Michael & Liz are Bloggable

...and I think we're the only ones. Anyone who has talked to us about finances, knows Liz and I get far too much taken out of our paychecks throughout the year and doing taxes means we get a biggity tax return in the spring. I think there are a few readers who have already said in their heads "that's really stupid". Well my response is "no, it's smart and you'll hear why in a second."

Over the course of the last year, I got an estimate taken on how much we thought we'd get back from the government and the estimate was 11k. I realize that is ridiculous and had we gotten 11k back, I wouldn't be sitting here blogging, I would be at Best Buy sizing up the dimensions of my new 70 inch LCD TV. Unfortunately the estimates were wrong. Last Saturday (January 31st) we did our taxes and it definitely wasn't that much. But it will almost single-handedly knock out the rest of the payments we have on my car and we should have the title sent to us in March or April. WOO HOO! We can't express how excited we are about that.

So why is this a bad plan? I can only think of two cons:

1. The goverment gets our money for 1 year (and the interest that comes along with it).
2. We are paying interest on our debt by not knocking it out earlier.
   

Before I list the pros to our plan let me eliminate the cons. The two cons above are under the assumption that when we get the extra money in our paychecks we are going to be smart with it. To be honest, I would probably just take the extra $500 a month and distribute it amongst our current budget. I think our food budget would be more relaxed and our "blow" money would have a little more in it for stupid purchases. Whatever we do with it, I highly doubt 100% of it would go toward the right things.

So why is this a good plan? Here are my pros:

1. Every penny of the money is given a name and place as to where it will be used.
   
2. It's not as likely that we blow any of it on something stupid like food.
   
3. For the whole year we are living BELOW our means.
   
4. It is a one year forced savings plan, and that's NEVER a bad thing.
5. It's like giving yourself a bonus every Spring.
   

So what are we doing with our return? We have 3 friends/family members who have awesome DSLR cameras and it has always been a hobby that Liz really wants to get involved in. We decided in the Fall that one thousand of it would be given to Liz to get her awesome camera and any accessories and the rest of it would go toward paying off my car. I'm all about paying off debt but I gotta give Liz props for being such an amazing wife when it comes to sticking to a budget. She deserves a sweet camera and a reinvigorated hobby.

I gotta admit, I'm already looking forward to next year!