Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)

[Linea_Norway]

I've had so much overtime this year that I've had to reduce my 401k contribution percentage twice to ensure I get the maximum matching from my company (they match on a per-paycheck basis and don't do a "true up" at the end of the year, so if I max out my contributions in October I miss out on all the matching money for the rest of the year). I think I'll likely have to reduce it further still though...

I still have 22 overtime hours this year that I usually would have taken off. But know being a Mustachian and wanting to maximize my income, I consider having it paid out instead. I still have enough normal flexible hours to take off a couple of hours here or there.

[shelivesthedream]

Trying to give someone directions when you both have a radically different idea of what a reasonable walking distance.

Me: Oh yeah, I know that road. You just turn left here and it's about a twenty minute walk in a straight line then you'll see your road on the right after the park.
Her: Oh dear, perhaps I should take a taxi.

(I was unable to advise on suitable public transport options as I am not familiar with a few local buses.)

[TheDuder]

I have spent the last couple of months reading this entire thread and now I'm done. HOW WILL I GO ON????

Read Overheard at work next

Have a link? I cant seem to find that thread. Thanks

[cakie]

I have spent the last couple of months reading this entire thread and now I'm done. HOW WILL I GO ON????

Read Overheard at work next

Have a link? I cant seem to find that thread. Thanks

Just look in the antimustachian wall of shame and comedy... You'll find it!

[reformingSucka]

MPP Problem - When groupon has $5 for $10 at Coffee Chain - and I can't take advantage of the deal because I make better tasting coffee at home for *much* less.

[Zaga]

I'm annoyed with this one.  DH was laid off this week, but he's about $4000 from maxing out his 401-K for the year!  We are leaving $1K in taxes (25% tax bracket) on the table.

Of course we could have had no way of knowing this was coming, but I'm still annoyed that we didn't weight his contributions towards the start of the year.  If we had done that we would have been closer to the max.

I expect that he'll be employed again quickly, but I doubt he'll get such a great 401-K as he had at that job ever again :-(

[LeRainDrop]

I'm annoyed with this one.  DH was laid off this week, but he's about $4000 from maxing out his 401-K for the year!  We are leaving $1K in taxes (25% tax bracket) on the table.

If he has any severance payment coming, see if they can adjust your 401(k) contribution accordingly. Just a thought in case you haven't tried it yet!

[trombonedadio]

When I first got to Korea all my fellow soldiers kept asking me why I didn't have a phone, like I was having money problems. When I said I couldn't afford a phone or some other things, they offered to help me get a second job or to send me to financial management classes. Mostly I don't have money on hand to spend because I put almost everything I make into savings or debt repayment. It's difficult to make them understand this. Eventually I bought a prepaid for 20 bucks. I can refill the card for ten bucks, which will last me for much more than a month. But, I recently found that incoming calls and texts still happen regardless if I've paid for minutes. They're not charged to your account in Korea, so I've decided not to pay for minutes. I can get along just fine by going to another room in the barracks and actually talking to someone. So now people get upset that I can't call or text, and it doesn't seem to matter that they can call me if they need me.

[trombonedadio]

When I first got to Korea all my fellow soldiers kept asking me why I didn't have a phone, like I was having money problems. When I said I couldn't afford a phone or some other things, they offered to help me get a second job or to send me to financial management classes. Mostly I don't have money on hand to spend because I put almost everything I make into savings or debt repayment. It's difficult to make them understand this. Eventually I bought a prepaid for 20 bucks. I can refill the card for ten bucks, which will last me for much more than a month. But, I recently found that incoming calls and texts still happen regardless if I've paid for minutes. They're not charged to your account in Korea, so I've decided not to pay for minutes. I can get along just fine by going to another room in the barracks and actually talking to someone. So now people get upset that I can't call or text, and it doesn't seem to matter that they can call me if they need me.

I've got a flip-phone my wife insisted I buy in 2010 when I was going to be doing a lot of travelling. I prepay yearly(way cheaper), but as of this summer, it no longer works in Western Canada - they updated the cell network. In Eastern Canada the same thing will be done by April 2018 at which point my much-loved phone will no longer work. I could buy a new flip-phone for $40 (roughly) that works on the new system, or a smart phone for about $90. What to do.....!?

