Well…we could say it re-happens. Got a tax refund of $2300, mostly because the college withholds taxes even though I don’t earn enough to pay them.
In an anchorite’s world, that’s a very nice chunk of money. It means I’ll have to draw down nothing from retirement savings to cover Q2 living expenses, and much less than planned for Q3. All the while, m’dears, not teaching freshman comp.
mwa ha ha!
It also plumped the Survival Savings fund, the “pool” that’s fed quarterly from Fidelity, from The Copyeditor’s Desk, and from teaching the online magazine writing course, and from which I draw a monthly allowance to meet expenses. It’s right back up to where it was on January 1. Before the first-quarter disbursal, that fund had about $12,600.
I couldn’t freaking believe it.
So. Barring any new windfalls, Survival Savings will end the year with a balance of about six grand, significantly better than planned.
Since I probably can dispense with the Q3 drawdown from the S-corporation of $360 (we transferred most of the planned 2013 distributions in the form of loan repayments and dividends), in 2013 earned income should come to a grand total of $4800, for the two online courses.
Meanwhile, revenues are flowing in to the S-corp at an acceptable rate. I’m not working very hard — believe I’ve developed an allergy to work — but I don’t have to work very hard to earn enough to adequately supplement Social Security, a 4 percent drawdown from savings, and the most minimal teaching schedule possible.
God is great, beer is good, people are crazy.
That song reminds me of our oldest when he was a newborn, as it was popular and received a lot of airplay right around when he was born (May 2009) and we had the radio pretty much set on a now defunct country station when we’d have to do the middle of the night feedings and such. How quickly it all goes by!
Well I’m not sure about all this drawdown q whatever stuff, but I definitely understand getting a refund. Congratulations! It’s nice having a little extra cushion like that, eases up spending for awhile!
Sorry…made the copy too minder-readerly! Q1, Q2, etc. = 1st quarter of the year, second quarter, etc.
To sort of simplify life, when I decided to start taking a draw from retirement savings so that I could quit the hated teaching gig, I set it up so that ALL sources of income except Social Security (which is direct-deposited in a checking account) would be deposited in Survival Savings, a money market account with the credit union. From that account, I would pay myself a set monthly amount (a little over $1300). So each month the checking account, from which I pay living expenses and set aside money for taxes, insurance, personal indulgences, and small emergencies, gets about $2450. That comes from SS and from the monthly transfer out of Survival Savings.
Nice. No huge refund for us, but I’m just glad we don’t owe the $2K I thought we would. Definitely a pleasant surprise!
Refunds are a good thing but they usually mean that your W-4 is wrong. For those who have trouble savings and where today’s interest rates are puny, this a great way to force savings.
Does your current state wish you “retired/quit” a while ago from that hated position?
Well. I would prefer never to have had to take an adjunct job. But I will say, I’m very grateful that the work was there and that the chair was willing not only to hire me but to load on as much work as he could get away with. No question, it kept the wolf from the door.
Had it been possible to land a full-time job with the community college, I would have taken it — something about earning upwards of 60 grand a year makes freshman comp a great deal more palatable. Low pay and lack of even the most basic office space renders adjunct jobs profoundly undesirable, something easily remedied by a fair salary and a place to sit down.
I’m just as grateful that things have improved to the point where it’s possible to quit. And my heart isn’t really broken just because no one will hire an old lady into those f/t positions.