April 2017 Daily Stepping

[Elaine Glimme]

I'll have to tell my husband that writing is sexy. I'll bet he didn't know that.

[Elaine Glimme]

Since this is a ranting place, I want to talk about taxes. I end up doing most of the tax work because I care about taxes being done on time and my husband doesn't.
Back when I worked, taxes were understandable. I took a day off of work, figured them out double checked everything and mailed them in. And once in a while, maybe every five years, I'd have H&R Block do them, just to make sure I wasn't making any huge mistakes.
Now $*&^&%%$%

I can't do them myself anymore.

My pension is mostly taxable except for a small amount, and you have to figure out what that amount is. Once the 1099 form from an investment said we received $80,000 which we didn't. I now have to take minimum disbursements on three accounts. and report them on my taxes. They're only amount to a few hundred dollars in a year, but they have to be reported. And we got solar panels last year and a rebate in January. And my husband has his half of the info all over the place. For the amount of stuff I have to do you'd think I"m rich, which I'm not Just confused. So I started them (taxes) yesterday (Yay!) I've done taxes for over fifty years. For the amount of anxiety, you'd think this was my first year.

[Lynx]

Hi EG,

Yucksvilles indeed. Do you use Turbotax or paper and pencil it out? T-tax sometimes really helps, but its missed things, too. Always need that final review, etc.

If you have a question I might check to see if t-tax has any suggestions about it or a worksheet, let me know (private message).

There have been many suggestions for a simple progressive tax (the less you earn the smaller the percentage) based on total net income whatever the source. But that would put too many lawyers, accountants, software developers, printers, judges, lobbyists, and writers out of work. Not to mention retire the oil depletion allowance.

Plus if we scaled back our federal war budget to just a $1 more than the total of the budgets of the next 3 countries (currently its more than the first 7—Prez O. was pretty proud of that in his last State of the Mess Address, and got a rousing applause) we could be more generous in letting poor folks keep more.

Rant out!
Lx

[Elaine Glimme]

Lynx, I use H&RBlock. Tom's best friend was an accountant, but he died last year. For all the complaining I'm doing, you'd think I was doing the whole thing myself, but no, H&R will do the work. I just have to get all the paperwork together. The angst is more about the fear of leaving something out.

But if you look at it rationally, finding all the pieces of paper, or asking for paper if I can't find it is not that hard a job.

[Lynx]

A Rant

Ah, alas, I live in a condo with flaking siding on one side. I've been delving into what it would take to prettify it for the last 6 years, easy. The peeling looks uglier every day.

I want some requirements because I want all my research to be put to good use by me, if no one else. I'm in a condo, I can't act alone.

I wanted a simple basic solution, as time went on other owners at our annual meetings started adding: the whole building, windows, the decks, and the roof (a separate line item). Each slows things down, each adds to the costs. Back comes the estimates—whoa Nelly, we can't afford that!

Here lies the perils of being a member and not a consultant. Consultants can resign any account. I'm enmeshed here like a strike in a catcher's mitt. Clients hear me out as a consultant, as a member I have to clamor and repeat to get any point across.

I think I see a way forward, but now with the inflated expectations and the deflated feelings from the estimates, adjusting is that much more mentally hard for us *as a group.* Pretty easy for me alone.

The difficulty is there isn't a kitchen-tested recipe. Nothing's sure or certain for any step. Just have to make my best assessment of the situation and march on.

Rant out!

To the marching,
Lx

[Elaine Glimme]

I have windows on my computer. How do I put the accent on the "e" in Remy Martin?

[Elaine Glimme]

Lynx, concerning your rant, I understand your predicament Living in a house, I would concentrate on one affordable project at a time. Then I'd moan and groan about the cost. Then I'd hire someone to do the job.

Living in a condo, everyone is going to want their project done. I can just imagine the "discussion" that would ensue concerning which project should be started first.

I'm probably not telling you anything you don't already know, but here goes.

1. I'm glad I don't live in a condo.

2.Make a list of all the projects you want/need done.

3.Are any of them an emergency?

4.Have members rank the projects in order of importance.

5. Set up a time line for the ones that get the highest ranking.

6.Hope that your siding is up at the top of the list.

7. Do something fun.



That's all I have. Most of what I know about condo boards I learned from the TV show "Frazier."

[Elaine Glimme]

During April, I'm concentrating on two projects - Nano and taxes. I think, in May I want to be a scanner. Do a million different things and not finish a single one of them.

[inspiresuccess]

I think, in May I want to be a scanner. Do a million different things and not finish a single one of them.

What a great goal! Giving yourself permission to not finish anything!

Lynx, I'll come back and read your rant soon. Good for you for doing a rant. Hope it helps to get it out there.

[Elaine Glimme]

Thanks, Inspire Success, I hope it'll shake things up a bit. I hope things are going okay for you. I know you're dealing with a lot.

[Lynx]

Hi ya'll,

re: condo: I'm not your keep-to-myself-to-avoid-entanglements person. Living here has been really instructive on how poorly prepared and practiced we are by our culture for living as equals with shared property and thus shared decisions. Useful examples for my life's work and research, not so fun for my life. Originally wanted to live in an intentional community where the other people would have had more intentionality about communicating well and finding ways to resolve differences. Long story why we're not there. Maybe share over tacos sometimes.

The siding IS a high priority in the condo, the issues are that as some owners were able to add things via a vote (no costs for that!) the costs went over our budget. Psychologically it harder to climb down a features list than to climb up one. I have always wanted the simplest approaches, still do. There's also a lot of fear of being blamed or missing something important which contractors and other vendors use (maybe innocently) to their advantages. Who pays for that? We do. The current board is afraid of relying on majority votes to move forward and seemingly wants some proposal that would win unanimous approval. Ha! As I'm stuck in this boat, I just drift with my oars up like everyone else. Eventually something will galvanize a change.

Within our own unit we do fairly well, it's just 2 of us and I mostly say "sure." I learned about the features list thing as we shopped for a faucet. When we got to the top of the line (the smoothest action, the neatest features, the best finish) I knew what we would buy :: There was nothing else to discover by more shopping. My L P both worries and regrets, but at the top of the line there's nothing to regret except how the models look a couple of years later.

My only 3 contributions to the kitchen remodel were making one of the countertops 3-inches higher to accommodate my height, and putting in a foot pedal control for faucet. I read about the faucet in a feature in the Wall Street Journal and it sounded like a great idea. Love it.

#3: Kitchen mats for standing a long time. Top of the line, of course.

Lynx

[inspiresuccess]

For those of you who are writers (which is everyone but me!):

“The trouble with words is that you never know whose mouths they’ve been in.” Dennis Potter

[Elaine Glimme]

[Lynx]

Hi Elaine,

Here it is é you can copy and paste it in. Easy peasy on my Mac, just looked up for Windows and decided cc & paste might work.

Lynx

[Elaine Glimme]

Thanks.