[cakie]

When I first got to Korea all my fellow soldiers kept asking me why I didn't have a phone, like I was having money problems. When I said I couldn't afford a phone or some other things, they offered to help me get a second job or to send me to financial management classes. Mostly I don't have money on hand to spend because I put almost everything I make into savings or debt repayment. It's difficult to make them understand this. Eventually I bought a prepaid for 20 bucks. I can refill the card for ten bucks, which will last me for much more than a month. But, I recently found that incoming calls and texts still happen regardless if I've paid for minutes. They're not charged to your account in Korea, so I've decided not to pay for minutes. I can get along just fine by going to another room in the barracks and actually talking to someone. So now people get upset that I can't call or text, and it doesn't seem to matter that they can call me if they need me.

I've got a flip-phone my wife insisted I buy in 2010 when I was going to be doing a lot of travelling. I prepay yearly(way cheaper), but as of this summer, it no longer works in Western Canada - they updated the cell network. In Eastern Canada the same thing will be done by April 2018 at which point my much-loved phone will no longer work. I could buy a new flip-phone for $40 (roughly) that works on the new system, or a smart phone for about $90. What to do.....!?

Whatever you get, make sure it covers as many of the new bands as possible. Around here, I can get new nokias with all the best coverage for peanuts, and smartphones are sometimes hopeless. There isn't much correlation with the price.

[halftimer]

My MPP: I'm accidentally playing hard negotiator with my work, without meaning to.

Situation is this. I enjoy working part time. It gives me plenty of time to be refreshed for my job. And I imagine this is part of why I am very good at my job (nurse). But my company desperately wants me to work more. This is the second year in a row where they've offered me a *massive* raise in order to work more. (They also offered me a different promotion/raise into management, but I turned that down). This means in 2 years with the company, I'm making 1.7x what I started out making as my hourly rate.

Husband pointed out that I'm basically a hard negotiator, because I'm always willing to walk away, and they want results way more than I do. So that's my MPP. People want to pay me so much, I'd be insane not to work a bit more!

Same for me! I enjoy working parttime, because it feels like semi-retirement. My boss needs me to pick up some extra shifts now and then and I'm not extremely happy with that, so he gave me quite a big raise and offers me extra incentives. I'd be a fool to not work those extra shifts ( and it would cause the company a lot of trouble if I didn't) but I'm not extremely happy with it. My boss knows I'd rather walk away than work fulltime and that's a good position to be in.

I can completely relate to this! My ideal schedule is half time (hence the name) but I keep being offered extra perks, increases, and other incentives to do more.  To fill in for a co-worker on extended medical leave last year I agreed to temporarily work full time.  This summer I told my boss, 'Well it's time for my annual contract review soon.  I have filled in 'temporarily' for a year now and it's past time that you made other arrangements to fill the need."  I then negotiated for slowly reducing my work schedule in over the coming months, starting with 4 hours less per week for now.  The upper management panicked and kept offering more for me to continue, and can't seem to understand that I value my TIME.  In the end, my new contract is for less hours and more money and a promise that I can continue to lower my schedule.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

I do not have enough repurposed glass jars for both my homemade yogurt and my homemade vegetable broth.

[Raenia]

I do not have enough repurposed glass jars for both my homemade yogurt and my homemade vegetable broth.

This is my problem too!  There's so much great produce at great prices this time of year, and I'm running out of canning jars :(  I'm going to have to buy more in order to take advantage of the lovely bag of plums my SO brought home yesterday.

[Imma]

I do not have enough repurposed glass jars for both my homemade yogurt and my homemade vegetable broth.

This is my problem too!  There's so much great produce at great prices this time of year, and I'm running out of canning jars :(  I'm going to have to buy more in order to take advantage of the lovely bag of plums my SO brought home yesterday.

I haven't canned anything this year but I remember from other years. In good years, you don't buy a lot of things in glass jars in the store, you give away jams or applesauce, you drop one or two, and by next canning season you have so much left to can and no remaining jars... I used to ask relatives to collect used glass jars for me.

[Sibley]

I do not have enough repurposed glass jars for both my homemade yogurt and my homemade vegetable broth.

This is my problem too!  There's so much great produce at great prices this time of year, and I'm running out of canning jars :(  I'm going to have to buy more in order to take advantage of the lovely bag of plums my SO brought home yesterday.

I see canning stuff at thrift stores frequently. Maybe check those out? Also, you might get lucky with garage sales/estate sales.

