Came back from Catalina and found myself dog sick on Monday. Tried to go to work twice but found that going to work and subjecting myself to stress made my sickness worse. So I pretty much spent the week on the couch and drank a bottle of Nyquil in two days, supplemented by other congestion tablets, Ricola and nasal spray. It's Saturday and I am still sick. I feel ok to get up and do things but I get tired easily and my lungs still feel heavy and sore from coughing. The only thing I really accomplished this week besides using sick days was mustering all my receipts together and going to see Frank.
Many of you know Frank well. Since 2004 he has been my tax guy and my friends' tax guy. I was perfectly capable of doing my own taxes before I met Frank but there's something fun in going to see him. It's a once a year thing like our birthday or Christmas and hopefully like those two days, you get a present when the day is over.
A few things I learned this year. There is a marriage penalty. Yes, when you get married your income and the spouse's gets combined and hopefully it doesn't put you into a tax bracket where you want to kill yourself for committing yourself to love. I find it funny that love costs in this country. Anyhoo, Frank explained that the one thing that offsets love is a house. Luckily I found love and a house in the same year. So that helped us a bit. One thing that doesn't offset the house that offsets the love is mutual funds and cashing them out to buy the house.
Another thing I learned people is when you cash out your mutual funds you need some paperwork to show how much those funds cost you in relation to how much you cashed them out for. See my people only sent me the cost basis for 3 out of 10 funds so if I didn't have Frank there to tell me that I was missing 7 cost basis' I might have paid alot more taxes if I did them by myself. I wonder why my stock people didn't send me those papers? If they bothered to send 3 why not the rest? Scammers I say.
I also learned that the people who reported our morgage under reported the points we paid out when we bought my house. Good thing I save everything and was able to hand the big escrow folder over to Frank who knew what to look for and was able to write me off another couple of thousands of dollars for some points.
I also learned that home offices are a very, very good thing. If you have a room in your house that has desks in it make sure to tell your tax guy. You can write off the desk, the clocks, the chairs, the electric bill to get the outlets going, air conditioning, windows, etc. Looks like my air conditioning and window projects are a go!
Finally I learned going green pays! I should have bought that Prius and it would have been an extra $2000 a year credit and credits I learned are very good and worth more then percentages. So people buy green and write it off!
Sometimes Frank isn't a good Santa and sometimes he's a great Santa but I always find my annual trip fun and entertaining. He gives a lot of good advise and while I am there his staff takes care of me. Today I got cough lounges, tea, kleenex and of course several bottles of water. For once I didn't dip into the chocolate jar cuz I was sick and not hungary.
I am not sure if Frank will be a good or bad Santa this year because of those mutual fund people. I need to make a call on Monday and get the paperwork they so conveniently forgot to send me.
Hopefully all will go well. I better go clean my bathroom (my prosperity room) just to make sure. Another fun fact, we qualify for the George Bush Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 and will be receiving a payment along with 130 million other households this May. I will take this as my wedding gift from the government who penalizes marriages. Hello, home improvement and Hawaii!
Many of you know Frank well. Since 2004 he has been my tax guy and my friends' tax guy. I was perfectly capable of doing my own taxes before I met Frank but there's something fun in going to see him. It's a once a year thing like our birthday or Christmas and hopefully like those two days, you get a present when the day is over.
A few things I learned this year. There is a marriage penalty. Yes, when you get married your income and the spouse's gets combined and hopefully it doesn't put you into a tax bracket where you want to kill yourself for committing yourself to love. I find it funny that love costs in this country. Anyhoo, Frank explained that the one thing that offsets love is a house. Luckily I found love and a house in the same year. So that helped us a bit. One thing that doesn't offset the house that offsets the love is mutual funds and cashing them out to buy the house.
Another thing I learned people is when you cash out your mutual funds you need some paperwork to show how much those funds cost you in relation to how much you cashed them out for. See my people only sent me the cost basis for 3 out of 10 funds so if I didn't have Frank there to tell me that I was missing 7 cost basis' I might have paid alot more taxes if I did them by myself. I wonder why my stock people didn't send me those papers? If they bothered to send 3 why not the rest? Scammers I say.
I also learned that the people who reported our morgage under reported the points we paid out when we bought my house. Good thing I save everything and was able to hand the big escrow folder over to Frank who knew what to look for and was able to write me off another couple of thousands of dollars for some points.
I also learned that home offices are a very, very good thing. If you have a room in your house that has desks in it make sure to tell your tax guy. You can write off the desk, the clocks, the chairs, the electric bill to get the outlets going, air conditioning, windows, etc. Looks like my air conditioning and window projects are a go!
Finally I learned going green pays! I should have bought that Prius and it would have been an extra $2000 a year credit and credits I learned are very good and worth more then percentages. So people buy green and write it off!
Sometimes Frank isn't a good Santa and sometimes he's a great Santa but I always find my annual trip fun and entertaining. He gives a lot of good advise and while I am there his staff takes care of me. Today I got cough lounges, tea, kleenex and of course several bottles of water. For once I didn't dip into the chocolate jar cuz I was sick and not hungary.
I am not sure if Frank will be a good or bad Santa this year because of those mutual fund people. I need to make a call on Monday and get the paperwork they so conveniently forgot to send me.
Hopefully all will go well. I better go clean my bathroom (my prosperity room) just to make sure. Another fun fact, we qualify for the George Bush Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 and will be receiving a payment along with 130 million other households this May. I will take this as my wedding gift from the government who penalizes marriages. Hello, home improvement and Hawaii!
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