A relatively short post this week. It is the “end run” of tax season.
I managed to finish the last two returns for clients on Monday - out in the mail to then on Tuesday - whew! One of them was a 2015 return for a friend of mine. If she does not have it in the mail by Monday she will lose her refund. Just a reminder - if you have been procrastinating and haven’t filed your 2015 return yet - you will lose your refund if you don’t file it by Monday (April 10, 2019). If you owe taxes though - the various governments will keep trying to collect it - so file your return also. Filing your late 2016 or 2017 returns is a good idea too! Also it always best to file the current return - 2018 on time! If you can’t finish it in time apply for an extension of time to file - Form 4868 from IRS, state forms vary by state. This does not give you extra time to pay your taxes -so if you will owe taxes, try to estimate how much and send the payment along with the extension.
I have the two hardest returns left to do - ours and our little corporation. I more or less finished ours today. I will wait to clear to my head and check it over tomorrow and then print it out.
Now that our return is done I can do our corporation return - some items are paid from our personal accounts for the corporation - and I have to figure out the cost of the use of our van for the corporation (which is why I have to do ours first). Barring some strange occurrence -which if you read my posts regularly you will know we have had a lot of lately - I should have both returns finished, printed and ready to be signed and mailed in plenty of time.
Only one problem remains. As mentioned we pay for some items from our personal accounts - particularly since the corporation does not have a credit card or have much money (I never said it was a successful business). I have to keep track of what we paid for the corporation and sometimes what the corporation paid for us (it has an online payment account and we don’t so for rare online payments we sometimes use the corporation’s account).
The amounts paid out by us for the corporation and paid out by the corporation for us should be the same (in reverse) on both sets of “books”. They are not. I spent all of last night looking for the error(s) and could not find them. So as soon as I post this I will be back to trying to figure out what is wrong. It is more than one error as I searched the books on both ends for the amount I am out and it does not exist.
And while writing this and working on our taxes - I am also doing the laundry!
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Remember get your income taxes done - now - don’t procrastinate. You will be glad you did whether you get a refund or you owe you money and won’t have to pay late fees and interest if you file on time.
Thursday, April 11, 2019
Thursday, April 4, 2019
COMING TO THE END OF TAX SEASON - HOW DO I KEEP IT ALL ORGANIZED AND GET IT ALL DONE?
Last weekend I suddenly realized - I have 2 weeks to the end of tax season - and none of the returns which are due by April 15 are done, most not even started - and only 1 was almost finished. Panic was about to set in - then I looked at my list. I have a dying accounting practice - literally, my clients were from my dad or from my boss and are older than me with a couple of exceptions.
It is an extremely small practice, but I have clients in 4 (US) states - well, I did, but that is another story - I now have in clients, that I know of, in 3 states. My dad was an accountant for an avant garde art gallery at one time and he had many clients who were “modern” artists. My boss had a couple of clients who were writers. Between the two groups I have had clients in 7 states other than my home state and clients in Paris, France and in Auckland, New Zealand. (At one time I had a client in Hawaii and the clients in Paris - one was 6 hours ahead of me and one was 6 hours behind and I would confused as to which was which. The solution? I telephone (pre-Internet days) all of them at 3:00. Which 3:00? It did not matter - it would either be 9 am or 9 pm - not too early to call and not too late to call. Just when I thought that I had the time difference dealt with - a client moved to New Zealand - 16 hours off and a different day!
I do the returns in the order I receive the information. If, though, I have returns that have to go out of state and others that are local, when it gets down to the end - as it is now - I have to get the out of state returns done first so they can be mailed to the client in time for the client to look over the returns, come up with any money they need to pay and get the return out timely on their end. Local clients I can always hand deliver the return. (My dad used to hand deliver returns - he and I (long before I was old enough to work) would go out at night and drop off returns at his clients. I loved doing that with him.)
So a return that has to go across the country was mailed out on Monday - plenty of time in advance. I spent yesterday afternoon preparing extensions for 2 clients who have requested them - I mailed the extensions out to the tax offices that they have to go today. I worked up estimated taxes (for 2019) for one client today and they will go out to him tomorrow. (Estimated taxes are paid by people who do not have taxes withholding on parts of their income due to the type of the income and I have to estimate what their income/taxes will be next year for them.) Normally one has to have 90% of their tax prepaid when the return is due, by withholding and paid estimates to avoid a penalty - or if one’s tax went up a lot in the year the estimate has to be equal to or greater than 100% of their tax for the prior year - in some cases 110% of same. I have to calculate and guess how much the clients need to pay as estimates for the coming year without them overpaying a lot, but also enough that they will not have a penalty at the end of the coming year. These will go to the client (again out of state) tomorrow in the mail.
I have another client who owes taxes for past years. Her husband had been ill and they were also moving to another state so the past several years’ taxes have been a bit late in being filed. She always gets a refund so there is no penalty for filing late, although I always file extensions for her, but she files long after same is over. Last year I went after her to give me info so I could do her return for 2014 so she could file it or she would lose her refund - I prepared the return and also her 2017 - so we started to catch up. I need to do her 2015 return this year so that she does not lose her refund from same. Big problem - the land near her home broke through a retaining wall and she cannot go home - even just to get the papers needed for her 2015 return. I filled in a form for her so that IRS will send copies of what they have for her for 2015 - but it is getting close and I have not received the papers from them. Luckily she had mailed or emailed me the forms she had from their pensions when I made the estimates for 2015 so I have that information. Her other income is Social Security and a tiny bit of bank account interest. Today I looked up what percent Social Security went up in 2015 compared to 2014 so I could estimate out what her income would have been (turned out it was the same amount for both years) and then estimated what would have been withheld on it. I also took her 2014 and her 2017 interest income to figure out what she probably received in 2015. (2016 also has to be completed so I don’t have the info for same.) If I don’t receive the information by tomorrow I will do the return with the info I have, which should be a close estimate of everything. She will have filed timely before she loses her refund. If it is wrong - well, IRS will compare it to their records and correct the numbers before sending her - her refund.
How do I keep track of all of this and make sure all the needed information is on the forms and correct? I have two things that help greatly.
First, I have a pocket file holder - nice plastic one that sits on the floor next to my desk. It has sections in it. A file folder is slightly too large (by maybe half an inch) across to fit in as one is just suppose to use each pocket as a file. I want to be able to pull out the entire file and know everything is in it. I cut one end off of some file folders - just enough for them to fit in the holder. Problem solved. I used to use removable labels when I had a lot of clients so I could reuse the cut folders during the season. Now each client has a folder with their name on it.
When a client mails tax papers to me - whether all of the papers needed or some of them - I put them in the matching folder - in the file holder. I just take out that folder when I am ready to work on their return. Our information for our personal return and for our business returns go into two of these folders also (one is for our return and one is for the business returns) - in this case the year end forms received go into the folder and I when I move last year’s personal bills into a box (in the office closet) at year end, I put the sections of the bills into the matching tax return information folder also.
Second, most of my clients have fairly ordinary returns. So I wrote up a form for myself to fill in the all of the info that might be involved in clients (or our) returns - a section with various types of income listed with lines for the info, a section for taxes paid, estimates and withholding, another section for deductible expenses, and one for adjustments to be made to everything for the state return (if there is one) for the client. Across the bottom is room to write which returns have to be filed by the client - left side Federal, right side state, so I can check that I have all the needed forms for client to file. This information form is changed as needed - when the requirement to have medical insurance under ACA came into being - I added a check box at the top to check off that client has medical insurance. The back of this form is blank so I can list things if there are several of the same item to be totaled. If there are too many to fit, I add a piece of “columnar paper” (paper with columns to list money amount) and use that. This system has worked well for well over a decade and I will keep using it to keep clients’ info organized for their taxes.
Then when I am done with the clients’ returns I have to do the hard returns. Ours and our corporation. They have to be done together - or at least I have to break out some of the figures between the two before doing the return. These at least I have until midnight, April 15 to finish and mail.
