transferring internally. YAY. BUT I play things super safe (my Gief will s.mp you to death) so I’m looking ahead and what I see? My company will survive the ‘recesscion’ but its circling a drain right now, letting go of people left and right, and is essentially hemorraging money. They’ve proved they don’t want me to walk - but whats to say that a year from now I won’t have to? Searching for a job in this area will yield income, I’m in demand, but I won’t be able to match my DMV income…and that is my fear, losing money in the mid-range side of things - where we are trying to sell our current place, buy a new one, all while killing off my wife’s debt. I have until this weekend to figure out what I’m going to do, stay in NC or stay in MD, if I am staying in MD I have to job hunt for someting making WAY more money - as what her and I make combined won’t get us out of a damn townhouse (I hate them with a passion, I want singel family - nothing else wil lsuffice) or into an area with a good educational system. No I’m not looking for answers, just needed to write it down. I don’t trust the economy (I’m in construction - electrical contracter - asst/junior project manager with a EE background) and its screwing with me.
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Will - What are her loans like??? They sound like they are the biggest strain on your pocket right now (I know I owe a NICE 5 series in loans to Uncle Sam, but only pay $148 a month until i’m 55…which IMO isn’t shit)
The bad part, is my wife hit me with this line, "Yea, thats how much we have paid for everything…did her calculations this is how much we have made to cover it…
SHOCKED!
Like damn…we made how much?!? Now, in my mind its, “I need to be able to show that we make this”; savings are going into EXTREME mode now
Wow, I must have missed the alert that there were new replies. Sorry. Two quick things:
- Don’t buy into the Facebook IPO. The starting price is sky high and you are going to lose your ass when the investment bankers start dumping it.
- If you want to buy a house but don’t quite have your down payment ready to go, start buying into REITs. Your money should grow proportionate to the housing market so you don’t get left out. Let me know if you need some ticks to look at.
yo.
I’d like your opinons on where I should look to for places to invest the dough I’ve got. I can probably put up about $200 a month plus about $500 I already have. I just want it to do better than sitting in a bank for only %1-2 APY. Also, a site or how-to on stocks and/or investing for someone like me who knows nothing about it would be great.
-Starhammer-
I like using Investopedia.com, but it can be information overload for newbies. I suggest hitting up your library for those “Investment, stock market, bonds, etc. for dummies.” They only scratch the surface of the topics, but they are good for introducing the concepts and goals of different investment assets and styles. Just be wary of stuff older than 5 years cuz it might be outdated in regards to new trading technology and products.
Thanks. We have a library nearby as well. I guess I will be getting some footwork done in the near future. If I can boost my monthly income to about $5000 a month, I’ll be WELL off.
-Starhammer-
Ok, I’m going to give you a strategy for a one year plan. If you can stick to that, you will have some real options to make money. Right now you are very limited, and your #1 priority is to reduce your fees. Do this- Go over to treasurydirect.gov and get an account opened there. Take your $500 and use all of it to buy Series I Savings bonds.
The rest, open an account with Sharebuilder. Use their basic account and automatic investment plan ($4 trades) to make a once a month purchase of VTI, whatever you have on hand. You make that purchase every month without fail no matter what the market does between now and next year. There’s a group on Facebook called “Sharebuilder Investors”. I moderate it, and we put up free trade codes when they become available. Come and join.
Now, one year from now you should have enough assets on hand to get into a brokerage offering free ETF trades. We can talk more at that point. As far as reading, join the group I mentioned, and get yourself a copy of Benjamin Graham’s “The Intelligent Investor”. See you in 1 year.
Great. :tup: I have a copy of the intelligent investor, so I’ll be reading that. For the rest, I’m on my way. See you soon.
-Starhammer-
Well at one point I was using the “nasdaq dozen” to at least give myself an idea of where I want to go. But note that unless the company is in Nasdaq you’ll be completely blind. I also use sharebuilder. It has been a year and right now the portfolio has increased to a little more than 7%
BTW CD I’ve sent a request as well.
DAYUM THAT WAS FAST
Lifehacker has two GREAT articles on how to keep your money game simple. All about budgeting and savings.
