death & taxes
Toward the end of the day, I read a blog post from a favorite author of mine, Andree Seu, entitled The Pleasures of the Less Than Rich. I had a bit of time to ponder and nod my head along with her words, and then I closed up the office and headed home -- straight to my own personal experience as a less-than-rich person.
Waiting in the mailbox for me, there was the economic stimulus check for my roommate in a small envelope and a thick envelope from the IRS for me. Oh joy. It initially looked like an audit notice -- I've gotten one of those before -- but upon further inspection, I realized that it was a bill. A bill for $669 of under-calculated taxes in 2006!
It seems that I forgot to report about $4000 worth of stock sales from that year. Big oops! The unpleasant thing is that 2006 was my highest-paying year ever, so that stock income bumped me up into another tax bracket. Double big oops!
With this new tax amount, the stupid fees that my investment company kept springing on me, and the normal fluctuations of the market, I would have done better to not even have bought the stock in the first place! Sometimes I don't know why I even try with investing. I don't understand the process and bad things happen to me when I barge ahead and try anyway. I hate it! Sigh. One of the things I've begun hoping for in the past seven years is that my future husband will have good skills and much wisdom regarding long-term finances.
Anyway, I am thankful that I am less-than-rich because, in a few more weeks, I'll be receiving an economic stimulus check of my own that will be enough to almost cover this tax surprise! I thank God for this free money, I certainly do.
Waiting in the mailbox for me, there was the economic stimulus check for my roommate in a small envelope and a thick envelope from the IRS for me. Oh joy. It initially looked like an audit notice -- I've gotten one of those before -- but upon further inspection, I realized that it was a bill. A bill for $669 of under-calculated taxes in 2006!
It seems that I forgot to report about $4000 worth of stock sales from that year. Big oops! The unpleasant thing is that 2006 was my highest-paying year ever, so that stock income bumped me up into another tax bracket. Double big oops!
With this new tax amount, the stupid fees that my investment company kept springing on me, and the normal fluctuations of the market, I would have done better to not even have bought the stock in the first place! Sometimes I don't know why I even try with investing. I don't understand the process and bad things happen to me when I barge ahead and try anyway. I hate it! Sigh. One of the things I've begun hoping for in the past seven years is that my future husband will have good skills and much wisdom regarding long-term finances.
Anyway, I am thankful that I am less-than-rich because, in a few more weeks, I'll be receiving an economic stimulus check of my own that will be enough to almost cover this tax surprise! I thank God for this free money, I certainly do.