What do you mean "enough to get taxed"? Are you saying that interest below a certain amount isn't taxed at all?
How Often Do You Get Paid?
- Thread starter All Seeing Eye
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What do you mean "enough to get taxed"? Are you saying that interest below a certain amount isn't taxed at all?
Kinda. If you only make a couple bucks interest, it doesn't exactly change your total income for the year, so not really a difference to your refund one way or the other.
Even if it was a HUGE factor, it wouldn't matter, as it's free money, and you'd make more than you'd be charged in taxes on it. Unless you are about 3 cents from being in a new tax bracket, and paying a higher rate, you're foolish to not be making interest on your savings, at least...
Even if it was a HUGE factor, it wouldn't matter, as it's free money, and you'd make more than you'd be charged in taxes on it. Unless you are about 3 cents from being in a new tax bracket, and paying a higher rate, you're foolish to not be making interest on your savings, at least...
Two jobs. One pays every Friday, the other pays every other Wednesday.
Yeah, I don't keep track of anything like that. As long as I'm not making absurd purchases every week I have no financial worries.
You're still not leveraging your money to work for you. Why not put it into an interest earning Money Market Account or an IRA? Tax refunds are stupid.
Not often enough.
What do you mean "enough to get taxed"? Are you saying that interest below a certain amount isn't taxed at all?
I misspoke. Most (if not all) institutions won't provide 1099's for any account earning less than $10 in interest per year. Although you're technically supposed to report that income anyway, I usually don't bother.
I have a checking and savings account that both pay under %1. Last year I made just over a dollar between those two accounts... hardly worth reporting. The bulk of any saving I have are in various online savings account paying 1.3 - 2% (rates suck right now), which I do report. However, if I didn't get 1099's from those accounts because I was earning less that $10, I probably wouldn't bother with those either.
The tax situation is more complicated than you think it is. If you only have one job, then yes, it's pretty easy to get your withholding right. However, I've known too many people who have two (or more) jobs and try to do their withholding, and end up owing money because each job can't take the total earnings into account. So, they play it safe and take fewer exemptions to avoid owing.
Just because other people do it differently from you doesn't make it lazy.
My budget is broken down by pay period--each time I get paid, money has to go various places. I'm saving some of it, too, but I still track it by paycheck. Since my bills are essentially on a 30-day cycle and my paychecks create a 28-day cycle, eventually each bill hits a point where it's not due on the next check, but the one after. You're right that it's not "extra," but I can at least save it and pay that bill with the next check. Since all the bills shift around in this way, I never get stuck with too many bills to pay with a single check.
Monthly.
As for interest on accounts, unless you go for certain ones here, the interest rates can be a little bad.
As for interest on accounts, unless you go for certain ones here, the interest rates can be a little bad.
Bi-monthly. My fellowship is deposited directly in my bank account every other month. No extra payments, but I get refunds on travel expenses and research funds.
Every two weeks, they mail me a check, assuming that I've actually had work in that two-week period. And, for some RIDICULOUS reason, they refuse to do direct-deposit, even though the home office is on the East Coast but the workers are spread out all over the country.
My main salary is paid to me monthly.
I do get various other bits and pieces paid to me on a more irregular basis - some annual & some completely random based on other little sidelines I'm involved in, as well as some work for other organisations. They add up to quite a nice sum, but I tend to just treat them all as bonuses and don't spend them during the year, because I know I'll have to pay some tax on them at the end of the year, so it would be daft to dip into them until I know how much of them will actually end up being mine rather than the government's!
I do get various other bits and pieces paid to me on a more irregular basis - some annual & some completely random based on other little sidelines I'm involved in, as well as some work for other organisations. They add up to quite a nice sum, but I tend to just treat them all as bonuses and don't spend them during the year, because I know I'll have to pay some tax on them at the end of the year, so it would be daft to dip into them until I know how much of them will actually end up being mine rather than the government's!
I've got a fair amount of investments, so I consider that enough work that my money's doing.
As for my withholdings, I've got them at an optimal level. I'd much rather risk withholding too much and get a refund, rather than not enough and have to owe.
Not often enough.
So true!When I put my time sheet in correctly ~ this month I managed to add it up 40 hours short
(the 'powers that be' did not spot it ~ I wonder if they will if I try to sneak extra hours in?) I get paid the last Friday of each month. Which means every 4 months I get an extra week's pay and all my calculations go heywire!
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