taking advantage of an extra day

Chilly and rainy it is, but that meant I had no excuse for procrastination.

If I was going to be housebound on this 29th of February, I may as well make it memorable.

 

All of that stress-inducing rancor from the house insurance folks came to a standstill.

I'd tried three times to speak to someone at Navy Federal Credit Union about the situation and was cut off twice.

Fine.

Joy Polite of Allstate had found me a house insurance policy through the Georgia Underwriters Association, so I made a command decision and signed off on it.

That meant I had to immediately pay the first quarter cost, so I charged it...

on my Navy Federal Credit Union credit card.

That was my way of giving them proof that I was seriously working on getting coverage on the house.

Oh, and by the way... it's raining and my roof is fine...

and this thorn in my side since October has been removed, hopefully for good.

 

What next to clear from my slate?

Yet another insurance thing, this time for the car.

GEICO had sent me a letter that my "good driving" discount was due to expire.

Damn, it'd been three years already?

Apparently so.

Fortunately, the IMPROV driving course was again an option on the list of driving schools.

The course seems to have more chapters this time, but that's okay.

It still has sweet Denise as its heart, Professor Gray Matter as the voice of science, and suave Jeff with the perfect hair - believe me, there's an inside joke there between me and the ex - to lead us through the information.

I've already gone through five chapters in about two hours, and I've done so with a smile on my face.

 

That's why I went ahead and filed my federal and state taxes today.

I had already started on them earlier in the week and logged all the data in.

All that awaited was me double-checking that all was correct...

or maybe that was triple-checking all those numbers.

Today, I logged in for one last look-see and pulled the trigger on it.

Both shot out of the website toward their destinations, free of charge to me.

Now to await their acceptance... and the refund which will provide my financial cushion, for payment of property taxes and house insurance and little extra expenses.

One praise-worthy note: that cushion will be a little more plush this time.

That's because I attended an AARP webinar in 2023 about keeping my Social Security benefits from being part of what gets taxed by the feds.

No, that's a real thing.

To quote the AARP site, "The Social Security Administration estimates that about 56 percent of Social Security recipients owe income taxes on their benefits."

I've been part of that 56% ever since I started receiving Social Security benefits in 2020.

You would expect Social Security benefits to not get hit with Federal income tax, but they do, iff your other income is above a certain amount.

After the webinar, I had immediately changed the income I get from my teachers' retirement fund to a lower value to make sure I'd be below that $25,000 threshold... 

and I was this year!

So, not one red cent of my Social Security income was charged Federal income tax!

I'll be getting back nearly all the money withheld from my TIAA withdrawals.

That's a nice change of pace.

 

Now, it's time for a treat from AARP, in the form of one of their Movies For Grownups.

God knows I certainly have been doing grownup tasks all day.

As my work is done, I'm going to let Amy Adams entertain me in "Leap Year", which will abound with Irish brogues and lovely greenscapes of Ireland.

Later, y'all.