I struggled through 4 miles this morning but felt better because of it.
Nice work, Dave. Good on ya.
________
I have nothing particularly clever or profound to add as a tag to each message...I just like to run.
Leslie - $900? Yikes! Is that the going rate where you live?
That includes doing the taxes for The Hub's business, but a very uncomplicated business. Whether or not it's the going rate, I'm going to have to find out. I do know I don't want to try and tackle them myself. If it was just us and two regular incomes, I would, but not when a business is involved.
Leslie Living and Running Behind the Redwood Curtain -------------
Trail Runner Nation
Sally McCrae-Choose Strong
Bare Performance
I have read that the W4 (form you give to your payroll department for you withholdings) is going to change dramatically next year. The form is thought to be as complex as your 1040 of prior years. Big stink in the works because you will be letting your employer know an approximation of your investment income. And if you work a 2nd job that perhaps your employer doesn't know about, you will be giving them that info as well.
stay tuned, it could get ugly.
Great 4 mile time trial with the gang last night. Perfect night for running but unfortunately a small turnout. My times made me happy though. And just so you know how slowly I run, my splits were 10:19, 10:23, 10:15, 10:15. An out and back with the return trip into the wind so I was pretty happy with those last 2 miles.
Almost forgot: Happy belated birthday Henrun. I loved all the pictures yesterday.
an amazing likeness
Regarding tax prep...what if the IRS just sent you a form all filled and ready for you to sign and complete? Good idea. Not to the tax-industrial-complex. (link to Planet Money Podcast)
Tried to force a few miles outside in the snow (3") turning to rain with NW winds, but reverted to the sweatfest that is the Y where temp is controlled by elderly front desk staff sitting near front door's draft. I share this only to commiserate with the folks heading to Boston for Marathon Monday, runners and volunteers, I feel for you weather-wise. Cold rain is the pits. Two years in a row is just unkind.
Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.
Thank you all for my birthday greetings. I had a fantastic day and heard from friends all over. - including Japan, Ireland and, of course the USA and Canada. After our jaunt I came home, took a nap and went to yoga.. Relieved all stiffness. Slept right through the night (fora change).
No running today, but a good walk after a class. Tonight we’re heading to a traditional jazz concert. The celebration continues until a big family party in 2 weeks🎂.
$900 for tax prep? Yikes! I did this for free a couple years ago in the AARP TaxAide program, but of course that was for low-income people and seniors whose income was generally pretty simple. For myself I've always used TurboTax with good results, although again I don't have anything complicated like a business, rental property depreciation, etc.
An alternative to revealing all that is to bite the bullet and start filing quarterly estimated tax payments. I've been doing this for many years and now in retirement it's mandatory since almost nothing is withheld from my income sources. One nice thing is a system called EFTPS (Electronic Federal Tax Payment System) that lets you make payments directly from your bank account and even to set up all the estimated payments in advance with dates specified. The only pitfall for us is to make sure we have enough funds in the account at withdrawal time.
A workout at the gym for me today, although it was pretty crowded and I was unable to use a couple of my usual machines. It always irritates me when someone is sitting on one looking at their phone instead of using the equipment. :rolleyes:
Doug, runnin' cycling in Rochester, MI
"Think blue, count two, and look for a red shoe"
That feeling when you are finished a hot after-work run. 83 degrees! 3 more miles done so 6.2 for the day. Rain is coming back tomorrow.
Out there running since dinosaurs roamed the earth
Good info. I'm going to need to look into that soon. I'd like to make sure I know what I'm doing before my husband retires and I can no longer use his payroll deductions to correct my estimate mistakes.
SteveP I see your view of my need for repairs mimics my DW's. For better or worse, I am going to violate your medical clearance rules. I am getting a cortisone injection for my back next Thursday.
Regarding taxes, most people owe less. According to USA Today, https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/12/06/taxes-2018-you-owe-year-get-refund/2207406002/, about $700 to $800. Refunds are typically lower because it is a lot easier to calculate an accurate level of withholding if you are not itemizing and now far more people just take the newly increased standard deduction. If your goal is to pay less and avoid giving Uncle Sam an interest free loan, then this is all good. If your withholding has gone down take the extra money and put into your savings where it will earn interest. Come April 15 take it out, with interest, and call it your "tax refund." Also, if you do not want to add information to your withholding forms that it is asking for, just do not do it. You can put down whatever you like, then ask for a specific amount of additional withholding. Basically, it is what I have done in the past. I would tell my employer I have a super large number of dependents and then tell them to withhold an additional amount that I work out.
fatozzig a fee increase like you have for tax prep, seems really extreme. I am surprised you cannot just use TurboTax or something similar. Are your taxes really that complicated? Is it due to all your transcribing work?