[Zaga]

I'm annoyed with this one.  DH was laid off this week, but he's about $4000 from maxing out his 401-K for the year!  We are leaving $1K in taxes (25% tax bracket) on the table.

If he has any severance payment coming, see if they can adjust your 401(k) contribution accordingly. Just a thought in case you haven't tried it yet!

Sadly, no.  His so-called severance payment is 2 week's pay.  Plus, when I got a severance no 401-K came out of it at all, I think that 401-K is actually only allowed to come out of some types of income, and severance isn't one of them.  At least that's what I was told* when I received a severance.

*Yes, they might have been lying so they could just give us the money, I don't know.

[Dicey]

I do not have enough repurposed glass jars for both my homemade yogurt and my homemade vegetable broth.

This is my problem too!  There's so much great produce at great prices this time of year, and I'm running out of canning jars :(  I'm going to have to buy more in order to take advantage of the lovely bag of plums my SO brought home yesterday.

I see canning stuff at thrift stores frequently. Maybe check those out? Also, you might get lucky with garage sales/estate sales.

I think the glass of most newly purchased jars is too thin. I hate losing contents to broken glass. I also like the consistency of canning jar lids. I try to use canning jars exclusively*. My conundrum is that I prefer older canning jars because they're even thicker than new canning jars, but I prefer the widemouth style that's more popular now. At a garage sale yesterday, I found old, widemouth jars in two sizes!!! It was all I could do to only buy one (dozen jar) box of each. She wanted $5 per box. I was so happy I didn't even haggle with her, so yeah, I may have overpaid, lol!

*A few months ago, a Girl Scout leader was looking for 80 glass jars, in various sizes, for a terrarium project. I was able to clean out my whole trove of non-standard jars without guilt.

True confession: writing about this made me wish I'd bought more. Fortunately the garage sale was just around the corner. Just bought another dozen. Anyone know where to score deals on 1-PC. widemouth canning jar lids?

[Goldielocks]

  So Dicey.
I find that I just use the two piece lids, because you can move the rings off the sealed jars and use them for tomorrow's batch of canning.   .. you only need to invest in more lids, not rings all the time.   

That's a pretty good deal, about 40 cents a jar.  Here the thrift has canning jars for 50 to 70 cents each, depending on size.. at least I can pick and choose the prettiest ones for gifting as I find them. 

I do reuse smaller glass jars, such as from mustard or relish, to re-can pickles / relish.  Perhaps smaller size is a bit stronger?  As long as the top dents in, they seem to work well.  They do NOT work for freezing, however, especially larger jars.  Many breakages later, I have learned my lesson... freeze stock in ziploc bags instead.

[10dollarsatatime]

  So Dicey.
I find that I just use the two piece lids, because you can move the rings off the sealed jars and use them for tomorrow's batch of canning.   .. you only need to invest in more lids, not rings all the time.   

That's a pretty good deal, about 40 cents a jar.  Here the thrift has canning jars for 50 to 70 cents each, depending on size.. at least I can pick and choose the prettiest ones for gifting as I find them. 

I do reuse smaller glass jars, such as from mustard or relish, to re-can pickles / relish.  Perhaps smaller size is a bit stronger?  As long as the top dents in, they seem to work well.  They do NOT work for freezing, however, especially larger jars.  Many breakages later, I have learned my lesson... freeze stock in ziploc bags instead.

Also... you're not actually supposed to store canning jars with rings on.  If, for some reason the jar comes unsealed, the ring can hold the lid on, making it difficult to tell if something went off.

Most of my jars have come from thrift stores.  They always seem to have them. :)

[NorCal]

I recently changed up my diet to eliminate cereal in the morning and add in proteins and vegetables. 

My MPP:  Now that I'm using fewer bowls in my routine, I run out of plates faster and end up running the dishwasher more often.  I'm about to run an NPV calculation on whether it's cheaper to buy more plates, or use the dishwasher more often.  I'm guessing it will be cheaper to buy a few more plates.

[Dicey]

Thanks GL and 10$. I should have specified that I use the jars mostly for freezing and for bulk food storage. I have loads of the 2-part lids in regular and widemouth sizes. I just find myself gravitating toward the one piece lids lately. So far, buying new lids might cost more than I paid for the damn jars. I'll keep looking. I searched Amazon, so you know they'll be bugging me for the next few days.

