Spending My 2020 Tax Refund

 My tax return was filed last week, and I am happy to report I'm receiving a federal refund of $857! What am I going to do with the money?

First, I'm going to cover the $160 I spent to pay the accountant.

Next, I'm going to take $140 for fun money. A proper office/gaming chair sounds good right now!

After that, I'm boosting my home down payment by $300. Note: this isn't an even split with my student loans, since my progress chart goes by $50 squares.

Finally, I will make an additional $257 payment on my student loans.

But what about my state refund of $9? I already spent that on a large soda and lottery tickets.

Tax Year 2020 Complications

I thought tax year 2020 would be the most complicated year to date for me.

I had a software snafu in tax year 2019. The software I used (which I won't name here) buried forms regarding marketplace health insurance coverage. Their logic was this: the penalty for not having coverage was removed, so they hid the form as a whole. Since I wasn't asked about my coverage, I never entered the information. So I ended up paying back the marketplace coverage I had and it delayed my remaining refund by six months (peak pandemic time and all).

Thanks to economic relief efforts, I've enjoyed 0% interest on my student loans for most of 2020. The interest I paid during the first few months of the year was not enough to warrant an official tax form, so I had to submit a letter instead. When I file my taxes next year, I assume this will be the same case.

This is also my first year with cryptocurrency. I started off with about $40 in Bitcoin in January of 2020 and by the end of the year my portfolio grew to about $200. When I made my account on Coinbase, I went through the lessons to earn other cryptocurrencies and made some exchanges to get the other coins for which Coinbase offered rewards. Two surprises came from this: Bitcoin is not my largest asset (the honor goes to Maker at roughly 20%) and I actually lost $59 on conversions.

Finally, I received stimulus checks in the last year. I did have to report the amounts of the checks to my tax professional, but I was well within the income limits to receive them.

I am receiving a refund this year, but I will write about how I plan on using it once the money materializes.

Doubling Down Financially

Welcome to my first post of 2021!

This year, I've taken on the theme of doubling down. This theme applies to many aspects of my life (weight loss, reading, etc.), but what does this mean for me financially?

First: Student loans. Once I get my three-month emergency fund locked, my loan payments will be 29% of my income.

Second: Home Down Payment. I saved about $2,500 in 2020, so I'm looking to match that in 2021.

Third: Filling My Big Pig. It's about half-way full already, so I can see completing it this year. That pig is going to be split four ways: food, exercise, dating, and most importantly the student loan.

Of course, it's early in the year, so any of these numbers is subject to change.