We don’t live Paycheck to Paycheck except for this time of the year. I got my checking account balance, and it’s dropped below $3,000… YIKES!!!
What happened???
Year end and new Year expenses puts us in bit of a financial bind every year. Oh, we have the money in the stock market if we need it, but I hate to cash out stocks to pay for domestic expenses…
The Year end problem is Christmas and 2 December birthdays in my family. And we have 2 cousins with birthdays at the beginning of January. This hits us a bit hard, but then there is the new Year expense of car insurance and we the fact that we pre-pay our cable bill. So the credit card bills for Dec and Jan are usually over an extra $1,000 each!
This is why I’m always excited to do my taxes, I claim zero allowances! So we get a decent chunk of tax money back, and usually my work bonus hits shortly after. I may have to do my kids taxes this year too, for something called “Kiddie Tax”.
How can I prevent this?
The best way to prevent this would be to:
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Pay off the house (Feb!!!)
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Change my tax allowances so I get more during the year.
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Change the way my insurance bill is billed to me.
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Purchase Christmas and December Birthday gifts earlier in the year.
If all goes well, this should be the last year of Year end tightness that we experience.
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Is the “kiddie tax” for the investment accounts that you opened for them?
Can’t wait for my tax refund either!
Holiday season and special occasions can easily dampen ones finance. But sounds like you’re gonna have it good once your house is paid off.
@Jane
Yeah, slowly over the years it has come back to bite me. I need to put them money in some solid stock and leave it alone. You’d think I would have learned by now…
Yeah, once I get the tax return, company bonus, and my house paid off, hopefully this year end/year begin tightness will be no longer…
@moneyhoneysf
That’s true, things are starting to come together this year (hopefully)…
That will be nice to have the house paid off. Sweet.
I have similar tightness in December too. With Turkey Day, Christmas, and a bday…completely understand. I told my self I was going to start buying gifts to stock away at the start of the new year… ya, that hasn’t happened! Time to buckle down.
LOL, I tell my wife that is what we need to do every year, and yet when the season rolls around, we’re still shopping in Oct., Nov. and even Dec….
Welcome to my site, thanks for commenting! It’s good to know that I’m not the only one in that “late shopper” boat
No more mortgage – Time for a celebration! Congratulations.
Thanks! Yep, this is the month, we’ll cut the check next week sometime, and then be debt-free
It will take some getting use to… kind of a surreal feeling…