What's bugging you? (2016)

[DHonks]

I personally think we should drink sake all the time. It tastes awesome, and look at how long the Japanese live

[nodakfan17]

My wife and I filed our taxes yesterday and our return was much lower than we expected (by at least $1000). With interest rates so low, we have been withholding more than necessary as a form of forced savings and to minimize the chances of receiving a bill from Uncle Sam come April. I won't editorialize on the tax situation in America, but I think most folks will sympathize with me when I say that the system is imperfect. On the bright side, we were able to file successfully, so no one was able to steal our identities and claim our refund.

[jerichoholicninja]

My wife and I filed our taxes yesterday and our return was much lower than we expected (by at least $1000). With interest rates so low, we have been withholding more than necessary as a form of forced savings and to minimize the chances of receiving a bill from Uncle Sam come April. I won't editorialize on the tax situation in America, but I think most folks will sympathize with me when I say that the system is imperfect. On the bright side, we were able to file successfully, so no one was able to steal our identities and claim our refund.

 

I think the phrase you are looking for is "utterly stupid." I thought last year was confusing which was the first time my wife and I filed jointly and included my 6 months on Obamacare. This year I have worked as a W2, a 1099, and have an online store. I also have investments in mutual funds and individual stocks that my parents got for me when I was a kid. Please just send me a bill instead of making my wife and I take hours to figure all this stuff out and hope we do it right so we don't get audited. And I'm not going to pay someone to do something I'm legally required to do because it should be easy enough that I shouldn't have to.

[nodakfan17]

^

 

I hear your pain on joint filing - my wife and I were married in December of 2014, so we naively thought that it would be best to file individually last year since we spent over 11 months of the year single. She called me in a panic from H&R Block because she would be ineligible for certain deductions if she were married, but filed separately. We eventually filed together a few weeks later. I used to do my own taxes while in college, but started having them prepared professionally once I began working full time at a local bank. Ordinary folks would come in with tax issues all the time and I got spooked by their experiences.

[GAME05]

70 degrees and sunny but I'm sick. I blame jerichoholicninja somehow, he's sick so much I bet it's coming through the computer.

[logan82]

That's not how a computer virus works.

[jerichoholicninja]

70 degrees and sunny but I'm sick. I blame jerichoholicninja somehow, he's sick so much I bet it's coming through the computer.

 

Probably. My wife has constant contact with me but won't get sick. Post on the same internet message board as I do and you'll contract my disease.

[Patrick425]

My wife and I filed our taxes yesterday and our return was much lower than we expected (by at least $1000). With interest rates so low, we have been withholding more than necessary as a form of forced savings and to minimize the chances of receiving a bill from Uncle Sam come April.

 

There was a lot of discussion about this last year in a thread, but regardless of how low interest rates are, I'll never understand giving a free loan to the government.

 

I think the phrase you are looking for is "utterly stupid." I thought last year was confusing which was the first time my wife and I filed jointly and included my 6 months on Obamacare. This year I have worked as a W2, a 1099, and have an online store. I also have investments in mutual funds and individual stocks that my parents got for me when I was a kid. Please just send me a bill instead of making my wife and I take hours to figure all this stuff out and hope we do it right so we don't get audited. And I'm not going to pay someone to do something I'm legally required to do because it should be easy enough that I shouldn't have to.

 

The tax software from H&R Block, Tax-Cut, TurboTax, etc. are all pretty simple to use and do the job. I'm a CPA (although I don't do much work with taxes for my job), and I use one of these programs to do our joint return (We have mortgage payments, investments, etc). Unless you have something really odd with your taxes, I would not suggest wasting money on a tax-preparer. Many times they are using similar programs and you are basically just paying them a premium to enter data.

