Random thing you loathe right now.

I've been a turbo tax user for a while so i was familiar with their deal, it's the same as it's ever been, but it still felt a bit scummy that they didn't mention the cost of the state return until you were completely done w federal and it moved on to the state portion.

I don't use turbo tax but I think they let you view a sample of your return before filing, right? I suggest referencing that and inputing the info into the irs' free online filing form

TurboTax failed to properly file for me two years in a row while I was a student in one state and still a legal resident of another, prompting scary letters about not having attached the other state's tax return to my state of residence. Easily fixable, but for all their lobbying to keep this process difficult I shouldn't have had to deal with it. In any case, I don't trust them to do my taxes this year, so I'm rolling up my sleeves and figuring it out myself.

Hr block is free to compete and their software is great.

Just received terrible news about our friends child who has Alpers syndrome. No cure and most children die in the first decade. They spent the last several months in the hospital and just announced the news to friends.

SallyNasty wrote:

Hr block is free to compete and their software is great.

I too loathe all tax filling work, but I've had pretty much the opposite experience.

I tried to swap to HR Block this year, it was ATROCIOUS. They screwed up my filing like 4 times. I finally had to go int othe full forms and hand edit things. One of the numbers they needed had all the wrong options in the drop-down.

Turbo tax has slimy business practices, but HR Block tried all the same things on me. At least TT worked...

Sorry to hear that Hobear. That's awful news.

thrawn82 wrote:

I've been a turbo tax user for a while so i was familiar with their deal, it's the same as it's ever been, but it still felt a bit scummy that they didn't mention the cost of the state return until you were completely done w federal and it moved on to the state portion.

SallyNasty wrote:

Hr block is free to compete and their software is great.

I've used H&R for about 5 years now. But yeah, they pulled the same sh*t on me last year. As I was finishing, suddenly I had to pay $50 for my state return. Apparently made too much money in 2016 to finally pass the threshold of free filing. Good for me I guess.

I have never used it, but Credit Karma offers free tax filing. I really like everything else about their interface, so worth a shot?

Dentist appointment today. They ended up bringing me in a month early for my 6-month cleaning. No idea if insurance will get pissy about it, but that's not my loathe just yet.

Dentist pointed out a little white patch on the right side of my tongue (the literal side of my tongue, not like on the right side of the surface). Didn't speculate about it, just referred me to a local oral surgeon for a closer look. I set up an appointment for next Friday, but I might call back and say I'll take a cancellation just to get in sooner.

It is really f*cking hard not to imagine the worst right now. The "usual suspects" according to Google should have swelling, redness, pain, etc., I don't have any of that. I grind my teeth pretty hard (I have a nightguard to absorb most of the pressure), so part of me wants to believe it's just some sort of byproduct of that. But why did my dentist refer me to a full-on oral surgeon straightaway? I told my wife, even though I knew it would worry her, because I didn't want to hide it. I know there's nothing we can really do until I go to my second appointment, unless it goes away on its own (which may very well happen, who the hell knows). Just gives me this sense of dread, unease, even as serene as I can claim to be about what I can and can't control, the human brain is just so damn good at jumping to catastrophic conclusions.

Just wanted to get that off my chest so I can clear my mind before bedtime. One moment at a time...

The secret with H&R Block is to sign-up for one of their Tax Pro plans for whatever. You can usually do your Federal Return for free but it will cost you $30 or so for your State Return or you can sign-up for one of their Tax Pro things for like $15 and it includes filing your State Return.

I've been using them since 2012 I think and have had no issues, but my taxes are also dead simple.

Gah a weird situation. Applied to a job at random almost and basically heard very little for a month. Suddenly few interviews later I have an offer but they seemingly 'forgot' my salary range. So now I'm getting push from a recruiter about a job that pays less then what I got. My resistance has pushed it up and bit and there is some opportunity but risk too. It makes me wanna just hide and take the easy right and now change anything. But then I feel guilty about others who want opportunities like this but don't have them.

Mostly this is stress about possible change. Where's my crystal ball telling me the right choice. I'd take a quick save if that's an option.

Thanks, new tax plan. Despite being in a tax bracket that should've seen a tax cut, I owe close to $1000 this year, plus accountant's fees. Better than having given the government an interest free loan, I suppose, but sucks compared to getting back $5K unexpectedly a couple years ago.

New tax plan not in effect til 2018, no effect on last year's taxes

And actually, you'll probably get a cut from the plan, while originally it did indeed not cut taxes to a large swath of Americans, the later revisions (especially that one that increased the Corporate rate from... what, 21 to 22% or something like that?) freed up a lot of money to give to actual people.

The corporate tax rate is 21%.

Also, use TaxFreeUSA for filing your taxes, people! It's a silly name, but is legit. I've used them for two years in a row and they only try to upsell you once, and overall cost less than half of TurboTax.

