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First a note – this isn’t a paid advertisement or anything of the sort. Every so often, I just like to tell you about things I like.
As of late, I find myself traveling more and more. It used to be one or two trips a year, now it’s more like five to ten. I like to go places, but I hate the logistics of traveling – keeping all of the schedules straight and remembering all the paperwork. It’s even more ridiculous when you’re traveling with a group of people who are coming from different locations. Figuring who will be where and when they will be there gets to be complicated.
Then I found TripIt. TripIt is a great site that organizes all of your itineraries into one. “Great, Megan,” you’re thinking. “But I can do that myself.” Sure you can. But TripIt makes it easy. When I make a flight reservation, I just forward the info to TripIt and bam! It’s all imported in and ready to go. Hotel reservations? Bam! Done. It works for dinner reservations too. Of course, not every reservation has an e-mail confirmation, and not all e-mail confirmations work with TripIt, so you can just go to the site and enter in the information.
Then you can print off all of the paperwork and carry it with you or my favorite method, use the TripIt app.
I use TripIt Pro. For just $49 a year, I also get notifications when I’m eligible for a flight refund, and most importantly, mobile alerts when my flight status changes. This has saved me more than once. I was sitting at a gate one snowy day and got an alert that my flight had been canceled. The airline hadn’t yet announced this in the airport, so I was one of the first people on the phone to rebook. Definitely a great perk. Also, I can create an inner circle and automatically share all my trips with those people. For safety reasons, I always like someone to know when I’m leaving the state, and this is an easy way to do that.
So there’s my two cents about TripIt. The regular version is free and I highly recommend checking it out!
So I decided to spend some of the money I’m getting back from the feds and the state. And it’s my mom’s fault.
Friday night, my mom unexpectedly showed up for a 12 hour visit. Seeing as she lives 13 hours away, it’s a long story involving flight delays and weather and redirected planes. But that’s not the point. The point is that she was in my house and saw it in its natural state.
And she means well, but she commented about how the place is slowly getting there, but I clearly have some work to do.
And she’s right. There are still many bare walls. There are boxes in the dining room that belong in the attic. They aren’t in the attic because I don’t have a ladder because I haven’t wanted to spend the money. So after she left, I bought a ladder. I also started looking for furniture again, and have decided to finally hang some of the wall art that I have. Baby steps.
I’m not going to just go out and buy the furniture I need to fill the spaces. I’m going to continue to wait until I find the right pieces. But I should at least look.
And maybe the next time she visits, the place will be even more organized. I’ve been in the house almost a year. It’s time!
I finished up my tax returns last night. And I am getting a solid chunk of change back. Enough to fund my Roth IRA and then some.
So now there are two questions:
- What to do with the return
- What to change on my withholdings (if anything).
Number one isn’t too hard. Step one, fund Roth IRA. Or at least set aside the money to fund it throughout the year. The remainder will be split between my savings and my home improvement fund. Easy enough.
The second question is a bit more complicated. Clearly, I’m withholding too much. But I’m not sure what to change. I definitely don’t want to have to pay in. I’m definitely making a change to my state taxes. Previously, I was withholding an extra $30 per paycheck to cover the ridiculous amount of money that Maryland wants from me every year. Now that I have a house, I have more deductions, so I can change that.
I may just make that one change and leave everything else the same. I know, I know. It’s not the smartest thing to do. But my budget is working quite well for me. And while I should save the additional money that would be coming in, I’m just not convinced that I would do it.
I do think I’m going to look at my TSP (government 401(k)) and see about taking that additional $30 of withholding and putting that towards my TSP. I’m currently putting about 7% of my paycheck there (plus the 5% match) and that’s definitely something that I could increase.
So the next step is going to be doing some math. And waiting for that big ole check to deposit in my account. Hooray!
I am still waiting for one form from my former mortgage company so I can finish my tax returns. And things are looking good! Or bad, depending on how you view taxes.
I’m not sure how the state tax return is going to fall out, but it looks like I’m getting a significant chunk of change from the feds. I’m definitely pleased about this as it makes a great start to my Roth IRA contributions for the year. On the other hand, that’s money that could have been in my pocket throughout the year. Typically, I like to try to break even, but over the past couple of years, I haven’t been able to make that work.
So I have two options – I can change my withholdings again (I did it once when I bought my house) or I can just live with it and enjoy the extra cash every spring. I would definitely rather get money back than have to pay in, that’s for sure. And with interest rates as they are, I’m not really coming out that much ahead by getting the money and putting it into savings. So maybe it’s best to keep things as they are.
I’m going to talk Politics. I never talk politics, because after living in DC for five years, I kind of hate politics. But there is a financial issue going on right now that I find interesting.
A big thing during Presidential elections is the release of the candidates’ tax records. Obviously, it’s good to know that our candidates are paying their taxes, aren’t getting money from illegal sources, and it’s nice to see that they give to charity. But really, what does it mean?
So Mitt Romney released his tax records. And he paid around a 15% tax rate while Gingrich paid around 31%. That is a big difference, and 31% is closer to what I pay. Or is it? These people make so much more money than the “average American” that on some level, it’s kind of meaningless. They’re rich. Different levels of rich, but they’re rich.
So the big deal is that Romney’s money all comes from investments. He (legally) didn’t pay taxes on the trusts set up for his kids. He and his wife gave about 15% of their income to charity.
And while that is so far from my understanding that I can’t comprehend the numbers he lives by, isn’t this sort of the American Dream? He founded a company and got rich. I’m not saying he built up from nothing, but he has the lifestyle that many of us dream of. Come on, wouldn’t you love to be able to live off of your investments and spend your life doing what you want? Maybe doing what you want is volunteering or traveling, or maybe it’s doing your job because you love your job. But that’s some awesome freedom.
Does this mean that Romney can understand the plight of the average person who struggles to pay their bills? I have no idea – but I don’t think any of the candidates truly understand that. They’re all wealthy, some just happen to be more wealthy than others.
I’m not endorsing Romney in this post. I’m not not endorsing him either. I really don’t have an opinion of the man, or of any of the Republican candidates. But I find the focus on their personal finances very interesting.
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