by Kevin S. Engle
I was working on taxes the other day.
Sounds like fun doesn’t it?
When I finished our federal return, we owed the IRS some money, plus eight bucks in penalties and interest.
What bothered me the most was the eight bucks.
Could I do anything about it?
Actually, yes.
After reading some instructions, I spent the next two hours shuffling papers and crunching numbers. When I was done, that $8 penalty was now only $2. I felt a little better.
But I’d just spent two hours of my life to save six bucks.
That’s like earning three dollars an hour.
Not much when you think of it that way.
Was it worth it?
Probably not.
The following day, when I completed our state return, we had an $85 penalty.
Yikes!
You know what that meant?
Pull out my calculator again.
Some of the calculations were already done from the day before, but I still needed to tweak a few things. In less than an hour, I was able to eliminate all $85.
Now we’re talkin’.
In total, I spent about three hours of my life on this little exercise and saved us 91 bucks.
My hourly rate has just gone up from $3 to a little more than $30.
That’s a nice increase.
And just what are we going to do with all that extra money we’ve saved?
Spend it on something else of course.
I was at the grocery store yesterday. My total order was about 60 bucks. I should’ve stopped at the gas station on the way home and put a few gallons in the tank too.
Life is good.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
The author is feeling lucky. Maybe he should buy some lottery tickets as well?
The Best of Engle’s Angle is available online or pick up a signed copy at a local bookstore.