Some people find all of this overwhelming when I talk about it. I grew up in a house with both parents who were accountants - although most of the time only dad was working when I was growing up - mom was a stay at home mom until I was in college. (They did have to come up with tuition - after scholarships and loans were subtracted - to pay tuition for the 3 of us.) Husband did not understand this at first - everything was secondary to “tax season”. My parents anniversary is during tax season (when they married it was ending a month earlier than it does now). My mom’s birthday is during tax season (she just turned 90!). Even husband’s birthday falls during tax season - but his I cannot ignore.
So at this point unless something odd happens, I should be done in time - even with time off to write this post and next week’s post and do something for husband’s birthday (and having gone to a birthday party for mom given by my sister). Then - payroll taxes are due by the end of the month!
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
If you have a repetitive task - daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually - figure out how you can make it more automatic to do. This is true whether it is a task around the house such as cleaning or laundry or changing towels - I change the sponges and scrub pad in the kitchen every month at the change of the month to remind to do so. I change all the towels on Mondays (new start to the work week). I then change the bathroom towels (in both bathrooms) on Thursdays also - why Thursday? It is about the middle of the week - and we have garbage pickup on Thursdays - so the kitchen towels are changed on the same days as the garbage is picked up. I change the kitchen towels again on Wednesday and Friday - why not Thursday? Well, I like to change the kitchen towels more often as I am working with food that is raw and may have microbes in it and then touching the towels. Why Wednesday and Friday? - Well Monday, Wednesday, and Friday which are every other day.
You have to decide for yourself when to do what and figure out how to remind yourself what to do. It helps a lot to have a schedule and check off lists.
It is an extremely small practice, but I have clients in 4 (US) states - well, I did, but that is another story - I now have in clients, that I know of, in 3 states. My dad was an accountant for an avant garde art gallery at one time and he had many clients who were “modern” artists. My boss had a couple of clients who were writers. Between the two groups I have had clients in 7 states other than my home state and clients in Paris, France and in Auckland, New Zealand. (At one time I had a client in Hawaii and the clients in Paris - one was 6 hours ahead of me and one was 6 hours behind and I would confused as to which was which. The solution? I telephone (pre-Internet days) all of them at 3:00. Which 3:00? It did not matter - it would either be 9 am or 9 pm - not too early to call and not too late to call. Just when I thought that I had the time difference dealt with - a client moved to New Zealand - 16 hours off and a different day!
I do the returns in the order I receive the information. If, though, I have returns that have to go out of state and others that are local, when it gets down to the end - as it is now - I have to get the out of state returns done first so they can be mailed to the client in time for the client to look over the returns, come up with any money they need to pay and get the return out timely on their end. Local clients I can always hand deliver the return. (My dad used to hand deliver returns - he and I (long before I was old enough to work) would go out at night and drop off returns at his clients. I loved doing that with him.)
So a return that has to go across the country was mailed out on Monday - plenty of time in advance. I spent yesterday afternoon preparing extensions for 2 clients who have requested them - I mailed the extensions out to the tax offices that they have to go today. I worked up estimated taxes (for 2019) for one client today and they will go out to him tomorrow. (Estimated taxes are paid by people who do not have taxes withholding on parts of their income due to the type of the income and I have to estimate what their income/taxes will be next year for them.) Normally one has to have 90% of their tax prepaid when the return is due, by withholding and paid estimates to avoid a penalty - or if one’s tax went up a lot in the year the estimate has to be equal to or greater than 100% of their tax for the prior year - in some cases 110% of same. I have to calculate and guess how much the clients need to pay as estimates for the coming year without them overpaying a lot, but also enough that they will not have a penalty at the end of the coming year. These will go to the client (again out of state) tomorrow in the mail.
I have another client who owes taxes for past years. Her husband had been ill and they were also moving to another state so the past several years’ taxes have been a bit late in being filed. She always gets a refund so there is no penalty for filing late, although I always file extensions for her, but she files long after same is over. Last year I went after her to give me info so I could do her return for 2014 so she could file it or she would lose her refund - I prepared the return and also her 2017 - so we started to catch up. I need to do her 2015 return this year so that she does not lose her refund from same. Big problem - the land near her home broke through a retaining wall and she cannot go home - even just to get the papers needed for her 2015 return. I filled in a form for her so that IRS will send copies of what they have for her for 2015 - but it is getting close and I have not received the papers from them. Luckily she had mailed or emailed me the forms she had from their pensions when I made the estimates for 2015 so I have that information. Her other income is Social Security and a tiny bit of bank account interest. Today I looked up what percent Social Security went up in 2015 compared to 2014 so I could estimate out what her income would have been (turned out it was the same amount for both years) and then estimated what would have been withheld on it. I also took her 2014 and her 2017 interest income to figure out what she probably received in 2015. (2016 also has to be completed so I don’t have the info for same.) If I don’t receive the information by tomorrow I will do the return with the info I have, which should be a close estimate of everything. She will have filed timely before she loses her refund. If it is wrong - well, IRS will compare it to their records and correct the numbers before sending her - her refund.
How do I keep track of all of this and make sure all the needed information is on the forms and correct? I have two things that help greatly.
First, I have a pocket file holder - nice plastic one that sits on the floor next to my desk. It has sections in it. A file folder is slightly too large (by maybe half an inch) across to fit in as one is just suppose to use each pocket as a file. I want to be able to pull out the entire file and know everything is in it. I cut one end off of some file folders - just enough for them to fit in the holder. Problem solved. I used to use removable labels when I had a lot of clients so I could reuse the cut folders during the season. Now each client has a folder with their name on it.
When a client mails tax papers to me - whether all of the papers needed or some of them - I put them in the matching folder - in the file holder. I just take out that folder when I am ready to work on their return. Our information for our personal return and for our business returns go into two of these folders also (one is for our return and one is for the business returns) - in this case the year end forms received go into the folder and I when I move last year’s personal bills into a box (in the office closet) at year end, I put the sections of the bills into the matching tax return information folder also.
Second, most of my clients have fairly ordinary returns. So I wrote up a form for myself to fill in the all of the info that might be involved in clients (or our) returns - a section with various types of income listed with lines for the info, a section for taxes paid, estimates and withholding, another section for deductible expenses, and one for adjustments to be made to everything for the state return (if there is one) for the client. Across the bottom is room to write which returns have to be filed by the client - left side Federal, right side state, so I can check that I have all the needed forms for client to file. This information form is changed as needed - when the requirement to have medical insurance under ACA came into being - I added a check box at the top to check off that client has medical insurance. The back of this form is blank so I can list things if there are several of the same item to be totaled. If there are too many to fit, I add a piece of “columnar paper” (paper with columns to list money amount) and use that. This system has worked well for well over a decade and I will keep using it to keep clients’ info organized for their taxes.
Then when I am done with the clients’ returns I have to do the hard returns. Ours and our corporation. They have to be done together - or at least I have to break out some of the figures between the two before doing the return. These at least I have until midnight, April 15 to finish and mail.
Some people find all of this overwhelming when I talk about it. I grew up in a house with both parents who were accountants - although most of the time only dad was working when I was growing up - mom was a stay at home mom until I was in college. (They did have to come up with tuition - after scholarships and loans were subtracted - to pay tuition for the 3 of us.) Husband did not understand this at first - everything was secondary to “tax season”. My parents anniversary is during tax season (when they married it was ending a month earlier than it does now). My mom’s birthday is during tax season (she just turned 90!). Even husband’s birthday falls during tax season - but his I cannot ignore.
So at this point unless something odd happens, I should be done in time - even with time off to write this post and next week’s post and do something for husband’s birthday (and having gone to a birthday party for mom given by my sister). Then - payroll taxes are due by the end of the month!
