GRRR! I’m still wide awake at 11:08 p.m. Might as well write for a while until my brain decides to shut down for the night.
TAA DAA’S DONE, TO DO’S STILL ON OUR LISTS
Lisa and I got our TSA pre-flight applications out of the way today. We should have travel numbers in 3 to 5 days.
While in the same shopping center in Fife, Lisa got a haircut, too, so she was able to take two tasks off her extensive to-do list this morning before noon.
TAX PREP TIME
Later this week we’re going to AARP Tax Prep at the Puyallup Library to have our taxes prepared. That way we’ll have someone to talk to during the hour plus that the tax preparers will be working unilaterally on our paperwork. This will be the first time Lisa has used AARP to do her taxes. I’ve been going there for years.
I’m hoping to get a refund this year, or break even. Then I can pay off my credit card with part of what’s in my credit union savings account before we fly to New Zealand. Then I’d like to send most of that savings balance to my IRA retirement account. But I’m not going to do anything until I’m absolutely sure I don’t owe additional taxes before April 15th.
I’ve paid in $10K in estimated taxes to date in 2023, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be getting a refund or breaking even. I just never know for sure until a professional tax preparer gives me the bottom line.
I made a lot less in 2023 than in 2022. But I paid significantly more estimated taxes in 2023 because I owed an additional $3K in 2022 (which I was able to pay before April 15th out of my savings, so no penalties), and I didn’t want that to happen again.
My new refrigerator arrives tomorrow between 1 and 5 p.m. I will need to move my kitchen table and a few other items away from the kitchen door before they get here. They will be taking the old fridge out and bringing the new one in and installing it.
GOT SOME WRITING WORK AND AM PROMISED MORE SOON
Finished two small jobs at Upwork yesterday (one for $50, the other for $90) and received five-star reviews for both. Also got a promise from one client that we’ll be working together again soon and into the future. (For more money because I won’t just be editing for her.) The other client has promised to refer others to me who need the same kind of help I gave her. And if she needs additional writing work in the future, she will contact me again.
One of my usual copy and content writing clients, who hasn’t used me in months because of a money crunch, has gotten back in touch to say she will be using me again. She has been a major client for 3+ years, responsible for more than half my writing income in 2022 and 2023. It’s great to know she’ll be returning because all I’ve landed recently has been editing work, which that pays a lot less than writing sales copy and informational/educational content from scratch.
She tried using AI to save money for a time and discovered that doing so requires more of her time to fact check and feed into it what she’s looking for and then to personalize it so it doesn’t sound like a soul-less info dump. So using AI is a huge time suck, the results are frustrating as hell, and what she gets back is far from a finished product/done deal.
I suspect a lot of people will be coming to the same conclusion. Real writers take everything off their clients’ plates so they can do what they do best while writers do what we do best: create riveting copy and content that doesn’t require scrutiny and won’t shoot our clients in the foot!
In Other News…
I just discovered that my new 24″ monitor can be tipped backward quite a bit, so it’s a lot easier to see without scrunching down in my seat now. That’s gonna help ergonomically!
My hens are still laying eggs like crazy, even though it’s mid-winter and they’re supposed to lay less when the days are shorter. (I guess they didn’t get the memo.) They’re very proficient lay-dies!
THE MIDNIGHT HOUR
It’s 12:15 now so I will see if I can get some shut eye now. Wish me luck!
