Stimulus, anyone?
I’m just curious if anyone has directly felt the results of the stimulus package or new economic policies recently. Here are some ways in which they have positively impacted me lately, from more direct to less direct:
- I was able to claim the $600 tax credit on my 2008 taxes (I think because I didn’t receive it the year before but was eligible this year)
- I will be able to claim a 30% rebate on the installation of an energy-efficient tankless water heater on next year’s taxes (and if I decide to replace my old windows later this year, on that too)
- I refinanced at a rate of 4.65, which will save me $200/month in payments, and a good friend did the same and will save $400/month, and I know of at least two other friends who have refinanced for big savings and/or reduction in loan period
- I have one friend who avoided foreclosure of her home through the new program
- Seems like my SEP-IRA has rebounded a bit
Now if only this were my first house, I could have claimed that sweet $8000 tax credit on buying it last year! Oh well… On the plus side, my cousin and his fiance are buying their first house at very good prices and will get the rebate, so yay :) It was a foreclosed house and they are putting a lot of work into it, but in the end it will be a very good deal for them.
Stuff that is less reassuring… WA Mutual got taken over by Chase. I suppose that is neutral and still fall-out from the original issues. Nothing seems to have changed (we have an non-profit account there that I manage as Treasurer). My bank reduced my credit line from a really ridiculously high level to a somewhat more reasonable level (amounts not listed to protect the innocent) because I pay it off each month and never get anywhere near it. To me, that actually seems like a bright move on their part, a tiny bit of fiscal responsibility. What a concept – give people only the level of credit they actually need/want.
What about you? I usually wouldn’t talk this much about personal money, but it’s interesting to see when/if a government policy actually makes a difference. I haven’t heard of anyone I know getting or keeping a job due to the stimulus money, though I know organizations that have benefited from it. Have you?
A kinder, gentler IRS?
A while back, maybe in March, I heard an interview with the new Director of the IRS on NPR. He seemed like a nice enough guy, and basically said the IRS was going to cut people some slack this year due to all the economic upheaval. Even if you couldn’t pay your taxes, you were encouraged to send in your return and work with them on a plan, or maybe they could find you some credits to help out. Sounds great, in theory :)
Well, this year I had a little problem with my taxes, as in underpaying them. Last year, I decided to start using the annualized income method, which a complicated way of calculating your quarterly estimated taxes. Normally, you have to pay the same amount each quarter, based on what you earned last year. But my income varies so much from year to year and from quarter to quarter that that just wasn’t working for me. I kept guessing wrong and overpaying or underpaying substantially.
So, I started using the horribly complicated form each quarter and carefully filled it out, basically like doing your whole taxes every quarter. Still, I felt good that I was paying the right amount as I went along, and at the end of the year it would all work out right. NOT. You see, I made sort of a basic, unrelated mistake. In the middle of the year I moved and got new bank accounts (but still had the old ones). I downloaded those into Quicken and started directing a lot of my payments into them. But forgot to add them to the automatic reports I was using to calculate my taxes (OOPS!). So, I underpaid for the 3rd and 4th quarters and owed a penalty at the end of the year.
SIGH. In early April I sat down to do my taxes, paid the unpaid amount, and then worked on the form to calculate the penalty. Because I was using annualized income, the IRS couldn’t do it for me – so I had to do all four quarters ALL OVER AGAIN. Nevertheless, at the end, I found I only owed about $60 in penalty. Yay! Mostly because the error was late in the year and the interest on the unpaid amount wasn’t that much.
Remembering the NPR interview and at a friend’s urging, I included a note of apology and an explanation of how I had managed to underpay my taxes. Yesterday, I got something from the IRS. This always makes me a little nervous, as any small business should at even the remotest possibility of an audit. But lo and behold, it was a check in the amount of my penalty payment. Apparently they took my good faith and attempts to do the right thing into account, and gave me a break. It’s not that much in terms of dollars, but it feels like a nice gesture anyway. So thanks, IRS!
Campaign finance and other topics
OK – I know I’ve been quiet lately. I am trying to finish one career to start another (well, really two new ones). Having three jobs is pretty wearing. It’s not that there hasn’t been a lot going on and a lot to talk about! I just keep thinking about blogging and not doing it. I’ve resolved lately to carve out some time though… even if it’s just little observations here and there.
Today’s thoughts are about campaign financing from the public perspective – yeah, that’s you and me. I’ve never given to a campaign before, at least not for a politician. And I don’t tend to like being approached on the street or solicited by mail. This is a candidate I feel strongly about, however, more so than any other politician in my life. Of course, I’m talking about Obama.
That doesn’t mean that I would just run out and give money. As I mentioned, things have been a bit hectic. Knowing that you SHOULD do something is different from actually getting around to it – if I can’t find time to go to the grocery store, clean house, or get my hair cut because I’m working so hard, giving to a political campaign is just not going to be high on my list, no matter how important.