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
If you have a repetitive task - daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually - figure out how you can make it more automatic to do. This is true whether it is a task around the house such as cleaning or laundry or changing towels - I change the sponges and scrub pad in the kitchen every month at the change of the month to remind to do so. I change all the towels on Mondays (new start to the work week). I then change the bathroom towels (in both bathrooms) on Thursdays also - why Thursday? It is about the middle of the week - and we have garbage pickup on Thursdays - so the kitchen towels are changed on the same days as the garbage is picked up. I change the kitchen towels again on Wednesday and Friday - why not Thursday? Well, I like to change the kitchen towels more often as I am working with food that is raw and may have microbes in it and then touching the towels. Why Wednesday and Friday? - Well Monday, Wednesday, and Friday which are every other day.
You have to decide for yourself when to do what and figure out how to remind yourself what to do. It helps a lot to have a schedule and check off lists.
Thursday, March 28, 2019
ILLUMINATING LIGHTS, BUT ALMOST NO WORK- WORK, DONE
Well another week gone - and nothing much done of what I planned to do. Husband had plans.
We have a solar outdoor light fixture that we bought at least a year ago - if not two years ago - at Costco to put up in the backyard. We have electricity back there and at one time husband put up a light, but he cannot deal with heights - could not back when put the put the light up (nor can I deal well with heights) - but it is worse now. The fact that we are both on the short side and have to climb up higher to reach what others can reach adds to the problem. The light he had put up has not worked in a long while and we did not want to climb as high as the old light to replace it. So our logic was that we would buy a solar fixture and replace it by putting the solar fixture lower down the wired fixture. The fixture has been sitting in our dining room since we bought it waiting to be put up.
When we had our garage finished we had electricity added. You know the idea of ask around and find someone friends recommend? We hired a contractor who had done work several times for husband at his job and were extremely happy with. Our garage - not so much. To leave out the extensive details, the (supposedly) licensed electrician the contractor had hired did the wiring rather oddly. The outlet boxes inside the garage move as they are not attached to the studs. He put in 2 circuits - but rather than put half the outlets on one and half and half the lights on one and the other half on the other - all the outlets are on one circuit and the lights he put in were all on the same circuit. The air conditioner - which we added later is also on one of the circuits. (The ac installer said he never put one in a garage before.) Oh that reminds me - the garage is husband’s wood workshop. We did have the electrician put in a light next to the side door into the garage (something added when we had this work done - before there was only the large front garage door) which has a switch and a front spot light which has its own switch. We have replaced the front spot light a few times - high up, but not as high as the light on the back of the house - when the motion detectors have gone bad. Well, in the garage there are work lights - the two long flourescent bulbs type. The front two are hung from the inside of the roof - one of them, for unknown reason, much further towards the center of the garage and therefore much higher up. This fixture has been flashing and not really coming on, also for about a year. We had a box with 2 of the LED replacement bulbs for this particular type of feature, but could not reach the fixture to replace them.
The latest problem was that the light next to the side garage door stopped working completely. Husband decided that something had to be done as he could not see in the backyard at night to go in and out of the garage, there was no light there for security, and he was getting a headache working in the garage.
So while I am planning to work on tax returns for clients and for us, he was planning to work on lights. He bought a fixture to replace the one next to the side garage door. He then turned to the question of being able to reach things high up without fear of falling off a ladder. He found a ladder of about the right height that had platforms for the two stop steps and we set out to buy one. We had to go to one of major home store chain stores and then three of the other home store chain to find and buy one. It was really worth the cost - but it did take a lot of time over 2 days.
He was able to put the new light next to the side garage door. He then figured he could reach the bulbs in the fixture inside the garage and was going to buy a pair of LED ones - I surprised him with a box of them that was in the basement and it was done (and I don’t have to worry about breaking them when I move the Christmas boxes around).
That left the solar fixture that has been here for years. Problem is that where we planned to put it he decided after research, was not the place to put it. He finally figured out where to put it - reachable, facing the sun, and lighting up the backyard. So yesterday we put it up. The light fixture first and then the solar panel. Biggest problem was that where he put the light is where our TV antenna stands in the backyard. I was in constant fear that he would lean back or fall back and the long metal prong of the antenna would be through his head. He managed to avoid it and it is all in place. It apparently needs to charge a few days before we can test it.
Tonight - after dinner - I finally got to start the first return. It went easier than I thought with the new forms. It is not finished yet, but done enough that I am not worried about it. (Client lives on the other side of the country and I want to mail it out to her Monday if I can.) Meanwhile I have heard from a client who normally gets an extension - same this year as he is away until after April 15. Another client, a friend, contacted me last week - she has a return from 2015 that needs to be done or she will lose her refund from same. Problem is that she has no access to her house as there is a problem with a support wall and the ground may fall away. Luckily I have enough of her 2015 info (from when we filed the extension) to do a fairly correct return - but I sent her a form that will have IRS mail me copies of the forms sent to her by banks, etc. from that year’s return just to make sure. I am still waiting for other clients to mail their info to me. I keep wondering if I will hear from the client who disappeared to do her taxes. I really worry about her.
I have kept up on laundry - clothing load in the washer as I write and will go in the dryer as soon as my - yes - cell phone rings to tell me that the wash load should be done. I also need to do a load of towels afterwards.
Husband is again hoping and planning to go away Friday for the day - but it looks like rain again. We need a gift for my mom for her birthday on Sunday - she will be 90 and my sister is having a dinner for her. No ideas of what to get for her. I was going to embroider something, but husband talked me out of it. He doesn’t like the idea of giving her gift cards for the supermarket she goes to either (I don’t normally give gift cards, but I am stuck for ideas.) I had actually hoped we will go away as we maybe we can find a PA Dutch food item to bring her back as a gift.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
One cannot always do what wants/needs to do when one plans - especially if there are others involved in one’s life. One can only do the best one can and not go crazy about it.
The timer in the cell phone just went off. So I will copy and post this when I come back up from switching loads. Okay laundry switched - now I can post.
We have a solar outdoor light fixture that we bought at least a year ago - if not two years ago - at Costco to put up in the backyard. We have electricity back there and at one time husband put up a light, but he cannot deal with heights - could not back when put the put the light up (nor can I deal well with heights) - but it is worse now. The fact that we are both on the short side and have to climb up higher to reach what others can reach adds to the problem. The light he had put up has not worked in a long while and we did not want to climb as high as the old light to replace it. So our logic was that we would buy a solar fixture and replace it by putting the solar fixture lower down the wired fixture. The fixture has been sitting in our dining room since we bought it waiting to be put up.
When we had our garage finished we had electricity added. You know the idea of ask around and find someone friends recommend? We hired a contractor who had done work several times for husband at his job and were extremely happy with. Our garage - not so much. To leave out the extensive details, the (supposedly) licensed electrician the contractor had hired did the wiring rather oddly. The outlet boxes inside the garage move as they are not attached to the studs. He put in 2 circuits - but rather than put half the outlets on one and half and half the lights on one and the other half on the other - all the outlets are on one circuit and the lights he put in were all on the same circuit. The air conditioner - which we added later is also on one of the circuits. (The ac installer said he never put one in a garage before.) Oh that reminds me - the garage is husband’s wood workshop. We did have the electrician put in a light next to the side door into the garage (something added when we had this work done - before there was only the large front garage door) which has a switch and a front spot light which has its own switch. We have replaced the front spot light a few times - high up, but not as high as the light on the back of the house - when the motion detectors have gone bad. Well, in the garage there are work lights - the two long flourescent bulbs type. The front two are hung from the inside of the roof - one of them, for unknown reason, much further towards the center of the garage and therefore much higher up. This fixture has been flashing and not really coming on, also for about a year. We had a box with 2 of the LED replacement bulbs for this particular type of feature, but could not reach the fixture to replace them.
The latest problem was that the light next to the side garage door stopped working completely. Husband decided that something had to be done as he could not see in the backyard at night to go in and out of the garage, there was no light there for security, and he was getting a headache working in the garage.
So while I am planning to work on tax returns for clients and for us, he was planning to work on lights. He bought a fixture to replace the one next to the side garage door. He then turned to the question of being able to reach things high up without fear of falling off a ladder. He found a ladder of about the right height that had platforms for the two stop steps and we set out to buy one. We had to go to one of major home store chain stores and then three of the other home store chain to find and buy one. It was really worth the cost - but it did take a lot of time over 2 days.