[LouisEly]

My wife and I filed our taxes yesterday and our return was much lower than we expected (by at least $1000). With interest rates so low, we have been withholding more than necessary as a form of forced savings and to minimize the chances of receiving a bill from Uncle Sam come April. I won't editorialize on the tax situation in America, but I think most folks will sympathize with me when I say that the system is imperfect. On the bright side, we were able to file successfully, so no one was able to steal our identities and claim our refund.

Could be worse. You could have to wait until the end of March to file because one of your investments - which by the way had more exposure to oil than I had any easy way of knowing about and is subsequently down by 40% - will not have their K-1 forms available until the end of March. Thus I can't even file until at least the end of March, much less get my refund, estimated to be over $3000. The reason it is that high is because I am getting back most of the taxes my employer paid as part of a gross-up on the relocation bonus, not because I withheld more than necessary.

 

So not only did the investment group do a lousy job of choosing their (my?) investments, on top of that they can't get their paperwork done in a reasonable time so I can get my tax refund.

[nodakfan17]

I've aired this grievance before with ESPN and the college football national championship game, but now I've learned that the NCAA tournament championship game is going to be on TBS (and not CBS). I grew up without cable TV and always looked forward to watching marquee sporting events on broadcast TV (still do). I miss it. Oh well, I guess you get what you pay for

[Patrick425]

Priceline.com's and Hotwire.com's current definition of Downtown Milwaukee. Two or three times a year my wife and I will stay overnight in downtown Milwaukee, usually because of a work related function. In the past we have used Priceline's "name your own price" option and a similar option on Hotwire.com to get some pretty good last minute deals on hotels. However, over the last year or two both these sites have expanded their "downtown Milwaukee zone" to include the Ambassador Hotel on 23rd and Wisconsin (near the Marquette campus). Sorry, but this is not downtown Milwaukee.

[LouisEly]

You can do a little sleuthing and often figure out what hotel it is even when it's blinded. Both of those will show you the geography the zone covers. Then eliminate any Hilton, Marriott, or Starwood properties as they rarely if ever discount those to blind booking sites. They will tell you amenities, so look at the amenities list (pool, free/paid parking, free/paid wi-fi, etc.) and match it up to the amenities of the hotels with similar star ratings on a non-blind site. You can also compare the "regular" price to the "regular" price on non-blinded site (Orbitz, Expedia) and see what's close. By doing this you can often narrow it down to two possibilities if not figure out which one it is.

[FVBrewerFan]

Yea, I also don't think it's that far-fetched to include the Ambassador as "Downtown ZONE." It's not like they put hotels from the Airport or North Shore in there. There's no other geographic area the Ambassador would fall under. They're not going to offer a search option: "The crappy area between Downtown and Tosa."

[NeedMoreFans]

1) Today is the final day of my spring break. During the 6 days off, I spent just over 10 hours in some sort of appointment.

2) My 3.5 year old car needs new tires at 37,000 miles and the water pump is leaking. Thank goodness it's under warranty for the water pump, but I am not looking forward to forking out $500 already on new tires.

[Patrick425]

The insane law in California that allows motorcycles to drive between cars. Who, in their right mind, thinks this is a good idea? I know its been that way for a long time there, but just got back from a vacation in southern California and was reminded of it while driving on the freeways there. And it's not like they carefully make their way between cars when there is a traffic jam, they are going 50 mph or more with no helmets in between spaces where they can barely fit. On top of that, most people in cars are texting...one small drift to the left or right by a car and it's a fatal accident (on our last day, on the way to LAX, there was a 25 minute traffic delay caused by an accident that involved a motorcycle). I just don't get the lack of common sense in regards to this.

[LouisEly]

It's because motorcycles overheat much easier than cars. They are for the most part designed to be cooled by air flow and not coolant, thus if they are stuck in traffic without moving they will overheat. They are smaller and much more efficient than cars, so they don't want to discourage people from riding them. The alternative makes traffic worse.

 

The point about times changing and phone distractions are valid, and riders need to keep that in mind.

