My cousin just bought a house at the latter part of 2017. I was curious how the home ownership tax deductions affected his return. Since the perceived benefit doesn't seem to match the actual numbers in my cursory searches and applied examples. He sad it increased it by about 67%. I don't have actual numbers though. Seems high. What do you think?
In that conversation, I mentioned that I think I was getting maybe $30 or so back total between state and federal returns. He was curious how I estimated my tax so well. I appreciate the credit, but I think it's more so I'm just a default or template tax payer. I have nothing to claim or deduct, so I take the standard deduction. And I think the general estimates are based on simple tax situations like mine. I've never felt so average. 😏
Part of the purpose of this blog is to create a space for single earners like myself and we all love a numbers post. So I thought I'd include for illustrative purposes what a simple return looks like.
(numerical values truncated for privacy and laziness)
Filing Tool: HR Block Free File
FEDERAL
Filing Status: Single
Wages: $86,000
Standard Deduction: $6,300
Exemptions: $4,000
Income Tax: $14,7xx
Federal Witholding: $14,7xx
Amount Owed: $16
Marginal Tax Bracket: 25%
Effective Tax Bracket: 17%
Savings, per HR Block:
By participating in a qualified retirement plan through my employer this year and making contributions with pretax dollars, I reduced my taxes by: $2,600.00
In simple terms, the Marginal Tax Rate is the tax rate that you pay on your last dollar of taxable income. It is the highest federal tax bracket that affects your tax calculation. The Effective Tax Rate is the percentage of your total income that you paid in taxes. For 2017, my Marginal Tax Rate is 25% and my Effective Tax Rate is 17%.
STATE
Total Tax: $4,2xx
Total Payments: $4,3xx
Refund Amount: $63
Net Refund ($63 - $16) = $47
That's it folks! I think I did it during my lunch break at work! How did your filing go?
101 Things You Will Encounter Your 1st Week Blogging....about FIRE or Personal Finance
So you followed your favorite blogger's advice (read: their affiliate's recommendation) and started your blog in 3 easy steps! Turns out they left out quite a few things. Here's 101 things you will encounter your first week of blogging about personal finance, FIRE, or your early retirement journey!
- Spam emails. Parvinder and Sunhil will email you about marketing strategies and offer to take your blog to the next level. You will get 6 to 8 emails a day from them. Then James and William will email you with surprisingly the same offer. Don't be fooled it's still Parvinder and Sunhil. It will take Gmail about 13 days to realize this is spam.
- Robocalls. Parvinder and Sunhil didn't like that you didn't answer their emails. They sold your information to the top robocallers. You will get many offers for business opportunities and a few threats from the IRS. It's not the IRS; it's Parvinder and Sunhil trying to get your information. Don't give it to them.
- Wordpress. The 3 Easy Steps To Start A Blog your favorite blogger promised were just to take your money. Now you have to figure out Wordpress. There are so many buttons. It will take your Friday evening, most of your Saturday and all of your Sunday to post your first entry.
- Slow load time. You will wonder why your blog is so slow when you only have 6 entries? Next you'll ask when did 7 seconds to do anything start being considered slow?
- Marketing. You wrote 6 amazing posts, you'll think, so why haven't you been featured on CNN Money? Why do you only have 50 page views total and 47 were when you were trying to figure out Wordpress?
- Adsense. Why haven't they approved your account yet. The notice said a day or less. It's been 5. Maybe you should have considered Parvinder and Sunhil's offer after all.
- Pinterest. What is Pinterest? What does that have to do with blogging?
- Rockstar Directory. It's not an energy drink.
- Rockstar Forums. It's not enough to just be in the directory? What's a forum? Is it free? Will it make you famous? Just one forum post and your blog will explode overnight right?
- Cloudflare. You contacted Bluehost and to make your site load faster you have to upgrade your package. The tech support guy said your package was the "cheapest." Is this one of those spend money to make money scenarios? The forums said try Cloudflare. So you might try that.
- Stock photos. Where does everyone get all their artistic photos? It's so aesthetically pleasing. Do you have to hire a photographer? Is that more money to a blog that's already cost you $60 bucks on the first day?
- So many log-ins. You can't take anymore spam. You will have to open a 4th email address. (The first three are for your other lives.) Plus, you're obviously going to blow up in the blogosphere and your fans need to reach you.
