Just a few more days until the 2018 finish line and no one’s leaning into the wind more than … my kids’ teachers. Let me take one minute at this very hectic time of year and tell them all how much I appreciate the love, care, and patience they bring to their classrooms each and every day. Not only do you seem believable when you tell us how much you enjoy teaching our children, but I know you’re also buying books and supplies out of your own pocket, no easy feat on a teacher’s salary.
For the record, there’s always an educator’s discount here at LBYM. Enjoy your winter break, ladies!
Me? I’ll be checking more items off my end-of-year LBYM to-do list. Next up—tracking down receipts.
Now if that doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, keep in mind I’m looking at two weeks of solid 24/7 quality indoor time with my three kids … so the entertainment bar is set rather low. It is possibly subterranean.
There are a LOT of receipts … but probably not as many as last year. I used to spend a fair amount of time compiling documentation related to our, say, charitable donations, but with the near doubling of the standard deduction from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, we’re probably not going to itemize deductions this year. So possibly one less item on your to-do list, too.
Then there’s the shoebox where I throw all the bills and invoices related to my rental property in New York. Gas, electricity, water and sewage, pest control, repairmen … so many repairmen, insurance, mortgage interest … Still, even with the receipts, real estate can be an excellent way to build Net Worth—I’ll expand on this idea in a future post. Buying that place was probably one of the better financial decisions I’ve made. Almost offsets having kids.
Remember that Dependent Care FSA I have? The way these accounts work, pre-tax money gets taken out of your paycheck every pay period to fund the Dependent Care FSA. Each month, after you pay your caregiver, you then request reimbursement from the FSA as the dollars can only be used for services rendered. That’s certainly one way you could do it. Pay … get reimbursed … pay … get reimbursed.
Or I could pay my son’s nursery school tuition every month out of pocket, send in one receipt at year end, and receive the entire FSA balance in January. Right when I’m ready for a vacation in sunshine.
You know when you’ve been doing something for a long time and then you read some recent research that shows how what you’ve doing all along is so smart, and you think, “I am a genius”?
OK, umm, me neither.
Those Harvard Business School professors studying money and happiness have loads more findings—yes, make your spend a treat and … pay now, consume later. Turns out, you’ll enjoy something more if you separate the payment from the consumption … and make the payment first, turning the concept behind credit cards on its head. I might take it even a bit further. You’ll enjoy something even more if it seems like you got something you wanted from payments for something you needed. Not only did I save on my taxes, I turned my Dependent Care FSA into a prepaid vacation.
I always know where this receipt is.