Taxes!

Dear Debt Loss Diary,

I am so glad that I got my taxes done early this year...and have already received my refund checks and deposited them into my bank account! Using TurboTax to do the calculations turned out to be very beneficial, as I found a couple errors I made, which was $300 in my favor. One of the errors was in how I applied my dividends, and it turns out last year I also made a mistake. By filing an amended return for last year's federal return, I got another refund check for $323.55, of which 21.55 was interest the government owed me on that money. Now, isn't that cool-licious!

I also made $20 today by attending a focus group that a local SDSU grad student was holding as part of research for a school project. It was about perceptions about Wal-Mart and it turned out to be quite interesting and enjoyable. I found the opportunity on Craigslist....one of these days I am going to have to write a book on my CL experiences....or at least blog about it.

I made a $2000 payment to Discover Card over the weekend, which posted today. I will make another payment once the billing cycle closes and a statement is updated - which should happend any day. Did you know that if you make a payment right after your statement is generated, it is to your advantage? That's right. The interest is calculated on the average daily balance. So, if you make your payment at the start of the billing period (and are not using that credit card for any new purchases) then the average daily amount will be lower than if you wait and make a payment right before the due date. It may be a matter of pennies or just a few dollars in interest, but it adds up!!

That's all for now...