Oh, and I do know it's  best to remove the rings after the seal has set. I put up jam every few years, but still have plenty on hand, so no actual canning has happened since um...let's see, Caramel Sauce for presents last Christmas. Yum.
I leave the rings on when I give gifts, because people who don't can think something's wrong if here's no ring.

[merula]

Dicey, my solution to your problem has been plastic peanut butter hats. I go through a ton of PB  in my house, so we get the 54(?)oz jars, and I save the jars for storing dry food or freezing stock. Works great!

[anotherAlias]

I have been gradually shifting my schedule to work more days from home and now I have to find a cell plan with more minutes because of all the conference calls.  I went from a $10/mo plan to $20/mo and now it looks like I'm going to need a $30/mo plan.  I guess an extra $20/mo is a small price to pay to be able to knit during conference calls and do chores during downtime.

[Goldielocks]

I have been gradually shifting my schedule to work more days from home and now I have to find a cell plan with more minutes because of all the conference calls.  I went from a $10/mo plan to $20/mo and now it looks like I'm going to need a $30/mo plan.  I guess an extra $20/mo is a small price to pay to be able to knit during conference calls and do chores during downtime.

Work from home conference calls (and calling IT support) are huge reasons I love my VOIP phone, which only costs me $5 per month.  If you have home internet, you can get a VOIP phone.

[pdxmonkey]

I have been gradually shifting my schedule to work more days from home and now I have to find a cell plan with more minutes because of all the conference calls.  I went from a $10/mo plan to $20/mo and now it looks like I'm going to need a $30/mo plan.  I guess an extra $20/mo is a small price to pay to be able to knit during conference calls and do chores during downtime.

Google Fi? $20/month for unlimited talk/text. Pay per MB for data. You do however have to own one of a few specific phones Could be worth it if you're moving to a $30 plan.

[anotherAlias]

I have been gradually shifting my schedule to work more days from home and now I have to find a cell plan with more minutes because of all the conference calls.  I went from a $10/mo plan to $20/mo and now it looks like I'm going to need a $30/mo plan.  I guess an extra $20/mo is a small price to pay to be able to knit during conference calls and do chores during downtime.

Google Fi? $20/month for unlimited talk/text. Pay per MB for data. You do however have to own one of a few specific phones Could be worth it if you're moving to a $30 plan.

I'm on a Moto g5 so Google fi is out.  I was looking at h20 wireless but their website won't accept my main credit cards(amex).  I guess I'll have to pull my Mastercard out of mothballs and try again. 

[Linea_Norway]

I recently had a Mustachian problem when shopping groceries. I have become a member of most grocery store chains. Also this one chain where I don't shop very often because it is out of my usual route. I have an app on my phone for this chain. My normal debit card is registered on it, but the app doesn't support credit card. I now always pay groceries with a 3% cashback credit card.
In this particular shop I bought a big pile of packs with sliced cheese, because it is my favorite cheese for a very good unit price. I haven't seen it cheaper elsewhere. The shop is supposed to give you 10% discount on the goods that you buy most -> therefore the large pile with cheese, which should not be my number one product I buy there.
When I had to pay and tried to open the app, the app failed to open (I had some issues with the memory card of my phone). The guy in the shop said: do you have your card? So I took my credit card and paid with it, presuming my purchase would be registered automatically as it does in the other chains. But of course, it didn't work, because I should have used my debit card, which is connected to the chain. So I again missed 10% discount on a large pile of cheese.
First time I tried to use the app, I only thought of it after paying and that was too late getting any discount.
So, I'm just not being lucky using this grocery chain combined with discount programs...

[mlejw6]

I'm on a Moto g5 so Google fi is out.  I was looking at h20 wireless but their website won't accept my main credit cards(amex).  I guess I'll have to pull my Mastercard out of mothballs and try again.

If it's a moto g5 plus, it may work with Republic Wireless. I have them with my g4.

[Rural]

I recently changed up my diet to eliminate cereal in the morning and add in proteins and vegetables. 

My MPP:  Now that I'm using fewer bowls in my routine, I run out of plates faster and end up running the dishwasher more often.  I'm about to run an NPV calculation on whether it's cheaper to buy more plates, or use the dishwasher more often.  I'm guessing it will be cheaper to buy a few more plates.

Or just eat the new breakfast out of bowls even if it's a little weird.