- What's a plug-in? Is it free? Do you have to create another log-in? You wonder how does everyone keep all these passwords straight?
- What is HTML code? Do you need a coder? Do you have to create another log-in?
- What's a widget? Is that the same as a plug-in? Is this Econ 101? I thought this was supposed to be 3 easy steps! How come your page won't load on your Ipad? Where did your menus go?
- Some say you need a newsletter? What that? What's an email list? How will that make you money? Will that make you money?
- You finished what you had to say in your first 6 posts. Now what?
- Now you need a disclaimer? But no one's reading any of your posts. Do you put that up before you get page views? Before you get ads?
- Are you supposed to read all these different Terms of Service?
- What's a name server? Why do you have to create another log-in to change it?
- What's a gravatar? Another log-in? Is it free? Will Parvinder and Sunhil find me again?
- How do you edit your </header > ?
- What does Merge Top Menu mean? Do you have a top menu?
- What's a static home page? Do you want that? Is that what everyone else has?
- Why haven't you made any money yet? Wasn't this supposed to be passive income?
- Where did another Saturday go?
- How do you make a drop down menu? Should you pay to upgrade your theme?
- Do you keep your name private? Should you use a pseudonym? Acronym?
- Do you share your net worth? Your income? Your expenses? Your FIRE date? Your FIRE number in dollars? Euros? Pounds? Canadian dollars?
- Is your site https? Does it need to be?
- Why haven't you made any money yet?
- Where did another Sunday go?
- What's a CDN Server? Do you need that?
- What is Pinterest again?
- Do you tell your friends? Family? If you don't tell anyone, how will people know your blog exists?
- Should you pay for some of these services? Do you need a virtual assistant?
- What is Blog Elite Academy?
- Do you need a web designer?
- Do you even know anything about finance? Do you need to do APA or AMA citations when you "borrow" from other people's posts?
- Is your blog just a listicle or roundup of other people's blogs? Should it be?
- What's your hook? Your niche? What's your voice? You must have had one...where'd it go?
- What's affiliate marketing? Do you need an ad network? How do you get one?
- Adsense, why do you still have no ads for me?
- How many pageviews should you have? It's been a week!
- What is SEO anyway? How do you get that? Do you need Parvinder and Sunhil for that?
- What is a WHOIS? What is FinCon?
- What's my debt payoff story? My rags to riches tale? How frugal is too frugal?
- Is there something you can hack?
- Parvinder! Sunhil! Help!
Related Content:
My Week Ending April 13, 2018: Savings Rate, Ads, Fried Rice
Another week down in My Early Retirement Journey. This week ended, thankfully enough, with a little spring in my step. Nice weather brightens my mood. It feels nice to leave the workday when it's still light out.
On with it...
Monday - Worked 9.5 hours at my day job. Came home; watched The Mindy Project; and ate some frozen Asian rice. If you're curious it's Ling Ling's Chicken Yakitori (<<my first attempt at affiliate linking!). It's about $6 a box and you get 2 bags in each box. One bag sometimes lasts me two meals; sometimes just 1+. Today it was 1+. I add some expired gochujang sauce on the side and it tastes like take-out. Side note- the frozen rice doesn't taste quite as nice the second day. I still eat it but day one is best. During some downtime at work, followed a comment from one blog to a list of other female FIRE/ Personal Finance bloggers. They're out there! Spent some time introducing myself.
Tuesday - I had a jury summons for today but my number was not called so I had to go to work. I actually wanted to see what it was like to do jury duty. I guess that will be for another day. Worked 6.5 hours at my day job. Including commute, gave 3.5 hours to side gig (teaching). I only get paid for 1.5 hours for the actual teaching but it's ending soon! Hallelujah!!
Wednesday - Another 9.5 hours at work. I helped train a new employee who didn't return to work the next day 😖. I got off work on time and told myself I'd watch TV (free streaming) and relax but of course I ended up checking blog stuff. I finally got approved for AdSense! It took about 2 weeks. Got stuck in a 4 hour AdSense loop trying to figure it all out. In the end, I ended up with one AdSense ad on one of my side bars and made $0.01. I also figured out how to make the Walmart ad (my first affiliate) click open in a new window. This girl did some coding! I felt pretty accomplished. Granted, it was 2 words of code, but still it took me at least 30 minutes to figure it out!
