uber_deutsch

If you read lumpyhead then you know we've been destroyed by taxes this year. Literally, what would have been a downpayment on a $350,000 house is now Uncle Sam's and Mother CA's. We blame ourselves for not being stupidly frugal with every last living cent and living our life, visiting friends, buying stuff and having fun. But, alas, those wild and wooly bully days are behind us. The IRS has taught us a valuable lesson: "Quit having fun, stupid Americans!" So, we are.

Anything that is not absolutely needed to survive (for my home business as well) has been cut. Any monthly memberships to anything has been cut. No gyms, no more water deliveries, no YMCA, no Netflix, no nothing. We'll be keeping the AT&T Uverse account, but I'll cut the TV part down to nothing and keep the fiber optic internet because I use that for my freelance work.

Next up is the W4s. I'll go from claiming 3 to 1 and Marla will go from 4 to 1. <--- This was probably our biggest mistake. Lesson learned. We'll pay more taxes during the year as opposed to getting assraped on Tax Day. We were slightly prepared, but not for this large of a hit.

I enrolled in my company's 401k, even though %'s are shit, 10% of my gross income will go to the pre-tax shelter.

For the first times in our lives, we'll be on a payment plan for our taxes. We should be able to fix this by draining all our savings and then making payments over the next six months. Just in time to save for next year's tax raping. 

Mar and I will be living lean from now on. Goodbye big backyard parties, you'll be missed. Blame our greedy uncle.

So I freaked out the day about saving money and freaked out Marla on the plane to Utah about it. Every now and then I panic about the future and how we're going to keep up our jet-setting lifestyle well into our fifties and beyond. Most of the time, I'm pretty even keeled, but money is always something that affects me emotionally. And I know it shouldn't, but it does. So, until we advance into a Star Trek universe where there is no monetary system, I will continue to freak out about it.

But, I started to buy into the company 401k from this point forward, which I haven't been, because, well, I'm stupid. Because I could have several thousand in there at this point, but I don't. Several thousand un-taxed dollars would be nice. But now I only have $156. $156 a paycheck will be pulled from this point on. Approximately 5% of my gross income. Even though I pull $156 from each paycheck, I technically earn only $88 less per paycheck.

The only downer from this is that my company is non-matching. Which blows. A matching 401k means to me that the company is investing in me as much as I am investing in them. "Hey, they pay you already!" you might say. Well, you're right. But in this extremely competitive tech world, benefits keep employees. Look at Disney. They have their own credit union, ferchrissakes. Starbucks has full benefits for part-time, plus, profit sharing. Google contributes to employees towards their purchase of green vehicles. I would be less likely to go to another company if the benefits were better here.

All in all, its positive for anyone to save. Pre-tax savings is optimal. Plus, I love giving the finger to the IRS. Even incrementally.