Skip to main content

No Foolin'

April gets a bad rap. First of all, there’s the first, the day you can’t trust ANYBODY or ANYTHING. Then there’s the rain so that May can be beautiful. If you live in the Rocky Mountain West like I do, spring hasn’t quite sprung so it might be shorts weather one day and snow boots the next. And don’t forget TAX DAY. I once heard a report that said divorce filings are higher during the middle of April than they are at any other time of year. And you probably won’t believe me, but every tax-paying-and-filing adult’s least favorite day of the year happens to be my birthday. I kid you not. Someone once suggested I get a judge to change it, lol.

According to my opinion in the first paragraph, we can deduce the only redeeming thing about April to be Spring Break, if April is lucky enough to be the host that year. If it wasn’t for that, the “Ides of March” would just keep on rolling right on through and NOBODY would survive. Oh, wait, Spring Break is just for kids and those who work in education. Sorry, parents.

But April is also symbolic of rebirth–there are lots of baby animals, we see lots of new foliage emerging even if it hasn’t bloomed yet, and most of the time we celebrate Easter then. So, I’ve decided it to be a PERFECT time to start something new!

Community, meet the My Discovery Destination! Financial Calendar! My Discovery Destination! Financial Calendar, meet community!

During the first blog post of every month for the next 12 months, I will be introducing a “check-off list” of sorts of suggested things to do that month to help you get your affairs in order, financial ones included. I’m not predicting anyone’s demise. To download a copy of yours, go here and search for “April Financial Check-Off List”.

Your first order of business is to file your taxes if you haven’t already done so. But, do not panic; because of Covid19 this year the IRS has extended the filing date until May 17, 2021 (please note this is only for personal, not business tax filings). So start pulling things together so you're not doing everything at the last minute.

Yes, today, the day this entry actually posted, is April Fool’s Day. No, this is not a joke.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

One More–Christmas Experiences Part II

Christmas is just a week away. Hopefully you’ve checked everything off your to-do list and can spend some quality time “experiencing” Christmas gifts with your family. Because, after all, your loved ones will be far more touched by how you made them feel than they will be with what you gave them. This week, I want to share with you my sister, Carey’s, family Christmas experience. “One Christmas, when my boys, now 18, 23 and 28, were little, we gave them an experience that is still talked about now. And it’s something so easily replicated that any family can do it, and it’s not too late to do it for Christmas (even ON Christmas) this year. We drove around our neighborhood and looked at all the homes decorated for the holiday. We took note of the addresses as we numbered them. We talked about what made each ornamented yards stand out. And at the end of the night, we voted for our favorite. I had my sons help me make some of our favorite holiday desserts and, in addition to taking p...
Post a Comment
Read more

More Financial Help

As part of the Discovery Family Coalition, we work with many agencies whose purposes are to help families in a myriad of areas. One of those areas is finances (that I get to chat with you about every week–yay!). And right now, families need all the financial help they can get, mine included. One of our fellow coalition partners, the Utah Department of Health & Human Services Child & Family Services, also does what it can to get help, including financial help, to families who need it. I happen to be on an email list, and this week I got an email with this information: “The Connect toCollect(C2C) program is focused on increasing low-income Utahans' receipt of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) by educating individuals about this federal program and linking them to high quality, free tax preparation." What is the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)? It's a tax credit that  helps low- to moderate-income workers and families get a tax break. If you qualify, you can us...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Marshmallow Experiment

In 1972, Stanford did a study about delayed gratification with children. It involved giant marshmallows and testing their patience.  You can see a short YouTube video about the study here . Basically, the kids who could sit alone with a giant marshmallow without eating it for a certain length of time were rewarded with a second giant marshmallow. Fun, huh? Some kids could be patient and reap the rewards; some could not. I was a small child when the study was conducted, and I wonder which side I might have been on. I HAVE learned to be pretty patient as an adult. One of the areas in which I’ve seen improvement is in finances. I have become a good money manager–I could be paid once annually and budget so that I won’t run out before year’s end, including having enough money to pay my own quarterly taxes–self-employed people do that. Speaking of taxes, I try not to overpay so that I qualify for a “refund,” because the government does not practice The Marshmallow Experiment. Huh? ...
Post a Comment
Read more