The DQYDJ Weekender (Week of 3/11/12)

August 22nd, 2020 by 
PK

From the coding that never ends department,  fixed the Feedburner script so that whenever it receives a '0' for one of the last 7 days it doesn't update the subscriber count.  Of course, Feedburner had to go and test that theory by marking the subscribers as '0' for a whole day... and we'll be stuck at 131 subscribers for at least 2 more days.  Well, it's better than when it was showing 81!

Also, I should have done it earlier, but welcome the inimitable Financial Uproar to the blogroll...  You can now get to Nelson's rants with a single click from DQYDJ!  This week, we'd like to highlight his mock celebration of the article penned by Greg Smith dissing his former employer (Goldman Sachs) in the New York Times.

Isn't it funny when your hobby starts to become more like your day job?  You know I secretly wanted to code every weekend as well...

Carnivals and Links

Required Reading

A collection of articles we found interesting!

  • Dr. Cabler at Celebrating Financial Freedom dishes out all the dirt (and the costs!) on his recent home purchase as he goes to sell it, 3 months later.
  • Len Penzo looks deep into my soul through the internet and tells me to replace my electric appliances with gas ones.  I hear you Len, our electric bill was $300 last month!
  • North of the border, Boomer and Echo give advice which works in every country and culture: save early, and often (it's more important than saving later, even with more resources at your disposal).  If you're not in Canada?  Ignore the RRSP part...
  • From my neck of the woods (at my favorite Real Estate Site) (with apologies to Cameron and Bryan), you know things are bad when a city has to evict 12 renters from a McMansion.
  • From my other favorite real estate site, Redfin unveiled a new estimate system for estimating home values... another thing to obsess about!
  • Wealth Informatics asks if men are finished.  As a man, my thoughts?  I'm still going!
  • I worked on a farm when I was younger, but here in California our homes are on less than half an acre.  Listen to 101 Centavos when he talks about investing in farmland!
  • American debt project pans stereotypes in commercials.  I tend to find them funny, especially calling them out and breaking them down with my wife (heh).
  • Control Your Cash may have shut down their comments but we here at DQYDJ can still editorialize here on our marginally successful web site.  Advice of the week?  Take your strong dollar to Seychelles, and make your New Zealander cousins come to America.

On Tax Returns

What a mess - I got a massive return.  I won't completely complain here, but let me tell you that if you do nothing to your withholding until late in the year, get married, quadruple your charitable contributions and buy a house... you'll get a return.  Of course, when you get it will be unknown.  I e-filed on the 28th of February, and it was accepted on the 29th (fake date).  California sent me my refund about a week back, but the Feds procrastinated until yesterday.  My grand total was around 20 hours spent all in for tax compliance.  And yes, this year it was worth it.

Any tax return stories to share?

      

PK

PK started DQYDJ in 2009 to research and discuss finance and investing and help answer financial questions. He's expanded DQYDJ to build visualizations, calculators, and interactive tools.

PK lives in New Hampshire with his wife, kids, and dog.

Don't Quit Your Day Job...

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