He was able to put the new light next to the side garage door. He then figured he could reach the bulbs in the fixture inside the garage and was going to buy a pair of LED ones - I surprised him with a box of them that was in the basement and it was done (and I don’t have to worry about breaking them when I move the Christmas boxes around).
That left the solar fixture that has been here for years. Problem is that where we planned to put it he decided after research, was not the place to put it. He finally figured out where to put it - reachable, facing the sun, and lighting up the backyard. So yesterday we put it up. The light fixture first and then the solar panel. Biggest problem was that where he put the light is where our TV antenna stands in the backyard. I was in constant fear that he would lean back or fall back and the long metal prong of the antenna would be through his head. He managed to avoid it and it is all in place. It apparently needs to charge a few days before we can test it.
Tonight - after dinner - I finally got to start the first return. It went easier than I thought with the new forms. It is not finished yet, but done enough that I am not worried about it. (Client lives on the other side of the country and I want to mail it out to her Monday if I can.) Meanwhile I have heard from a client who normally gets an extension - same this year as he is away until after April 15. Another client, a friend, contacted me last week - she has a return from 2015 that needs to be done or she will lose her refund from same. Problem is that she has no access to her house as there is a problem with a support wall and the ground may fall away. Luckily I have enough of her 2015 info (from when we filed the extension) to do a fairly correct return - but I sent her a form that will have IRS mail me copies of the forms sent to her by banks, etc. from that year’s return just to make sure. I am still waiting for other clients to mail their info to me. I keep wondering if I will hear from the client who disappeared to do her taxes. I really worry about her.
I have kept up on laundry - clothing load in the washer as I write and will go in the dryer as soon as my - yes - cell phone rings to tell me that the wash load should be done. I also need to do a load of towels afterwards.
Husband is again hoping and planning to go away Friday for the day - but it looks like rain again. We need a gift for my mom for her birthday on Sunday - she will be 90 and my sister is having a dinner for her. No ideas of what to get for her. I was going to embroider something, but husband talked me out of it. He doesn’t like the idea of giving her gift cards for the supermarket she goes to either (I don’t normally give gift cards, but I am stuck for ideas.) I had actually hoped we will go away as we maybe we can find a PA Dutch food item to bring her back as a gift.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
One cannot always do what wants/needs to do when one plans - especially if there are others involved in one’s life. One can only do the best one can and not go crazy about it.
The timer in the cell phone just went off. So I will copy and post this when I come back up from switching loads. Okay laundry switched - now I can post.
Thursday, March 21, 2019
USE YOUR CELL PHONE AND COMPUTER TO HELP STAY ORGANIZED
Yesterday I had an idea for this post. Between then and now I forgot. That seems to happen a lot these days. I will admit to being in my mid 60s. As a child people said that I had memory of an elephant. I still do for some things - my husband can tell you that I remember things from decades ago that he has forgotten (or remembers totally wrong), but from one minute to another I might not remember. Not sure if it is aging and an actual memory problem or lack of interest in remembering something - although I am sure that is not why I forgot what I was going to write about. So I will write about remembering things to help get organized (unless the other idea comes back to me.)
One problem in organizing and getting rid of stuff is remembering what needs to be done when. For example - one needs to do food and related shopping to keep the household going. I used to have a paper list on the fridge. If we were running low on something I would put it on the list. Husband knew if he was running low on something, he should add it to that list - and he did. Originally I went food shopping on Thursdays - why? Well, my mom did her shopping on Thursdays! We have tended to eat on weekends for most of the time we have been married. So food shopping on Thursdays actually made no sense - the food was sitting around for 3 days before we even started to use most of it.
I switched my food shopping to Mondays. In those days the weekly supermarket sales started on Sunday so by switching to Monday not only did I have fresher food (nicer looking produce) I also was more likely to find the sale items in stock. I found out the first year that we were married that I should not take husband food shopping. He was on vacation from work. (He was on a school year schedule and had several 1 week vacation plus 4 weeks in the summer.) I invited him to the supermarket with me. We left with nothing. Why? “I don’t feel like this for dinner tonight.” Me - “No we are buying this because it is on sale and we will buy extra and freeze it. We don’t have to eat it tonight.” So after doing my food shopping on Monday, I would go again on Friday if anything was needed for the weekend. My week at that time was Monday - run household errands, Tuesday through Wednesday I would work, go out to clients, etc., Friday I would do our banking, buy an extra food, run errands and enjoy lunch out - alone (cheap). My big joke - remember I work by myself - was that “the office voted to go out to lunch together on Fridays”. Saturday and Sunday was our time together. This worked very well.
Over the years other chores were added in that had to vary through the week. For about a decade we were both in two rotating art exhibitions. This involved bringing his work - cut paper, leather, turned wood - and my work - textile/multimedia dolls - to a showcase at each of the two sets of exhibitions we were in. Various libraries, local government offices, & businesses would come and select whose work they would like to have at their locations. The exhibitions were for 1 or 2 months. The artist would bring the work and set it up at the locations and then at the end of the month take the exhibitions down. Since the exhibitions had to be set up/removed during the day, I would do it for both of us. I had to juggle setting up/removing 1 to 4 exhibitions a month over a 2 county area. Not an easy thing to keep track of or to do. But - it was actually easier when I did this alone than when husband stopped working and was doing this with me. I knew the different locations and what would fit and how I had arranged the pieces in prior years. Some locations were really great and I would do a big exhibition with papers explaining the work and which pieces were which and some of the locations had room for 3 pieces. Some of the work was hung on the wall (or on standing panels) and some had to go in cases. Some had employees were who were excited and nice about what was being hung - some were annoyed that we were there. I had computer printed forms I brought with me to list to pieces on for it to be signed for. I also have a data base for each type of work in my computer so I know which pieces had been exhibited where and when. I had an appointment in my computer calendar/cell phone to remind me to call and make an appointment to bring the exhibitions in to set up and another to remind me to make an appointment to take them down at the end of the month or 2 months.)
Similarly I used to have to go to clients on a monthly or quarterly basis. I had to remember which client to go to when and what had to be done when I went there. At first I made notes about what to do at each client and put it in my, originally, paper calendar book, later in my cell phone. Of course over the years I basically knew what to do at each client by memory, but kept my notes. I am now down to one client except for annual income taxes and it is easy to remember what to do there. Also over the decades the client’s records all were put into my laptop computer to make it easier. I still have reminders of when which taxes are due for client and for our personal businesses.
Friends are amazed that I remember their birthdays and anniversaries. I would mail cards to friends children when they were young - I remember the excitement of getting something in the mail. All of this was in special calendar book that I just kept same in so it did not need to be carried to a new book every year in the old days. Now it is all in computer calendar and automatically is there every year.
I have alarms in my cell phone and computer that remind me when something needs to be done - including when to stop working at my computer in the office and go down and make dinner. (This happens 15 minutes before I need to go down so I have a chance to finish up - and back up.) Reminders for birthdays and anniversaries go off a week before each event. I also have a memo/to do/note program in my cell phone (and syncs with my computer) to keep track o f information. The first one is a shopping list - I have various stores/types of stores listed and I add in items we need to buy. Since I find that I am using much fewer coupons these days (as there are so few which match with what we need) I will put “coup” after the item if I have a coupon for it. (Coupons are in sorted holder in the car.) I have a category in this memo for Christmas - this way I will remember next Christmas if we need to replace strands of light or if we have enough card and wrapping for next year. Another category in this memo is things that we cannot find here, but can find in Pennsylvania on trips. I have one memo which holds the specifications of various things in the house that we might buy items for - such as sewing machines so I can buy bobbins for them. Another memo has which light bulbs we need for where. Yet another says how much fabric I need and which buttons I need for reenacting clothing in case we come across something interesting. You get the idea.
THOUGHT FOR THIS WEEK -
If memory or a need for reminders is part of what keeps you from getting organized - use your computer or cell phone - or even an old fashioned calendar/agenda book and a shopping list on the refrigerator - to help you keep track of everything.
