Depending on whether I open a SEP-IRA using the money I earned in my business, we owe somewhere between $3100 and $3200 to the government. The CPA delivered the news by telephone. I have some time to think about opening a SEP-IRA, in which case she could whittle a little bit of the tax away.

If you look at the Saving Tracks on the left, you'll see what I had set aside for taxes so far.

I advised my spouse he must update his tax withholding to reflect zero allowances, and $75 extra withholding. I just started a new contract today, and am reasonably confident I will have enough money for the accountant now and for the government on April 15.

Maybe get him to crank it up to $90 extra withholding considering we're getting the tax advance/stimulus package.

I started a new assignment downtown today. It is lovely to have a mere 25-minute bus ride at rushhour, and lovely to catch the bus thirty feet away from my building. Indeed, having a view of the sound on a sunny day is glorious. I won't say where I work, but I believe I won't hear the phrase "housing bubble" at my new worksite as much as I heard it at the last.

Hoping I don't regret much/any of my Value Village Presidents' Day 50%-off shopping. Bought two leather skirts, one other skirt, two blouses for spring/summer, and three pants ranging from oyster, tan, and eggshell. I didn't bother to look for dresses, as I had my family with me. That can wait...

$59.35 for two weeks' worth of outfits -- including the two V-neck pullovers I bought on Saturday -- not bad for dressy/casual. Now for a bus pass...

Nice to know there are still lots of local homeowners out there with lots of money. We went to the Home Show, taking a free local special bus, and had a fun time. However, I was a little bothered by the expectations the booth and seminar presenters seemed to have:

"You want granite countertops, right? Stainless steel appliances?"

"The National Association of Realtors says that you get 3 dollars back for every 1 you put in your kitchen." (This I believe to be false, not just because it's the NAR originating this, but because the payback is more like 88.4%, and that's if you pay in cash, and sell within a year of the remodel.)

Pictures of remodels featured suburban McMansions with two-car or three-car garages.

So much that was outre, and status. All I want is a kitchen with a new ventilator hood that meets code regulations, and space for a dishwasher and a larger refrigerator. I don't need the island or recessed lighting. That should be about $33K-$36K.

We'll see what I can save up by August. Either I'll have finished my contract by then, or I'll be back at my old contract. My credit union had a booth at the show, and I asked about upping the HELOC to $45K. I'd have to reapply for that.

Edit: I saw that a Habitat for Humanity second-hand shop for home remodeling has opened this past week. I might visit and scout.

$350.46

This includes our membership renewal. We had little room left in our subcompact. We didn't even buy meat and wine, the costliest items we have purchased in previous shopping expeditions. Nor did we purchase a printer/fax/scanner/copier that my spouse recommended. We just bought what we usually do, and didn't load up on anything.

Organic coffee, paper towels, toilet paper, two merino wool sweaters, extra virgin olive oil, chicken broth, canned corn, cashews, toothpaste, toothbrushes, apple juice, laundry detergent, organic chocolate milk, bread, bandages, feminine protection (I don't mean Glock), organic spaghetti, tomato-basil spaghetti sauce, organic chicken broth, acid reduction tablets, and Cook's Illustrated magazine.

I think a genuine "load up now before inflation bites even more" would have taken up my whole paycheck. This one ate up more than half my projected earnings for this past week.

Now I'm trying to figure if we saved $50 from the cost of the items.

I am surprised to learn I have not made my full Roth IRA deposit for last year. I can change that today or tomorrow.

I have visited with my new accountant. I gave her all my materials, and she did some figuring for some possible business expenses. I like that she commended us for having one car between us two working adults. She was amazed how little we pay in real estate tax. I really need to spruce up the home.

I deposited $100 into our chequing account.

My kindergartner son wants a Roth IRA. I will tell him tonight that he has an Education savings Account, and we could fund some of it if he would like. He doesn't completely understand what a Roth IRA is--he knows that it's an account where one deposits money, and that excites him.

I have created a Money Market Account that pays twice what our savings account is paying. I moved $10K from savings into the Money Market Account.

I faxed, to the tune of $27, almost all the documents required for employment. I will deduct this, and the charge of faxes yet to come, from my taxes for this year.

So I accepted one offer. The pay's better, and the duties more interesting, than what I have just finished doing, but the people I left behind, well, they are gems. One man almost cried, and two men gave me their e-mail addresses and volunteered to be references, and one man solicited my resume for possible vendor, temp, or full-time work. I will have to buy some "serious" clothes, and buy bus passes. However, I will have a shorter commute and an excellent view of Puget Sound.

What I love is that I'll probably be out of work for most of this next week, my son's mid-winter break, and yet with our emergency fund, and ample supply of grains and legumes, we should be doing some pantry scavenging with minimal impact to the income for a week. I will not be eligible for unemployment insurance this go round, having accepted an offer of employment.

I have 48 hours left on my contract. Most of tomorrow is taken up by an interview and a doctor's appointment.

At the cafeteria I saw two men I loved working with prior to this contract. I told them what I was up to, and what my job prospects were -- I have an offer I haven't yet accepted.

I have to trust that things will continue to go well, and that if they don't, the support of my family and our adaptability and ability to accept certain losses will see us through.

I get scared when I look at this article and at Calculated Risk.

Then I remember that I have, so far, a very cushy life here, and peoples everywhere have lived through far worse and with far less.

Furthermore, if we get sucked down financially thanks to some rotten central bank dealings, so will hundreds of millions of other people. At the very least, we'll have a mass attitude adjustment and some nasty quarters. Maybe one of us will have a run of unemployment. And if things turn authoritarian/nasty, at least one of us will have a run for the border.