A really busy day for me. No running or elliptical either. Up early. Into work. Two guest speakers to attend to today. Then at the end of the day my teaching assistant (TA) tells me four students complained to her that the assignment due Monday is too long. Mind you, last year it was a 1/3 of the final project. I decided to split that project into 3 parts to make them more manageable. My TA's email reporting this to me included this after the "too much work" part. She, by the way, took the course last year when the project was one big rather than 3 little parts.
Live like you are dying not like you are afraid to die.
Drunken Irish Soda Bread and Irish Brown Bread this way --> http://allrecipes.com/cook/4379041/
40 minute walk around the neighborhood. Everything is covered in green pollen. I’ll be glad when this part of spring is done with. Achoo
today is 3 weeks since the big fall. Halfway to freedom.
Trails Rock!
Hi again, runners! I just completed a great swimming workout, and I’m glad that I gave myself enough rest in between repeats so that I could get in more reps than I thought I could do. Saturdays 100 yard IM repeats work out did not include much of a warm-up or cool down, but today I swim 450 yards alternating freestyle and backstroke for a warm-up, and the same for a cool down. In between, I swim 10 x 100 yard IM (that’s four lengths of the pool alternating butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle ) With about two minutes and 20 seconds in between for a good recovery. I think I did 5 Saturday with the same rests. Just felt better today for some reason. 1900 yards - about 1.1 miles - in all today.
BTY
8 junk miles
$900 to do your taxes?! You must have some complicated stuff going on; offshore accounts, annuities, 401k disbursements, charitable contributions requiring certificates of value, etc. I've always found taxes to be easy to do; they give you ALL the instructions for each line, there are no trick questions or essays. It takes me about 30 minutes using Taxcut or Turbotax or one of the other free programs. That's the 1040a with schedule C and all that goes with them. I always end up owing about $2000 because I don't pay quarterly, so I drag it out to the last second before filing. My life accomplice usually gets around $7000 back because of EIC/childcare, so she makes me do her taxes as soon as the W2's and 1099's come in. As for paying more or less with the new rules, almost everyone I know figured out they are paying more net, regardless of getting a little less taken out of their paychecks. We should be grateful they backed off on removing the mortgage interest deduction like they wanted! A little controversial, but I think all "income" taxes should be replaced with nationals sales taxes. People working under the table, or who have wealth but no income, get away with paying no federal taxes. Make certain things tax-free, like food, medical, and a portion of housing so it's not disproportionately hard on the poor. But tax pretty much everything else, including buying stocks, realestate, commodities futures, campaign donations (above a certain amount), and everywhere else wealthy people park their money. It's not like they keep it in money vaults like Scrooge McDuck, they SPEND it on investments. It'll never happen, we're too invested in our current system. Did I just rant all that?!
60-64 age group - University of Oregon alumni - Irreverent and Annoying
Oh, also thank you for directing me to Dumb Runner. My life will now be categorized as BDR and ADR (before dumb runner and after dumb runner).
this is 1 ADR
Hey y'all, quick post. First evening in a while with "nothing" to do so been busy in the apartment. Washed linens, towels, cooked a real dinner (Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, asparagus) and prepped a ride for tomorrow night's class. Ran at work today. 6 x 800m intervals in 86 deg weather. Ugh. First 3 went fine (3:18, 3:19, 3:20) but recovery times went up and the last 3 took longer as well--3:22, 3:24, 3:25. All in all, not horrible especially since I've been doing only 6 x 400m for so long (running with boss).
TwoCat, congrats on the 6!
Have a greta night everyone!
Since I don't do our taxes, I don't know how complicated they are, but I don't think they're $900 worth of complication. I don't make that much doing transcription on the side (especially last year), and The Hub is small - no employees, supplies and small equipment purchases, equipment maintenance, those types of things. *sigh* Guess I need to do my research for doing it myself . . . .