Those of you who were hit by the storms across the middle of the U.S. - I hope that you are safe and warm and the results of the snow and rain disappear quickly.
One problem in organizing and getting rid of stuff is remembering what needs to be done when. For example - one needs to do food and related shopping to keep the household going. I used to have a paper list on the fridge. If we were running low on something I would put it on the list. Husband knew if he was running low on something, he should add it to that list - and he did. Originally I went food shopping on Thursdays - why? Well, my mom did her shopping on Thursdays! We have tended to eat on weekends for most of the time we have been married. So food shopping on Thursdays actually made no sense - the food was sitting around for 3 days before we even started to use most of it.
I switched my food shopping to Mondays. In those days the weekly supermarket sales started on Sunday so by switching to Monday not only did I have fresher food (nicer looking produce) I also was more likely to find the sale items in stock. I found out the first year that we were married that I should not take husband food shopping. He was on vacation from work. (He was on a school year schedule and had several 1 week vacation plus 4 weeks in the summer.) I invited him to the supermarket with me. We left with nothing. Why? “I don’t feel like this for dinner tonight.” Me - “No we are buying this because it is on sale and we will buy extra and freeze it. We don’t have to eat it tonight.” So after doing my food shopping on Monday, I would go again on Friday if anything was needed for the weekend. My week at that time was Monday - run household errands, Tuesday through Wednesday I would work, go out to clients, etc., Friday I would do our banking, buy an extra food, run errands and enjoy lunch out - alone (cheap). My big joke - remember I work by myself - was that “the office voted to go out to lunch together on Fridays”. Saturday and Sunday was our time together. This worked very well.
Over the years other chores were added in that had to vary through the week. For about a decade we were both in two rotating art exhibitions. This involved bringing his work - cut paper, leather, turned wood - and my work - textile/multimedia dolls - to a showcase at each of the two sets of exhibitions we were in. Various libraries, local government offices, & businesses would come and select whose work they would like to have at their locations. The exhibitions were for 1 or 2 months. The artist would bring the work and set it up at the locations and then at the end of the month take the exhibitions down. Since the exhibitions had to be set up/removed during the day, I would do it for both of us. I had to juggle setting up/removing 1 to 4 exhibitions a month over a 2 county area. Not an easy thing to keep track of or to do. But - it was actually easier when I did this alone than when husband stopped working and was doing this with me. I knew the different locations and what would fit and how I had arranged the pieces in prior years. Some locations were really great and I would do a big exhibition with papers explaining the work and which pieces were which and some of the locations had room for 3 pieces. Some of the work was hung on the wall (or on standing panels) and some had to go in cases. Some had employees were who were excited and nice about what was being hung - some were annoyed that we were there. I had computer printed forms I brought with me to list to pieces on for it to be signed for. I also have a data base for each type of work in my computer so I know which pieces had been exhibited where and when. I had an appointment in my computer calendar/cell phone to remind me to call and make an appointment to bring the exhibitions in to set up and another to remind me to make an appointment to take them down at the end of the month or 2 months.)
Similarly I used to have to go to clients on a monthly or quarterly basis. I had to remember which client to go to when and what had to be done when I went there. At first I made notes about what to do at each client and put it in my, originally, paper calendar book, later in my cell phone. Of course over the years I basically knew what to do at each client by memory, but kept my notes. I am now down to one client except for annual income taxes and it is easy to remember what to do there. Also over the decades the client’s records all were put into my laptop computer to make it easier. I still have reminders of when which taxes are due for client and for our personal businesses.
Friends are amazed that I remember their birthdays and anniversaries. I would mail cards to friends children when they were young - I remember the excitement of getting something in the mail. All of this was in special calendar book that I just kept same in so it did not need to be carried to a new book every year in the old days. Now it is all in computer calendar and automatically is there every year.
I have alarms in my cell phone and computer that remind me when something needs to be done - including when to stop working at my computer in the office and go down and make dinner. (This happens 15 minutes before I need to go down so I have a chance to finish up - and back up.) Reminders for birthdays and anniversaries go off a week before each event. I also have a memo/to do/note program in my cell phone (and syncs with my computer) to keep track o f information. The first one is a shopping list - I have various stores/types of stores listed and I add in items we need to buy. Since I find that I am using much fewer coupons these days (as there are so few which match with what we need) I will put “coup” after the item if I have a coupon for it. (Coupons are in sorted holder in the car.) I have a category in this memo for Christmas - this way I will remember next Christmas if we need to replace strands of light or if we have enough card and wrapping for next year. Another category in this memo is things that we cannot find here, but can find in Pennsylvania on trips. I have one memo which holds the specifications of various things in the house that we might buy items for - such as sewing machines so I can buy bobbins for them. Another memo has which light bulbs we need for where. Yet another says how much fabric I need and which buttons I need for reenacting clothing in case we come across something interesting. You get the idea.
THOUGHT FOR THIS WEEK -
If memory or a need for reminders is part of what keeps you from getting organized - use your computer or cell phone - or even an old fashioned calendar/agenda book and a shopping list on the refrigerator - to help you keep track of everything.
Those of you who were hit by the storms across the middle of the U.S. - I hope that you are safe and warm and the results of the snow and rain disappear quickly.
Thursday, March 14, 2019
INCOME TAXES ARE DUE IN A MONTH
Here in the US it is that time of year again - tax season. This year there is even more pressure due to the changes in the tax law and the resulting changes in tax forms. (If you are here in the US and you have not seen the new forms - they are small, at least for the 2 main pages.) Some of you may find that your taxes are lower - others will find that they are higher - and I don’t mean your refund, I mean your actual taxes. Don’t forget, you have an actual tax amount that is calculated by filling in your tax form, then subtracting from that amount the amount you prepaid during the year - through withholding and/or payment of estimated. So if one’s withholding, say from one’s paycheck - the common thing from which most people have withholding taken - is more than it has been, one will either be overpaid more than usual and get a refund or owe less than usual and pay in less - but one’s actual tax - the total of the amounts withheld, paid as estimates and any amount due (or less any amount withheld) is your actual tax amount. Does that make sense? Due to the changes many people will have had less withheld from their paycheck - so if their tax is the same as last year’s - they will either owe more or receive less as a refund, even though their tax is the same.
Supposedly most people will be paying less in actual tax (the total mentioned above), but many will not. A client of mine is retired and in the past paid no income tax due to high itemized deductions. This year due to the changes I estimate that his poor man will be paying around $600 in taxes. IRS has an online calculator to check one’s withholding and I had used it during 2018 to check all of my clients (and my) taxes with it, and this calculation is done using same.
He is retired. His income is almost entirely Social Security. His deductions should be the same as last year. How come his taxes are higher than before? Well, the information about the changes left out some things - one of them is that is in past years each person was entitled to a personal exemption of (in recent years) just over $4000. They were eliminated in the changes.
What does this mean? If one has always filed using standard deduction then one was entitled the standard deduction plus a personal exemption for themselves plus same for each person they were taking as dependants, plus their spouse (on the same return filing jointly or their own return if filing married separately). So a couple was entitled to exemptions totaling $8000, a family of 4 was entitled to exemption totaling $16,000 and those exemptions no longer exist. If one is taking the new standard deduction and one is single with no dependants than their new standard deduction is more than last year’s standard deduction plus exemption , but if they have any dependants - such as a single mom with a child, it is less than same was. Similarly, a couple with no dependants will find that the new standard deduction for same is more than the old standard deduction plus their 2 personal exemptions totaled, but if they have additional dependants - children and/or elderly parent for example - the new standard deduction will be less than the old one plus their personal exemptions were.
Now, if one has been itemizing deductions they were also entitled to the personal exemptions, and are no longer entitled to same, but since they listed their actual deductible expenses they do not pick up anything additional to replace their lost personal exemptions. In addition a variety of items which were deductible in the past in a category of “other deductions” if the category was more than 2% of their income are no longer deductible. Depending on where they live they may also be losing part of their state income tax/real estate deduction. Now, it is possible that the new standard deductions might be higher than their itemized deductions and they can take same as deduction, but chances are that even if this is the case, it will still be less than they were able to deduct last year as itemized deductions plus personal exemptions - whether they have other dependants or not.