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Yeah for us, things are pretty simple so Turbotax cuts it every year. My folks also always go that route, but this past year things got complex with Grandma’s passing so pops is doing the HR Block thing.
I think its a sham that the system is so convoluted that folks need to pay for assistance to do it.
Anways, I just did something that I think most folks should periodically do. Logged onto my BoA account and did an export of all my +/- for 2012. I then went into Excel, formatted it, and added tags to items such as ‘gas’ or ‘eating out’ or ‘Nathan’ (my son) or ‘Shoes’ (my hobby/collection). Then I did a ‘sumif’ sheet to total everything up and compare, and then divded it by num_weeks in 2012 so far so I can see what I’m truly spending week to week (I get paid weekly so thats my natural ‘base’ - I’ve even broken up how I put money into our joint account for bills weekly, instead of a large chunk at the end/begining of the month). I compared what I came up with against my forecasted budget. Eyes WIDE open now on whats been blowing my budget exactly. Its no longer me trying to watch how my account is doing and adjusting it, but really studying it and seeing where I am hurting myself and my savings.
for the ‘personal record’ Walmart is EVIL as is taking the wife out for food. I average $180 a week on groceries/Walmart/Target spending. Yes some of that is blown up due to things like buying a babygate, and there is overlap, like buying Nathan some clothes form Target, but even dropping some of that off, its still an absorbent amount to spend each week - even though I’m paying for 2.5 people. On TOP of that I’m spending $140 a week eating out. Now slight backstory, its not me getting breakfast or lunch that hurts - I don’t do that much and try to keep that cost reasonable when I do, its taking my wife to lunch or dinner…sort of a necessary evil in my current situation. But it was nice to be able to truly see everything and know where I need to trim the fat. Fortunatly for me personally, most of the cost was in January - the strt-up cost of working remotely from home 4 days a week, and I felt the holidays in January, so with so few months to count its a little off, but I highly recommend - periodically categorizing all your cost over a fiscal period, and summing them up to see how close you are to each ites projected budget.
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You would think things are simple but your still leaving money on the table. The system gives tax breaks, most that people don’t understand/know about. Its not a sham, its providing people a means of getting their FULL amount back without you personally going through the various tax breaks/codes.
Your NOW just doing your budget??? Sorry Will, but you should be doing that EVERY MONTH! Especially with your trying to move/get a house/having travel/kid. I’m also sure i’ve noted to do this not only in this thread, but the Rap thread as well.
No no no no no, you are misunderstanding what I’m talking about. I’ve had my budget for forevery and a day, I update it weekly/bi-weekly. But I’ve analyzed it by input/output, not cause. My point was to look at things from a historical stand point to ensure ‘for instance you’re saying you spend x amount on gas, over the psat 6 months have you really been spending that much on gas and not compensating elsehwer to stay within your budget?’ I track my gas…its super easy with ‘how’ I drive - I essentially fill up once a week, either on the way up or the way down to NC…but in January I did so much extra driving - that once yo uadd in the end of December gas that took an extra week or two to process for some reason, it blew my gas cost up $20 bucks over the past 10+ weeks - when averaged out. I do a smaller sample size and it lines up perfectly with my forecasted budget…so its not an issue. Financially I have been fine, but not storing money like I should so I wanted to review what was the exact item throwing me off by such a large margin, frankly it was Walamart that surprised me. Just didn’t realize how much money was spent there. I know ‘why’ and its not far out of line, but I’ve compensated in other areas to keep my finances in check (my entertainment cost are virtually a joke between movies/redbox/video games/everything its only like 12 a week haha)
You also misunderstood what I wrote about sham. I’m refering to how complicated the taxing process has become. It shouldn’t be that complicated, but to yield maximum returns - you do end up in a situation like that. I did my taxes by hand myself one year…maybe like 3 years ago…did all the deductions that I felt eligible for. Then I redid it on Turbotax and wsa off by a couple hundred dollars return. It didn’t have any different information from myself, yet justified it. Thats cray to me. Taxes shouldn’t be that convoluded…but they are - twas merely a complaint about the system, not the workers.
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