Whew. What a day today. Worked from 7am to 8pm with nary a break in between. Almost. I did stop to eat lunch and take Mr. Cooper on a morning walk. But, man, that was about it.

Got a lot of editing done, which was necessary – I hadn’t had the most productive day or so. Also, did an 8-page audition for a CBS sitcom smack dab in the middle of the day. There was a time when that would have completely thrown me. But not today. I have 5 days of work left. 5 days, and 2013 will come to a close money-wise. And, I should be in pretty good shape, actually. Paying taxes next year will definitely be a hit since my job doesn’t make any deductions.

15 minutes later…reading through all of what this will mean this year. First time that I’ll be filing as self-employed. It’s unclear to me whether this “self-employment” tax is above and beyond what I’ve worked out with tax estimators already…we’ll see. If it’s not included, then I will not have any savings after this year. Which, believe it or not, isn’t the end of the world. It will just mean I had the foresight to set aside all the money I needed to pay my taxes. It won’t affect my month-to-month stuff. And I can build the savings back up next year. I’d rather that’s not the case, though, obviously 😛 I worked hard for those savings…I’d like to have some left when it’s all said and done.

Regardless, next year I will have to do the estimated tax payments, which will keep it very clear just how much savings I actually have, versus money waiting to hand over to Uncle Sam. Ugh. Actually *paying* taxes hurts enough to make me feel your pain, republicans. It’s so much easier when it’s just taken away from you at the outset. It’s like I raised this money…watched it grow. Get smarter. Find a girlfriend. And, now I have to just give it away? To pay for shit like education and bombs? A racket, I tell you!

What’s really crazy is looking at my Quicken program telling me that I made a certain amount of money this year, and it’s still less than what I was making…eh, 3 years ago? And yet, I’m in so much better of a place financially. Paying stuff off. Being all responsible with savings and shit.

Liz and I found out flights to Hawaii today. $200 each way. That’s crazy! So cheap. I can see why people out here fly out there all the time. For some reason, I got really excited, thinking about flying out there. It made the whole thing real, for some reason. Now *there’s* something that I need to put some savings in for. Jesus. I honestly think each Liz and I are going to need like $3000 each to make this wedding happen. And we’re not even paying for the major stuff. Shake my head.

Well…I guess this post ended up being about money. Is that weird? Probably. But, I really don’t have any money. I guess that’s why I feel more comfortable talking about it 😛

At the end of the day, all that matters to me is being able to pay my bills. And that’s happening. Even the credit card ones, which continue, ever so steadily, to shrink. Month-by-month. Kids: Uncle Ira is going to tell you something very VERY important. Don’t get a credit card. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that you *should*. Don’t do it. Ever. A car loan? Fine. Everyone needs to get from here to there. A mortgage? Absolutely. You’re lucky to be able to afford one. But a credit card? Never. Never ever. Because you will eventually use it all up. And it’s nothing but a black hole for all your hard-earned money. And that’s today’s title. See what I did there? 🙂

/end rant