So, this year make sure to gather your related tax papers - W2 forms, assorted 1099 forms, forms from any other income you have - such as K1s and records of other any other income you have to list. Then make sure that you have all of your deductions - medical (insurance premiums, copayments, deductible payments, doctors, prescriptions, etc. ), taxes - real estate, state & local income taxes (still allowed up to $10,000), interest on your mortgage, and charitable contributions. (Medical is still limited to same in excess of a certain amount). Make sure that you check carefully with your tax preparer as to what else you should include this year. Don’t wait until the time to file is about to approach (only just over a month left) in case you have any questions or find that you need to come up with money to pay income taxes that you did not anticipate paying. If you due your own returns - leave extra time to figure out the new forms. There are some programs that will help one prepare their taxes (free) if you need help including one called VITA from IRS that uses volunteers to help people.
Your state income tax forms may have been changed also as a result of the Federal changes. The state I live in has traditionally used the Federal return information as a start and one then made changes to it. This year those changes include allowing some of the items no longer allowed on the Federal return (such as real estate taxes in excess of $10,000) and will have extra forms to fill in for same also.
And this is a good time to decide to do better to have your paperwork organized for next year when tax season comes again.
Past posts on income taxes that may be of interest to you -
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/03/gathering-papers-for-income-taxes-part-1.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/03/gathering-papers-for-income-taxes-part-2.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/04/holidays-and-taxes-unrelated-subjects.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2018/02/income-taxes-are-here-again.html
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Take the time to put together your tax papers properly and completely now, while there is time to find missing information or get it replaced. If you have someone do your income taxes - contact them soon about having your taxes done. If you do your own - leave extra time this year to figure the changes that have been made and how they affect you.
As you put together the paperwork - think about what you can do to make next year’s taxes either
to do.
Again, this is general information and not tax preparation information related to you. Check with your tax preparer about your specific information needed.
Supposedly most people will be paying less in actual tax (the total mentioned above), but many will not. A client of mine is retired and in the past paid no income tax due to high itemized deductions. This year due to the changes I estimate that his poor man will be paying around $600 in taxes. IRS has an online calculator to check one’s withholding and I had used it during 2018 to check all of my clients (and my) taxes with it, and this calculation is done using same.
He is retired. His income is almost entirely Social Security. His deductions should be the same as last year. How come his taxes are higher than before? Well, the information about the changes left out some things - one of them is that is in past years each person was entitled to a personal exemption of (in recent years) just over $4000. They were eliminated in the changes.
What does this mean? If one has always filed using standard deduction then one was entitled the standard deduction plus a personal exemption for themselves plus same for each person they were taking as dependants, plus their spouse (on the same return filing jointly or their own return if filing married separately). So a couple was entitled to exemptions totaling $8000, a family of 4 was entitled to exemption totaling $16,000 and those exemptions no longer exist. If one is taking the new standard deduction and one is single with no dependants than their new standard deduction is more than last year’s standard deduction plus exemption , but if they have any dependants - such as a single mom with a child, it is less than same was. Similarly, a couple with no dependants will find that the new standard deduction for same is more than the old standard deduction plus their 2 personal exemptions totaled, but if they have additional dependants - children and/or elderly parent for example - the new standard deduction will be less than the old one plus their personal exemptions were.
Now, if one has been itemizing deductions they were also entitled to the personal exemptions, and are no longer entitled to same, but since they listed their actual deductible expenses they do not pick up anything additional to replace their lost personal exemptions. In addition a variety of items which were deductible in the past in a category of “other deductions” if the category was more than 2% of their income are no longer deductible. Depending on where they live they may also be losing part of their state income tax/real estate deduction. Now, it is possible that the new standard deductions might be higher than their itemized deductions and they can take same as deduction, but chances are that even if this is the case, it will still be less than they were able to deduct last year as itemized deductions plus personal exemptions - whether they have other dependants or not.
So, this year make sure to gather your related tax papers - W2 forms, assorted 1099 forms, forms from any other income you have - such as K1s and records of other any other income you have to list. Then make sure that you have all of your deductions - medical (insurance premiums, copayments, deductible payments, doctors, prescriptions, etc. ), taxes - real estate, state & local income taxes (still allowed up to $10,000), interest on your mortgage, and charitable contributions. (Medical is still limited to same in excess of a certain amount). Make sure that you check carefully with your tax preparer as to what else you should include this year. Don’t wait until the time to file is about to approach (only just over a month left) in case you have any questions or find that you need to come up with money to pay income taxes that you did not anticipate paying. If you due your own returns - leave extra time to figure out the new forms. There are some programs that will help one prepare their taxes (free) if you need help including one called VITA from IRS that uses volunteers to help people.
Your state income tax forms may have been changed also as a result of the Federal changes. The state I live in has traditionally used the Federal return information as a start and one then made changes to it. This year those changes include allowing some of the items no longer allowed on the Federal return (such as real estate taxes in excess of $10,000) and will have extra forms to fill in for same also.
And this is a good time to decide to do better to have your paperwork organized for next year when tax season comes again.
Past posts on income taxes that may be of interest to you -
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/03/gathering-papers-for-income-taxes-part-1.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/03/gathering-papers-for-income-taxes-part-2.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/04/holidays-and-taxes-unrelated-subjects.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2018/02/income-taxes-are-here-again.html
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Take the time to put together your tax papers properly and completely now, while there is time to find missing information or get it replaced. If you have someone do your income taxes - contact them soon about having your taxes done. If you do your own - leave extra time this year to figure the changes that have been made and how they affect you.
As you put together the paperwork - think about what you can do to make next year’s taxes either
to do.
Again, this is general information and not tax preparation information related to you. Check with your tax preparer about your specific information needed.
Thursday, March 7, 2019
ALMOST A FIRE
I was taught to be very careful when cooking, My mom’s stove (an electric one) had 1 2 3 heat settings on the dial. I was taught never to walk out of the room if a burner was set at 2 or 3 and never to walk out of house when the stove was on (unless in either case someone else was in the room to watch the stove). After we married, in our apartment we had a (natural) gas stove/oven combination which scared the heck out of me as I was always afraid that it would blow up. I had to light the oven with a match to use it and was always sure that would be the last thing I did. (I actually once smelled gas outside the apartment as we were going out, called the gas company and when we got home later we had no stove. I telephoned to have it turned back on per the note left. When I asked, I was told that this all stemmed from a woman who had smelled the gas leak in the street and called them - hey, that was me.)
When we bought this house there was a gas stove/range combination also. I was not happy about that. I was even more upset when I was sure I smelled gas when we were in the house for later visits before we bought it. I was again right. Rather than get the unit repaired, we bought an electric stove/oven unit and had the kitchen wired for it.
Last night I made for dinner a pot pie we had bought on sale (we bought a few of them on sale - these are small production ones, not the major brands ones). I, of course, had forgotten to go down and put it in the oven to bake and therefore did so an hour late. Husband really likes these pies so he did not complain. I bake it in an oven which sits on the counter (uses 1/3 of the counter space we have). I carefully pulled the oven away from the wall and the stove and removed some plastic storage items sitting next to the oven to the other side of the kitchen. I lined the pan with foil to keep it clean.
In the interim while it was cooking I set the table, laid out our pills for dinner, etc. I would have thought nothing of walking out of the kitchen while the baking was going on, but in this case I stayed in the kitchen.
I made a can of soup for us to share as a first course. I split the can of soup before cooking it and use two small pots to cook it. It is worth cleaning the extra pot as it is much easier to split the soup as it comes out of the can and husband likes more water added to his soup than I do. As the pie went into its last ½ hour of cooking, we sat down and had the soup. After I poured the soup into our bowls, I put the pots on the stove. The burners for the soup had been shut off and I also made sure not to put the pots on the burners they had been on as the burners were still hot (electric burners take a short while to cool down after they shut off). As I said, I am very careful.
