Well, to answer some questions to my faithful fanbase...
I'm three months/14 weeks roughly right now. My due date is October 18th, but we're hoping for the 15th since that's Jim Santoro's birthday as well as our good buddy Jeff's. As a matter of fact, because I work at the hospital it pays 100% of our delivery and aftercare. Hahahahaha. I guess there's some perks, besides getting to tie people down.
In case I haven't made it clear yet, California is weird. Not just because of the drivers and the food and the snobs, but because of this thing called State Income Tax. "Hi, you're a nurse and we want you to move here, so we're going to pay you and make you feel rich. But then we're going to tax the hell out of that paycheck so we can pay for things like wine and cheese and happy cows and more prisons and better highways for you to crash on. Enjoy the sunshine!"
Whatever.
So instead of letting Matt do the taxes on the H&R Block website this year, I said I'd go to this financial place that specializes in helping EMS workers with their taxes and such. Since I technically count as an Emergency Medical worker, I went to see them. Prepare for a shocking tale of horror.
When I show up, the lady immediately yells at me because I didn't bring my "homework". Homework? What? Lady, I didn't even do my homework in school. I'm a grown woman now and if my dog didn't feed herself, the ASPCA would be all over this apartment. I'm not what you'd call prepared. I wore a Marvel comics t-shirt and brown pants to this thing, and she's looking at me like I'm a Rhodes Scholar that forgot her dissertation. What she expected, I have no idea.
Once she realized that all I brought with me was our W-2s and a sheepish smile, she lightened up a little bit. We went through the fact that Matt and I are paying out the nose in taxes, basically, and that she couldn't save us any money but she could give us advice on how to save money for next year's rebate! I was really grateful for this, because her wisdom contained such gems as:
1. Have a baby
2. Buy a house
3. File a higher witholding
Okay, so one of those is in the works, but it's not like I can speed that up and drop the kid before April 16th. As for buying a house, I'd love to! You make some of these "starter homes" less than half a million dollars and I'll be all over it, Tax-Lady! Of course, a lot of homes here have been foreclosed because the people that owned them couldn't pay the ridiculous mortgages they have here, so there's some good deals. But looking at them, you almost have to wonder who died or was killed in the house to get that price.
Anyway, long story short: I still owe California and the Feds money. At least she told me how to enact a payment plan for this crap.
The irony of all of this is that basically, today I paid a woman who yelled at me for not bringing in the paperwork I was supposed to telepathically know to bring, who then told me she couldn't save me any money than if we'd just filed on the internet with H&R Block, and then said if I put down non-existent cash flow on a house and have my baby ASAP, I'll break even.
Thanks, Uncle Sam. You're a douche.
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4 comments:
I believe that you should consider taking that job in Montana, seeing as their property taxes are definitely not high. Heck, come to Indiana, even. Here we have apartments where two kids who are working minimum wage jobs and paying their way through college tiny dollar by dollar can still easily afford to live.
But...but :( well...um...
I was going to say something enlightening, but I believe it zoomed away from my brain. I'll comment when it pops back in!
You could always move to the tri-cities, we have cheap houses(I live in one),and hospitals, and doctors offices, and frickin awesome family, and I'm sure we have what ever Matt does too. I'm just saying, think about it....It could be the best decision of your life.
I totally agree with Rachael (I'm saying that in my head in a sing-song voice). You should move here! That completely sucks that you already pay out massive amounts and yet you still owe. I get bitter any time I think about taxes, money, rent, Jason's job, just Jason...
We're actually heavily considering moving. We're just not entirely sure just where yet, as we have to be "fair" to my in-laws as well as my family. Since I really like my in-laws, I know this is true, I just really, really miss my family 99% of the time so it's hard to be unbiased sometimes. I guess we'll see what happens; I can't leave my job until I milk them for maternity leave anyway.
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