Tax Refund 2013

I did my taxes yesterday and ended up getting amazing news.  I’m getting $1,769 back from the federal government and $387 from the Great State of Delaware.  What am I going to do with all of that moolah that will suddenly appear in my budget?  I’m going to stick it straight into my Roth IRA!  I’m so adventurous, I know.

The reason my return is so large is twofold:

·         Since I only started working in June, my gross annual income was fairly low.  This means that my initial deductions ($3,900 personal exemption and $6,100 standard deduction) stretched a lot further than they will next year when I make a full salary.

·         I paid almost $3,000 in student loan interest. (I paid off everything that had accrued while I was in school in addition to the monthly accrual since graduation.)  This means I managed another $2,500 deduction that wouldn’t even have to be included in itemized deductions.  Woo hoo!

The only downer about getting a big tax refund is that if I’d kept that money over the last 7 months, rather than paying it to the government, I could have been putting it in my Roth and earning interest and returns on it.  I know that the best situation in the long term would be to actually owe a little bit because then I would really be earning the maximum I could.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the government also paid interest to you on the excessive money they withheld?  How did you tax return turn out?  What will you do with your windfall?

Net Worth - February 2014

While January was a FABULOUS month in the world of this little lady’s finance, February was not so good.  I was away for two weekends, which ends up costing me more in the social spending category and I went on a couple of major clothing shopping sprees, pushing me over in that part of my budget as well.  Additionally, I bought tickets for Cinderella on Broadway for myself and two friends and haven’t been paid back yet.  We’ve decided to settle up after the trip, but it makes my bank accounts feel sad right now.

Regardless, it’s always good to see how I did over the course of the month and if I managed to meet the goals I set, so let’s check it out!

·         February:

o   Assets: $13,536.65

o   Liabilities: $(24,628.67)

o   Net Worth: $(11,092.02)

o   Bottom line: + $1,112.75

·         February GOALS:

o   Achieve a net worth of $(10,000.00)

o   Contribute $1,200.00 toward my Roth IRA    Unfortunately, I only put in $500. Womp womp, can you say disappointing?  I ended up taking a good amount of unpaid time off due to snow storms which means my paychecks were smaller and so were my contributions!

Wow.  I didn’t hit either goal this month.  It’s such a disappointment when that happens.  It’s okay to get off track sometimes; it just means I need to assess what happened this month and figure out how to get it together for the next one!

Here are my goals for next month!

·         March GOALS:

o   Achieve a net worth of $(10,000.00)

o   Contribute $1,400.00 toward my Roth IRA

How was your February?  Did you hit the mark or struggle like me?

P.S.  My life has been CRAZY lately.  I feel like I’m constantly away visiting friends and family or working or trying to spend time with the people in my life who live where I do.  As you can see this leaves my posting a little subpar!  I’m going to up the ante this month and really focus on bringing you some quips about my financial life!