Thursday - Worked day job and side gig. Went to Walmart to run errands. Grand total was about $12 for: 3 mangoes, 3 plums, some frozen tilapia and eggs. Got gas during lunch break and that was about $23. Bought lottery tickets for work pool ($2) and 2 apples ($0.80). Total for the day (approx): $36. My first auto-deposit to my Build Wealth fund was set for today. I budgeted for it at the beginning of the year, but it took a while to get the exact number right; figure out how I wanted to fund that account; and set up the payroll direct deposit.
Friday - Working 9 hours today. Still at work as I type this. I felt a pep in my step this morning. It was light out when I woke up and it should still be light out when I get home! I want to get some take-out today but nothing really seems appealing. Did some tweaks to budget this week.
Tweaked my spending budget down from the original $600/mon, the current $560/mon down to $430/mon. Rationale: I have this bare bones monthly budget in my mind of 500/500/500 for housing/student loan/spending. Housing is not there yet/ student loan is $566/ so I took the $66 out of spending and rounded down.
Other highlights of the week:
- 2 days without spam calls from blogging
- Increase in spam emails about blogging after adding a few new plug-ins to my site to combat the slow load time (W3 Total Cache, Cloudflare, Auto-Optimizer)
- Health-wise, feeling better than I was last week
- Only spent about $12/week on food (food budget: $50/week)
- Found this link to calculate early retirement age; might share it with my students; and this blog post led me there
Calculated my savings rate in 2017: 25%
After perusing some random FIRE blogs this week, realized I don't know or never cared to figure out my savings rate pre-My Early Retirement Journey. These are the rough calculations I made.
401k: Used my 2017 W-2: Contributed about $11,000
Savings Account: Used the difference between statement balances Jan 2017 and Dec 2017: about $6,000
Total Savings in 2017: $17,000 (rounded)
After-tax Income in 2017: $67,000 (rounded)
Savings rate: 17/67 = 25% (not bad!; estimated savings rate in 2018 = 50%)
Where did $50,000 dollars? Expenses are estimated about $30,000 and I paid off $20,000 in student loans. I had to check my student loan statements to remember. One day I will post my zero balance letter. I may also do another post on my debt payoff story, since it's all the rage.
Where did $50,000 dollars? Expenses are estimated about $30,000 and I paid off $20,000 in student loans. I had to check my student loan statements to remember. One day I will post my zero balance letter. I may also do another post on my debt payoff story, since it's all the rage.
Simple wins for this week:
Personal: not late for work once this week; feeling much better
Blog: Adsense, Incorporated Affiliate Link into a post.
Simple goals for next week:
Personal: eat more vegetables (x > 1 serving)
Blog: submit a post to Rockstar Forum for their 3rd Monday shout out
Trying to Plead My Case After a Tow
So, my apartment complex towed my car. Perils of renting. Why do I stay you ask? It's close to work. Work controls my life! The tow cost me $300; that's my food budget for 1.5 months. And I missed a Holiday at work because I didn't work the full 8 hours. I tried to get my money back and here's what happened.
On 04/04/2018 you submitted the following feedback:
Me: My car was towed from a handicapped space in front of VACANT retail spaces attached to my apartment building. These retail spaces are and have been VACANT for the 2.5 years I have lived here since the building was erected. I was the third person to move-in. This space is not accessible to anything in the building other than the VACANT retail spaces as the elevator is on the other side of the building, and the side were my car was parked is flanked by stairs. This is private property so the towing was commissioned and sanctioned by The Property; a little more notice or sufficient warning would have been appreciated. It cost me a total of $300 to have my car returned to and I suffered some ramifications at work as I was 1.25 hours late. When I signed up to live in a luxury community this is not what I expected. As such, I am requesting a $300 credit be applied to my account. Thank you.
Them: Good Afternoon, I contacted the towing company to get the information about your car and the specifics on why it was towed. After seeing the pictures, your car was towed, not due to being parked by retail, but due to parking in a handicap parking space without having a valid handicap sticker showing. That is not only against our parking rules, but it is a violation of NC statute § 20-37.6. On Thursday of last week, management also sent out an email reminding residents of the parking rules and procedures and to let everyone know that we were towing for any infractions. I double checked to ensure that your email was correct and that the message was delivered, which it was. Given all of the information above, we will not be able to credit back to you the $300. In the future, please ensure that you are parked in a non-handicap space or that you are properly showing the handicap tag.
