How interesting. Ths past week, while I was working on today's Tax Watch column, I put out a request to all the aggressive hungry public relations people, authors, universities, and experts, asking, "What Your Best Use of $260 per Year?" (I didn't tell them that this was in lieu of spending $5 per week on the lottery.
The results were bleak, boring and uncreative. Though the article turned out very well.
I also asked about whole life insurance policies and annuities. Not a nibble. And it's impossible to get instant quotes online for life insurance. Though, I did find universal life policies worth $50,000, with costs of as little as $282 for a very healthy woman or $340 for similarly healthy man.
Hey, maybe you can come up with better ideas, yes?
I invite your ideas.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Sounds similar to "what to do with that tax refund?"
I tell people to do something that they'd want to do, but never really found the money to do it.
Like take a class.
Or learn to paint.
Or brush up on a foreign language.
Or buy that rare first-edition book you've had your eye on.
These things won't lower your taxes, won't help you save for the future, and won't boost your insurance coverage. But it will enrich your life and help you do something YOU want to do. Which, I think, is what life is supposed to be about.
Oh, what I would ACTUALLY really and truly spend my $260 on? Community college classes for my brother. At $22 per college credit, this will buy him 3 classes (at 3 credits each) and a few books. It's a nice, and affordable, way to help someone out.
Put $5/week away, and at the end of 12 months, plan your vacation, that you would normally take, to Las Vegas or Laughlin Reno, Lake Taho, Atlantic City, etc. Go to the Blackjack table (you, of course, must know how to play the game), and when your $260 has turned into $286.00, leave the table and enjoy the rest of your vacation playing golf, sight seeing, skiing or whatever. You have made 10% profit on your $260 savings. If you lose, write it off or consider it part of your vacation expenses. isn't this a great idea????
$260?
I could buy a new digital camera. Prices have really come down, and if I shopped carefully, I could probably get a fairly nice one for that.
I could keep my old digital camera and get an iPod.
I could have a whole set of my preschoolers' fingerpaintings professionally framed during one of the half-off sales at Hobby Lobby.
I could buy my kids a new book every week for a year.
I could subscribe to the local newspaper, work the Sudoko puzzles, and give the rest of it to the Humane Society to reuse and recycle.
I could buy a new piece of software that would let me scan in pictures, convert them to embroidery files, and sew them on my existing Brother sewing machine.
I could buy a play kitchen that didn't come from consignment or a plastic playhouse for the backyard or a simple swingset.
I could pay for one of my kids' classes- Taekwondo, zoo classes, violin lessons, swim classes- for at least a semester.
I can think of at least 260 things I could do with $260...
Hrmmm, what can I do with that $260 per year?
Well, first, I took Eva's advice about the SunRocket phone cost for unlimited calling, which I had been looking for such a deal that would offer 2 things in addition to reliable phone service:
Significantly reduced cost for unlimited calling with the land service ($199.00 per year w/o any hidden fees in this case as opposed to $54.93 + hidden fees per month with the local phone company).
Cost structure is 100% predictible outside of possible price increases due to economic conditions.
Last October, I already saved myself $8.69 per week on medical expenses for 2006 as opposed to 2005 and with greater benefits that's not even factored into that $8.69 per week. Of course, with that 8.69 being before tax basis, and my marginal tax rate for federal and state combined is 20.1%, it's really an after tax savings of $6.943 per week or $361.05 for the year. First time in a long time that this expense has actually dropped.
Hrmmm, let's add up what we have saved up to this point:
260 (original question)
500 (reduction in phone charges)
361 (reduction in premiums and FSA contributions not counting the added benefits)
This adds up to $1,121 over the course of the year. Let's also add to this, I get almost $3,000 from the IRS by playing it by the rules of the tax code, mostly via the ACTC, though $200 of that is made up of $2,000 of that refund money going into a spousal ROTH IRA. After adding this to it, that now gives me $2,000 or so to play with over the course of the year.
Shall we keep this snowball a rolling or shall we stop here? I say neither.
First, I will take a portion of it and have the family celebrate for the achievements that we have done. However, rather than fully stopping here, let's see about a smaller size of this snowball being put to work to build back up again, such as if you have any high debt costs (how much does it cost for each $1.00 borrowed) or if you don't have that, how about putting that money to work for you rather it be into an emergency account or a retirement account.
By doing this, you can get something out of life while at the same time, having some portion of your money work for you instead of you having to work for the money.
This was so much fun being able to have both the cake and the icing (though a bit delay by one year), let's see if we can't do this annually? As each year passes by, that amount continues to grow in general outside of those market bear years.
Post a Comment