[Linea_Norway]

I recently changed up my diet to eliminate cereal in the morning and add in proteins and vegetables. 

My MPP:  Now that I'm using fewer bowls in my routine, I run out of plates faster and end up running the dishwasher more often.  I'm about to run an NPV calculation on whether it's cheaper to buy more plates, or use the dishwasher more often.  I'm guessing it will be cheaper to buy a few more plates.

Or just eat the new breakfast out of bowls even if it's a little weird.

Or wash up your plate by hand right after breakfast.
I think it is smart to have enough dishes and cutlery to be able to run your dishwasher only when it is full. Buy cheap dishes.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

I recently changed up my diet to eliminate cereal in the morning and add in proteins and vegetables. 

My MPP:  Now that I'm using fewer bowls in my routine, I run out of plates faster and end up running the dishwasher more often.  I'm about to run an NPV calculation on whether it's cheaper to buy more plates, or use the dishwasher more often.  I'm guessing it will be cheaper to buy a few more plates.

My children have been smashing my Pfaltzgraff one plate at a time (which is OK, it is from my wedding, I lost half the set in the divorce and the rest is chipped anyway) so I got some spares at Goodwill. You can generally get, say, 3 plates together pretty cheap.
Or just eat the new breakfast out of bowls even if it's a little weird.

Or wash up your plate by hand right after breakfast.
I think it is smart to have enough dishes and cutlery to be able to run your dishwasher only when it is full. Buy cheap dishes.

[RelaxedGal]

Fighting over soap scraps.

My bar of hand soap was getting small so I pulled a new bar out of my hotel soaps stash.  An hour later I used the restroom and... no old bar of soap?!?  I yelled downstairs to my husband "Did you steal my soap?"

He's so excited about his soap saver ($1 at Dollar Tree) that he dropped my sliver into his bag.  "With this, we don't need to press the old bar onto the new bar of soap any more!"

I warned him that he'll smell like honeysuckle.  He doesn't care.  This man hates scented anything and only washes with Ivory, but he loves that bag. 

[jordanread]

Fighting over soap scraps.

My bar of hand soap was getting small so I pulled a new bar out of my hotel soaps stash.  An hour later I used the restroom and... no old bar of soap?!?  I yelled downstairs to my husband "Did you steal my soap?"

He's so excited about his soap saver ($1 at Dollar Tree) that he dropped my sliver into his bag.  "With this, we don't need to press the old bar onto the new bar of soap any more!"

I warned him that he'll smell like honeysuckle.  He doesn't care.  This man hates scented anything and only washes with Ivory, but he loves that bag.

That story made me smile.

[jrbrokerr]

I will quit my job on Jan. 2 , 2018 but since my boss is super-ultra nice, I donīt know how I will do it (speech line I will use)...

[401Killer]

My friends all feel sorry for me when they ask what I am doing with my tax refund and I say we aren't getting one.  Guess they like giving an interest free loan.

Tax returns, making poor people feel rich for 48 hours...

[401Killer]

I don't have a mortgage anymore, so I don't get to play with my epic mortgage calculator to see how much interest, or time I can save by putting down a little more, or less, or one lump sums. Watching the payoff dates and all the little numbers change... Seriously, I've spent a TON of time over the years playing with that thing.

So now, whenever I hear ANY kind of story of someones new loan or rates or anything, I punch it all into the calc machine and look at it all...

Just today, convo was talking about a normal size house in the HCOL area on the west coast is like $1M. So, into the calc is goes...

1,000,000 @ 30 years @ 4%
= $4774.15/mo payment, make min payments and pay an extra $718,695.06 in interest!!!
= If round up to an even $5k/mo, it saves you $68,000 and knocks 2.5 years off the loan.

1,000,000 @ 15 years @4%
= $7,396.88/mo payment, pay saves $387,257 in interest!

[frugalnacho]

My friends all feel sorry for me when they ask what I am doing with my tax refund and I say we aren't getting one.  Guess they like giving an interest free loan.

Tax returns, making poor people feel rich for 48 hours...

A surprising amount of people don't understand that your tax liability and your withholding/returns are completely separate things.

I can't tell you the number of times I've advised someone to invest in an IRA while touting the tax benefits, and they can't comprehend how it lowers their taxes. 

