It's always been my strategy to try to get as close to "breaking even" as possible ... you know, having access to my money all through the year.
2010 was an interesting year ... I had started Synchronicity the year before ... then got sidetracked for months & months making the movie,
STEP AWAY FROM THE STONE ... so not a lot of REAL income for a good part of the year ....
The second half of the year, though, came back with some positive cash flow from consulting clients ... so I was feeling pretty good about things ...
Still .. in typical MJ style ... I put off the actual preparation of my return until the last minute ... one nite last week, I sat down with my box of receipts & income statements. I do a pretty good job of keeping stuff together so it really didn't take too long ...
I've been doing my own tax return for years and years. I have had returns that involved living in multiple states ... owner financing ... self-employment ... unemployment .. pretty much you name it ... I've done it. This year's was a piece of cake in comparison.
As I entered the data ... the little box up in the right corner of the screen was supposed to adjust my tax obligation up or down based on the things I did last year. So first I put in some interest income and immediately I "owed" some taxes. Then I moved on to my Synchronicity stuff and it went to $0 ... and there it stayed ... on $0 ... all the way to the end.
Yep. $0 taxes owed ... and ... $0 refund due. $0 on Federal .... $0 on State.
Imagine that!
Of course, I didn't believe that was possible. To have lived my life so well that I was perfectly balanced ... at ZERO ... for the year... so I took everything over to my CPA friend and had her take a look at my work. She came up with the same results.
Cool. So very cool.
After I got past the incredibleness of the outcome ... I had to smile. Actually, I laughed outloud ... because it was just too funny ... somehow ... ZERO has become my "lucky" number ...
Remember my eharmony.com story ... with ZERO matches in the entire world of 10 million subscribers in 2006 ... and again, in 2009 ... ZERO matches found amongst the 10 million subscribers to eharmony.com ...
... only to find ... after a double-dog dare ... that in 2011 there is now a match for me on eharmony.com ... yeah ... one-in-ten-million finally located ...
... just in time for tax season! Gotta love the humor in that!
Anyway, tax day was a good day for me. Good days have been the norm lately. Recently I explained my good day theory to a friend .... any day the sun shines I can put my top down ...
and any day I can put my top down is a good day ...
Lots and lots of good days ... here lately ....
even on days when the top stays up ...
The sun was supposed to shine all weekend ... thought my MJ-good day theory was in full force. Then Friday afternoon it clouded up ... cold air met the hot air ... the storm blew through ... so much for the sunshine.
A friend of mine responded to my bemoaning of the lack of anticipated sunshine by saying ..." Hang on it will change for sure" ...
...and guess what ?!?! He was right. Today has been an absolutely glorious day full of sunshine ... the top's down .... even though duty has kept me inside ...
Guess that old adage about death & taxes ... simply doesn't ring true to me ... not any more ...
The way I see it ... the only thing that is inevitable is ....
SUNSHINE!
http://www.lifelessons-mj.blogspot.com/
(c) April 2011
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