So it looks like some income tax figures were in the wrong place. After further optimization, now I only owe about $1400, miles better than the first draft of my return. That makes for an effective tax rate of 12%. That's as good as it's going to get!
In other news, I switched to a yearly payment for the life insurance (explaining the jump in the Annuity total), which not only creates extra interest but should drop the monthly $1 fee. I also switched my business card to take advantage of 5% cash back for certain utilities like phone and internet, which adds up to an extra 600 points ($6) per month. All told, it's not much, but at this point I'm just fine-tuning expenses to make the most of what I already pay for.
Stock markets continue to perform, with my Roth IRA reaching new highs. SEP funds still continue to sit in a money market, and I know as soon as I transfer some/all of that to mutual funds the market will probably tank, because that's usually how my luck works. I'm not going to rock the boat right now.
Work is starting to pick back up for Spring, so I'm confident the direction of the net worth will go in the proper direction. We'll find out soon enough! |