Moving to the darkside

For my whole (adult) life, I've been a renter. Basically, for 15 years. For the last 10 years I've looked at buying an apt. in the NYC area. I've focused on different boroughs (Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn) states (NJ) and types of places (a place in the Catskills or somewhere rural, or somewhere in the city?). As of last Sunday, I think my loooong search is just about over!

Most of my friends and family are shocked, as they think this came "out of the blue" and while I haven't actively been looking recently, I feel confident in my decision because this apartment has most of the things I've been searching for: a one bedroom plus a little more space in the form of an alcove, low monthly maintenance, no fancy amenities, in a safe, quiet neighborhood with a cool vibe, on a great subway line and close to the subway stop, beautiful hardwood floors and a price that is totally affordable. I am planning to put down a 25% deposit. With the tax abatement, my total monthly spend should be comparable to my rent -- maybe a few hundred more depending on my interest rate on my mortgage, but if I get any kind of mortgage interest deduction, it might be even less than I pay now!

I actually feel relief. Having all that cash just sitting around and not invested was stressful. Now I certainly won't have that problem: I am currently shaking out the couch cushions to try to come up with more $! Actually, I am going to Coinstar today to cash in my change. Buying a condo in Brooklyn/NYC is not for the weak or the poor, that's for sure. The closing costs will probably be about $20K! Oy vey.

AAPL

So in July/August whenever that monstrous dip in the market was, I bought some Apple shares. Only 3 actually. At the time, Apple was down to like $367. Well this week they absolutely rocked earnings and hit an all time high at like $450. Killer money. I wish I had taken my whole freakin portfolio and bought Apple that day this summer. I would be up A LOT. Much more than the stupid buy and hold index funds has done for me over the last 10-15 years that I've been following this "good girl" approach. I am increasingly convinced that buy and hold does not work anymore and the only way to play the market to make any $ is to actively trade. I'm going to keep buying individual stocks like AAPL when they dip and see if I can make $ that way. The only thing is that its in my taxable account, so I want to hold it for a year so I only play long and not short-term capital gains.

Q2 Goal

So reading Budgets Are Sexy today inspired me to set out a goal or challenge for myself. I've decided that I'd like to save $25K by the end of Q2 (end of June). It seems like an aggressive but a doable goal. It's nice to put it down in writing and have a reason to save.

I've been pretty good at the little things this month. Cooking more at home. Stopping my aggressive Oren's habit. But not so good at the big things. A Spanish class. A deposit for a trip in April. Oy vey. I have to get better at cutting out the big things too!

Here We Are Again

At the end of another year! Wow. This year has been very successful personally. I have focused a lot less on my financials this year, but since I've devoted a lot of time to setting up different systems, things kind of run on autopilot now.

I definitely spent more on travel this year than I expected to, but it was so worth it. I'm pretty pleased with how my spending maps to my life priorities, actually.

I am hoping that the new year brings a new job, and new challenges. As well as similar rewards or even more than the type I've been earning.

So far, it looks like 2012 is going to be as busy as 2011 (especially the back half) has been.

Wishing all savers and spenders alike a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012!

Update

Wow, this last month has been really crazy. Both financially and otherwise.

First, the IRS audit. My business expense was rejected by the auditor. I found a great, relevant tax course case, and my accountant encouraged me to fight the finding, through the proper channels. This would mean talking to the agent, then his supervisor and if I didn't get anywhere, filing an appeal and then meeting with an agent in person. All of this would have meant I had to write up my findings and basically act as my own lawyer/rep. I was ready. And then life happened. And I realized I had already spent a lot of time on this audit and that my resources would be better spent elsewhere. So I gave up. I paid the $2K to make it go away. Of course I'm not done. I'll probably have to re-file NY taxes for that year, too. In the end, I'm glad that it's over and I do not have to think about this anymore. Also, the IRS agent I spoke to was SOOOO nice. I hated him (of course) until I spoke to him. He actually encouraged me to provide him with the case I had found, but I just kept telling him I did not have time. I think he even offered me an extension.

Second, the market. I have no idea. One day I am poor, the next I'm back up to where I started. All of this up and down just means that I net out about even from what I can tell, not really making or losing money.

Third, job. I've decided that I am very bored at my job. I am getting pretty far along interviewing for a new one, so we'll see.

Fourth, it's that time of year. With any luck by the end of this month I will be in possession of a bonus check. Considering how lean but successful we were this year everyone is expecting a bigger one than last year, so we'll see. Crossing fingers.

Market Recovery

So this week was really helpful in regaining some of the paper losses I've suffered in my taxable and retirement accounts over the last few months. My taxable account is only a few thousand short of the highest balance I've ever had. Woo -- hoo!

Audit Results

So today I came home to another fat package from the IRS (why so many papers always from them?). This one I was eagerly anticipating. It was their response to my response to their totally ridiculous audit. The main point of their audit was totally unfounded, which was validated by the fact that in their response to me they did not even MENTION the initial reason why they supposedly audited me and just focused on my business expense deduction which they did not allow. They also assessed a penalty of 20% and charged back interest. Overall, it was about 2K additional tax. At this point I am so over it and am just going to pay the stupid 2K and move on. One would hope they would be over it at this point too, but they also included a handy little form asking me to extend the statue of limitations on the tax year in question which should expire April 1 until June 30th. I don't plan on signing this, but I'm consulting my accountant on the question.

The only redeeming factor to this whole nightmare was that I uncovered a mistake in my favor, which lessened the amount of additional tax that I have to pay.