Random entries make a post
This CFP exam has me scared.My business plan requires I pick up this credential. In retrospect, I was too chill about this. Hey, I'm good at tests, I said. But, shit, I just did a practice exam for the income tax section (theoretically where I'm a rock star) and got a 67%. No one can tell you exactly what passing means for this test because it's sort of a bell curve thing; they seem to take the top half. I have to assume that 90% is a passing grade. I studied estate planning for the past month and can reliably pull a mid-seventies now. Craptastic.
The problem is two-fold: the breadth of the knowledge is unrealistically large. For example, they ask you to calculate the penalty for failure to file and failure to pay for a return that's 40 days late. Well. Let me tell you, I *never* calculate those. If I spent the time looking up the rates (essentially 5% for every month you're late) then the client didn't actually SEND the money my calc is wrong. Better to just send the balance due and let the IRS send the penalty letter as a bill the next month.
The other issue is the bizarreness of the wording. It'll say things like "which of these statements is correct" and then the options will be "1 only" "2 only" "Both 1 and 2" and "Neither". That's okay, that's just reading the question, I can manage that. But then the statements will contain ambiguous things like "A child under 17 must pay kiddie tax on..." and the rule is actually a child under 19, or a child under 24 (good old USA, with statutory "children" of 23)... so I'll mark that as wrong, and it will turn out that it IS true, since a child of 17 is under 19, aren't they? It wasn't intended as a definition, more a scenario question. "My kid is 17, is he subject to kiddie tax?"With enough practice I'll start to catch these errors, but it's a frigging HUGE exam.
Small Boy ran a race yesterday. I took River into the woods to cheer for him. River entertained the other parents assembled to wait for the race to begin (it started about 45 minutes later than we expected).I had brought tennis balls with me (duh) and everyone took turns throwing the ball for River, cheering as she caught big air. That girl is so athletic, and she never, ever tires of chasing tennis balls. This was her dream scenario, with a crowd of people all happy to take turns throwing the ball for her. I felt like a mother of a cute, but colicky infant: "You want to hold my crying baby? Sure, take her!" When the race actually started I leashed her and we ran around the course trying to cut through paths to cheer in as many places as possible. This is my second kid to run cross country and I know all the local courses, so I rush to get to the hills and cheer all the kids. There were new kids on the team this year so I went over afterwards to grab their names. Chloe and Amelia and Jamie and Jenna (?), Isaiah and... oops, lost their names again.
My darling husband is posting selfies on Facebook tonight as he hangs out on the field at Fenway during batting practice. I'm glad he's having more fun than I am, since I'm home getting out the trash and beating my head against the CFP exam prep course. But ouch, I just noticed that the Red Sox lost tonight in the 12th inning. He's going to be home late. :-(
I roasted a chicken for dinner on Monday and made chicken broth Tuesday and then tonight pulled together my first chicken soup of the season for dinner tonight. I put leftover sauteed zucchini and kale in it, and Trader Joe's Harvest Grains (mostly cous cous) and I liked that, although Small Boy was unimpressed with stringy green leaves in his chicken soup.
Today was another farm share day. Besides the ever ubiquitous kale, I also hauled home a bunch of green beans (enough to blanch and freeze some) and some lovely fennel. Also potatoes, garlic, tomatoes, a bunch of eggplant, tomatillos. cilantro, cauliflower, beets, hot peppers, and some kind of cooking green I don't recognize. (Maybe turnip greens? It is not a good sign if I can't figure it out.) I'm somewhat excited about the fennel, although the expectation never quite lives up to the implementation in my house.
Also, I am deliberately avoiding alcohol. Not especially liking that, but doing it anyway. Also: I got to the gym this morning before work to weightlift. Yay me.
The problem is two-fold: the breadth of the knowledge is unrealistically large. For example, they ask you to calculate the penalty for failure to file and failure to pay for a return that's 40 days late. Well. Let me tell you, I *never* calculate those. If I spent the time looking up the rates (essentially 5% for every month you're late) then the client didn't actually SEND the money my calc is wrong. Better to just send the balance due and let the IRS send the penalty letter as a bill the next month.
The other issue is the bizarreness of the wording. It'll say things like "which of these statements is correct" and then the options will be "1 only" "2 only" "Both 1 and 2" and "Neither". That's okay, that's just reading the question, I can manage that. But then the statements will contain ambiguous things like "A child under 17 must pay kiddie tax on..." and the rule is actually a child under 19, or a child under 24 (good old USA, with statutory "children" of 23)... so I'll mark that as wrong, and it will turn out that it IS true, since a child of 17 is under 19, aren't they? It wasn't intended as a definition, more a scenario question. "My kid is 17, is he subject to kiddie tax?"With enough practice I'll start to catch these errors, but it's a frigging HUGE exam.
Small Boy ran a race yesterday. I took River into the woods to cheer for him. River entertained the other parents assembled to wait for the race to begin (it started about 45 minutes later than we expected).I had brought tennis balls with me (duh) and everyone took turns throwing the ball for River, cheering as she caught big air. That girl is so athletic, and she never, ever tires of chasing tennis balls. This was her dream scenario, with a crowd of people all happy to take turns throwing the ball for her. I felt like a mother of a cute, but colicky infant: "You want to hold my crying baby? Sure, take her!" When the race actually started I leashed her and we ran around the course trying to cut through paths to cheer in as many places as possible. This is my second kid to run cross country and I know all the local courses, so I rush to get to the hills and cheer all the kids. There were new kids on the team this year so I went over afterwards to grab their names. Chloe and Amelia and Jamie and Jenna (?), Isaiah and... oops, lost their names again.
My darling husband is posting selfies on Facebook tonight as he hangs out on the field at Fenway during batting practice. I'm glad he's having more fun than I am, since I'm home getting out the trash and beating my head against the CFP exam prep course. But ouch, I just noticed that the Red Sox lost tonight in the 12th inning. He's going to be home late. :-(
I roasted a chicken for dinner on Monday and made chicken broth Tuesday and then tonight pulled together my first chicken soup of the season for dinner tonight. I put leftover sauteed zucchini and kale in it, and Trader Joe's Harvest Grains (mostly cous cous) and I liked that, although Small Boy was unimpressed with stringy green leaves in his chicken soup.
Today was another farm share day. Besides the ever ubiquitous kale, I also hauled home a bunch of green beans (enough to blanch and freeze some) and some lovely fennel. Also potatoes, garlic, tomatoes, a bunch of eggplant, tomatillos. cilantro, cauliflower, beets, hot peppers, and some kind of cooking green I don't recognize. (Maybe turnip greens? It is not a good sign if I can't figure it out.) I'm somewhat excited about the fennel, although the expectation never quite lives up to the implementation in my house.
Also, I am deliberately avoiding alcohol. Not especially liking that, but doing it anyway. Also: I got to the gym this morning before work to weightlift. Yay me.