Sincerely,
Ashley Valenzuela
On April 6, 2018, I wrote them this:
Me: Thank you for your prompt response. It does not appear to me that the concerns I raised were completely understood. Towing my car from the VACANT retail lot where the posted signs, handicapped or otherwise, still remain widely unenforced is altogether a malicious, arbitrary, and capricious act. If the impact on community members and the people who call The Property home has no bearing on its decisions that's certainly The Property's prerogative. Similarly, it is my prerogative to not suffer lightly those who take my money and affect my ability to earn income. I have come to expect less from this property over the years, and it has delivered. Thank you. Have a nice day.
Conclusion: I'm still out $300. I'm still renting. I'm still working to mitigate the loss. Sometimes I wonder why I try. :/
Tally:
My Early Retirement Journey: 0
The Man: all the points
On 04/04/2018 you submitted the following feedback:
Me: My car was towed from a handicapped space in front of VACANT retail spaces attached to my apartment building. These retail spaces are and have been VACANT for the 2.5 years I have lived here since the building was erected. I was the third person to move-in. This space is not accessible to anything in the building other than the VACANT retail spaces as the elevator is on the other side of the building, and the side were my car was parked is flanked by stairs. This is private property so the towing was commissioned and sanctioned by The Property; a little more notice or sufficient warning would have been appreciated. It cost me a total of $300 to have my car returned to and I suffered some ramifications at work as I was 1.25 hours late. When I signed up to live in a luxury community this is not what I expected. As such, I am requesting a $300 credit be applied to my account. Thank you.
Them: Good Afternoon, I contacted the towing company to get the information about your car and the specifics on why it was towed. After seeing the pictures, your car was towed, not due to being parked by retail, but due to parking in a handicap parking space without having a valid handicap sticker showing. That is not only against our parking rules, but it is a violation of NC statute § 20-37.6. On Thursday of last week, management also sent out an email reminding residents of the parking rules and procedures and to let everyone know that we were towing for any infractions. I double checked to ensure that your email was correct and that the message was delivered, which it was. Given all of the information above, we will not be able to credit back to you the $300. In the future, please ensure that you are parked in a non-handicap space or that you are properly showing the handicap tag.
Sincerely,
Ashley Valenzuela
On April 6, 2018, I wrote them this:
Me: Thank you for your prompt response. It does not appear to me that the concerns I raised were completely understood. Towing my car from the VACANT retail lot where the posted signs, handicapped or otherwise, still remain widely unenforced is altogether a malicious, arbitrary, and capricious act. If the impact on community members and the people who call The Property home has no bearing on its decisions that's certainly The Property's prerogative. Similarly, it is my prerogative to not suffer lightly those who take my money and affect my ability to earn income. I have come to expect less from this property over the years, and it has delivered. Thank you. Have a nice day.
Conclusion: I'm still out $300. I'm still renting. I'm still working to mitigate the loss. Sometimes I wonder why I try. :/
Tally:
My Early Retirement Journey: 0
The Man: all the points
I got towed!
One fine morning after mustering the energy to attempt another workday, I walked outside to get in my car. My car was gone. A strange calm settled over me as I searched the parking lot. My first thought was my car was towed. And lo, it was! I had been parking in this handicapped space in front of vacant retail spaces on the backside of our building. I guess today was the day I was found out. Figures.
I moseyed, still eerily calm, to the towing sign to get the phone number. Since I don't have a cell phone and my emergency phone is in my car, I walked back into my apt to call from a Google app.
Two rude phone calls and a threat (from the towing company!) later, I was told my car was on its way. Yes, the towing company threatened to charge me $50 dollars extra for trying to plead my case. He states his daughter is handicapped so I was "barking up the wrong tree." Heaven forbid, a random woman should want to park on the side of my apartment building in front of vacant retail space flanked by stairs. I felt no empathy and I'm not ashamed to say it. Entitled people can be handicapped too and I can't be bothered with the flood of entitlement I have to wade through regularly.
My final prize was...
For the opportunity to have my car forcibly removed: $200
And for the privilege of having my car returned to me: $100
Total damage to my budget: $300 (all before breakfast!)
Budget category: Unexpected Expense
Cheers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)