"But I've already paid taxes on that money.  How does it help if I put $5,500 into an IRA?"
"No you didn't pay taxes, you had estimated taxes withheld.  You don't actually calculate and pay your taxes for this year until early next year.  You subtract your IRA contributions from your AGI so you don't end up paying taxes on that portion, and you square up with the IRS at that time."
*Blank stare*
"But I've already paid taxes on that money.  They took it out of my paycheck."

[gaja]

My friends all feel sorry for me when they ask what I am doing with my tax refund and I say we aren't getting one.  Guess they like giving an interest free loan.

Tax returns, making poor people feel rich for 48 hours...

A surprising amount of people don't understand that your tax liability and your withholding/returns are completely separate things.

I can't tell you the number of times I've advised someone to invest in an IRA while touting the tax benefits, and they can't comprehend how it lowers their taxes. 

"But I've already paid taxes on that money.  How does it help if I put $5,500 into an IRA?"
"No you didn't pay taxes, you had estimated taxes withheld.  You don't actually calculate and pay your taxes for this year until early next year.  You subtract your IRA contributions from your AGI so you don't end up paying taxes on that portion, and you square up with the IRS at that time."
*Blank stare*
"But I've already paid taxes on that money.  They took it out of my paycheck."

"They will give it back to you as a reward for being such a good saver. And then your tax refund will be even bigger next year!"

[Zaga]

I'm annoyed with this one.  DH was laid off this week, but he's about $4000 from maxing out his 401-K for the year!  We are leaving $1K in taxes (25% tax bracket) on the table.

Of course we could have had no way of knowing this was coming, but I'm still annoyed that we didn't weight his contributions towards the start of the year.  If we had done that we would have been closer to the max.

I expect that he'll be employed again quickly, but I doubt he'll get such a great 401-K as he had at that job ever again :-(

More annoyance, I can only change my 401-K withholding once a quarter.  I guess I got super lucky that I was able to lower my 401-K in time for the 4th quarter.  Bah, how can they justily only allowing a change once a quarter?!!

[Linea_Norway]

My friends all feel sorry for me when they ask what I am doing with my tax refund and I say we aren't getting one.  Guess they like giving an interest free loan.

Tax returns, making poor people feel rich for 48 hours...

I used to have intelligent colleagues (still have, work in software branch). We have been fantasizing at the lunch table about not letting your employer draw pre-taxes from you salary, but rather put it on a high interest bank account and pay the taxes in April next your, when you fill in your form. That would be most beneficial for yourself.
Once I sold a lot of stock in June and had to pay a really big sum of extra taxes. Then I wanted to wait paying those until April next year. But somehow the tax office noticed that I had these extra taxes and send me a bill for the extra amount already in August. Obviously you are not allowed to postpone your taxes for such a long time. The state needs this interest free loan from all taxpayers.

[CptCool]

I have been gradually shifting my schedule to work more days from home and now I have to find a cell plan with more minutes because of all the conference calls.  I went from a $10/mo plan to $20/mo and now it looks like I'm going to need a $30/mo plan.  I guess an extra $20/mo is a small price to pay to be able to knit during conference calls and do chores during downtime.

You should get obihai and pair it with google voice. This service is free other than initial purchase price of $30-70 for the obihai. I've done it for myself, my parents, and my grandparents. You can't even tell it's a VOIP phone and you can transfer your home phone number to google voice if you don't want to lose it.

[Erma]

I always brought and still bring my lunch to work. It seems to have worked as an example for my co-workers as a lot of them now also bring their lunch daily. The problem: The refrigerator is very small and it gets more and more difficult to put the food in there.

[Marley09]

A surprising amount of people don't understand that your tax liability and your withholding/returns are completely separate things.

I can't tell you the number of times I've advised someone to invest in an IRA while touting the tax benefits, and they can't comprehend how it lowers their taxes. 

"But I've already paid taxes on that money.  How does it help if I put $5,500 into an IRA?"
"No you didn't pay taxes, you had estimated taxes withheld.  You don't actually calculate and pay your taxes for this year until early next year.  You subtract your IRA contributions from your AGI so you don't end up paying taxes on that portion, and you square up with the IRS at that time."
*Blank stare*
"But I've already paid taxes on that money.  They took it out of my paycheck."

Is this Roth or Traditional IRA?  I was under the impression that the IRA deduction line for AGI on the 1040 was for traditional IRA reporting only.  Am I missing a deduction with my Roth IRA contribution?