[Patrick425]

It's because motorcycles overheat much easier than cars. They are for the most part designed to be cooled by air flow and not coolant, thus if they are stuck in traffic without moving they will overheat. They are smaller and much more efficient than cars, so they don't want to discourage people from riding them. The alternative makes traffic worse.

 

The point about times changing and phone distractions are valid, and riders need to keep that in mind.

 

 

Does the law contain language regarding how fast they are allowed to go when driving between cars? Overheat or no overheat, there is no need for them to drive as fast and as carelessly as they do when they speed between cars. I understand the reward for being fuel efficient argument, but at what cost? In my opinion, these riders are taking great risks with the manner in which they pass between cars and I think I would have more sympathy for the driver that accidentally strays a foot off course and causes serious injury or worse to a speeding motorcyclist that I would for the rider of the motorcycle.

[nodakfan17]

ESPN bumped the College Hockey National Championship game from ESPN to ESPN 2 last night in favor of Warriors / Grizzlies. Grant it, North Dakota vs. Quinnipiac is not a rating bonanza, but I'm sure they would have kept it on the flagship network had Denver and Boston College not been knocked out in the semi-finals. It was just a very ESPN-y thing to do. Good on them for making the replay available for free online, though.

[jerichoholicninja]

Had to spend the afternoon on the phone with drug and insurance companies because, long story short, they all suck. I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere with the insurance company but I thought if I was angry and annoying enough it might help. It didn't but it did help to get some things off my chest.

[Invader3K]

Had to spend the afternoon on the phone with drug and insurance companies because, long story short, they all suck. I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere with the insurance company but I thought if I was angry and annoying enough it might help. It didn't but it did help to get some things off my chest.

I know the feeling. And there's absolutely no negotiating on anything whatsoever. Probably the only industry where the customer can't get any sort of break through haggling, complaining, whatever.

[jerichoholicninja]

Had to spend the afternoon on the phone with drug and insurance companies because, long story short, they all suck. I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere with the insurance company but I thought if I was angry and annoying enough it might help. It didn't but it did help to get some things off my chest.

I know the feeling. And there's absolutely no negotiating on anything whatsoever. Probably the only industry where the customer can't get any sort of break through haggling, complaining, whatever.

 

To continue to keep the long story somewhat short, I switched to another brand of insulin because a diabetes educator told me it would be cheaper with the company's co-pay card. Well, it wasn't because my insurance doesn't even cover it and the company's rep doesn't even know how his own company's card works. The DE then called me and told me about a new brand that just came out and would be even cheaper with that company's co-pay card. So this drug actually cost what it was supposed to cost but the pharmacist told me the co-pay card pays $500 each time because my insurance doesn't cover it either. So that company is practically giving me their new drug for free and I'm assuming working the price difference into other drugs. The whole is industry is just so corrupt and I'm beholden to them for the rest of my life.

[LouisEly]

Windows Update is set to "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them". But as of about 6-9 months ago it stopped notifying me that there are updates. Computer starts freezing up on certain websites (Citi.com in particular), sure enough there are 34 updates available. Clicked to download and install updates. 15 minutes later the download hasn't started yet.

[homer]

I recall hardball, but I only remember it as a term that was used to clearly differentiate baseball from softball.

 

I think it was probably part of the playground rules when we were kids… we could use softballs and rubber balls but not "hardballs." I suppose it'd be pretty un-American to prohibit baseball.

 

 

Same here. I used to get ticked when people would call a softball game a baseball game.

[LouisEly]

Windows Update is set to "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them". But as of about 6-9 months ago it stopped notifying me that there are updates. Computer starts freezing up on certain websites (Citi.com in particular), sure enough there are 34 updates available. Clicked to download and install updates. 15 minutes later the download hasn't started yet.

One hour 20 minutes later, nothing. Restarted computer, tried again, now 1.5 hours later, still nothing.

[logan82]

Only try a few at a time or set your computer to update automatically and leave it on overnight.