Nevertheless, they’ve managed to get a bunch of my donations, and I think it’s very telling how that happened. First, I found Barack Obama on Twitter. I decided to follow him, and oddly enough, he followed me back. I doubt he’s really reading all our posts ^.^ but it was kind of symbolic. Then I visited the website and signed up for e-mail updates. Then text messages – and yes, I was one of the first to know who the VP was :) That was cool.
Almost immediately, as you would expect, the e-mail requests for donations started coming to my inbox. But these were different. Each one was accompanied by a personal video – of Barack, Michelle, Joe, or the campaign manager. They talked about who they were, shared personal moments on the campaign, talked about the campaign strategy.
Those were the best ones, later in the game. It wasn’t hard to convince me to part with the first $100 or two. After that, I wanted to know what I was paying for. Well, they told us. In detail. Often a specific ad would come with the request for money that we were being asked to fund – that was not airing yet. They would explain why this particular ad right now and where it would be playing. Now Obama hasn’t had too many ads I disliked, most have been very positive. But if for any reason you didn’t want to fund a particular ad – well, you didn’t have to! I REALLY liked that.
Later came discussions of what exactly they were doing in battleground states that was costing so much money. It was nice to hear that, and to think we had some hope of taking Florida, for example. That might go a long way toward erasing the Al Gore pain of old.
The last tactic I personally enjoyed was grass roots matching funds. Everyone has employer matching funds – this was person to person – those that had given before matching new contributors and sending personal messages about why we support this candidate – and getting personal messages back from the person who got our match. That was fun, too.
All of this has contributed to Obama having more than 3 million contributors now. Each has given an AVERAGE of only $86. Compare that to lobbyists, PACs, and industry. Yet, he is so far outstripping McCain in fundraising that he is able to compete in places that no presidential candidate has bothered to before.
It doesn’t hurt that he has a huge army of volunteers (organized on the internet, of course) working for him on the ground. If you don’t have money, you can get lists of people in your neighborhood to call or visit and talk with – and they emphasize that this is just as important or more so. Ads go only so far.
I hope the fact that this personal fund-raising approach has beat the pants off of traditional campaign financing will change the face of politics forever. We’ve shown what our money can do as the vast public, $86 at a time. Go, Obama!
(and please keep sending those videos, twitters, and e-mails AFTER you become president)
Making a difference
Recently I’ve found two web sites that seem especially helpful in making a real difference – in one’s own life and in other people’s lives. I just wanted to highlight these in case they can help you too, or you’d like to join in. The first has to do with microlending, and the second with personal goal-setting and achievement.
Microlending is a really cool practice that allows people in developing countries to obtain small loans to grow their farming or business, usually repaid within a year or two. Repayment rates are exceptionally high, typically above 95%. Kiva is a microlending website that allows you to personally view each candidate recipient and choose to whom and what kinds of projects you want to lend money. You can also see who else is lending to them, and combine your donations to fund larger loans. Then you get updates as the loan is repaid, and eventually get your money back to keep or loan to another person.
I’ve been wanting to be part of this for a while, so yesterday I contributed the money I made from tarot readings this week to four entrepreneurs at the site. Among my “portfolio” are:
- A woman farming and selling vegetables in Samoa
- A woman who has been working as a street vendor in Merida, Mexico, and is now working on setting up a little shop for food and household goods
- A woman selling vegetables in Kenya
- A man selling shoes in Kenya
All are supporting families and some are working to pay school fees for their children (a particularly worthy goal for girls in Africa). If we’re lucky we’ll get updates on the businesses from the aid organizations or the recipients, but either way we know people are getting the help they need at 0% overhead (Kiva requests additional voluntary donations to cover rent and overhead).
The second site is one that uses the power of the Internet to help people define and achieve personal goals. It’s very simply called 43 Things. On this site you can define up to 43 goals that you have for life, though most people start with many less and fill them in as they go along – I currently have 6.
Instantly, you are hooked up with others that share your goals, and you can read about their progress, their struggles, and their ideas for succeeding. You can also read journal entries from those who have done what you’re hoping to do, what it was like for them and how they did it. You can even use the geographic features to hook up with others and form local groups for whatever you want to do – go walking, practice Spanish, exercise more, whatever.
As you go along, you can create journal entries for your goals to keep track of how you’re doing. The site sends you reminders “from your past self to your future self” on intervals you pre-determine (or not, if you choose). For those who need or want it, you can even set up specific milestones with timetables and consequences :) Others can read your journal entries and cheer you on if they like what you’re doing. Once you’ve accomplished a goal, you can click on “I’ve Done It” and take it off your list – yay!
All in all, it seems more motivational than anything else I’ve seen. It combines the power of a blog with a networking site and tracking features to make it all work together – it can even link to your external blog if you want to – once I figure that out you may be seeing a new “Goals” category on this site :)
RSS - Posts