-Marley

[frugalnacho]

A surprising amount of people don't understand that your tax liability and your withholding/returns are completely separate things.

I can't tell you the number of times I've advised someone to invest in an IRA while touting the tax benefits, and they can't comprehend how it lowers their taxes. 

"But I've already paid taxes on that money.  How does it help if I put $5,500 into an IRA?"
"No you didn't pay taxes, you had estimated taxes withheld.  You don't actually calculate and pay your taxes for this year until early next year.  You subtract your IRA contributions from your AGI so you don't end up paying taxes on that portion, and you square up with the IRS at that time."
*Blank stare*
"But I've already paid taxes on that money.  They took it out of my paycheck."

Is this Roth or Traditional IRA?  I was under the impression that the IRA deduction line for AGI on the 1040 was for traditional IRA reporting only.  Am I missing a deduction with my Roth IRA contribution?

-Marley

Traditional. That impression is correct. No, roth contributions do not get deducted.

[Sibley]

I always brought and still bring my lunch to work. It seems to have worked as an example for my co-workers as a lot of them now also bring their lunch daily. The problem: The refrigerator is very small and it gets more and more difficult to put the food in there.

My office doesn't have a fridge. Ice packs are pretty good however.

[Dollar Slice]

I always brought and still bring my lunch to work. It seems to have worked as an example for my co-workers as a lot of them now also bring their lunch daily. The problem: The refrigerator is very small and it gets more and more difficult to put the food in there.

My office doesn't have a fridge. Ice packs are pretty good however.

This reminds me of the time I was grumbling a little about not being able to keep ice packs at work (because no fridge/freezer) for an injury I had, and my boss suggested I buy a cooler and a pile of ice packs and chill them down every night and carry it all to work and back every day (on the rush-hour NYC subway... five flights of stairs each way). She is not a very efficient person.

[TomTX]

I will quit my job on Jan. 2 , 2018 but since my boss is super-ultra nice, I donīt know how I will do it (speech line I will use)...

Keep it short and to the point:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_resignation#/media/File:Letter_of_Resignation_of_Richard_M._Nixon,_1974.jpg

No explanations, no bullshit, no long goodbyes.

[TomTX]

A surprising amount of people don't understand that your tax liability and your withholding/returns are completely separate things.

I can't tell you the number of times I've advised someone to invest in an IRA while touting the tax benefits, and they can't comprehend how it lowers their taxes. 

"But I've already paid taxes on that money.  How does it help if I put $5,500 into an IRA?"
"No you didn't pay taxes, you had estimated taxes withheld.  You don't actually calculate and pay your taxes for this year until early next year.  You subtract your IRA contributions from your AGI so you don't end up paying taxes on that portion, and you square up with the IRS at that time."
*Blank stare*
"But I've already paid taxes on that money.  They took it out of my paycheck."

Is this Roth or Traditional IRA?  I was under the impression that the IRA deduction line for AGI on the 1040 was for traditional IRA reporting only.  Am I missing a deduction with my Roth IRA contribution?

-Marley

Traditional. That impression is correct. No, roth contributions do not get deducted.

Roth does count for the Saver's Credit. Which is helpful.

[AnnaGrowsAMustache]

I will quit my job on Jan. 2 , 2018 but since my boss is super-ultra nice, I donīt know how I will do it (speech line I will use)...

Keep it short and to the point:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_resignation#/media/File:Letter_of_Resignation_of_Richard_M._Nixon,_1974.jpg

No explanations, no bullshit, no long goodbyes.

Hahahahaha, that's awesome. I'm going to resign as soon as my new position is signed and sealed. Now I'm googling famous resignation letters and I think I might just copy and paste.

[secondcor521]

I will quit my job on Jan. 2 , 2018 but since my boss is super-ultra nice, I donīt know how I will do it (speech line I will use)...

Keep it short and to the point:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_resignation#/media/File:Letter_of_Resignation_of_Richard_M._Nixon,_1974.jpg

No explanations, no bullshit, no long goodbyes.

Hahahahaha, that's awesome. I'm going to resign as soon as my new position is signed and sealed. Now I'm googling famous resignation letters and I think I might just copy and paste.

I just realized that letter is really good reason to never give more than 2 weeks notice.  I mean, the President left his job without even 2 weeks' notice.  (Yeah, I know the writing was on the wall, but still....)