How’s everyone doing with filing their 2019 tax returns? Are you taking advantage of the increased time at home with coronavirus to get yours filed?

Even with the government’s postponement of the tax filing deadline, I went ahead and submitted our family’s 2019 tax return last weekend to get it checked off my list.

To be perfectly honest, our taxes are quite complex. 

We have self-employed business income, W2 income, 1099-INT income, 1099-MISC income, 1099-DIV income, 1099-B income (usually), own a home, move between states, have HSAs/FSAs/dependent care FSAs, multiple investment accounts, own/buy/sell homes, and have kids. Just about the only things we don’t have are rental income properties, large donations to charity, and large health expenses.

Our Switch from Using an Accountant to TaxAct

Since 2015, I have been using the TaxAct online tax platform to collect, organize, and filing my return. I switched from using a brick-and-mortar accountant to TaxAct in the 2014-2015 time period because my accountant charged me 2.6x the filing fee from the prior year ($650 vs. $250) simply because I had moved in 2014 from Virginia to Colorado. I wasn’t very happy/satisfied with this response since I felt that I had to do >50% of the leg-work to collect my tax information into a tax organizer for the accountant, adding a 2^nd state’s tax return isn’t that difficult since the bulk of the information has already been collected from the federal return, and I knew there were much less expensive options out there.  

I’m Very Satisfied with the TaxAct Experience, But Why Do the Prices Go Up So Much Each Year?!?!? 

Listed below are the TaxAct prep fees I’ve paid associated with filing my tax returns for the past five years:

• 2015: $35 (Self Employed Federal + Colorado State).
• 2016: $55 (Self Employed Federal + Colorado State).
• 2017: $64 (Self Employed Federal + Colorado State).
• 2018: $72 (Self Employed Federal + Colorado State).
• 2019: $177 (Self Employed Federal + Colorado State + North Carolina State).
  • $76 Self Employed Federal.
  • $55 per state.

I’m not sure what happened between 2018-2019, but it looks like their pricing almost doubled! Maybe it’s time to find a new tax prep software?

With the coronavirus lock-down, have you found yourself drinking more alcohol?

If so, you're not hardly alone. Some articles have put the increase in alcohol purchasing/consumption at up to 40% since the coronavirus hit the US. Whether it's out of boredom, dealing with increased demands at home with trying to keep your kids occupied, or stress from the sobering truths of the pandemic, it's understandable that folks are reaching for this coping mechanism. 

Health consequences aside, I wanted to send out the message that if you want to drink more right now, please do so in a way that least impacts your personal finances. 

Some ideas on how to save money on alcohol spending:

1. Make your own wine or beer at home.

No only is making your own home brew a fun activity to pass the time, it can also save you money if done correctly. If not done correctly, it's unlikely to save much money at all.

For some fun, take a look at this old post I wrote in 2014 about how to make wine for $1 per bottle. Please note that it will be strong, but will not taste that good! 🙂

2. Drop the Beer

My personal opinion is that cheap wine/liquor is more palatable than cheap beer. As such, if I'm going for beer, I reach for the thick craft beer options.

Craft beer aside, what does the cheapest beer cost? Is it about $16 for a 24 pack? That's about on-par from an alcohol equivalency perspective with a $3 bottle of wine.  

3. Cheap Wine Options

It's amazing to me how palatable cheap wines have gotten in the past few years. Just about every major grocery store chain has their bottom-shelf private label wine these days. Even the large boxed wines like Peter Vella and Franzia have gotten decent-tasting.

Below is an unofficial survey of some inexpensive wine options:

• Franzia or Peter Vella: $18 per 5 L. 
• Oak Leaf (Wal-Mart): $2.50 per bottle. 
• Oak Creek (Kroger): $2.99 per bottle. 
• Three Wishes (Whole Foods / Amazon): $2.99 per bottle. You can even get it delivered right to your door! 
• Charles Shaw (Trader Joe's): $2.99 per bottle. 

Here in the Raleigh, North Carolina area, it doesn't look like the lock down from the coronavirus is going away anytime soon. Yesterday, the NC governor issued a stay-at-home order running until April 30th. This was on top of the Wake County stay-at-home order/timeline through April 15th. 

These are truly the best of times and the worst of times. It's the best of times because I am thankful to have stable employment, good family health, and a lot more time at home with my family. It's the worst of times, well, for the obvious public health reasons, and because we need to stay at home to restrict disease vector spreading.

We're all feeling the "squeeze" in our own unique ways. People that live by themselves are going crazy because they feel alone without other human interactions. On the other end of the spectrum, families like mine with two young kids at home are finding it hard to have quiet time to ourselves for work or other purposes. 

I saw a very good video the other day where former astronaut, Scott Kelly, was giving advice to folks on how to get through this difficult time. 

Along with several other great suggestions (regular exercise, connecting with old friends), one that I really liked was picking up a new hobby or pick up an old one.

For the past few years due to my career/"day-job" and having two children, I haven't had the time to personally write much on this blog. However, it's one of the things about blogging from which I get the a lot of satisfaction. It's a nice creative outlet. 

As such, maybe one of my goals for this stay-at-home stretch will be to do more "raw" writing here, without worrying necessarily about formatting, advertising, SEO, networking, etc. Let's see how it goes!