When the pie was done cooking, the countertop oven beeped and I took it out and put the pan on the stove - on the larger burner in the front on one side which was cold. We had the very nice pot pie for dinner.
After dinner I normally have a cup of tea for dinner. I normally cook it on the rear smaller burner, but I had moved the pots onto the baking pan and had put it on that rear burner, so I put the pot of water on the front, larger, burner to boil it and turned on the burner. I went back to the kitchen table - 5-6 feet away - and started reading the newspaper (TV was on for husband) while I waited to hear the water boiling.
It dawned on me that it was a bit long for the water to take to boil and something smelled wrong and notices small bits of black floating around the room. I had turned on the wrong burner!! I had turned on the burner with the pots and baking pan! I shut it off and using pot holders moved the burner with the pots still on it to another burner that was cold.
Luckily I caught it before we had an actual fire. The stove was covered in soot and the pots looked burned. The foil I had put in the baking pan was what seemed to be the black wisps flying around the room and the pan had a mark that went through it. I never did have tea. Husband suggested checking inside the oven to make sure all was okay there - I carefully put my hand on the front of it first to check that it was not hot before I opened it.
When they cooled a tiny bit, I put the pots and the pan into a dish pan of cold water to finish cooling them off. I was surprise that the pots and the pan (even the foil stuck to the pan) cleaned so easily. The pan though rocked when I put it on a flat surface, distorted by the heat. After I was done with pots and the pan, I started on the stove. It cleaned up much quicker and easier than I thought it would. I took apart the burner that all this happened on to clean it and found when I took out the drip pan that the foil liner in the drip pan had mostly melted. This had been the source of the black wisps floating about. I immediately pulled the liners in the other 3 pans - too dangerous (despite this not happening in the past 30 years) - and threw them out also.
Today husband was able to mostly get the baking pan to stop rocking by leaning on it. The kitchen no longer has a burning smell. Unrelated to all of this, we took in Chinese food for dinner tonight (easy way to deal with Ash Wednesday for husband).
Something we realized later in the evening when I boiled water - with the same pot I started to do so to make tea - later in the evening for some hot cereal before bed. The smoke detector had not gone off. (For a reminder of a past cooking incident that did set off the smoke detector see - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2018/07/not-in-pennsylvania.html )
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Well two of them actually. Be careful when cooking - even if you think that you are being careful - be more careful.
If you have foil drip pans in your stove - TAKE THEM OUT.
When we bought this house there was a gas stove/range combination also. I was not happy about that. I was even more upset when I was sure I smelled gas when we were in the house for later visits before we bought it. I was again right. Rather than get the unit repaired, we bought an electric stove/oven unit and had the kitchen wired for it.
Last night I made for dinner a pot pie we had bought on sale (we bought a few of them on sale - these are small production ones, not the major brands ones). I, of course, had forgotten to go down and put it in the oven to bake and therefore did so an hour late. Husband really likes these pies so he did not complain. I bake it in an oven which sits on the counter (uses 1/3 of the counter space we have). I carefully pulled the oven away from the wall and the stove and removed some plastic storage items sitting next to the oven to the other side of the kitchen. I lined the pan with foil to keep it clean.
In the interim while it was cooking I set the table, laid out our pills for dinner, etc. I would have thought nothing of walking out of the kitchen while the baking was going on, but in this case I stayed in the kitchen.
I made a can of soup for us to share as a first course. I split the can of soup before cooking it and use two small pots to cook it. It is worth cleaning the extra pot as it is much easier to split the soup as it comes out of the can and husband likes more water added to his soup than I do. As the pie went into its last ½ hour of cooking, we sat down and had the soup. After I poured the soup into our bowls, I put the pots on the stove. The burners for the soup had been shut off and I also made sure not to put the pots on the burners they had been on as the burners were still hot (electric burners take a short while to cool down after they shut off). As I said, I am very careful.
When the pie was done cooking, the countertop oven beeped and I took it out and put the pan on the stove - on the larger burner in the front on one side which was cold. We had the very nice pot pie for dinner.
After dinner I normally have a cup of tea for dinner. I normally cook it on the rear smaller burner, but I had moved the pots onto the baking pan and had put it on that rear burner, so I put the pot of water on the front, larger, burner to boil it and turned on the burner. I went back to the kitchen table - 5-6 feet away - and started reading the newspaper (TV was on for husband) while I waited to hear the water boiling.
It dawned on me that it was a bit long for the water to take to boil and something smelled wrong and notices small bits of black floating around the room. I had turned on the wrong burner!! I had turned on the burner with the pots and baking pan! I shut it off and using pot holders moved the burner with the pots still on it to another burner that was cold.
Luckily I caught it before we had an actual fire. The stove was covered in soot and the pots looked burned. The foil I had put in the baking pan was what seemed to be the black wisps flying around the room and the pan had a mark that went through it. I never did have tea. Husband suggested checking inside the oven to make sure all was okay there - I carefully put my hand on the front of it first to check that it was not hot before I opened it.
When they cooled a tiny bit, I put the pots and the pan into a dish pan of cold water to finish cooling them off. I was surprise that the pots and the pan (even the foil stuck to the pan) cleaned so easily. The pan though rocked when I put it on a flat surface, distorted by the heat. After I was done with pots and the pan, I started on the stove. It cleaned up much quicker and easier than I thought it would. I took apart the burner that all this happened on to clean it and found when I took out the drip pan that the foil liner in the drip pan had mostly melted. This had been the source of the black wisps floating about. I immediately pulled the liners in the other 3 pans - too dangerous (despite this not happening in the past 30 years) - and threw them out also.
Today husband was able to mostly get the baking pan to stop rocking by leaning on it. The kitchen no longer has a burning smell. Unrelated to all of this, we took in Chinese food for dinner tonight (easy way to deal with Ash Wednesday for husband).
Something we realized later in the evening when I boiled water - with the same pot I started to do so to make tea - later in the evening for some hot cereal before bed. The smoke detector had not gone off. (For a reminder of a past cooking incident that did set off the smoke detector see - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2018/07/not-in-pennsylvania.html )
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Well two of them actually. Be careful when cooking - even if you think that you are being careful - be more careful.
If you have foil drip pans in your stove - TAKE THEM OUT.
Thursday, February 28, 2019
DO YOU BACK UP?
You know “the curse” I have been talking about? Well it hit again. Due to all of the craziness and lack of time in general plus time lost to the craziness and need to do things over and over, I had not backed up my main computer or my work laptop (the old one, not this new one which is still being slowly fed software) for the last quarter of 2018 - which I would normally have done around January 15 - nor did I do a monthly backup for December either. So last Friday I decided to do both. I backed up one computer to the quarterly hard drive and the other to the monthly hard drive at the same time. All went well. I also backed up my calendar, client who I have a separate flash drive for, and my data to each. All went fine. Saturday we were home as there was to be rain so I backed up each of the computers etc to the opposite drive. Still all okay.
I then went to back up for the week. I have a flash drive which holds 6 weeks of data, client, ad calendar files. I update the oldest one each week. This week if the data drive went bad and both of the regular “every session alternately” backups went bad I will have data from a week ago to work with. I back up with a software program that updates the files already in the file I am updating to. It finished running while we were out having dinner on Saturday.
When we got home the backup file did not show everything as finished. There were problems with several older tax client files - this is pdf copies of the returns, info used from the clients and my work papers. When I opened those files - it was all gibberish. Husband looked at them and told me that the drive had gone bad and the files were corrupted.
I did not panic - I have backups and they must be right as the backup program had not had a problem when making them. The back up from Saturday afternoon had the same corrupted files. I should say that, luckily, I had not gotten around to do any actual work on the computer for a couple of days - checked email, updated calendar, started one letter. I tried the backup from Friday and it was fine - whew!!
