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Good and Bad Procrastination
dtolton writes "Paul Graham has written an interesting article on Procrastination. He presents three different types of procrastination and one type of procrastination is even good! He also suggests that some types of "getting things done" are actually weak forms of procrastination. The only downside to this article is now you'll have to look at your procrastination with an analytical eye too!" Perhaps next year's Christmas shopping can benefit from the writeup?
The server also procrastinates now... Meh...
Usually Paul Graham's social writings are quite good. Try his "why nerds are unpopular" or "What you'll wish you had known"
Bottles.
I'm right with you on the taxes. I file early and pay on April 15th. Is disappointing to see how many people that have the perception that 'you get money when you file for taxes' for the regular wage slaves.
It took me a while to 'get it' too but I see the light and I've been a crusader for my friends by constantly asking them how much tax they paid come the first quarter of the year.
It started off with "I didn't have to pay, I got money back" type of comment and even then, they still didn't get it. People care more about the cash they get BACK that could have always been theirs, even if it was theirs in the first place.
People just don't like to save and like to run up credit cards.
People who say "I got money back", I then ask them if I can borrow a thousand dollars for 6 months and show the comparison between interest free vs a money market savings account.
They also don't understand why I choose to pay taxes vs withholding.
The only debt I have is a mortgage - tax deductible interest, and all my cars are paid off and they're less than 5 years old.
if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
Is disappointing to see how many people that have the perception that 'you get money when you file for taxes' for the regular wage slaves.
The more accurate perception is that:
You cannot manage your money well, the government has a plan that always works in their favor. See, they will take about 30% of your pay for "free" every month without you having to think about it. If fact, they will take a little extra, just to make sure you pay "enough" by the end of the year. They will hold it for free for you until the end of the year. The will then continue holding it until you ask for it back, for free!
Unfortunately, I have had the government blindly take my money every time I get paid since I was 15 years old, that I was conditioned not to think much about it until recently. People often say that their housing is the most expensive thing they pay for, then their car. The are wrong and off by one. Taxes are #1, house typically #2, car typically #3. Aside from gas and regular maintenance, I spend more on food and beverages (mostly alcoholic, and taxed out the wazoo) than I spend on car payments. I currently pay $20 a month interest on my car, and it will be paid off in a while. I've never paid more than $2,500 for a car before, but I wanted a better one so I splurged with a $7k car after the police took my last one. Oh, well.
I'm curious. How do you estimate your taxes, and what do you do with your money until they ask for it? I'm not that experienced with financial stuff because I'm apathetic towards it, but I'm very interested in putting more $$$ in my pocket and not the government's. By my rough estimates, I would only make about $200 to $300 at a 3% interest (I'm basing this on a 30% tax of about $50k income) if I didn't do any withholdings. I don't make much money, but to me I would actually prefer to have the government manage my debt to them and get a little extra back in one chunk at the end of the year for the extra couple of bucks. So I guess I'm in the "I cannot manage my money well department", but if there was more incentive for me to do so, I could be more interested in spending more time with this. But right now, I only deduct student loan interest and mortgage interest because I don't know if any extra investment in effort and time would be more profitable than getting a side job which I'm not interested in doing either.
I am grateful that I don't have to pay taxes on medications, but I'm ungrateful that I have to spend extra tax over top of the "regular" tax to eat. But I can shit for free.
The short answer for you is: see an accountant. I'm not trying to be snide or rude, but.... You seriously have no understanding of your financial situation and the taxes you should / should not be paying. The accountant will probably seem expensive to you -- he's going to set you back somewhere between $100 and $250 for a session. Fortunately your situation sounds relatively simple (ie: you're not helping to manage the family trust worth $2.5million or whatever) . Most likely you'll only end up needing to see the man twice in the first year while he helps you set up your books -- and maybe once a year for the next year or two (unless your situation changes radically -- like you buy a property for rental or whatever). The good news is that he will be able to pay for himself out of your first year's worth of taxes. Serious. To hit the second half of your question: "what do you do with your money until they ask for it? " .... Uhm... Well, you mentioned a car payment, a student loan, and a mortgage (is that the lien on your car or are you buying a house?) -- the money could go into one of those... I'm guessing you've got a credit card or two. Damned convenient things -- and you could pay them off at end-of-month with that cash in pocket, avoiding the interest charges and improving your credit score. Nice, eh?
I don't know if any extra investment in effort and time would be more profitable than getting a side job which I'm not interested in doing either.
Er... Oooookaaaay... Granted, year one is going to be work for you. You're going to need to do some work, learn what you can deduct (how much of your computer costs can you reasonably say are work related? What about the room the computer is in? Is the depreciation on your computer deductable?)... But once the books are set up it pretty much does itself with a bit of data entry (a lot less data entry given that most banks will offer you a datafile of your account activity for download)... If you can find you a side job that'll pay you, say, $5k a year for about 4-10 hours of work (a normal checking cycle should take 15 minutes a month once your books are set up -- the rest of that time is abnormal circumstances and the time you spend with your accountant) whenever you feel like doing it then... More power to you, I guess.