Power outages due to weather....

Bonus double loathe this week: wife and I had an apartment lined up. Were going to go today to sign the lease. Our "agent", whom we contacted on Zillow regarding the listing, then proceeded to drop a $2500 broker fee on us while we were driving there. My wife noped the hell out of that. I had to be the "bad guy" and break the news to him. He didn't take it well, predictably.

I feel like I got played with this whole charade. My wife wondered why they needed an agent to rent out their apartment in the first place. I knew there would be a fee from their paperwork, but I didn't expect that big of a fee. Sort of made the average monthly rent uncompetitive compared to other apartments we looked at. I have no idea if I balked at something that was "typical", if it really was exorbitant, or if it was a "bait and switch" and I fell for it.

So not only did we nuke a bridge from orbit (whether it was a bridge worth having is debatable), we get to start the entire apartment hunting process over. This process has been exasperating, and now we have to draw it out even longer. *sigggggh*

So when I rented this apartment there was a broker there, but the owner of the apartment was the one who paid the fee. I just paid my first month's rent to the brokerage directly, basically.

My experience is that apartments will list up front if they're fee or no fee, and that the fee is one month's rent. If there's anything above and beyond that, that's out of the ordinary and worth nuking from orbit (or if it wasn't disclosed in the listing).

Tanglebones wrote:

My experience is that apartments will list up front if they're fee or no fee, and that the fee is one month's rent. If there's anything above and beyond that, that's out of the ordinary and worth nuking from orbit (or if it wasn't disclosed in the listing).

In Japan, renting is kind of nuts. To begin a lease, you have to pay the first month's rent, a deposit equal to a month of rent, an agent fee that's usually the same as a month of rent, and then a "thank you for letting me live here" owners fee that is also equal to a month of rent. My place costs about $2000 a month to rent, and I paid nearly $8000 to move in. Crazy! On the bright side, getting that deposit back will be nice.

Must be a nice gig to be able topay $2000 a month!

There are deposit free apartments you can rent but they are usually old and a bit rundown. Not something you'd want to put your family in.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

Must be a nice gig to be able topay $2000 a month!

US Military Industrial Complex

Mr GT Chris wrote:

Must be a nice gig to be able topay $2000 a month!

Oh believe me, I'm paying the Gaijin premium. The locals aren't stupid. They're pretty upfront about asking what a service member's BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing) is and then charging exactly that. According to my wife, foreigners are often paying up to twice as much as a Japanese person would pay for the same apartment, at least in the Tokyo/Yokohama region near military bases.

Coldstream wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:

My experience is that apartments will list up front if they're fee or no fee, and that the fee is one month's rent. If there's anything above and beyond that, that's out of the ordinary and worth nuking from orbit (or if it wasn't disclosed in the listing).

In Japan, renting is kind of nuts. To begin a lease, you have to pay the first month's rent, a deposit equal to a month of rent, an agent fee that's usually the same as a month of rent, and then a "thank you for letting me live here" owners fee that is also equal to a month of rent. My place costs about $2000 a month to rent, and I paid nearly $8000 to move in. Crazy! On the bright side, getting that deposit back will be nice.

That's about NYC standard - first and last months rent, security deposit, and possibly a broker fee.

Just out from the dentist. Three fillings. I don't mind the needles and the drill so much as the scraping of the the teeth. *shudder* And then there's the numbness afterwards... in my nose... makes me feel like I've been punched in the face.

And of course the $432 hit to my bank account.

Discovering an old friend has become someone you no longer respect. And the sadness of feeling angry at this new person for spoiling your memories of who they once were.

Yellek wrote:

Discovering an old friend has become someone you no longer respect. And the sadness of feeling angry at this new person for spoiling your memories of who they once were.

That's super crappy. I'm slowly seeing this with my father, and it's crushing. I'm watching him become the stereotypical Old White Guy. He's becoming more xenophobic, less accepting, and just generally more pessimistic. He's not the person I grew up with, and it makes me sad.

Going back to a single screen after getting used to a dual-monitor setup. Geez, it's so...cramped and akward now.

My second monitor has been displaying nothing every now and then when I power up my PC. Sometimes it will work, and it will be fine until I turn my PC off...Other times, nothing. Today I've tried everything I can to get it to work; my PC detects it, knows what brand and model it is, and when I print screen I get both outputs. It's all there...but not displaying. I've ordered a new DVI cable from China but it's going to be rough waiting. I really hope it's just the cable and not something PC-related.

A_Unicycle wrote:

I really hope it's just the cable and not something PC-related.

Couldn't you discover that by using the primary-monitor cable on the secondary monitor? If it still doesn't work then it's either the video card or the monitor itself, right?