I don't know what the future has in store for me in the next three days, other than some appointments and a goodbye lunch. I might have to give up my volunteer position, I might have to pay people to set up my garden. Is this all worth it to afford disability insurance, pad the emergency fund, and to bend over and accept this year's gold-plated tax-whacking with a J.K. Lasser guide tucked in my motorcycle pants? I hope so.

I also know nothing is forever, and this too shall pass.

I met up with three (four) people on three different occasions today. All hope to own a home one day -- none believe values in our area could drop 30%. I am wondering now if I need my head checked.

Why do I believe values here could drop 30%? Because our values hadn't risen as far nor as fast as CA, NV, AZ, FL, or MA. Our industry hasn't yet bottomed, unlike MI and OH. I believe values here could drop 49%, as the OFHEO guesses, but that would bum even ME out.

Why do my house-hunting friends believe housing can't drop that much? They expect to buy before houses reach that point, they all lived in Seattle during the dotcom bust days and think our recession is over. "Why would people want to move where the sky is grey six months of the year?" I ask. "Do you want to be in moderately overpriced housing where it rains a lot, or do you want to be in grossly overpriced housing where it is warm and sunny?"

It would suck, yes, to buy and then see house prices topple 20-40%. I would be upset to find, ten years after I bought my house, that it is valued only 4% beyond what I initially purchased it for. Can people who bought before 1989 tell me how they weathered the 1989-1993 recession?

It could also be that ALL of these people grew up in the Pacific Northwest. They all think Seattle is awesome. For an American city, Seattle is pretty okay, but New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Honolulu, and Los Angeles are awesome. But only because I work where there is light and warmth I don't have to pay for, can I deal with Seattle grey. Seattle and Portland grey are all they know. However, San Francisco has sucky weather too, and its house prices are beyond reach...

People think I'm pessimistic. I'm not keenly talking them out of buying, but rather letting them know that house prices could potentially drop further, and giving them advice for keeping their ducks in a row. I think homeownership has more merit when mortgagees can afford and KEEP their homes come hell or highwater. In my rainy area, we might have both (economic hell and rising highwater). The house hunters are aware that it's prudent to have either six months' salary or a year's mortgage payments set aside. That's great -- I don't think many of the buyers I knew in 2006 voiced that caution to me.

Is a median-priced home at 3x a median income so unrealistic nowadays?

I forgot and I had a breve (espresso drink with foamed half-and-half) today because I was cold, and had an interview come up. The interview went better than expected, although probably not a hire, and I was still cold so I had a glass of wine.

If it's not too late I wonder what I can give up? I would happily, cheerfully give up cold, but cold really isn't a temptation. Chocolate? Silent movies? Switch one half-hour of computer time for yoga? Walk to a farther bus stop? Maybe Youtube. My life is not dependent on getting my fill of comedienne Totie Fields, for example.

I won't be getting over 100% return on my investment, however. I'm looking at a midprice renovation, no recessed lighting, no stainless steel GE Profile, no island, no granite countertop. Maybe $45K?

I don't know that I can save retirement, college fund, emergency fund, new car, and new kitchen, and pay off mortgage.

I must have missed something in those personal finance manuals.

The apr on the heloc is very low, but I'm not sure I'll have the funds to recover should something go wrong. My challenges are fear and disorganization. Maybe the CPA will show me how I can deduct "breathing" as a business expense and save up money for a kitchen. Mine is 60 years old, with wood chipping off. I'd like a new ventilator hood and a dishwasher, and cabinets a few inches higher to accommodate a larger refrigerator.

OTOH I've learned I'm underearning. I may shift to doing some work that will net $15K more.

I suppose I'd be in a better position financially if I invested in defense stocks, ClearChannel and oil companies eight years ago.

I looked at Open Secrets to see who was funding the campaigns of the next President. If any of the top ten corporate funders were publicly traded, I would send away for an annual report. I have to say that MBNA was a great investment prior to 2005, with profit margin percentages consistently in the mid-20s. I sold it the year before because I had guilt about my investment.

Banking behemoths like CitiGroup, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase have funded most of the leading candidates. Merrill Lynch has only one party in mind.
I'm not comfortable with finance stocks anymore because I don't like the giant sucking sound of global capital funneling into a black hole, although I fully expect the banks to continue helping the government write its laws. Energy company Exelon (EXC) has funded a widely popular candidate. Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG) employees have backed with dollars a candidate who appears as if he'd do away with anti-monopoly regulation and antitrust legislation.

A coworker has suggested looking into biotech. Another said he would look at high-dividend companies (good plan). What should I look into? Short-term treasuries? Getting an 8% return just by investing in self-sufficiency?

F-u-u-u-nnnnn-eeee commentary about the proposed stimulus package.

I three-quarters don't want the package to be approved. For one reason, I can't figure out what I want to do with the money, as it isn't enough to help me achieve 100% of any of my savings tracks. Hawaiian CDs? Gardening supplies for my Sustainability ("Defeat") Garden? Reflective gear for the bicycle I must master? Building materials for chicken coops?

The way I see it, if the package gets approved, the money the government wants me to recirculate must achieve the following aims:
1. Stimulate the local economy.
2. Ultimately help me save the equivalent amount every year while keeping my standard of living (owning home, reliable transportation, ability to feed clothe and shelter housemates, ability to pay energy bills in full).
3. Make me feel less insecure about living in the U.S.
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Ashamedly, this entry so resonates what goes on in my black,...