Husband tried to format the bad drive and it could not be done. So he broke it with a hammer to dust and threw out the dust. (Security is important when financial records are involved.) I had a new, larger flash drive and copied the backup from the day before to that drive. Husband suggested I use all new drives and change them annually from now on. I also have an archive drive - I will soon copy my 2018 files into my archive and remove them from the data drive I use to keep it more compact. Robert suggested that I get a new archive drive also. When I update the archive drive I also make 2 DVDs of it - one goes into my regular disk box and one goes into my “grab and go” accordion folder. This holds copies of our house and car titles, stock certificates, last month’s reconciled bank statements, wedding licenses (we actually have 3 - one government, one from each of our religions), medical insurance and the like. In case of an emergency we can grab this folder and have copies of our important papers to take with us - including DVDs of the archive and of my monthly backup to take offsite.
So I planned to go on Monday to a MicroCenter - a location of the chain and buy 3 new flash drives - one each for the session backups and a larger one for the archive. However, while at Costco on Sunday, husband noticed that my laptop dropped $50 in price since we bought it, so Monday we forgot about buying the new drives and went to back to Costco as they will refund the difference with the receipt. (This is a actually a very good idea. I could have returned the laptop and bought it again to take advantage of the price drop, and they would be stuck with a used laptop, this way I keep my laptop, am happy to get the lower price, and they don’t have to deal with a used laptop - and extra credit card fees for a return and another purchase.)
So yesterday, Tuesday, we bought the new drives. I made two new regular backups yesterday of data, client, and calendar files. I still have to check the hard drive backups and make a weekly backup for last week - though at this point, I will probably not bother and just do this week’s weekly backup on Friday. I also still have to copy the archive to the new drive.
I feel as if I am not getting anything done. I generally can tell how much I have been getting done by the number of papers I have to file at the end of a week, the number of items I have to mail out, and how deep the dust is in the house (okay, there is always too much dust in the house).
I have not finished client’s tax return yet - due March 15 - and need to have it finished and go to her with it before then. I have not heard from my other clients yet - they tend to contact me in March. I am still trying to get missing papers for our personal returns - one corrected IRA 1099 has not come yet - called yesterday about it - to be sent to us. I also have not received a corrected summary statement - but that is for something later this year. I did not get a dividend 1099 either, called up and I am not sure one was sent as the first thing the computer talked about was how much our dividends were and that we don’t need a 1099, but if we want one, they can send “a replacement”. So hopefully that will come soon. I know the amounts for all of these and can do the return without them, but need the paperwork for the same thing later in the year. We have two business returns to do for ourselves. One is due March 15 also and has no income - it is inactive, but we don’t want to close it down. So yesterday, just to get something done I did the inactive company’s tax returns. Well, something is done at least.
And - husband is thinking about going to a woodworking show out of state this weekend - which means Friday as we have the annual party for our reenactment unit on Sunday so we cannot go then and we cannot get up early enough to do that on Sunday and go to the woodworking show on Saturday. We will see. This was a nice show, but the venue it was in was closed and it moved to one that is not at all convenient to deal with. (A quilt show at the same old venue moved elsewhere and was awful and is no more.)
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
BACK UP! No, not away from the computer. Make sure that you are doing backups of at least important data and things like your important photos. We don’t use “the cloud” for anything including backup as another name for the cloud is “someone else’s hard drive, which is more attractive to hack than yours as they will get so much more” and most of the cloud drives have been hacked. An external hard drive is fairly reasonable to get and one can back up to it on a weekly or monthly basis if they don’t need to back up as often I do. (Remember a lot of this is work stuff I am backing up.) An external drive would also let you take the drive with you in an emergency.
I then went to back up for the week. I have a flash drive which holds 6 weeks of data, client, ad calendar files. I update the oldest one each week. This week if the data drive went bad and both of the regular “every session alternately” backups went bad I will have data from a week ago to work with. I back up with a software program that updates the files already in the file I am updating to. It finished running while we were out having dinner on Saturday.
When we got home the backup file did not show everything as finished. There were problems with several older tax client files - this is pdf copies of the returns, info used from the clients and my work papers. When I opened those files - it was all gibberish. Husband looked at them and told me that the drive had gone bad and the files were corrupted.
I did not panic - I have backups and they must be right as the backup program had not had a problem when making them. The back up from Saturday afternoon had the same corrupted files. I should say that, luckily, I had not gotten around to do any actual work on the computer for a couple of days - checked email, updated calendar, started one letter. I tried the backup from Friday and it was fine - whew!!
Husband tried to format the bad drive and it could not be done. So he broke it with a hammer to dust and threw out the dust. (Security is important when financial records are involved.) I had a new, larger flash drive and copied the backup from the day before to that drive. Husband suggested I use all new drives and change them annually from now on. I also have an archive drive - I will soon copy my 2018 files into my archive and remove them from the data drive I use to keep it more compact. Robert suggested that I get a new archive drive also. When I update the archive drive I also make 2 DVDs of it - one goes into my regular disk box and one goes into my “grab and go” accordion folder. This holds copies of our house and car titles, stock certificates, last month’s reconciled bank statements, wedding licenses (we actually have 3 - one government, one from each of our religions), medical insurance and the like. In case of an emergency we can grab this folder and have copies of our important papers to take with us - including DVDs of the archive and of my monthly backup to take offsite.
So I planned to go on Monday to a MicroCenter - a location of the chain and buy 3 new flash drives - one each for the session backups and a larger one for the archive. However, while at Costco on Sunday, husband noticed that my laptop dropped $50 in price since we bought it, so Monday we forgot about buying the new drives and went to back to Costco as they will refund the difference with the receipt. (This is a actually a very good idea. I could have returned the laptop and bought it again to take advantage of the price drop, and they would be stuck with a used laptop, this way I keep my laptop, am happy to get the lower price, and they don’t have to deal with a used laptop - and extra credit card fees for a return and another purchase.)
So yesterday, Tuesday, we bought the new drives. I made two new regular backups yesterday of data, client, and calendar files. I still have to check the hard drive backups and make a weekly backup for last week - though at this point, I will probably not bother and just do this week’s weekly backup on Friday. I also still have to copy the archive to the new drive.
I feel as if I am not getting anything done. I generally can tell how much I have been getting done by the number of papers I have to file at the end of a week, the number of items I have to mail out, and how deep the dust is in the house (okay, there is always too much dust in the house).
I have not finished client’s tax return yet - due March 15 - and need to have it finished and go to her with it before then. I have not heard from my other clients yet - they tend to contact me in March. I am still trying to get missing papers for our personal returns - one corrected IRA 1099 has not come yet - called yesterday about it - to be sent to us. I also have not received a corrected summary statement - but that is for something later this year. I did not get a dividend 1099 either, called up and I am not sure one was sent as the first thing the computer talked about was how much our dividends were and that we don’t need a 1099, but if we want one, they can send “a replacement”. So hopefully that will come soon. I know the amounts for all of these and can do the return without them, but need the paperwork for the same thing later in the year. We have two business returns to do for ourselves. One is due March 15 also and has no income - it is inactive, but we don’t want to close it down. So yesterday, just to get something done I did the inactive company’s tax returns. Well, something is done at least.
And - husband is thinking about going to a woodworking show out of state this weekend - which means Friday as we have the annual party for our reenactment unit on Sunday so we cannot go then and we cannot get up early enough to do that on Sunday and go to the woodworking show on Saturday. We will see. This was a nice show, but the venue it was in was closed and it moved to one that is not at all convenient to deal with. (A quilt show at the same old venue moved elsewhere and was awful and is no more.)
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
BACK UP! No, not away from the computer. Make sure that you are doing backups of at least important data and things like your important photos. We don’t use “the cloud” for anything including backup as another name for the cloud is “someone else’s hard drive, which is more attractive to hack than yours as they will get so much more” and most of the cloud drives have been hacked. An external hard drive is fairly reasonable to get and one can back up to it on a weekly or monthly basis if they don’t need to back up as often I do. (Remember a lot of this is work stuff I am backing up.) An external drive would also let you take the drive with you in an emergency.
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