Letters from Sanford Street # 520

I'm about 1500 dollars away from topping off my IRA. Actually, I'm exactly 1500 away from topping off my IRA. I have 2 weeks to finish the process. I think that April 18th is the last day to do it, and my last paycheck before that date is on April 15th. I can do 750 per week for the next two weeks from my paychecks, and that would pretty much leave no money for anything else. Maybe a little over 200 bucks per week for the next two weeks, and that's assuming I get the maximum amount of overtime that I can get. The holiday incentives are no longer active, so I guess most people aren't rushing to take overtime, and maybe the facility is also more willing to offer overtime at a lower rate. I honestly prefer having a larger weekly check at a lower hourly rate, than a higher hourly rate, with less money at the end of the week.

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I owe about 400 bucks in taxes, and the payment is due on April 18th. I really don't want to take any more money out of my Robinhood account for the remaining 1500 that I need to top off my IRA, most of the 10000 that I needed to top off my IRA and HSA came from my Robinhood account. I can do this with upcoming paychecks, if I can get the maximum amount of overtime that I can get. 

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So I'll spend the next two paychecks topping off my IRA, I need at least one or two of my paychecks this month for paying rent, that's either April 22nd, or April 20th, or both, depending on overtime, and then, In May, I need to add an additional 2000 to my HSA for the 2022 contribution year. Normally I would wait until 2023, or the beginning of 2023 until Tax Day to do it, but, because of the stock split for Amazon, I need to round out my fractional share to a full share.

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I think that my biggest mistake for the 2021 tax year was taking gains on positions that I didn't need to take, resulting in taxable income that I didn't need to make taxable. I had realized short-term capital gains that I didn't need to realize. This was mainly due to going from one index ETF into another index ETF. Pointless. I won't be doing that dumb shit again.

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So after I finish the IRA stuff for 2021, and the HSA stuff for 2022, I'll have 2 things to focus on for the remainder of the year: start saving money in my Robinhood account, and accelerating the reduction of my debt load. Most of the increase in my debt is due to the road trip to Louisiana, and the disasters that happened then, and in the following weeks. Much of my debt is at zero percent interest, and the portion that isn't at zero percent interest is effectively at zero percent interest because I pay it off every month. Once everything in terms on contributions is out of the way, I have to figure out how much additional pay down, how much additional debt I can pay down each month.

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And then there are other issues. One issue is renewing my lease, and the other is the ATA SDE program. There is also the desire to get a new car, shelling out money to take care of my existing car, and relocating, and all of these issues are somewhat interconnected. There is also the issue of Career Choice classes for software development that I anticipate taking.

When I think about it, I don't really want to shell out any additional money for my existing car, most of what needs to be taken care of, at this point, would be non-mechanical issues, there is body damage that I've never gotten fixed, and that I really don't want to spend money getting fixed, and, when I think about it, I really don't want to get a new car either. I think that my issue is that my car is just so ratty that I feel that, just for the sake of appearance, it might make sense either to shell out money to fix it's appearance, or to get a new one. It's similar to wanting to get new clothes, it's about preventability. I don't need to look fancy or anything. I don't buy expensive clothes, and I wouldn't buy an expensive car. Maybe this is something I just won't spend too much time thinking about.